 
## The Fourth PK

### Marjorie Jane Calvert Zaring

### By

### Wilson Zaring

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### Published by Glorious Expressions at Smashwords

### Copyright 2012 Wilson Zaring

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### Table of Contents

Preface

Dedication

1. It's a Girl

2. In Lawrenceburg, Indiana

3. George Morgan

4. Anna Frances

5. James Wallace

6. Berneice Dea

7. Me, Marjorie Jane

8. My Parents

9. Uncle Elbern

10. Aunt Lilly

11. Uncle Iliff

12. Mother

13. On the Farm

14. Grandmother

15. Childhood Days

16. Dad's Promotion

17. Life in Indianapolis

18. Good Friends

19. On to Chattanooga

20. The Beginning of a Serious Romance

21. Making Plans for the Future

22. Happily Married

23. Teaching Grade School

24. Making a Home

25. Time to Start a Family

26. Moving to Champaign

27. The New Family

28. David and Susan

29. The Neighbors

30. Stories About the Kids

31. Substitute Teaching

32. Empty Nest

33. Susan's Children

34. David's Family

35. Good Times

36. Things That Come to Mind

37. Accomplishment I'm Proud of

38. Our Calvert Ancestors

39. Our Boone Ancestors

40. Our Morgan Ancestors

### PREFACE

I have tried to write this autobiography in a conversational style and as I remember things. Those of you who read this, may remember things differently. Just keep in mind that while I may have made some mistakes, I wrote from memory. I tried to make it interesting and sometimes humorous. Most of all, it was written lovingly.

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### DEDICATION

This is dedicated to all of those who have loved me and whom I have loved, especially to my good husband, who has given me so much that enriched my life, to our two fine children, to our wonderful grandsons, and to our delightful great granddaughter.

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On Friday night October 17, 1924, a baby girl was born in the Methodist Church Parsonage in North Madison, Indiana. Her parents were Wallace Clair Calvert and Mattie Jane Morgan Calvert. She was a small baby weighing only 5½ pounds but appeared healthy. She cried and when her father asked her older brothers George Morgan and James Wallace and older sister Anna Frances, "Guess what we have in the other room?" They said, "A kitten!" Perhaps they were disappointed to learn it was just a baby sister.

The baby was named Marjorie Jane. Marjorie because her mother liked the name (I don't) and Jane for herself, after all they had used all grandparents' names and my father's name with the three older children. Now that I have introduced myself I will write in the first person.

Although my mother had not nursed the older three children, she tried to nurse me. Now that I have children and grandchildren and know more about the problems of nursing, I think she was unsuccessful because there was not enough time for her to rest, with a husband and four children to care for, a house to clean, clothes to wash on a wash board, water to carry from a pump outside the house, cooking to do, and dishes to wash three times a day - how could she rest?! Anyway, nursing was not successful and I was losing, not gaining, weight. All possible formulas were tried that were available in those days. At two months of age, I weighed five pounds and was so weak, as I was told, that I could not make a noise when I cried. My father's mother, Grandma Newkirk (her second husband), came for a visit. She said to my parents, "This baby is not going to live, unless something is done right away! She needs a wet-nurse!"

My father thought about the church members and a lady that had a baby boy, Lester, who was three months old. So he went to her home and asked if she could and would be willing to nurse me. Her name was Maude Shinnis. She said, "Oh yes, I'd be glad to. I have much more milk than my baby can take." So, according to the story, I began gaining weight and did well. When my brothers and sister had measles, my mother called Mother Maud to tell her, thinking she would not want to come. I was three months then, I think. But she said, "Oh yes, I'll come. She will need me even more if she gets sick." I don't know if I got measles or not. I was told about this so I would know how dedicated and concerned she was for my health. Every year from then on, my parents always gave her gifts on Christmas and Mother's Day. We visited her in North Madison after we moved away. When I was about 16. I took the responsibility for these gifts. After I was married, Wilson and I went to see her one time. She died a few years later.

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When I was almost three, we moved to Lawrenceburg, Indiana. That church had not had a minister with children for many years. I remember my Mother telling me that a few days before we moved, the neighborhood children played "Barber Shop". I was the customer and they clipped my hair so badly she had to have it "cut like a boy". She was so embarrassed to move to a new church with me looking like a boy. It was 1927 and the time that I begin to remember things that happened when I was small. We moved to Lawrenceburg in September and my younger sister, Berneice, was born December 9th. George and Anne were born at the farm of my Morgan grandparents, a few miles from the very small village of Cordova, in Kentucky. The younger three children were born in church parsonages, Jim at Manchester, Indiana, I at North Madison, Indiana and Bernie in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Now that all five of us have been born, I think that I will tell you about each one. The events will not be in chronological order with this "autobiography", but to make sure I don't forget to tell the "special things" about each one, I'll do it now.

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George Morgan was the oldest, born eighteen months after my parent's marriage. He was born on the farm of my Morgan grandparents. George was a great big brother! When George was a "toddler", Mother was closing up a folding bed. He thought he could help her and just as the bed closed, his fingertip was cut off. Dad picked up the little piece and threw it in the heating stove. Now days, it would have been sewn back on. So, one finger was a little shorter the rest of his life. It evidently did not handicap him at all. He liked to tease the rest of us and especially his sisters. He would do "big brother" things like give us a ride on his back, play games with us and "protect" us from other children that might not be very kind. He and Jim let me "play soft-ball" with them a few times when there were not enough neighborhood boys. I was probably about nine years old one time when we were playing. I kept swinging and missing the ball. George said, "Just hold the bat still and I'll throw the ball and hit the bat." You can see why I was never the first one chosen for a team.

While we lived in Lawrenceburg, George had Scarlet Fever. So we were all quarantined for six weeks. A sign was tacked to the house saying "Scarlet Fever", so no one would enter. Dad happened to be out of town when George got sick, so he stayed some place else and would come to the house each day and talk to us through the window. Scarlet Fever was considered a serious illness back then. While he was sick, a small fire started in the attic. George grabbed his and Jim's new suits, the most precious items they had, and started down the stairs. Mother met him there and sent him back to his room. The fire was very, very insignificant. Another thing that happened to George, he and a friend were trying to see who could throw a brick the farthest. George threw his brick and went to pick it up. When the other boy threw his brick it hit George in the head. I don't know where my Mother and Father were at that time, but when they came home George was lying on the coach with a bloody cloth on his head. What a shock! They took him to the doctor and he had some stitches.

When he was about sixteen, we moved to Indianapolis. On a few rare occasions our parents were out for dinner. We girls regularly had to help with preparing meals, washing dishes and cleaning up after meals. On those rare occasions when our parents were not home at mealtime, we thought we could delay the dishwashing. Well, not according to George. When we left the kitchen and sat down in the living room, he would come over, give us, well, I think it was us, at least I know I got thumped. He would thump us on the head with his thumb and finger and say, "Go do the dishes!" He was "in charge" and took this responsibility seriously. I remember his first girlfriend was Edith Pollard and one time he was taking her someplace, it was snowy and slick. He hit the curb and broke some of the spokes on a wheel, they were wooden then. He didn't want to tell Dad and made some excuse for Dad not to drive the car. I don't remember the consequences, but George probably had to pay for the repair. He was working part time at a filling station.

George attended Butler University in Indianapolis on a band scholarship; he played trumpet. He would take Jim to football and basketball games and Jim could sit with the band. I have heard Jim tell about this through the years. He would say, "George was a good big brother."

I was 16 when George graduated college. He got a job with Sears as a "manager trainee" in Marion, Indiana. The first Christmas after he began his position with Sears, he asked each of us what we would like for Christmas. I said I wanted a pretty slip. So Christmas morning, that was what I got! I loved it and it fit! I asked how he knew what size to get. He said he looked at the clerks in the store till he found one that he thought was my size and asked her what he should buy. I'm not sure if that would be considered "sexual harassment" now or not, but it worked. In April, 1941 George was drafted. He expected to be in the army one year. That was the way the draft was set up because we were not at war. That one year became 26 years! He was stationed at Fort Harrison near Indianapolis and so was able to come home frequently but he never lived at home after he was drafted. World War II began December 7, 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Several ships were sunk and many men lost their lives.

One time I had made a cherry pie from cherries that our neighbor had given to me. He and his wife had no children. Jim and I were the ones that had a special relationship with this couple. He was a policeman and they had two Chow dogs. The dogs were not very friendly, but Jim and I got along with them. The owners never took a chance on anything happening to us with the dogs. They would not leave us alone in a room with them. Anyway, one day I heard Mr. Crouch call my name from their backyard. (This was the usual place for communicating). He handed me a quart of cherries and said, "I want you to make a cherry pie." I did and had planned to give this couple each a piece of the pie. But, that evening while the family went to church for Wednesday evening prayer meeting, George and a friend came to the house. When we came home, all of the pie had been eaten. I guess it was good.

George's commanding officer at Fort Harrison had talked to him about going to Officers Candidate School soon after he was drafted, but George had declined because he thought his year would soon be over. When the war started this officer ordered him to go. He was sent to Ft. Lee, Virginia. Mother, Dad, Bernie and I went to see the commissioning ceremony.

The Army sent George to Ft. Buchanan in San Juan, Puerto Rico soon after he was commissioned. There he was in charge of the Motor Pool. He met his wife, Anne Stewart. She was from Wheeling, West Virginia and was teaching at Robinson Methodist Mission School in San Juan. They were married at the school August 18, 1945.

Anne said she felt almost like George was "buying a car" when he asked her to marry him. He "evaluated" her good points and anything he thought might not be as desirable, but decided the good out-weighed the bad. She came to visit our family in Chattanooga, Tennessee before they were married. Maybe she was "evaluating" his family. I guess he did a good job on his "evaluating" because they were married 50 plus years. She was a good wife to George and was a thoughtful, kind sister-in-law. Anne was a very intelligent and interesting person. She wrote well and it was always a pleasure to read her letters. Maybe that is where their oldest daughter got the talent for her writing. She is now a freelance writer for several magazines.

After Puerto Rico, they came back to the states and George was stationed near Washington, D.C. at the Quartermaster General's Office with General McNair. We, Mother, Dad, Bernie, my friend Virginia Riggs and I, visited them shortly before their first child. Catherine Jane was born on September 30, 1947. They lived in Hyattsville, Maryland at that time. George's next assignment was at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Their second child, Barbara Anne was born there on February 11, 1950.

George was sent to Korea during that war. Anne, Cathie, and Barbara stayed in Wheeling, West Virginia near her parents. When he returned, he was assigned to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where he received his Master's degree. He was sent to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas and the "water was magic", according to one of the officers, because many couples conceived babies, including George and Anne. This baby, John Stewart was actually born in Arlington, Virginia September 27, 1956 as George was stationed at the Pentagon. They moved about six weeks before his birth. When I wrote to Anne and George in 1956 telling them we were going to have a baby in October, we received a letter saying "We are going to beat you by about one month, which they did. I thought, well maybe I'll have the first grandson, but they "beat" us there, too. Because we lived so far away from each other our sons never had the opportunity to know each other well.

George retired from the Army as a full Colonel in 1967. He was hired as Budget Director of the College of Labor and Industrial Relations at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. George's degree from Butler and Master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania were in Business Administration. He was on the Administrative staff at Cornell until his second retirement in 1985. In 1992 they moved to Sarasota, Florida. George was not in good health. He made the mistake of starting to smoke while stationed in Puerto Rico. He attempted to ease the message to his parents by saying "I have started smoking but think you would rather I smoked while sitting alone in the officer's barracks rather than out doing what other men were doing."

Years later he developed emphysema, coughed badly every morning. It became necessary for him to carry oxygen with him everywhere he went. He realized what a mistake he had made and gave talks to high school students hoping to persuade them not to take up the habit

George and Anne had some good years in Sarasota and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a cruise. George died on January 31, 1997, a month after his birthday. The funeral was in Sarasota, but the burial was in the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia with "full military honors", the riderless horse, the caisson, the brass ensemble and the 21 gun salute. It was very impressive and I felt proud of him. Anne died on September 14, 2011, in Sarasota, Florida, and is buried in Arlington with George

Anne and George have three children and six grandchildren. Catherine Jane, the oldest, married Allisdair Findley-Shirras. He is from Scotland. However, they met in New York City where she lived and was a writer for several different magazines, Mademoiselle, Victoria, Town and Country and recently for Oprah magazine. Allisdair is in international banking. They had one son, Robin and two daughters Zara and Kate. Robin was born severely handicapped and not expected to live long. He lived to be about 21 and spent his live in an institution for handicapped children. Zara graduated from Brown University and Kate from Duke.

Anne and George's second child was Barbara Anne. She was married first to Larry Gillotti and they had a daughter, Ashby. Her second marriage to Fell Stubbs produced two boys Graham and Stewart.

George and Anne's third baby was a boy, John Stewart a little less than a month older than our David. (the first grandson for my parents). John is married to Maria Lavetta. They do not have children. John captained a privately owned cruiser and now is a boat broker. All three of George and Anne's children have had interesting lives.

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Now about my "big sister" Anna Frances. She was born on March 24, 1920, at the Morgan Home near Cordova in Grant County, Kentucky. Anne was my "big sister" until I was about 12 and became taller than she. She is small like Mother. Being the first daughter, she was "very special" to my father. This "specialness" was not always an advantage. Dad was very restrictive with her when she became a "teen-ager". Anne was very talented. She played the piano and sang well. One story our Mother would tell about Anne was how she liked the Eagle Brand baby formula and would take the babies' bottles. I guess it was mostly Jim's bottles because she was exactly two when he was born on her birthday. A story comes to mind about that "same" birthday. One day when Jim was about three, he went to our Mother and said, "Anne treats her birthday present awful!" Mother said, "What do you mean, James? What birthday present?" His answer was an emphatic, "Me!" They had had some kind of a little spat. Another story about Anne was that when the Christmas programs at the church were being rehearsed, Anne knew everyone's lines. Of course she knew her part too. She learned things so easily. Anne and I shared a bedroom and she enjoys telling that I was a messy roommate. (She does say, I have improved since then.)

One time we were at our farm in Kentucky and Mother and Aunt Corinne had said they were going to make kraut. So Anne had the idea that she and I would go and cut the cabbage. We got the wheelbarrow, a "gunny" sack and a large knife. As we started out, Bernie saw us and asked what we were going to do. Anne said, "Oh, we are going out in the woods and I'm going to cut Margie's head off." I guess Bernie knew she was joking or else she didn't care, because I can't remember her being concerned. Anyway, we cut so much cabbage the wheelbarrow was too heavy for us to bring back to the house. So Dad and Uncle Iliff had to go to get it.

Anne was very bright and a good student. She probably made the best grades in school of all of us and won a scholarship to Rockford College in Illinois, but our parents thought she should stay in Indianapolis and also go to Butler, which she did. I remember she took notes in her classes very carefully and completely. My Dad once teased her about it and said, "I hope you don't ever lose your note book because you will lose your college education". I know that she is glad that she went to Butler because that was where Dwight Schuster was also attending college. He was living with his older sister and brother-in-law because his Mother had died. They had joined Grace Church, Indianapolis where we were living at that time. Oh, yes, we moved to Indianapolis in January, 1935. This was quite a change! We had only lived in small towns before then. Anne learned to drive. She loved it! She was teased that she even drove to church just one building away. Dad would let her drive him to make calls on the parishioners. One time she did "over-drive" and bumped the front of the garage, knocking the front wall away from the foundation. Anne also helped in the office at church because she had taken typing in high school and could type letters for our father. Anyway, she and Dwight had double exposure to each other, church and college. They fell in love and were married December 23, 1942 in the chapel at Butler. Anne had graduated from college, and she taught high school in southern Indiana at Liberty. Dwight was in Medical School in Indianapolis. When Dwight was drafted, they moved to New Jersey. Anne had a job, but it was not teaching. I don't remember what kind of work she was doing. When Dwight was sent overseas, Anne came back to Indianapolis and lived with his sister and brother-in-law, Marjorie and Warren Springer. Anne was expecting a baby. Carol Anne was born in May 8, 1946. She was born with a tumor in her lung and at six weeks of age it was removed. According to the doctors, she was the youngest child to ever have this surgery. She has been fine ever since. Dwight was sent home on emergency leave because of the seriousness of Carol's surgery. Fortunately he did not have to go back overseas. Tragically, prematurely, and unexpectedly Carol died on March 11, 2005 in Indianapolis of acute myocarditis.

A little over two years after carol's birth, Catherine Lou was born August 30, 1948. Anne and Dwight have always lived in Indianapolis, except for the time he was in the army. They have three grandchildren, Monica and Matthew, children of Carol and Greg Strom, and Courtney, daughter of Cathy and Jim Tilford. Matt was married September 30, 2000 to Jodi Petty and Monica was married November 11, 2000 to Jason Gelman. Courtney graduated in May, 2003, from the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois with a major in dance. She now lives in New York City, where she teaches dance and continues to try out. It is a tough competitive world

Anne and Dwight have had an exceptionally happy marriage. They both have been active in civic organizations and in the Republican Party. Anne has been written about in the Indianapolis newspapers several times because of her many volunteer hours. One of the places she volunteered was in the mayor's office. She was Mrs. Reagan's "hostess" when the Reagans were campaigning in Indianapolis. They have attended several inaugural balls in Washington, D.C. She has a picture of herself dancing with President Ford. Dwight was a successful Psychiatrist and they have had a very good life together. They entertain many people, in a lovely manner and they have traveled many places. Anne is Mrs. Energy! And Dwight is no slowpoke. He is a great brother-in-law.

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The middle child of the family was James Wallace, my other "big brother". Jim was born on March 24, 1922, in Manchester, Indiana. My father had transferred from the Kentucky Conference to the Indiana Conference. I am not sure whether Jim ever decided if it was good or bad to be the middle child. He said sometimes our parents would say, "The two older children will do (whatever) and the two younger children will do (whatever)." That left him with a choice, maybe that was good, maybe not. He was inclined to be independent, was ambitious and hard working. He had a paper route when he was about 12. He began working as a "car hop" at a drive-in restaurant at 15 or 16. He worked at a poultry store and a filling station during his teen years.

Jim and I got along well, were "buddies" growing up and were very close ever since. He was always my protector. I was told that when I was very small and playing outside, someone came along and made me cry. I was about 3 and he about 5 or 5½. When he heard me cry, he came from the basement doors and said protectively, "What's the matter, Marjorie?" I guess he was going to take on whatever or whoever was making me cry. In Lawrenceburg, he and I ran errands to the corner grocery for several neighbors. The ladies always knew within a few cents how much the purchases would be and gave us enough money to have one or two pennies left that we could keep. We would then go back to the grocery and buy candy that was either 2 for a penny or 4 for a penny, so we could divide evenly.

He and I did many things together. We would play on the back steps of the church in Indianapolis. Our parsonage was just one house away from the church. I was a daredevil and did most of the same things he did, such as jumping across the stairwell of the basement entrance to the church and jumping from the second floor stairway entrance of the church to the ground. Which reminds me of other experiences with Jim when we were children. At the farm, he and I would climb trees together and play in the "hay loft" in the barn. One time I became frightened about climbing down from a tree that we had climbed many, many times. Jim did it several times trying to show me and encourage me to come down. But, I wouldn't. So, he went and got Dad. With Dad's encouragement and promise that he would "catch me" if I fell, I was persuaded to come down. But I never climbed that tree again. I have said that was when I changed from a "tom-boy" to a girl. He and I would wrestle on the floor in the living room. Of course, I never won, but it took me a long time to realize I wouldn't. We did that for fun! I gave up that activity when I began to "develop."

One other story I think I should include. At about ages 14 and 12, we both wanted to "play" the piano, which neither of us could really do. After each of us pushed and shoved each other several times, I walked away and said he could have the piano. A few minutes later, I sneaked up quietly behind him, doubled up my fist and socked him in the jaw. I really "let him have it". It knocked him off of the piano stool onto the floor. Of course he started chasing me and fortunately for me, Dad walked in the back door just then. I ran up to Dad and gave him a hug. That was the end of the chase and we resumed being buddies in a little while.

As teen-agers, he would take me to the roller skating rink. We always planned it so other young people from our church youth group would be going on the same night. That way, I could "sorta" have a date and skate with the boys I liked. I would not have been permitted to "go on a date" at that age, 14 or 15. Jim was Mr. Personality from childhood. Mother said he was always a happy, smiling baby. He could always charm the women and the girls. When our Epworth League group at church was planning a party, we always made certain Jim could be there because he was the "life of the party".

Jim started college at Butler, but World War II had begun. He had two years of college when he took a job at a defense plant. I think they made "Bomb Sights". Jobs were plentiful because so many young men were in service, and they paid well. When young married men were being drafted, Jim felt it was time for him to enlist. He joined the Navy (to see the world?). At one time he was stationed in the Navy Recruiting Office in Cincinnati, Ohio for about one year, maybe longer. He lived in a hotel because there was no Navy base there. I went to visit him in Cincinnati several times. The first time I went I had suggested that he get me a reservation at the hotel where he lived. He didn't think it was necessary, but when I arrived, there were no empty rooms, so his "roommate" moved in with another sailor and I stayed with Jim (two beds of course). He took me to Coney Island, an amusement park, and to a dance hall! My first time. He took me nice places that I would never have gotten to go. My best friend in Indianapolis was Viola Palmas. We were in the same school and went to the same church. She and I did many things together. One time she went with me to visit Jim. We went to the zoo and on an excursion boat trip on the Ohio River. Another sailor, John Dingley went with us. We had lots of fun.

After that he went into the V12 program, the navy officer training program. He was sent to Harvard for part of his navy education/training and then to Depauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. After he finished his training, he was commissioned an Ensign, sent to Guam and received several "ribbons" for his time in service. One which I am sure was a mistake was the "Good Conduct" ribbon. Of course, I know he deserved it!

When the war was over, he returned to DePauw where he graduated. Mother, Dad, Bernie and I went to his graduation. I am not sure where he worked immediately after graduation, but I'm pretty sure he worked in Indianapolis maybe at Western Electric again. I know that he was in charge of "quality control" for one of the sections. He said, "If most things were made with that standard of quality control they would last forever". Our Uncle Iliff and his son-in-law had opened an Appliance Store in Harrison, Ohio. They offered Jim part ownership in the business and he decided to become a businessman. His college education had been in business so he was an asset to them.

About this time, I was teaching school in Lexington, Kentucky, while Wilson was in graduate school. There was a pretty, petite, well groomed, nice young lady also teaching at Bryan Station School. Just the type young lady Jim liked. Jim was going to come down to visit us one weekend so I asked that young lady, Geneva Warren, if she would like to go on a picnic with us and my brother. She agreed and we went to Natural Bridge. That did it! So every weekend for about a year, Jim would drive down on Friday evening to "court" Genny. He would sleep on the couch in our "little part" of an old army barracks, student apartment. There were many of these buildings, just alike. We gave Jim a key so he could come in if we were in bed. Sometimes, I would talk in my sleep. One night when Jim started in the door, I heard him and said, "Who's there?" He answered, "Jim" and I said "Jim who?" He thought for a minute that he had gotten into the wrong apartment. They soon became "a couple" and were married in Lexington at the First Methodist Church on August 9, 1953. Wilson and I were their attendants. They moved to New Haven, Ohio, a small town near Harrison. Genny got a job teaching in Harrison, Indiana. Harrison is located on the state line between Indiana and Ohio so part of the town is in each state.

A few years later a friend of my parents, Wes Seaton, who sold investments, suggested to Jim he go into the Investment Business. Mother and Dad were living in Oil City, Pennsylvania at that time. The Seatons were my parents' closest friends and Mary Seaton was our David's Godmother. Jim decided to do that and he and Genny moved to Meadeville, Pennsylvania after selling his portion of the appliance store to Don Yoxthimer and Uncle Iliff. Genny got a job teaching and Jim sold investments. He did not find this to be the kind of work he wanted to do, so they moved to Indianapolis where Jim got a job at Ayres Department Store as a manager of the Toy Department. Later he moved to the Furniture Department. While they lived there their daughter, Deanna Jane was born March 1, 1960. Wilson and I are her Godparents and we still have a close relationship. Genny was teaching school again but quit when Deanna was born. When Genny and Jim were told the date the baby should be born, they thought it might be February 29, because it was a leap year. They preferred that her birthday not be that day. Genny did it just right. She waited one day. They were very clever and smart when they decided on her name. Dea is for Berneice DEA, Anna for ANNA Francis and Jane for Marjorie JANE and Grandmother Mattie JANE. All of her aunts and Grandmother had a namesake. Guess it is a good thing Genny didn't have a sister. Deanna is now married to Dr. Kyle Grimes and lives in Birmingham, Alabama where he is on the staff at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Now they have a little girl, born March 1, 2000 named Carolyn Anna Calvert-Grimes. Deanna uses her maiden name.

Several years later, Genny and Jim moved to Louisville, Kentucky and Jim was the Buyer for the Toy Department at Stewart's Department Store. Later he took a position with the Methodist Hospital as the Purchasing Agent. After that, he became Director of Personnel and then decided to go back to Purchasing, where he stayed till he retired. Genny and Jim, Wilson and I had a very close relationship for fifty years.

Jim began to show signs of Alzheimer's. Genny took care of him for several years until she was no longer able. She placed him in a care facility that had an Alzheimer's unit. In a very short time he began a rapid decline until he no longer recognized family members Jim died on November 30, 2002. His funeral services were held in Christ United Methodist Church, in Louisville, Kentucky. He was cremated and his ashes scattered, part in the garden at Christ Church, and part on the grounds of Camp Cavanough, the Methodist retreat at Crestwood, Kentucky. Jim was devoted to his church and volunteered many hours to the Salvation Army and Camp Cavanough.

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The youngest of our family, Berneice Dea, was born December 9, 1927 in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Way back when my siblings and I were born, mothers stayed in bed for a week after giving birth. It was Mother's first day downstairs. As she was finishing her lunch she realized I was not at the table. So, she went to investigate and found me sitting on the window seat in her bedroom holding the new baby. I was three years and two months old. I always loved babies. The door to the bedroom had a window in it so they could see me. I had locked the door. In fear I might be frightened and drop the baby if they were not very calm, they gently persuaded me to put the baby back on the big bed where she had been sleeping, not in a crib or cradle, and let them in. I did as told and was not punished because they thought it was sweet I loved the baby. I remember holding her bottle for her when she was a baby, as she lay in the cradle in the corner of the dining room. I have always "mothered" her and she was very special to me.

Soon after Bernie was born, the church bought a large three-story house with a basement. This church had not had a minister with small children for many years so they were pleased to have a family in the parsonage. Our family went to see the house. I can remember my older brothers and sister running up the stairs to explore and me trying to keep up. This house had three floors and a basement. There was a small rounded room on the corner of the house, in the "parlor", in the bedroom above and in Dad's study on the third floor. I remember sleeping in that bedroom when I was small. Sometimes at night I thought I would see things in that circular area and would be frightened.

We were permitted to go to Dad's study but we could not make noise when Dad was studying. So, I usually drew pictures. My father could draw pretty well, especially horses. He would draw a horse and give me paper and a pencil to try to draw one. I have always enjoyed artwork, particularly drawing. If Dad wasn't there, sometimes Jim and I would go up there and play with the metal rolling stool.

The church also gave us a washing machine. Granted it was not automatic, like we have now, but a BIG improvement over a washboard. It had to be filled and emptied with a bucket, but it agitated the clothes and it had a wringer in which Mother got her fingers caught frequently but was not seriously injured. When I was at home, I had to help hang or take down the laundry. I didn't really mind. I also helped put the wet, sheer curtains on the curtain-stretchers when Mother washed them.

When Bernie was almost five, the doctor discovered she had a "heart murmur". She was not permitted activity. A small bed was set up in the living room (we would say family room, now) and Dad would carry her down stairs every morning and up stairs every night for six weeks. We all "spoiled" her. Because of her health problems, the doctor thought she should not start school the following year, (then a child started if their 6th birthday was in the calendar year). So she was kept out of school. When she did start, she became ill six weeks after the beginning of school. This time she had chicken pox and scarlet fever both. I remember she became ill on a Sunday morning. In those days, ice cream was a rare treat and sometimes was used as a bribe to get one of us children to eat when we were ill. Anyway, this Sunday morning, Bernie didn't get up and said she didn't "feel good". I pulled her out of bed, saying, "You just want ice cream." We were planning to go to Aunt Naomi's and Uncle Elbern's after church. We always liked to go there because of seeing our cousins, so, Mother said "Let her stay in bed. I'll stay home with her." Which she did. The rest of the family went to church and to New Trenton, Indiana. When we came home in the late afternoon, Bernie was very ill! She was almost unconscious. I felt terrible about having done and said what I did that morning. With her weakened heart, my parents were very frightened. Mother was "quarantined" in a bedroom with Bernie, who was very weak. Mother lifted her hands if she wanted them outside or under the covers, fed her and stayed with her almost constantly. We four older children continued to go to school. I think Anne probably did most of the cooking. I may have helped. By this time we did wash and dry the dishes most of the time. Each of us started doing dishes when we needed to stand on a small box to reach the sink. The boys helped sometimes. Many times we would sing while we washed and dried the dishes and many times George and Jim and sometimes Dad, would come into the kitchen and sing with us. We would "harmonize". (I should say they, I always sang the melody.) We all enjoyed singing and usually sang while in the car traveling someplace.

Because of Bernie's illnesses, she was somewhat indulged by our parents. If the older four wanted to do something as a family, we would tell Bernie to ask because we knew we were more likely to get to do whatever it was we wanted. We moved to Indianapolis in January, 1935. Bernie again started school. This was the real beginning of her public schooling.

Her illnesses made my parents, especially my father, extremely careful about our health. They would go to extremes about cleanliness when we ate out, which was very rare. Generally, if we were traveling, Dad would go into a restaurant alone, look it over and sometimes ask to see the kitchen. If he thought it was clean enough we all went in. He would watch everything the waitress would do and if he saw anything he thought was not "clean", we all had to leave and go some place else. He also would ask for straws for us so that we did not drink from the glasses. We would be embarrassed about all of this. I think he was too. Now I know that he did those things because he loved us and was trying to protect our health.

Berneice was musically talented, played the violin and the piano. Singing was her special talent. In October, 1943, we, Mother, Dad, Bernie and I, moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Dad had transferred to First Church there. Bernie was a junior in high school and graduated there. She worked one year at Olan Mills Portrait Studios before going to Kentucky Wesleyan College in Winchester. Bernie majored in Music and Religious Education. She was also one of the soloists for the college choir when we went on tour each year. Although she dated several young men in college she did not marry any of them.

One summer she worked at a church in Corbin, Kentucky. After graduating from college she worked as Religious Education Director in White Fish Bay, Wisconsin, then moved to Winchester, Kentucky and worked at the First Methodist Church there. She had been offered a scholarship to study voice at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at one time but did not go there until she was working in Winchester and would go up to Cincinnati on Saturdays and take voice lessons. While working in Winchester, she began dating William Ogden, whom she married many years later when she was 50 and he was 76. This was on June 20, 1978. He was an outstanding photographer and made portraits of some of the prominent Kentucky citizens. Some of his portraits hang in the state capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky. He would oil paint the photographs. Because of his artistic ability, they did not look like photographs. About two years after they were married, William became disabled and was an invalid until he died.

After leaving Winchester, her next position was at Hyde Park Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. A few years later, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky working as Director of Religious Education at St. Paul's Methodist Church. At one time she worked at a Presbyterian church in Louisville. She also worked at a Baptist church. She quit doing Religious Education work and for several years she taught high school English and Music. Since then, she has clerked in a Luggage Store, a Drug Store, a Russell Stover candy store and a Cutlery store. Her health has been a problem at different times during her life, many different health problems. She had two automobile accidents with rather serious injuries. She has had surgery for just about everything except cancer, fortunately. One time she fell and broke both of her ankles. At that time, she was not married and living alone so she had to go to a nursing home because she could not do anything for herself. She came to stay and help when each of our babies were born. She did not have children of her own.

Bernie's last job was in the Cutlery Store. A few years after she began we could see signs of her mental deterioration. I learned from her employer that she was making mistakes on her sales. He was a very kind man who refused to fire her but instead assigned her to gift wrapping and keeping the shop neat and in order. It was clear to me Bernie should not be living alone. To get her on Medicaid she needed to be unemployed but she wouldn't quit so I explained the problem and asked him to fire her, which he reluctantly did. I then contacted the Masonic Home and made arrangements for her to be admitted there. She could come and go as she pleased. However, we sold her car because she had become such a bad driver that she put herself at risk and others as well. As she declined she was moved into a unit that monitored her and provided care. Eventually she stopped communicating. Her death was a blessing. She died on July 12, 2006 at a hospital in Louisville, was cremated and her ashes were buried beside her husband in Winchester, Kentucky.

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Now that I have told about all my siblings, guess it is time to write about me. Because I think a person is definitely affected by their environment, associates and experiences, I had to include information about my family. I'll try to concentrate on me, but again there will be references to other people in our family and to my friends. Let me go back to when we lived in Lawrenceburg and my first memories.

It was 1927, about the time I can begin remembering things that happened when I was small, that we moved to Lawrenceburg in southern Indiana. About one year after we moved there the church bought a larger house for our family. This house was on a corner, with a large back yard almost surrounded by the levee along the Ohio River. On top of the levee was the railroad track. Our house, the parsonage, had two back porches, one on each side of the kitchen. One porch had a door to the kitchen from the street side, the other toward the back yard. These were the late "Depression Days", hard times for many people. Frequently a man would knock on our back door and ask for food. He may have been a "hobo" that jumped off of the train. It must have been very difficult to beg for food. Mother would always fix him a plate of food and he would eat it outside on the back porch. Our finances were strained for a family of seven, but sufficient. My parents felt, and I think rightly so, that good food was necessary for good health, so we always had good nutritious meals, and as I said earlier, some to share.

Our house was across the street from the O'Briens, very wealthy members of the church. They were an older couple that had an invalid daughter. She had a full time nurse. I don't know why she was an invalid - saw her a few times in a wheel chair. The O'Briens were very nice, friendly, and very proper. We were permitted to visit occasionally. I loved to go over to their house. Mrs. O'Brien always had licorice candy in a dish and she would give me some. It was probably when I was six or seven years old, I began visiting her. I remember sitting on the couch and talking to Mrs. O'Brien. My visits were very brief, probably 10 minutes. I felt grown-up and always just sat in the parlor with her. Since they were wealthy, Mrs. O'Brien had full time household help and so had time to chat with her little neighbor.

This reminds me of another pleasure with the O'Briens. They invited our family to the Country Club for dinner. They had a chauffeur and a big Cadillac with jump seats (folding seats between the driver's seat and the passenger seat). I was told I spoke up and said, "I want to ride in the Cadillac!" And I got to do that!

At our house, there was a very large back yard (or it seemed that way to me then) behind which was the levee that kept the river out of the town. Each spring, when the river was high, the water would seep through the levee and we would have a small shallow lake. Sometimes we would wade in the water.

I was skinny until I was about fifteen. Some people in the church would send "tonics" for the skinny little girl. One day my mother was walking down the street with me. A stranger stopped and said, "What's wrong with your little girl? You'll never raise her!" If she could see me now! Eighty-eight and still going. Because I was small, the doctor thought I would be healthier if my tonsils were removed. So, when I was five we had them removed in a hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. I got to eat ice cream then!

In those days you had to stay overnight in the hospital for a tonsillectomy. Mother stayed with me. Dad was there during the surgery and Bernie, age two, stayed with some relatives. The older children were in school. Anyway, as the story was told, Bernie wouldn't let anyone take her coat off and stood beside a bed saying, "I want my mommy", until Dad got back to take her home.

I have never needed a lot of sleep and sometimes in the spring, summer or fall, would wake up before the rest of the family and go outside and play. That skinny, happy, shy, energetic child loved to roller skate. We had one pair of skates for the five of us, but I was the only one that enjoyed skating a lot. From spring till fall, I wore the skates almost all the time I was outside.

A shy child, I always was very quiet at school, always got along well, and got good grades, but when I was eight years old my teacher noticed I had trouble reading the "blackboard." (It was black then.) She suggested my eyes needed to be tested. She was right. So I began wearing glasses. I didn't mind them then, but ever since I was about 14 (the age when vanity sets in) I've hated them. As an adult, about 45, I wore contact lens for about ten years. I got some new lenses about a year ago, but soon after that, I had some kind of respiratory illness, just didn't feel well for about four months, so I didn't really get adjusted to them. I have now given up hope of ever wearing contact lenses again.

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My parents, Mattie Jane Morgan Calvert and Wallace Clair Calvert, were married June 14, 1917 in the parlor of the Morgan home near Cordova, Kentucky, where my Mother was born and grew up. Her parents were William Napoleon Morgan and Sarah Frances Edmondson.

My father was born in Addison near Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the son of Anna Lyda Wallace Calvert and George Thomas Calvert. He had one older sister, one older brother and a younger brother who lived to adulthood. An older brother and sister had died. He was a very neat person. Wanted everything in order. He was very careful about his appearance and except if he was working on the farm or doing some type of "dirty" work, he always wore a white, starched, carefully ironed shirt, tie and suit. Exceptions were made for a picnic or just being at home.

My father grew up an unhappy child, not because his parents didn't love him, but because tragedy plagued the family. A younger sister died a few years before Dad was born. His eighteen-year-old brother was kicked in the head by a mule and died of his injuries a few months before Dad was born. Dad's father died when he was twelve. My grandmother always said that he was "marked" because of her sadness having lost two children. When he was growing up, people believed that babies were "marked" by the experiences their mothers had while they were pregnant. Then that belief was dropped and now doctors say that the experiences of expectant mothers do affect the child. His father's death also was very difficult for him. His mother remarried when he was about fourteen. This was difficult for him to accept, too. Naturally, all of these experiences affected his life and his manner of raising his children. I think he always felt he was not loved enough.

He was a very strict disciplinarian with all of us children and was definitely "HEAD OF THE HOUSE". We all loved him but we were a little afraid of him. We certainly tried not to displease him. In spite of his sternness with us, he was also very tender, very concerned, very affectionate and yet we all were "switched" sometimes if we misbehaved. We tried to please him and tried not to provoke him. He was very committed to his church work. In fact there were times when family activities were either canceled or delayed because he felt he "had to" go see someone who was ill or do something concerning church membership. Once even opening Christmas gifts was postponed until he had "gone to see someone who was ill". He was popular with his congregations and was a good preacher.

Let me tell you about one funny story concerning a church member. We were living in North Madison, Indiana. Many of the church members were farmers. One man was a "truck farmer". He got up very early Saturday mornings to pick his vegetables and take them to town to sell. He would be sleepy during church service on Sunday mornings. So my Dad decided to go and talk to him about it. He did and jokingly said, "The next time you fall asleep in church, I am going to throw a hymnal at you. When you fall asleep the choir gets amused and the congregation gets amused and it is difficult for me to preach." The man said he was sorry and would try to stay awake. A Sunday or so later, the man fell asleep. It just happened to be in his sermon that Dad said, quoting Christ, "Sleep on and take thy rest." The man was just dozing off, heard that statement and stood up in church and said, "I wasn't asleep! I tell you, I wasn't asleep." Dad said he thought the man was thinking the hymnal would be coming his way.

After we moved to Indianapolis, he had some problems in the congregation. I think there were several reasons. First he was very definite about his opinions, very stubborn and strong willed. He also had become overprotective of his children. However, there were more that supported him than did not, but there were problems. There is probably no profession that is more difficult in some ways than that of a minister because every member is your "boss" and each person has an opinion. The Indianapolis church was probably the one where it was most difficult.

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Dad's older brother was Uncle Elbern. He was married to Naomi Bonar. Her brother Howard Bonar married Dad's older sister, Lillie Calvert. Uncle Howard was about twenty years older than Aunt Lillie. I don't think her parents were very pleased about the age difference.

Uncle Elbern and Aunt Naomi had four children. They lived in a very small town, New Trenton, Indiana. The oldest was Kenneth, next was Madren. Madren became a magician and changed his name to John. He started in show business as a "dare devil" by riding a motorcycle through a burning wall and being buried alive. John was very successful, had his own plane and a group of performers that traveled with him. When John was 98 and living in Bowling Green, Kentucky, we were invited o his birthday party. As we left Wilson said "If you live to be 100 we'll come back," John replied, "you will have to go to London. I'm scheduled to be there for my 100th birthday." He was. We weren't.

John was in a few movies. I think his parents were both proud and embarrassed about his work. They were glad he did so well but thought "show business" was not a highly respected profession. Anna Elizabeth was the next child, the only girl in that family. When she became a young adult, everyone called her Betty, except her parents. She became a nurse, had dark hair, was pretty and looked so nice in her uniform. I thought I wanted to be a nurse too, then, but my father talked me out of it. I think he was right because I'm too soft hearted. I visited Betty once while she was living in the nurse's residence. I thought she was wonderful. Bernard, the youngest child, and George were about the same age. Bernard worked in Aviation. All of that family moved to California many years ago and we rarely see them.

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Aunt Lilly and Uncle Howard were married for many years and I think they were very happy together. They lived on a farm near Falmouth, Kentucky. Their oldest child was Calvert, who lived with us for a while when we lived in Lawrenceburg. He was a mechanic at the Ford Dealership. Second son, Henry was very intelligent. He went to Miami University in Ohio. While he was working for a refrigeration company, he invented the machine that makes "ripple" ice cream, and was paid $100 for his invention. That was pretty good money for then. The middle child was Anna Elizabeth. She and her cousin by the same name became very close friends. They were "double cousins" because brother and sister married sister and brother. The girls were born on the same day. When the Bonars lived in New Mexico, they wrote to the Calverts in Indiana telling about their new baby. The Calverts wrote to the Bonars about their new baby. The letters passed in the mail. Each couple had named their baby Anna Elizabeth for the two grandmothers. The fourth child in that family was Howard Norman and then Charles the youngest. They both worked on their farm near Falmouth for a few years and then moved near Cincinnati. They were both very good mechanics. We all enjoyed going to visit there. Every time we arrived, even if they had not been notified we were coming, Aunt Lillie would run out to meet us and say, "I was looking for you!"

Sometimes when we visited their farm, I would go out to the barn, at milking time, take a glass and Norman or Charles would fill my glass with warm milk. I thought it was sooo good! This was interesting to me since I grew up in town.

One time I was visiting there when I was about fourteen. Aunt Lillie wanted to go see Elizabeth who was attending Morehead College. Charles was going to take her. I went along and while we were waiting for Aunt Lillie, Charles noticed that I bit my fingernails. He asked me to stop and I did. He and I have had close feelings for each other all these years. Also, one time while I was there, Aunt Lillie became sick. She wanted potato soup, so I made it. She said it was good and of course that pleased me.

George and Jim would go to stay with Aunt Lillie and her family for several weeks in the summers. Norman and Charles and George and Jim were about the same ages. George and Jim would help with the work on the farm. The four boys enjoyed being together. One time they made an "electric chair" which would give a person just a slight shock when they sat in it.

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Dad's youngest brother was Uncle Iliff. He married Corinne Meeks and they had two daughters, Lula Mae, and Virginia. Virginia was born with Hydrocephalus and died before she was a year old. Now days children survive because doctors can correct this condition by putting shunts in the head to drain the fluid down through the body. Uncle Iliff and Aunt Corinne lived on our farm and managed it for several years. I especially enjoyed going to their home, because Lula Mae and I were close. Once she had a birthday party and we went to the nearby creek to "swim". I didn't know how to swim and don't know if any of the girls knew how, but we had fun playing in the water. All five of us enjoyed going to the farm when they lived there. Lula Mae was almost like a sister to me.

One summer, when we were visiting, we five, six counting Lula Mae, decided it would be fun to ride the hayfork. This was a piece of equipment that was used to lift hay from the floor of the barn to the loft for winter storage. Jim volunteered to be the first passenger. George pulled him up and jerked the rope that sent the fork to the back of the loft. Jim did not realize there was not enough space for him to sit up straight and before he could lean backward he sailed to the back of the barn and bumped his head on each rafter. That was a "learning experience" for all of us! Dad and Uncle Iliff came along soon, took the fork off and made a "swing" from a wide leather strap so none of us would bump our heads. This was a lot of fun!

When they left the farm, they moved to Harrison, Ohio and Uncle Iliff worked at the Gulf Refinery. Lula Mae married Donald Yoxthimer June 29, 1946. I was the Maid-of-Honor. They had two children, Robert and Donna, both are married and have married children. When they celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary, we were there. They renewed their vows and I stood up with her again. Don died in the spring of 2002. They, Genny and Jim, Charles and Frances, Anne and Dwight and Wilson and I got together each summer for a weekend for several years until 2003.

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Mother had grown up on the farm where she was born near Cordova, Kentucky. She was the youngest of five daughters. Two had died, one at age four and the other at birth. I think I have said my Grandfather Morgan was a very successful gentleman farmer. This made it possible for Mother, when she was about 14, to attend Campbell Hagerman College in Lexington. It was actually a "finishing school" for girls. Today this would be equal to high school. Believe it or not, while in college, she played tennis in a long dress. She majored in Elocution or Dramatics Arts. Through the years she recited "readings" that she had learned in college. When she died at 91, she could still recite a very long Christmas story, The Other Wise Man. Anyway, this schooling made it possible for Mother to be a teacher. Mother had been a teacher in a "one room" school before she was married. In those days, all eight grades were taught in one room by one teacher. She also had to build a fire in the heating stove, but the older boys in the school kept the fire going. She said that when the creek froze in the winter, she and her students would ice skate during recess. She also went with several "Campbellite" preachers (ministers of the Christian Church) before she met my father. My mother was a very patient, kind, loving, hard working, sacrificing, very concerned, short, chubby woman. With such a large family she was always working. Many times she ironed in the evenings when we would be going off to bed. If not ironing, she was mending clothes or darning socks. It was very rare she did nothing. She was a very good cook, made dessert every day, made wonderful homemade yeast bread, dinner rolls, and sweet rolls with pecans. She always cooked enough for 8 because we frequently had an extra person for meals unexpectedly. She said, "I can stretch food for 9 to 10". My father would bring someone home for lunch or dinner and/or one of us children would ask if a friend could eat with us. Guests were always welcome. Mother was a "Professional Mother." She was very rarely away from home unless it was a "family outing", a rare trip to Cincinnati, Ohio, Madison, Indiana, or to visit her relatives in Kentucky, Grandmother Morgan, Aunt Pet, Aunt Pearl or Dad's relatives in Ohio or Indiana.

Mother's parents gave farms with houses to each of the older sisters when they got married. Mother inherited the farm where she was born but not until her father died and her Mother went to live with Aunt Pet in Newport, Kentucky. This farm was the largest and the "home place," with the nicest house. Grandmother Morgan lived with Aunt Pet the rest of her life. My Grandfather Morgan died when I was almost one year old.

My Aunt Pet had also married a Methodist minister, Orla Robinson. They lived in Newport, Kentucky. We didn't visit them frequently. They also had a son, David, about the age of George. I don't remember much about him. He died at about forty. They also had two daughters, Emma Frances, small and very pretty, and Donna, exceptionally bright. They were probably 14 and 12 years older than I. They would give me clothes and high-heeled shoes to play dress-up, which I loved as a child. Bernie and I played "house and dress-up" a lot when we were young living in Lawrenceburg. There was a large closet under the stairway where we would play. In the summer we played under the back porch that had a basement entrance to the house.

Aunt Pet died of breast cancer when she was approximately 50. Frances and Donna were both teachers and both married Mining Engineers. They all lived in a small mining town in Tennessee named Ducktown. It is close to Chattanooga so when we lived there we saw them often. In fact, Frances' first baby was born in Chattanooga because there was only one doctor in Ducktown and he was very ill when it was about time for the birth. Frances stayed at our house the last week or so. She had two daughters.

Mother's other sister, Aunt Pearl, was married twice. She had two sons by her first husband, named Howard and Harry Dunaway. They were young men when I first can remember them. She married John Henry after divorcing her first husband. Divorce was practically unheard of 80 years ago. Uncle John kept bees and would give us honey. He also raised cane, the plant, and made sorghum. It was interesting to watch this process. He was a kind, gentle man. They had one daughter, Elizabeth. She was raped and had a son who is probably 65 now. Because we were children and that was a very taboo subject, it was not talked about to us. Elizabeth was married several years later and had a daughter. Our only contact now is yearly Christmas cards. We visited Aunt Pearl when we went to our farm, which was near her farm. One time, just before Christmas, we went to see Aunt Pearl. She gave Jim and me each a box of chocolate covered cherries. What a treat! We both ate too many too quickly and had sore mouths because of eating so much candy at one time. We never had so much candy for ourselves!

One time when visiting Grandmother Morgan at the farm near Cordova, I climbed on a trailer parked in the garage, put my hand in a wasp nest and got stung three times. I was about six or seven. She put "liniment" on them. It helped or at least, I thought it helped.

My Morgan Grandparents chose unusual names for their girls. The first one was Virgie, the second unnamed since she died at birth, the third Lulie Pet, the fourth Pearlie Bell and the fifth, was the best, my Mother, Mattie Jane.

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I usually enjoyed visiting our farm, although I'm sure I would not have wanted to live there. If there had been a heavy rain when we went to the farm, and we came to the little bridge across the creek about a mile from the farm, we either had to drive through the water, if it was not too deep, or wait until it had run out enough for us to cross.

The large white farmhouse had columns on the front and two porches, one above the other in front and in back. At one time it was a very fine house. My Grandfather Morgan did very little work on the farm himself. There were farm hands, men who were hired, to do the work. Mother told us her father had had an injury, which made it difficult for him to walk. He rode a horse around the farm to supervise the workers. My Grandfather was also on the board of the Corinth Bank.

When my Mother inherited the farm, Dad arranged for tenants to live on the farm, raise the crops and take care of the animals. Our family had only three rooms in the house to use when we were there. We used the parlor on the first floor. There had been two bedrooms upstairs, one was converted to a kitchen-dining room, the other used for a bedroom with two double beds in it. We also used the upper porch. There was a slave bed that was very narrow, not as wide as a twin bed. It was NEVER used for slaves. My grandfather did not believe in slavery. The bed was in the hallway on the second floor between the two rooms. One of us children would sleep on it, usually George.

There were many adventures and fun times on the farm and some not much fun. This was before the days of electricity and plumbing so there was an "out house" and we used kerosene lamps. One of my jobs was to clean the chimneys of the lamps and fill them with kerosene every day. We cooked with a kerosene stove and ironed by heating the "flat irons" on the stove. There was always one iron on the stove and one to use till it cooled off, then we would exchange the cool one for the hot one.

One Saturday at the farm, when it was nearing time to go home, I had taken my bath and dressed. Dad came in and said, "Marjorie, put your over-alls back on and come help me fix the water gap." I didn't want to, but knew I had no choice. (A few years ago someone asked me why I was involved in so many things. I said, "It is because when I was growing up we were not permitted to say 'No! I won't do that', so I never learned how.") When we got to the creek, we were carrying quite a few tools. Dad threw several across the creek. I thought that was a good idea and tossed a tool that landed in the middle of the creek. Dad said, "Go get it." I waded in, fortunately it wasn't deep, and located the tool with my foot, but when I bent over couldn't reach it and keep my face out of the water. I pondered my problem and decided to squat to get it. At least I didn't get my face and hair wet. Of course, I had to take another bath and redress to go home.

At the farm many things happened, some good and some not good. Dad frequently was injured. One time he tore the nail off one finger when his hand was dragged on the concrete floor in the barn while he was putting rings in the pigs noses. I don't know why that was done, but I think it was to keep them from rooting under the fence and getting out. Since I'm talking about Dad's injuries, I'll mention two others, both rather serious. We all had to help with the work on the farm when we were there. Jim was going to help Dad saw something with a crosscut saw. It is a long saw, probably six feet, with handles on each end. Dad was down on one knee, too close to the saw and it hit his leg above the knee. Jim did not realize it the first slice and pushed and pulled another time. So Dad had three cuts in his leg. My father's first aid treatment for his wounds was to wash with soap and water thoroughly and then liberally apply alcohol. I remember him doing this. You can be sure he "danced a jig" when he applied the alcohol. He went to the doctor in Williamstown, about ten miles away to have it stitched.

Another time in the winter, Dad took only Anne and George with him to the farm to "butcher" the hogs. The tenants at that time were not very clean. When Dad arrived and found the "summer kitchen" a mess, (this was where they would cut up the meat and prepare it for storage), he began cleaning. My father was a neatness and cleanliness fanatic. He started a fire in the stove and began throwing "trash" into the stove. He did not realize he had picked up a box of dynamite caps. They began exploding and three hit him in the calf of his leg. At that time a new road was being built in front of the house and the car was parked about a quarter mile away. Dad put a tourniquet on his leg and ran, with Anne and George, to the car. They drove him to a hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. Oh, yes, the new road was being built because Dad had worked to influence the Highway Department to build a blacktop road to replace the gravel one. When the road was finished, there was a celebration and dedication, held at our farm. The Governor, Happy Chandler, came to the dedication. There were lots of people attending and we children sold cold soft drinks to the attendees.

There was a man living down the road from our farm named Vernor Meeks. He liked to play jokes on people, so when Dad got the dynamite cap through his leg, Vernor told people that "Old man Hannah came in the house, found the preacher kissing his wife and shot him." Another joke Vernor played on my father was he took a bushel basket and almost filled it with manure then he put tomatoes on the top, gave it to Dad to take home to my mother so she could can them.

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My Grandmother Calvert Newkirk Williamson (she was married three times; her first two husbands died) lived in Harrison, Ohio from the time I can remember. Harrison was about 14 miles from Lawrenceburg. We went to her house frequently. She was a fun and loving lady. Her specialty was a mahogany-chocolate cake. When she knew we were coming she would bake a cake and hide it. Then we children would hunt for the cake. Anne was especially fond of that cake and was usually the one who found it. There was a bakery very close to her house, so for breakfast she would go to the bakery and buy sweet rolls for us. They were special! She was special! We enjoyed going to her house. She loved life! She loved traveling and sometimes would go on trips with us. We also sometimes took Bernice Waltz with us. In those days there was more room between the front and back seats and our car did not have back doors. So, Dad would put a folding canvas stool on each side of the car between the seats and a child sat on each stool. We would have eight people in the car. Before that, Bernie sat on Mother's lap until she was about ten. We had the four older children in the back seat and Mother, Dad and Bernie in the front. I'll assure you we BEHAVED! Dad was emphatic about that.

One summer, Grandmother Williamson borrowed a used car from Uncle Elbern, a Ford dealer, and my brother George drove it. Dad borrowed a pop-up tent trailer and drove our car pulling the trailer. The trailer-tent made it possible financially to take the trip. We could not have afforded to all stay in a motel. We all went to Washington D.C., actually Chevy Chase, Maryland, a suburb, to see Grandmother's brother, Uncle Frank, his daughter, and grandchildren. The tent trailer was built to sleep four but we slept eight. Mother and Dad slept on one side, I slept with Grandmother on the other side, and a mattress was placed on the floor between the two foldout beds. Berneice and Anne slept there. Then my brothers George and Jim slept on army cots under the two foldout beds one on each side. They were still within the tent, which reached to the ground. The boys, George and Jim, and Uncle Frank's grandson, "Beaky", slept in the trailer-tent in the backyard while we visited in Chevy Chase. We had a good time, did some sightseeing and had fun with relatives we had only met once before at Aunt Lillie's in Kentucky several years before.

Think I'll insert a little story, which includes Uncle Frank now while I think of it. Many years later, well, I guess about ten, we were living in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Bernie and I were in college. It was summertime and Uncle Frank came to visit. He would frequently use the expression, "That's singular." After several times, Bernie and I became amused and had to stifle our laughter. Jim came to visit and we told him about our urge to laugh at some things Uncle Frank would say. He chided us about not having self control and acting immature. The next meal, Uncle Frank said "Well, that's singular!" Jim lost it. In fact he almost lost the food in his mouth. He left the table and went to the kitchen and laughed. We joined him there. Fortunately Uncle Frank was getting elderly (about 75, Ha! Ha!) and I don't think he ever realized we were laughing at him.

This portion being mostly about Grandma reminds me of another story. I said in fun to my mother one time, "Mother, you spoiled, Dad." (He definitely was head of the house and made most decisions.) She said, "No, his mother did." We were at Grandma's at the time, so I said, "Grandma, you spoiled Dad." She said, "No, I didn't. He was born spoiled." As I said, she was fun to be with. Our friends liked her too.

One time when I was about eight, I stayed with her several days. During the day I was as happy as could be - but at night when we went to bed, she left the back door open to cool our bedroom because it was hot, no air conditioning in those days. I was afraid! Evidently it was safe because nothing happened.

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As I think about my childhood days, I remember what happened but not the exact dates except for some things. We lived in Lawrenceburg, Indiana from September 1927 till January 1935. Those were very happy days, as for most children, carefree and fun. Our house was on a corner, where we played many games in the late afternoons and early evenings when the weather was warm, spring, summer and fall, with the other neighborhood children.

Every year there would be a church bazaar. There was also a contest for the most tickets sold. My older sister, Anne was the winning ticket sales person many years. The prize was free tickets. Anne would share her winnings with her brothers and sisters. At the bazaar, there were fun activities for children as well as food. I was most interested in the "fish pond" for children. A child would hold a fishing pole over a drape and someone behind the drape would attach a small toy to the end of the pole.

One of my best memories during these years was about Christmas. There was always a special Christmas play at the church in which we children took part. After the program "Santa Claus" would arrive and give everyone candy. One year Bernie was sick (this may have been during her "heart problem") so Santa went to our house to see her. She realized it was a young man from our church. After the church program we would go home, hang our socks and stockings - boys wore socks, girls wore stockings - and go to bed. The next morning, we would wake early and run down to find an orange, some nuts, and a little candy in our socks. As I said earlier, money was not plentiful and so we each received one gift plus our sock. When I was about seven, I asked for a doll. Mother ordered it from Sears. I was at home when the package arrived. As the postman handed the box to my mother, it tipped forward and the doll cried. Then I knew there was no Santa. I was not disappointed about that because I was getting the doll I wanted! Susan now has that doll. About five years go I took it to a doll hospital. It now looks like a new doll of about 1932 vintage. I still have a soft spot in my heart for that doll, which was the only doll I had as a child. Another special Christmas was when we were given a "play store". It was given to us by someone in the church and was a gift for all five of us.

At Christmas time one couple, Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius O'Brien, son of the O'Briens that lived across the street from the parsonage, would invite our family to their house for dinner and gifts. They were very wealthy and had a maid to serve dinner. After dinner they gave each of us children a toy and new clothes. What a special time!

The O'Briens were not the only wealthy people in that church. There were at least three millionaire families. A million dollars during that time, late 20's and early 30's, was a lot of money.

Other pleasant times were when we would go to Laura Ludlow's. She would invite us on the Fourth of July sometimes. We always had fireworks, which were legal then. One year, while we were there, my father was lighting one. He was distracted, probably keeping the little ones away, and the firecracker exploded in his hand. He burned his hand badly.

My father's birthday was on the 4th of July. One time, while we lived in Lawrenceburg, the church members had a birthday party for him and each person gave him a penny for each year of his age. I think that it was his 35th birthday. I know 35¢ does not seem like much of a gift now, but remember in 1936 compared to now, it would be about $15.00. So, when it was all added together, say 50 - 75 people, that wasn't a little gift.

While we lived in Lawrenceburg, Prohibition was the law. My father preached a sermon against bootlegging. A few days later, Mr. Hunter, our neighbor, told my dad, "They are out to get you." So he and Dad sat on the front porch one evening to meet them. Mother took all five of us to the second floor of the house. I remember being very much afraid as the men shouted at Dad. He didn't back down and nothing more happened.

Lawrenceburg was a good place to live then. It was the county seat and young couples would frequently buy their marriage license, ask the clerk where the Methodist minister lived, and come to our house to be married. Dad would perform the ceremony in the parlor. I loved that and would sit on the stairs, out of sight, and watch. (Maybe that is why I became involved as the wedding hostess in Champaign.) We had lots of fun as children. We visited my Grandmother Williamson in Harrison, Ohio frequently because it was only 14 miles from Lawrenceburg. George hiked there one time to fulfill one of the Scout requirements.

Our clothes were frequently hand-me-downs from cousins, friends, and members of the church. Hand-me-downs were all right. Sometimes I loved them. There were two dresses I received that were special - one a pale blue taffeta dress with a full circle skirt. I loved it! The other was a pale lavender organdy with ruffles on the skirt. I loved it, too! I felt so special when I wore either of those dresses. One other place my parents felt was important to spend money was correctly fitted shoes, so we each always had shoes bought for us.

One morning our next door neighbor was starting a fire in a cook-stove in her basement and thought she was putting kerosene on to make it start quickly, however, it was gasoline and the blaze shot out and caught her clothes on fire. She knew to "roll to put the flames out," and ran outside, to roll in the grass. I just happened to look out the window, called to my mother, and she went to see about her. I thought she was acting strangely not realizing the reason she was rolling on the grass. She was badly burned and had to be in bed to heal. I remember going with my mother to see her. Because the burns were so severe, she could not wear clothes and a flat tent, made of sheets, was put on a frame to cover her.

I was very obedient and well-behaved in school - my mischief was outside of school. I liked school. My first grade teacher, Mrs. Smith, used the hectograph to make copies for the class. This was a gelatin type substance. A master was made with indelible ink, I think. Then sheets of paper were placed on the gelatin to make copies. Sometimes I got to "help" her. I loved my third grade teacher, Miss Schneider, very much. She was ill one time and another girl and I went to see her. This was the year I had my first "boy friend". His name was Dale Darling. My brother Jim liked Dale's older sister. Jim would tease me and say, "I guess you call him, Dale Darling." Funny how I remember this.

Now for a levee story. The railroad track (a different one than we crossed on the way to school) ran on the top of the levee. In those days, the trainmen marked the cars with chalk - large round pieces. As they went by, we would yell, "Throw me some chalk." They usually did when the pieces were small. Then we used it to draw "hopscotch" on the sidewalk. Our parents did not want us to go up on the levee for several reasons - the trains, hobos who rode the trains and they worried about the river. Although some people went swimming in the river, we were not permitted to and we did not know how to swim. George and Jim learned to swim in Boy Scout Camp.

Anyway, one summer day, I ventured up on the levee with my skates on, which were worn most of the time I was outside. I noticed my father's car coming from the ferry. I could not slip my skates off of my shoes because I had fastened them very tightly with the skate key and pliers. Since I knew I should not be up there and I couldn't get my skates off, I sat down, slipped down the side of the levee, and cut my backside on a piece of glass. You can be sure I didn't tell anyone or seek sympathy. Guess that was my punishment.

Another mistake I made was using Mother's sewing machine. I had seen her use it and knew she placed her right hand on the fabric as the cloth moved forward. I didn't move my hand back and before I could stop pedaling the machine, the needle went through the end of my finger several times. Again, a time I didn't seek sympathy.

As I said earlier, my mischief or misbehavior was not at school, but of course I was no angel. I might as well confess my misdeeds. I relate them not necessarily in chronological order. I'm not proud of any of these activities.

I didn't always go "straight home from school" as I was told. Sometimes I took the long way home to walk with friends. There was a doctor, I didn't know him, who lived near the school. He was a grumpy man and I'm sure we children contributed to that characteristic. There were about four steps to his door. As we would walk by his house, someone would ring his doorbell and we would all run away. On occasion I was the "ringer" but not always because it was not really on my way home.

My friend, who lived next door to the jail, would go over and carry the meal trays to the inmates. I thought that sounded interesting, so one day I went along. I only did that one time. They frightened me! I know now, as an adult, when they said things like, "We'll lock you up in here" and "I'll get you," I was not in danger. But it scared me then so much I never went back. Maybe the friend's father was the jailer. I don't know.

Reading was fun and I almost always had a book. It was just slightly out of my way to go by the library on my way home from school. Every few days I would get a book, take it back, and get another. My favorite author was Louisa May Alcott.

I loved to play on swings and/or a trapeze bar. We didn't have either at our house, just at school. However, our church had a flight of stairs to the second floor main doors, half way up was about six feet of level area and the hand rail made a good trapeze. Sometimes I would play there "on my way home" from school even though it wasn't "on my way home." Once I stayed a long time and my mother became worried. She was outside looking for me when a neighbor came by and asked how she was. She said, "I'm worried about Marjorie; she hasn't come home yet." The lady said, "Oh, she's down at the church playing." You can be sure I was summoned home by one of my brothers and I knew I was in trouble.

Bernice Waltz from North Madison, Indiana, a maiden lady school teacher friend of my parents, would come to visit at our home in Lawrenceburg, I think, every summer. My sister Berneice was named for her, but it is spelled differently. She would take me home with her sometimes. We would ride the Greyhound bus. I thought that was fun and would get very excited a few days before I went, anticipating the visit. She lived on a farm with her parents and younger sister who was also a teacher. We would visit them as a family sometimes but I especially enjoyed going by myself. They had a dog named Peggy, who had a small opening at one corner of the fence that surrounded the back yard. I used "Peggy's gate" by crawling through that space. Bernice made Bernie and me each a dress with smocking on the front. They were our church dresses and we loved them. She made us other dresses, but those were our favorites!

When Bernice's and Teresa's parents died they moved off the farm into Madison. I visited by myself there too. In town there were other children to play with and that was more fun than being out on the farm without children, even though I enjoyed the farm visits.

One time while I was visiting during the summer in Madison, it was terribly hot, no air conditioning. I remember Bernice fanned me until I went to sleep.

I also remember when it was very hot, Dad would carry mattresses downstairs for the adults and we children slept on pallets on the floor in the large parlor. One time Bernice Waltz was there too. I was going home with her the next day and wore my Dad's pocket watch around my neck on a chain to be sure I didn't oversleep. I woke several times to see what time it was.

In fifth grade I had a teacher named Miss Spellzhouse. For some reason she did not like me. She liked Jim when he was in her room and I think he was even a little mischievous. He always charmed the ladies. Anyway, Miss Spellzhouse would criticize me and punish me if I even looked at another child. Other children in the class told their mothers: "Miss Spellzhouse is mean to Marjorie." I hadn't told my parents because I thought I would get into trouble and because I thought I must have been wrong. The other mothers called Mother, told her and volunteered to go to the school board with her. About that time we moved to Indianapolis; so that solved that problem.

In Lawrenceburg, we four older children would walk to school, four blocks, together. We had to cross a railroad track. Sometimes a train would be coming and the boys would dash across, but Anne and I would wait - it frightened me when Jim and George would run across in front of the train!

I remember two times being sent home from school because I got hurt. One time, we were playing a game while waiting to get in the building. Don't know now exactly what the game was, but we stood on the steps, someone was "it", and the players would lean backward (I think) to try not to be touched by "it". I leaned too far and hit my head getting a bad bump. Sent home. The other was when playing "crack the whip". A long line of children held hands, largest to smallest, which put me on the end. (I was the smallest girl in my class for the first five grades.) Anyway the line would run along and then the leader would "crack the whip"; the line was pulled or thrown around in a circular manner. Being at the end and unable to control the line it threw me against a tree. I was sent home. Most of my fun was within the family, with neighborhood children, or church friends and church activities.

As children, we played "Mother May I", "New York", and on warm summer evenings at dusk "Hide and Seek". We played on the corner with the neighborhood children - the Kittles and Eckard Benewitz, a German neighbor boy. His name was something like this Eckard George Karl Benewitz.

One of my mischievous times I told Bernie, who was about three, there was no one downstairs and she came running down naked. Our cousin Calvert, who was a young man and lived with us then, was there. I'll have to admit I did it for fun. She was embarrassed and I thought it was funny. Calvert was Aunt Lilly's oldest son. He was a mechanic at the Ford dealership and lived with us a year or so until he got married.

I grew up in the time that there was definitely women's (girl's) work and men's (boy's) work. Girls helped cook, clean, wash dishes, help with the laundry, iron clothes and sew. The boys mowed the lawn, shoveled snow, carried heavy things, put coal in the furnace, carried out the ashes, and kept their room in order.

The years, seven and a half of them, that we lived in Lawrenceburg were happy years. The people in the church were very good to our family. Basically it was a safe place to live. I loved school except for the first semester of 5th grade (guess I still loved school, but not that teacher) we had good neighbors, good friends and a good life. The people I remember most are the Hunters, the Blackmores, the Kittles, Laura Ludlow and the two O'Brien families.

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In January, 1935 we moved from Lawrenceburg to Indianapolis, Indiana. This was a promotion for Dad, a bigger church, about 1000 members, a larger salary - $3000. The church in Lawrenceburg wanted us to stay but agreed to the move because of the advancement for Dad.

When we arrived at the parsonage in Indianapolis, there were two church tables set up in the dining room, one with lots of food and one set for us to eat. A lovely, surprise welcome. The house was a large brick next to the parish house, formerly a residence, which was next to the church. There were four bedrooms on the second floor and a bathroom, one bathroom for all seven of us. Now most houses have at least two bathrooms. On the first floor there was an entrance hall and half bath, living room, dining room, kitchen and kitchenette for eating. Can you imagine seven people all using one bathroom? But we did, and I don't remember any problems. There was also a full basement divided into rooms, a recreation room, laundry room, furnace room and a large pantry. We even had a two-car garage and a nice back yard. There was a front porch where we often played or sat.

By the time we were living in Indianapolis, Anne and I were each doing our own ironing. I took pride in doing it as well as I could. My Mother was a good psychologist and told me I ironed well. Soon she said she thought I was good enough at ironing I could do more of it, so I was promoted to ironing my brothers' clothes. When I was 14, I was even better and was promoted again to ironing my father's shirts! He was very, and I mean VERY, particular about how his shirts were ironed. I was dumb enough to accept the compliments and the challenge. I also pressed his one good suit each Saturday for church the next day.

On Sunday afternoons, we were supposed to play more quietly. So, I spent many afternoons drawing, coloring and cutting out clothes for the paper dolls in the Sunday funny papers. In fact, I designed and made clothes for myself when I was in high school. Because of the cost of clothing, the big family and our limited financial status, our parents would let us have more clothes if we made them. That was a good incentive, but we couldn't sew on Sunday. It was considered work and only necessary work could be done, "Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy." Sewing was a skill my father and mother thought we girls should learn and we did. I probably did more sewing than Anne or Bernie. Anne helped Dad in his office and Bernie practiced the piano. Anyway, I am glad I learned to sew. I was able to have more clothes, enjoyed sewing and made clothes for Susan until she became an excellent seamstress, better than her Mother. I have also made christening dresses for Cathie Calvert, Deanna Calvert and Monica Strom, Anne's and Dwight's first grandchild, daughter of Carol and Greg.

As I said, Dad's salary was supposed to be $3,000 a year. This was the end of the Depression and Grace Church, Indianapolis membership was mostly middle and lower income families. They were people hurt by the Depression. Many men had been out of work and so the church finances were limited. The church was behind in its payments on the building debt and they were unable to meet their budget. The church debt was a serious concern for my father and it was his major goal to correct that situation. He was able to get the debt refinanced and the church on a budget with regular payments, which made it possible to pay off the debt after a few years. Many weeks during the first few years we were there, my father received only a portion of the $60 per week he was supposed to receive. In fact, one week he received only $7. Fortunately, we had a house, the parsonage to live in and so the $7 was used for food. At that time we had meat from our farm, ham and sausage, and vegetables. In Lawrenceburg, Dad had a large garden at the edge of town but no place to garden in Indianapolis. I remember several times when someone would come to our house, tell my father a sad story about needing money, may have been true and may not have been, and he would take whatever money he had in his billfold and give it to them. I don't think we even had a bank account at that time. Anyway, every time Dad gave away money, more came in. Some couple would come to be married or some one would send him some money for his services at a funeral. As, I said, there was always food to eat even if we did not have money to spend.

After we moved to Indianapolis life changed somewhat. There were several reasons. We had moved to a big city. There were more potential dangers. My father had always been a very loving, attentive father, even though he was VERY strict and we were prohibited from doing many things that other teenagers were permitted to do. Now there were three teenagers - George 17, Anne 15, and Jim 13. I was 10 and Berneice was 7. Dad was very concerned about our safety and welfare, and the people with whom we associated. He was very restrictive about whom we were with and where we went, in fact, too much so. Since I have been a parent, I have a little more understanding of his attitude. I feel that he was unrealistic, over protective, and perhaps insecure. His father died when he was 12; his mother remarried when he was 14. I think from then on he felt he was loved less and this combined with his fears for our safety. We children became very important to him and he was less relaxed and less trusting of his children and other young people. (It just occurred to me now, that perhaps one reason my father was so restrictive about what we did, was because of my cousin who was raped and had a baby before she was married.) One really nice thing about living there was that the neighborhood movie theatre was across the street from the church. Soon after we moved in, the owner came over and talked to my father, told him he did not show movies that were questionable. He gave us a family pass! So, we got to go to the movies rather often. My parents still had to approve of what we were going to see. One time, Mother, Anne, Bernie and I went to see "A Star Is Born" with Janet Gaynor as the star. It was very sad. We all were crying and then we got to laughing because we were all crying. The usher, yes, there were ushers way back then, came over and said if we didn't quiet down we would have to leave. That was so embarrassing!

As I said earlier Jim and I had always been good buddies. While we were in high school, evidently we also looked a lot alike because many people asked if we were twins.

In seventh and eighth grades, girls were chosen to work in the school library one period a day and answer the office phone if the principal was out of his office. There was no school secretary in those days. Each day the period that a girl worked changed so the girls would miss each class only once a week. I was one of the library girls. I loved doing it!

Seventh and eighth grades were in the same building as one through six, but at one end of the building. We changed classes. The time to change classes was indicated by hand-rung chimes. Ringing the chimes was a privilege I enjoyed for two years. I really enjoyed the "extra" things I got to do while I was in Junior High School. In fact, I always enjoyed school.

I remember we had assembly programs, but I don't remember how often. My father was the speaker once and he talked about profanity. This is the definition Dad gave everyone, which I'll make reference to later: "Profanity is the effort of a weak mind to express itself forcefully." Naturally, since I am a PK, which stands for "preacher's kid", profanity was never used in our home. When I was growing up I never heard vulgar language or profanity. In fact profanity, or vulgar language, wasn't used by most people, especially in the presence of girls and women. I regret how common it is in use by many people now days. People that used "bad language" were not considered nice people.

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When we moved to Indianapolis, George and Anne went to Arsenal Technical High School, called Tech. Arsenal Technical was named that because some of the buildings were used as an arsenal during World War I. It was one of the largest high schools in the nation with an enrollment of around 8000, a 75-acre campus, and approximately 15 buildings plus a basketball gym and a football field. There were college-prep classes and vocational classes such as auto mechanics, printing, baking, and prep beauty school plus the academics needed for college entrance.

Jim, Bernie, and I attended Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School, #58, which was only four blocks from our house so we walked to school. The principal, George Fisher, was a member of our church. He won a soft spot in my heart the first day I went to school there. It was the middle of the fifth grade for me.

That first day in my new school, my teacher made a Math assignment and said emphatically, "No questions!" This class was ahead of the one from which I had come. When I found I had no idea how to do the Math problems, I raised my hand, thinking she would answer my questions, since it was my first day. But, she didn't. About this time Mr. Fisher, the principal, (the "pal" of that word, sure applied to him that day) came to the class just to see how I was getting along. By this time, being shy, not getting any answer from the teacher, wanting to do my work well, I was quietly shedding tears. Mr. Fisher came over to me and asked why I was crying. When I told him, he said, "Move over." I did, he sat down beside me, showed me how to do the Math, and won that special place in my heart. I don't remember ever having difficulty after that with my schoolwork except in high school Algebra and Latin. I even got a B in Physics!

I always loved school and high school was no exception. I thought the big school was exciting. A new high school opened the year I was a freshman, closer to our house, but my parents wanted us to all graduate from the same high school. Four of us graduated from Tech. Bernie didn't. I'll tell why later. By the time I was a freshman in high school, Jim was a junior and Anne and George were in college at Butler.

Some days, if Dad wasn't going to need the car, he let George drive taking Jim and me to high school and he and Anne to Butler. It cost less money than bus fare for four of us. All of us had morning classes - this meant no need for lunch money, another economy. We were able to have this arrangement because we didn't have any study halls in our schedules - just instruction time. When George drove us we left home at 7:00 A.M. I usually wasn't quite ready when it was time to leave and would comb my hair, maybe button my blouse, in the car and my brothers would tease me and say they would have to install a dressing table. Jim and I would arrive at Tech about 45 minutes or an hour before school began. Students who arrived early waited in a room in the main building.

I had a special friend, Dow Hickam, who was in several of the same classes as I. He and I would walk to classes together. One day he wasn't at school so the next day I asked him why. He said, "I went hunting." So I said, "Oh, you cut school!" He answered, "My parents gave me permission and Dad let me use his car." Then I said, "Did you have fun?" He answered, "No! I didn't get anything and I locked the keys in the car. I couldn't do anything about it so I waited till I got ready to go home. I had to break the little window to get in. Then I was stuck in the mud. A truck pulled me out and I thought the wheels were going to pull off of the car. I was really swearing." Then I quoted my dad about profanity and a weak mind and asked, "What did your Dad say when you got home with his car in such a mess?" He answered, "I can't tell you. My Dad has a weak mind too." I thought that was a clever answer. When he was in the Air Force during World War II, he wrote me a letter and said, "They call me a Flying Tiger (the name of a group of fighter pilots) but I'm really just a kitten." Although he returned from the war, I never saw him again because we moved to Chattanooga.

A few times George and Anne were late coming to Tech, so I would start walking and they would pick me up. One time I had walked the four miles and was one block from home, when they passed by, honked the horn, waved and went on. Jim was with them; he had waited.

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When I went to high school, I met Gail Blankenhorn. She lived across the street from the school and we lived four miles away, but at school we became friends. We even worked the same place after high school. After we moved to Chattanooga I didn't see Gail, but I wrote to Viola Palmas and Gail and would see Viola when I went back to Indianapolis to visit each summer. I would stay with Frieda and Bruce Grove. Frieda and I became good friends when she was the sponsor of our church youth group. She was nine years older than I, was married and had a baby boy. I sometimes "baby-sat" for her. She also had another boy and then a girl. I spent lots of time with her and her children.

Frieda Grove and I became very close friends and after we moved to Chattanooga, I would go to visit her every summer in Indianapolis. I loved those visits because of Frieda, her good cooking and her children. Her husband died in 1951. She was a widow with three children. It was very difficult for her and I stayed with her for a week or so after his death. She remarried a few years later. Her husband, Bruce, died of an embolism in the brain while she was out of town visiting her parents. A child friend of one of her children found him dead just inside the back door. Michael, the oldest child was very bright, went to college and got a degree in Chemistry was working in Peoria, Illinois, married and was a father when he died of a brain embolism, like his father.

I started college at Butler in the fall of 1942. I wasn't eager to go to college, but my parents wanted me to. A few weeks after school started, I developed a back problem. I couldn't stand up straight and was in pain. The doctor said it was Lumbago. (I thought that was an illness of old people.) Anyway, I was embarrassed going to college all bent over. So, decided to ask my parents if I could quit. They reluctantly agreed. I got a job in the Billing Department of Wilkinson Wholesale Lumber Company. I enjoyed working there and after a short time was put in charge of the other girls to keep track of how much work was done each day. One day, my boss was gone and I had to write a letter. I wrote the letter and put a copy on his desk. He was always at work early. When I came in the next morning, I found the letter on my desk with a note from him that said, "Bless your heart, honey child." I knew then I had done the right thing. (Now days, a man might get in trouble for writing such a note, but I appreciated it and he NEVER got "out of line" with me.) I am sure he was not that kind of man. I also ran the switchboard and reception desk when that person went to lunch or was ill. I enjoyed doing that job.

Our special friends in Indianapolis were the Sperry family, the Shirley family and the Brambletts. Sometimes one of these families would go with us to the farm. Anyway, when the Sperrys or Shirleys went with us, all of the children slept on the floor. The Sperry's had a son near my age. I liked him a lot, it was mutual "puppy love". I had one "date" with him when he came home on leave from the navy.

I consider Indianapolis my hometown because I really grew up there and lived there longer than any place until I was married and we moved here to Champaign, Illinois. I was 10 when we moved there and 18 when we moved to Chattanooga. In spite of Dad's extreme control and restrictions on us, I was happy and enjoyed living in Indianapolis. At least we got to see lots of movies and go roller skating almost every week. One of the boys from the church youth group would also go each week. We liked each other and always spent the evening skating together. His name was Ted Brockman. When I was visiting the Groves after I moved to Chattanooga, I would date him while I was in Indianapolis. Many changes in our family happened. George, Anne, Jim and I all graduated from high school, George and Anne from college. World War II began. George and Jim went into service. Anne got married, even though Dad did not want her to, and I had my first job.

When Dad decided to move to Chattanooga, I wanted to stay and work in Indianapolis. There was no way I could do that because I was only being paid $18.00 a week. AND my parents did not want me to stay.

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We moved to Chattanooga in the fall of 1943. The church was down town. It was a beautiful old, stone building named First Methodist. There were several very wealthy people in that church. The parsonage was on top of Missionary Ridge, several miles from the church. Many people had regular hired help working in their homes. A few days after we arrived, a woman from the church called to say she had a woman lined up to work for us. This was something new! But, Mother did hire someone to clean once a week. The people that lived there would have been shocked to know that when it was lunch time, Mother and the cleaning lady sat down for lunch together. The cleaning woman was black.

I got a temporary, six weeks, job with the department of Children and Family Services. It was my responsibility to read old, inactive case histories, write a brief summary for the files and destroy the original file. I found this interesting. While I was in high school, I had considered going into Social Work.

My next job was with Olan Mills Portrait Studios corporate offices. When I went to apply for the job and was waiting in the reception area for an interview, I saw very attractive, well-groomed, well-dressed, young women walk by, so I thought they wouldn't hire me. But, they did. I worked in the Accounting Office. I was first assigned to the Cost Accounting Department. They, of course, taught me what to do. I had a woman boss whose husband was one of the executives in the company. I did not especially like her. One day I leaned back in my chair pretending to smoke a cigarette and trying to impersonate her. She came in the office about that time but evidently didn't see me because I was never reprimanded.

I was moved to the Payroll Division after about a year. I especially enjoyed that work. This office was all girls; some were married to servicemen. There was a strong friendship in the office among most of us. My special friends that I met at Olan Mills were Betsy Hatfield, very pretty and married to a service man, Tina Rogers and Virginia Riggs, who became my very close friend. We did many things together. Virginia went with us to visit George and Anne in Maryland, went with me to Indianapolis to visit the Groves several times, came to visit me while I was in college and was an attendant in my wedding. We have stayed in touch through all these years. She married a man from Oklahoma she met after she was transferred by Olan Mills to the Texas office. Her husband died about twenty years ago and she moved back to Chattanooga where much of her family still lived. We still stay in touch and we have stopped to see her several times on our way to Florida to see Sue and her family.

Much of the residential area of Chattanooga was either on Lookout Mountain or Missionary Ridge. Each had a streetcar to the top as well as a road. When we arrived in Chattanooga and we were driving UP to the parsonage, it seemed SO steep and curving. Mother was frightened and said several times, "Oh, be careful, Wallace!" Soon after we moved there we were so accustomed to this road we traveled so frequently that none of us thought anything about it.

The streetcar for the ridge did not follow the road, but ran along the side of the ridge, sometimes behind the houses. The closest stop for our house was about one quarter of a block down the street. It stopped under the bridge on which the road was built. The streetcar conductors were very thoughtful, very caring and very accommodating. There was a small grocery at the foot of the ridge and sometimes homemakers would call the grocery, order what they needed and the grocer would put the things on the streetcar. Then the ladies or their "colored" help, on top the ridge would meet the streetcar and get their groceries. Of course not more than one bag. Also, if one of the regular, daily riders was not at the stop, the conductor would wait for a few seconds, sometimes ask those that were on the streetcar if anyone knew anything about that person. Since I was a regular rider and sometimes not there at the time the streetcar arrived at my stop, the conductor would pull up so he could see up the steps and wait for me to come down.

The Lookout Mountain transportation was an "incline" up the side of the mountain. We had friends who lived there. They had only one daughter and she was grown. One year they decided to go to the hotel downtown for Christmas dinner. Christmas Eve we had a terrible ice storm. All electricity was out on the mountain, so people had no lights and many had no heat nor a way to cook if their stove was electric. This was true for our friends. The incline couldn't operate, the road was ice-covered and much too slick to try to drive. They said their Christmas dinner was bacon and eggs cooked in the fireplace. Missionary Ridge was not as bad. We had electricity and Jim had gotten home to visit for Christmas just before it got terrible. Being that far south, it was fine in a couple of days.

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Well, Dad kept asking me about every six months, "Don't you want to go back to college, Marjorie?" So, in the spring of 1946, I decided I would. I'll have to admit one reason I decided to go was because I thought I might meet an eligible bachelor. I was right, too! The war was just over and of course many young men were returning from service. While the war was on, there were very few young men not in service. I did have a few dates with a young man, home on furlough, who belonged to the church, but he had to go back to active duty. I met another young man, friend of my friend Betsy from Olan Mills. He was all right, but not the type I wanted to marry. Anyway, I considered Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana and one other school I can't even remember. Because of the MANY servicemen that had returned and could go to school on the G.I. Bill, colleges were crowded and many had full enrollments. My Dad had been a student at Kentucky Wesleyan when they lived in Winchester and was the minister of North Main Street Methodist Church. He suggested Wesleyan. There was space and we could get "minister's child's scholarships". So, Bernie and I enrolled. I am sure glad we did!

The first weekend we were there I met a very nice veteran named Ray Connor. He was from Louisville, Kentucky. We started dating. He was the only one I dated the first semester. Then he transferred to the University of Kentucky in Lexington and came over to Winchester every weekend. He was getting serious and I was not. Again, something just didn't click. After a few weeks, I decided to tell him I wanted to date some other fellows. That very weekend when he came, he brought me a gift, a tablespoon in my sterling silver pattern. I really felt terrible about telling him what I had planned to tell him, but I did it. He was such a nice guy, but I thought it was best to break off than to let him think we were going to get married. I dated a few other fellows, but wasn't very interested in any of them. In fact, the guy I thought I would like turned out to be terrible. I couldn't trust him!

So, what should happen next! The college was on the quarter system then and new students arrived. Guess who? That's right, Wilson Zaring. At Wesleyan everyone ate their meals in the dining hall at the same time. Each student was assigned to a table; one of the girls was the "hostess". The first evening, I was sitting at one corner and he at the opposite end. For some reason he changed where he sat at each meal and I stayed in my regular place. Then on Friday evening he was sitting next to me. After dinner, as we were leaving, we began talking. He asked if I had any plans that evening. I said, "I guess not. I thought I had, but it didn't work out." SO, I was invited to go to the movie. That was April 26, 1947. This was the beginning of a fine romance! We went to the movies almost every time the feature changed. There was one blind girl on the campus. She liked to go to the movies, so sometimes we would take her with us. If it was necessary to see what was happening, I would whisper to her. Also, when we were seniors, she wanted to be in the college choir. We would go on tour every spring, so Betty Jean was my roommate.

I must tell why he came back to Wesleyan. He had been there for one quarter before going into the Marines. He planned to go to Transylvania when he came back, had gone there and registered but decided to drive the 20 miles to Winchester from Lexington and see Nancy Whaley. Which he did. Nancy and I lived in the same dormitory and as I came down stairs to go to dinner, I saw a Marine sitting playing the piano in the parlor. I thought to myself "wonder who has a date with the Marine?" Anyway, Wilson decided to come back to Wesleyan after his date with Nancy that night, but that was their only date. I have always been grateful to Nancy for bringing him back to Wesleyan. I think that God brought us together. After all there were so many reasons that we were unlikely to meet. I had postponed attending college. I had had other opportunities to get married. Wilson had not planned to return to Wesleyan. And there was my unlikelihood of going to college in Winchester. Anyway, it all was and is great!

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School was out for the summer in June. Wilson and I wrote to each other several times that summer. Wilson went to summer school. By this time my parents had moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin. I got a summer job in the office of Snap-On Tool Company. I worked there each of the following summers.

When school began in the fall, Wilson and I continued dating. He was getting serious, but I wasn't sure yet. We had a very short break-up and then decided we were right for each other. By the end of our junior year we had decided to get married. We dated three and half years. We couldn't get married sooner because we wouldn't have had any money to live on. My senior year in college was very happy. Although not officially engaged until April, 1950, we were making plans to get married.

I always went to church every Sunday, so after our second date, the next night after we met, I asked if he wanted to go to church with me the next morning. He said, "No." I asked him every Saturday evening and after a few weeks he said, "If I wake up in time." He soon began waking up in time every Sunday morning. In fact, he gave me my engagement ring at church before the service started on the anniversary of our first date.

That evening I called home to tell my parents. I knew my father would be hesitant so when he said, "When do you want to get married?" I said, "In June" knowing he would say wait awhile. This was part of my plan, I would agree to wait as he asked so that he would be more agreeable.

In June we graduated, my parents were there, I introduced Wilson to them. They were favorably impressed and there were no objections to our getting married.

Soon after I got home that summer, I asked if I could invite Wilson up for a weekend. They said, "Yes." So, I did and he came. I knew then they were in favor of our getting married. His visit turned out well in spite of one event. We were going to go some place and Dad asked Wilson to back the car out of the garage. It was a narrow driveway with a metal gate across it at the edge of the back yard. As he was backing up, he scraped the side of the car on the gate. I don't think it was scratched very much, but Dad was always very particular about the care of his car. His reaction to this situation was "nothing". I knew then he was well pleased with my fiancé. Also, while he was there, he and I were going to go to Milwaukee. The day had been very hot but about the time we were going to leave, the wind changed and began blowing in off the lake. The temperature dropped about 40 degrees and Wilson had to borrow a light topcoat from Dad.

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We were married in the First Methodist Church of Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 25, 1950 at 7:00 P.M. Bernie was Maid of Honor and Jim was Best Man. An open invitation was given to the church members in addition to the invitations sent to special friends and relatives. The church was almost full. We had a reception with wedding cake, punch and coffee in the church Fellowship Hall. The cake was one of our wedding presents from a bakery in Kenosha. Dad knew the people that owned the bakery. Frieda Grove, Virginia Riggs and Jean Reichel were my bride's maids. George was one of the ushers and so was Bob Reichel, Jean's husband. Anne took care of the guest book. We had harp music during the reception. My Dad gave me away and Rev. Allen, his District Superintendent, performed the wedding ceremony. George's and Anne's little girl, Cathie, was almost three and when my parents were ushered out of the church she got between them took their hands and walked out with them. Everyone thought that was very cute. Of course, Wilson and I did not see this happen as we had already gone to the reception area.

Our honeymoon was a trip to Chicago. Wilson's parents had given us a car for our wedding present, but Wilson did not want to drive in a strange city, so we took the train. This train was a very fast one running between Milwaukee and Chicago. Jim and Virginia took us to the train station. She still had on her formal. Jim was helping us with our luggage and the train took off. He was still on and Virginia was stranded on the platform alone, in a formal, in a strange city and with no money. She said she knew Jim would come back, so she just sat down and waited. He got off at the next station and took a train back to Kenosha.

The Chicago Fair was going on so we decided to go. I put on a new yellow linen dress that I had made, a wide brimmed black straw hat (Yes a hat! Remember that was more than fifty years ago) and black high-heeled shoes. We walked the length of the area deciding which shows we wanted to see. As we walked back we stopped to see the different shows. The last one we planned to see was a "Water Fantasy" with water ski performers. We had just gotten seated when the sky turned black and the rain began pouring down! A few people found refuge in the little area that was roofed where the turnstile was. They did not move! We finally got out and went to the closest exit. A policeman there said we couldn't get a taxi at that gate but would have to go back to the main gate. So we started that way. By this time my black straw hat had collapsed down around my face and black dye was running down my cheeks. I took the hat off and threw it in a waste paper container. When we got to the main gate, people were dashing out in all directions trying to get a cab. A supervisor came and told everyone to line up, which we did. While waiting for a cab, we saw a woman with a baby in a buggy, pick up the baby and pour water out of the buggy. By this time everything was funny! One woman kept trying to break into the line of people waiting for a taxi and everyone just stood their ground. When a man was putting his wife and several children in a cab, this woman tried to get in, too. The man just held the car door keeping her out and letting his family get in. When he bent to get in, this woman kicked him in the seat! Everyone was shocked! People said, "Did you see that?" I guess she was embarrassed because she left. When we finally got a cab, the rain had stopped. We were totally soaked! At the Stevens Hotel, where we were staying, people did not realize it had rained and we were asked if we had fallen into the lake. Two days later when we were going back to Kenosha our clothes were still damp even though we had wrung them out as much as we could. Wilson's coat was especially damp.

We stayed one night in Kenosha and packed our car with the many wedding gifts we had received and started for Lexington, Kentucky. I had never learned to drive because when I was old enough the war was on and gasoline was rationed. There wasn't enough gas to waste letting me learn to drive. Then I was in college cars weren't allowed except for ministerial students that were preaching at small churches. Besides, I couldn't afford one. Mother had said to me when I told her that Wilson's parents were giving us a car, "Have him teach you to drive before the honeymoon is over." Of course, she meant, soon, while Wilson was sweet and patient. We had been driving for several hours and I asked Wilson to let me drive. (I had driven a few times with my Dad but I had little experience and no license.) He was agreeable. I drove for a while with him as the navigator. We were to turn left; I remember this well. I don't know if he had not told me early enough or thought I knew to turn, but when he said, "Turn left!" I made the turn, but I almost didn't make it. He was very calm, didn't complain, but I decided not to drive any more on the way to Lexington.

Wilson had found an apartment before he left Lexington, where he was in Graduate School at the University of Kentucky. It was the entire second floor, except one room, in an older, but nice brick house. The owner lived downstairs. I thought it was fine! The strange thing is, shortly before we were married, I had dreamed about the apartment we were going to live in and this was very similar to what I had dreamed. We had a living room, bedroom, bath and kitchen. All of the rooms were large.

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I had been hired, by mail, during the summer, to teach a first grade class in a county school within the residential part of Lexington. I had one interview for a position in Winchester before I went home for the summer and was offered a position, but this one at Bryan Station School was better. I would have had to drive twenty miles each way if I had taught in Winchester. Oh, yes, Wilson taught me to drive right away. When I first went to my classroom there was no teacher's desk. That was soon corrected. The first day of school I had 38 little students! Twenty-five is considered a large class these days. Since I had ALWAYS loved children, I was excited. There were several mothers who came to the classroom the first day and asked if there was anything I would like them to do. WHAT A WONDERFUL GROUP OF MOTHERS! I hardly knew what to say, but when convinced that they meant ANYTHING, I said it would be nice if the reading group chairs were painted in the primary colors and drapes at the windows with a child's interest design would also be nice. Within a few days all of these things were done, including painting the old piano. I loved teaching, I loved the children and I loved their mothers! There are a few children I still remember and stayed in touch with until they were grown. I'll tell you about those that stick in my mind. Jo Ellen Pike was a precocious, darling little girl. Her mother was room-mother. We became friends beyond the classroom.

One day I needed to fill out a form about Jo Ellen that asked for the name of her father. I didn't know it and did not want to go to the office to look in the file, so I asked her, "What is your Daddy's name?" She said, "I don't know." Then I said, "Well, what does your Mother call your Daddy." Her answer, "Well, she calls him, Honey and Sweetheart and Darling." I enjoyed telling her Mother about that and I still had to go to the office to find his name. An outstanding boy was Herman Clayton Robinson III, called Rob. He was smart and well behaved. He was the oldest of three boys. His Mother and I also became friends and Wilson and I were invited to their house for dinner several times. She had two more boys while we lived in Lexington. Anna Belle Morberly was another little girl that was special. Miss Personality. She was sooo cute and affectionate. She always tried to please me. Those two little girls Jo Ellen and Anna Belle were so sweet and so nice. I would take them home with me after school sometimes.

Wayne Goodwin was another good, sweet little boy. Let me tell my story about him. One day the class had been a little noisy. Now days it would be considered a quiet or normal day. Anyway, I thought I might be able to let them figure out "why". So, I pulled up one of the little reading group chairs in front of the class and said, "Boys and girls, this hasn't been a very good day, has it? Mrs. Zaring has been cross. Does anyone know why I've been cross?" Wayne put his hand up and I thought he really would know why, since he was well behaved and bright, so I said, "Yes, Wayne, why have I been so cross?" His answer, "It's the old devil in you." It was all I could do not to laugh, but I still hoped to get my point over so I said, "Why do you think the old devil is in me today?" I got the answer then that I had hoped for. He said, "We put him in you." Believe it or not they understood and improved. Then there was Graham Carl Watkins! His Mother brought him to school every day, took off his coat, hung it up, took him to his seat and kissed him good-bye. Every afternoon she would be there to do things in reverse order. She was still doing that when he was in the third grade. I know because I was his teacher again. He, too, was very bright and artistically talented. I entered one of his pictures, done entirely by himself, in a countywide children's art contest. He won a Blue Ribbon. He had too much mothering and that was a disadvantage later on. Even as a child, it was a disadvantage. He was not well accepted by the other children, somewhat of a "loner". He became a writer. I saw one of his books. It was not one I recommend.

I was moved to the third grade, my second year of teaching. The first grade teacher returned from maternity leave. Then the next year almost every child I had in first grade was in my third grade class, I am happy to say, because the parents made requests that they be placed there. This was an even better year! I had one new boy that was sooo cute! His name was Ben Bartlett. He was small for his age, but smart and had lots of personality. He ate as much food as a man! Sometimes he would eat three hot dogs plus other things and a dessert. I knew the children, I knew the parents. They were still interested, kind and helpful. Every time I wanted to take the class on a field trip or do something a little special, these parents were there to help for each event.

The only unusual thing I remember about that year was that when it was time to give the children their immunizations shots, (they were given at school back then) only one boy returned his "slip" saying they would take him to their private doctor. His father managed one of the big horse farms around Lexington. All the other children had their shots and in the afternoon were not feeling real good. Their arms were tender. When it was time to go home, the children were putting on their coats and lining up to go to the buses. This boy deliberately hit several other children on their sore arms. A few times earlier in the day I thought it was accidental, but this time I witnessed his actions. I reached out and took hold of the back of his coat and pulled him out of line. He started yelling, "You're hurting me, you're killing me." I was very irritated with his behavior and sympathetic toward the others. I said, "I intended to hurt you! That is what you have been doing to the other children, hurting them all afternoon!" And I took the class to the buses. About every six weeks each teacher had bus duty. That meant we had to be AT SCHOOL at 7:00 A.M. and stay until 4:00 P.M. as a team of three.

The next morning when I was dusting the windowsills, I looked out and saw this boy and his mother coming toward the building. I expected to get bawled out. I was wrong. They came in and the mother said, "I understand, Eddie didn't behave very well at school yesterday." I confirmed her statement. Then she said, "I brought him to school today to make sure he apologizes to you and the children!" What a surprise!! She stayed until he had apologized. It was an unusually great group of parents! This was the last year I taught at Bryan Station. I did some other non-curricular things while I was at that school. I had a doll and toy show. Each child brought their favorite one and we displayed them one afternoon, invited parents and the other primary classes. We had a mother's luncheon on the Friday before Mother's Day. Each child brought an assigned food. I was careful to assign the main menu items to the most responsible children. I stopped teaching at the end of the third year. I'll brag a little to say each year I taught, my classes showed the most achievement on test scores at the end of the school year compared with the ones at the beginning of each year.

All teachers had to teach their own music and art. They also had to eat lunch with their classes. I didn't get much time to eat because by the time I supervised all 36 children through the CAFETERIA line, saying, "Be sure you get your milk" and "You can't have more than one dessert" or some such thing, there was little time for my lunch.

One day at school, a teacher tripped on the doormat as she came into the building after recess. She fell forward and hit her chin on the bottom step of the stairway. The fall broke her jaw in three places. I took care of her until her husband came to take her to the doctor. Of course she was out of school for several weeks and had to be on a liquid diet that she could suck through a straw.

My best friend at Bryan Station, before I met Genny, was Maude Pollitt. She was married to Bob Noel on July 13, 1951. Bob worked as an "out of store" salesman for Sears. He was gone many evenings making sales and Wilson was at the university working toward his advanced degree. Maude and I spent many evenings together, especially after the birth of their first baby Susan and their second daughter, Melinda. We had many happy times together. Sometimes we included Wilson and Bob and all had dinner together. We have continued our friendship through the years and in July, 2002 we went to Lexington for their 50th wedding anniversary.

I stayed in touch with the mothers of Jo Ellen, Anna Belle, Rob and Graham Carl after we moved to Champaign. They sent me an invitation to graduation. By this time we had David and Susan. We all drove to Lexington and I went to graduation. There were about 18 still together. Anyway, five of "my children" received scholarships to college, one to Harvard Medical School and one to M.I.T. I was so thrilled and excited! Then after graduation there was a party at the Pike's house so I could be with my students. Graham Carl won the scholarship to M.I.T. His mother would not let him accept it because he would have to leave home. So, he attended the University of Kentucky and lived at home. Somewhere along the line, he became a "rebel rouser", with his picture in the paper for misconduct. Perhaps, it was because he was frustrated not being allowed to accept the scholarship.

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We lived in our first apartment one year and decided to find something with lower rent. That first year we were really short on money. We ate navy beans for supper the last day of some months. Wilson's parents realized this. They would come to see us about every three months. Before they left they would slip some money under a book or a table scarf for us to find. After the first time, as soon as they left, we would look for the money. It was a great help to us. My parents also sent us some money occasionally, but since I was one of five children there was not as much to share. I remember when I told my father that Wilson's parents were giving us their car for a wedding present. He said, "Isn't that nice! I wish your Mother and I could do that much but with raising five children we aren't able." Wilson was an only child. However, he had NONE of the characteristics most people think only children have. He is unselfish and kind.

Our second apartment was smaller but in some ways nicer. It was a little less expensive. The rooms were smaller but there was a dining room and a small kitchen. Two things happened there that stand out in my mind.

One evening we had invited a college friend over for dinner. I hurried home from school and baked a chocolate pie for dessert and sat it on the windowsill to cool. When I went to serve the pie, I had to reach over the sink to get it. The first time I reached for it, it was stuck. So, I gave a little harder "lift". It came loose, hit me on the chest and fell to the floor. Wilson and our friend were sitting in the dining room and they said they heard me say "Ohoooo! Ohooooo!" What a mess! There was no dessert that night.

There were two apartments on the second floor of that house. The other couple had a baby boy soon after we moved there. One evening I was taking a bath and heard someone pounding on the door. Wilson was sitting in the living room studying. He opened the door and there she stood, crying with her baby in her arms. She screamed, "Where's Marj?" Wilson told her I was taking a bath. She ran back to the bathroom. I had just stepped out of the tub. She handed me her baby and said. "Something's wrong with my baby!" He was turning blue, his back arched and he was choking. I took him, held him by his feet and gave him a whack on his back. Out came some water and he began to cry. I was standing there naked, she had on just a slip, so Wilson brought me a robe and we went back in the living room. The baby seemed all right, but she wanted to call the doctor. So she went to her apartment put some clothes on and called her doctor, leaving the baby with us. That is when I got nervous. I sat down with the baby across my knees on his stomach and my knees began to really shake! I don't know why her husband was not at home at the time.

After two years we knew we could not afford to live in town, even though I was teaching, making the large salary of $2600 a year. Wilson was a Teaching Assistant. I don't remember how much he was paid. We moved into Student Housing. It cost only a dollar a day but we had a kerosene stove in the living room to heat the apartment and one in the kitchen for cooking. Soon we were able to buy an old, used, bottled gas stove for cooking. It was much better than kerosene, even though the oven thermostat didn't work. I had a variety of small items I used to prop the oven door open a little, a little more or a lot. I also purchased an oven thermometer to know what temperature I could have with which propping item.

A couple we had known at Wesleyan lived in an apartment facing ours. They had a baby. She had never been around babies, so the first week after she was home, I would bathe the baby each morning and spend time with her.

Soon after we moved into our apartment, a new couple moved into the one next to us. They were "newly-weds", Polly and Bob Dickson. We became very close friends and frequently put our suppers together. We remained friends after we moved to Champaign. They had their first baby, a boy, born very premature, about the same time we had David. They came to visit us when the boys were almost one year old. Bobby was slow developing because of being a "preemie". We have lost contact with them. I think they live in Sarasota, Florida and I tried to contact them once when we visited George and Anne.

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A new phase of our lives was beginning. We had decided it was about time to start our family. But for some reason, we didn't get started. My doctor had suggested I stop teaching because of the "strain". He sure didn't have any idea what a "strain" it is now. Wilson and I each had thorough physical examinations but no problem was discovered. We both took some kind of "tonic" the doctor thought might help.

Instead of teaching, I got a job in the Testing & Counseling office at the University of Kentucky. Every freshman student had to take a group of tests that were given at the beginning of each semester to large groups at a time. Then they were graded by machine and a printout of the results was made. I helped the Director administer these tests. The grading of the tests was then my responsibility, with the help of one assistant. Also, every student that was making failing grades was required to come to the office, assigned a counselor and given more tests for a deeper study of their lack of success. These tests I handled alone, and gave the results to the assigned counselor.

At the end of the first year in this job, the Director asked me if I would like to be a counselor. This took me by surprise. I told him I had not had the training, so he said he would give me a crash course during the summer. I would then move to a private office, be assigned students and do counseling. I had never thought of working with college age students, but decided I would try it. I enjoyed the counseling and decided to take more classes to try and get a Master's Degree in Counseling and Psychology. I had a high success rate getting my students off probation. (This was the goal for probationary students.) In fact, more of my students succeeded than any of the other counselors, including the Head of the Department.

During my first year working at the university, I had a miscarriage. It was very sad for us because we wanted a baby. We did not succeed any time that year, so decided to investigate adoption. When we talked to the adoption agency, they discouraged us from trying to adopt then because we would be moving in a few more months. Wilson was finishing his graduate work.

Wilson finished his Ph.D. in June, 1955. My contribution to this achievement was to hand write, with a "stick" pen and India ink, all of the math symbols on four copies of his dissertation. The typewriters in those days did not have math symbols on the keyboard. It was slow, time consuming, tiring, meticulous work. I was not finished with my part of the work when the time set to turn it in arrived. I was so frustrated and tired that I laid down on the bed and cried. (I have always cried easily.) Wilson got an extension of time. I made that! At his graduation I think I was as proud of him as his parents! Wilson had many offers for jobs, one in industry paying twice what academic positions paid, but he wanted to teach and we came to the University of Illinois on the great salary of $4200 for nine months. At that time the University of Kentucky had a policy of not hiring their graduates until they had five years experience some place else. We planned to stay at Illinois five years and then hoped to return to Kentucky.

My mother had a severe heart attack that spring. The doctors had not expected her to live. She had only been home a few weeks when Wilson graduated. Dad had hired a lady to come to the house to help with the housework and care for Mother. Wilson's position did not begin until September, 1955. We had no jobs for the summer, so we went to my parents in Oil City, Pennsylvania and lived with them. I did the housework, laundry, cooking and taking care of Mother. Wilson helped Dad refinish antiques during that summer. By the time we were to leave for Illinois, Mother had improved enough she could come down stairs and do a little cooking. They hired someone to do the cleaning. She surprised everyone with her recovery! She was 62 at that time and lived to be 91!

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Wilson's parents drove to Champaign with us to look for a place to live shortly before we moved. We had met Jeanette Chumbly Struchen in Oil City. She and her husband were both Methodist ministers. When she learned we were moving to Champaign, she told us her father was a realtor and could help us find a place to live. We didn't want to bother him but after looking and looking, we went to see him. He made one phone call plus sending us to see two places that we did not want. So, we went to the place he had called and found a very good apartment. The apartment was in Urbana in an area called Fairlawn Village. A few days later, we arrived, pulling a trailer with a little furniture we had bought at Calvert and Yoxthimer Appliance store in Harrison, Ohio and all our wedding gifts.

I was reading the paper that evening and saw that teachers were still needed in Champaign. I had not planned to work, but since we had no baby, decided to have an interview. The interview was on Friday and on Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, I started teaching fourth grade at Columbia Elementary School. Again, I had a good class. I had a Mother's Day luncheon. Each child was asked to bring one item of food. I was careful to assign foods that would be brought unopened if I did not know much about the home. That day for morning recess we took a walk because all the children came "dressed up" for the luncheon. The children and the mothers enjoyed it. This school was located in the lower socio-economic area of Champaign and this was a new activity for this group.

Early in the fall there was a teachers' meeting after school. It began raining very hard during the afternoon. When it was time to go home, I was supposed to pick up Wilson at the Math Building, we had only one car, and I had to go under the railroad to get to Urbana. When I got to the underpass, it was filled with water. There was a car stalled in the water, so I decided not to try to go through. I left our car in a No Parking space, got on the bus, rode to the university, went to Wilson's office and he was gone. So I got another bus going back to where I had left our car and started going south until I found an underpass that was passable. When I got home our street was flooded so badly I couldn't drive down it to our apartment. In fact there were some people in a rowboat going down the street. I parked our car at the closest intersection, happened to have boots in the trunk, put them on and waded home. When I got there Wilson had just taken a shower. He had walked home and was soaked! When I walked in, he surprised me by saying, "Let's go to a movie." We waded back to our car, went downtown Champaign, saw a movie and drove back to the intersection where I had parked the car earlier. It was a good thing we had gone to the movie because by the time we returned, the place I had parked before was now flooded and our car would have been ruined. The next day the water had drained out and we were able to go to school in the regular way.

One day, early in the school year, one of the cutest, sweetest, little girls said to me, "Do you have any children?" I answered, "No, I haven't." She asked in a wondering way, "Don't you want any?" I said, "Yes, I do." Her sweet little face looked at me and she said, "I'll pray for you!" A few months later, I WAS pregnant. I decided to tell the class because I had always played games with them during recess, running and jumping rope, I didn't want to take a chance on having a problem or losing the baby. Anyway, when I told the class I was going to have a baby and not play games anymore, Jeanne Kelsey's eyes lit up, she smiled broadly, came up and gave me a hug and said, "I told you I would pray for you!" So, her prayers and mine were answered! She also asked me, "Some day, could I be your baby-sitter?'

There were three teachers at that school that got pregnant that year. One may have been pregnant when school started, I don't remember. In the spring of 1956, the Elementary Supervisor came to the school for a visit. When she saw that this teacher was pregnant, she said to her, "Friday is your last day to teach!" Back then a woman was not allowed to teach if she was obviously pregnant. My best teacher friend was also pregnant and she and I both wondered if Mrs. Greenman would make another visit to school later on and say we both were dismissed. Fortunately, that didn't happen! I was able to wear regular clothes until the last two weeks of the school year and then maternity dresses that were expandable and looked like a regular dress. After that I wore the two-piece style maternity dresses. I made several of them.

Soon after we moved to Urbana, I was invited to join Junior Woman's Club. Later I was president for two years when I was pregnant with Susan. I met many nice young women in the club and established several friendships, which still exit. We do things socially as couples.

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A new chapter in my life! I was going to have a baby. My doctor said, "No traveling!" So, I did not go anywhere out of town until about late August, when Wilson's parents came for a visit and we drove 18 miles to Rantoul to eat dinner. Everything went fine, I felt good and I was sooo happy. The last two months before David was born, I could not sleep well, so in the wee morning hours for something to do, I washed and IRONED all the baby clothes including six dozen diapers. During this time, we decided to buy a house with a Veteran's Loan, when you did not have to have much down payment. We had a pre-cut National Home erected in Champaign. One month before David was born, we moved into our new house!

The day we were to move, we thought it would take all morning for the movers to load the furniture but it only took about two hours. Wilson was at the university, planning to come home at noon. I had the keys to the new house, but no car. So the movers said I could ride in the truck with them. And, I did. What an experience! There I was, eight months pregnant, riding in a big moving van with two men I didn't know. It was a rough ride and I was a little afraid it might start my labor. We arrived safely at our new house.

Our best friends Diane and Rogers Brackmann were also expecting a baby. She was the other teacher at Columbia School who was pregnant. They also bought a National Home just a few blocks from ours and she and I would take our boys in their strollers and go for walks many afternoons when the weather was good. We were all settled into our new home, looking forward to the birth of our baby, when we got a call that Wilson's father had died of a heart attack. It was October 6, 1956. He had his first heart problem earlier that year. Because it was so near time for our baby to be born, we decided I should not go to Kentucky for the funeral. I stayed with our friends the Lippis. One of Dad Zaring's friends told Wilson, "Grandpa Zaring was really looking forward to that baby." It is sad he did not live to see David and Susan.

David Wilson was born the evening of October 22, 1956 weighing 7 pounds and 3 ounces, two days earlier than expected. I had a long labor, 22 hours, so I was glad when it was over. It took so long because David was lying in a transverse position. Dr. Freeman delivered him with special forceps. His head was shaped funny, but within a few days that was fine. We named him "David" because we liked the name and because the meaning is "Gift from God." Wilson is, of course, for his father and grandfather Zaring.

While I was in the hospital, my room was near the nurse's station and the elevators, so I didn't get much sleep. Our Pediatrician, Dr. Frank Lippi, was a friend because his wife Gail and I had gone to high school together. Frank said we were very fortunate to have such a skilled doctor. Not many doctors would have been able to deliver a live baby that was in that position. One week later when we were getting ready to come home from the hospital, Dr. Lippi said, "You'll probably be out of bed every few hours to see if he is alive." The first night home, I was sound asleep when the baby woke and cried. I didn't even hear him. He was hungry and I was nursing him, so Wilson gave me a nudge, I thought he wanted me to move over, and I did. He had to tell me the baby was crying and really wake me up. Bernie came up to help me for a week. We were so happy to have this baby boy! We spent most of our time with him when he was awake. All my family was happy for us! They all knew how much we wanted a family. We didn't think any one was reliable enough to "baby-sit", plus we didn't have enough money to pay sitters.

When I went to my first Junior Woman's Club, Wilson took care of David while I was gone. When I came home he was sitting in the rocking chair watching TV or reading with David asleep in his arms. That was the beginning of his regular rocking at bedtime. Of course we enjoyed rocking him but sometimes it was not convenient. He got rocked anyway.

When David was about six weeks old and had gotten into a schedule, we decided to invite the Head of the Math Department and his wife over for dinner. Wouldn't you know that was the evening he was fussy. We each took turns holding the baby and got through dinner. When David was a baby, we were SO thrilled to have him. If he was awake, one of us was holding him or playing with him. It probably wasn't the best thing to do because until he was about two or three he did not play by himself. He wanted one of us to be there. However, he was happy with playmates. One was a little girl two houses away. The winter he was three, we had a lot of snow and then ice on top of the snow. The children would crawl from one house to the other, one day at our house and the next day at her house. Dave had a good disposition, rarely got angry, and was friendly with everyone. One day I dressed him up in special clothes Aunt Mary had sent him. We went shopping in a department store downtown. One of the clerks saw him. She admired him and the way he was dressed and asked to take him for the buyer to see. I said, "Yes". He didn't hesitate and went with her. Now parents have to be so cautious!

Beginning in the spring, I would let Jeanne Kelsey, the little girl from the fourth grade class, come over and take David for walks in the stroller. As she got older and David was no longer a baby, she was our baby-sitter on a few occasions and continued to be our sitter after she was out of high school, had a job and her own car. The only other sitters we had were senior student nurses from Burnham Hospital (where our babies were born) School of Nursing. There were two that would sit whenever we needed someone. They were great. One became the office nurse for the surgeon that I had when my gall bladder was removed. Later she became his wife after the death of his first wife. We felt comfortable having the student nurses, although we never went out very much. Two other sitters we had during the next twelve years, when the children were older, were Jeannie Herrin and Judy Garinger. All our sitters were reliable and dependable. Those were happy years! When he was two months old, David was baptized in New Castle, Pennsylvania where my father had a church. I had tried to plan his feeding so that he would not be fussy, but the baptism was later in the service than I had thought it would be and he was getting hungry. I started giving him his bottle but had to take it away from him to go to the altar for the baptism and he cried. Some of the church people said they were glad to hear the preacher's grandchild cry. But, of course, I wasn't glad. Mary Seaton was David's Godmother. She gave him his first tricycle and other nice things. Dave had several special birthday parties. One was a bowling party and then refreshments at home with a cake that looked like a bowling alley. One party was a baseball game theme and the cake like a baseball field. I enjoyed planning the parties and making the cakes.

I was elected president of Junior Woman's Club, met lots of nice young women. Two of those young women are still special friends and we enjoy times together as couples. Joan Amacher and her family lived a few blocks from us. One afternoon when I took David for a walk, I stopped at her house. They had two boys, one about four and one about two. We sat and talked for a while and she invited us to stay for dinner. I called Wilson and that evening was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. They later had a daughter who became Sue's friend. Another friend I met through Junior Woman's Club was Fran Haughey. She had a boy and later two more, one the age of David and one the age of Susan. My friendship with Fran was not as close then as it has become in the last five years.

In the fall of 1957, Wilson and I became members of the International Hospitality Committee that arranged for host families for foreign students who wished to learn about American life and culture. Our first student was Hideaki Kawabe from Japan. Dave was just a toddler and they got along well. We had several Japanese students and one from each of the following countries, China, Russia, Turkey and India. We enjoyed all of them, especially the Japanese. The most interesting student was the Russian. He was about our age and had a wife and two little girls back home in Russia. He could barely talk about them without crying. He had managed a collective farm and was here to learn about farm operations here. He was very nice, but we have not heard from him since he left. We feel that the foreign students greatly enriched our life. We tried to have them visit our home once a month. Our most outstanding foreign student was Yuki Tobinaga. She was not a college student. One day Wilson called and asked "Do you know any family who would take an eleven year old Japanese girl to live with them for one semester? Wilson had written a textbook with a Japanese professor at the university, who was seeking a family for his niece. My answer was, "Why don't we take her?" Dave was in college and Sue was in high school so we had an extra room, so we did.

A few weeks later she arrived with her parents and uncle. We sat and talked for a while. It was very formal. I asked about how I should discipline her. "Just as you would your own daughter", was the answer. I didn't need to ask that question. She never needed discipline, only guidance. We talked about taking her to church since they were not Christians. They agreed with that, too. When her parents left our house, they did not embrace Yuki. They bowed and she bowed and that was the "good-by". The next morning when it was time to get up, I went in to wake her. She said, "I'm sick." I said, "I'm sorry. Let me take your temperature and then I'll know more about what to do." Her temperature was normal. I told her I thought she was anxious about going to school. That I would take her to school, explain she wasn't feeling well and if she became ill the school secretary could call me and I would come and get her. There was no call and she came home on the school bus with Sue.

Yuki was a lovely child. When we began getting ready for Christmas and our trip to Louisville for the family "get together", she was really in the "spirit". She had purchased gifts for each of us. In those years, we would wear long dresses for dinner. So, I made a dress for Yuki. Everyone in my family liked her!

Her aunt came to get her the day she was to fly back to Japan. We all stood in the front hallway hugging and kissing and crying. Quite different than when her parents left her here. We had Americanized her and Zaringnized her, too.

The next day the phone rang. When I answered there was a soft voice. This was the conversation: "Mrs. Zaring?" "Yes. This is Mrs. Zaring." "This is Yuki's mother. She is so homesick for you, I told her we would call so you could talk to her." What a pleasant surprise!

Yuki came back to the Unread States to go to college and is employed in California. She came to Sue's wedding and we are in contact every Christmas. Having Yuki with us was a wonderful experience for all of us.

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When David was about sixteen months old, I got pregnant again. A few weeks later my father had a heart attack and so I wanted to go see him. I asked my doctor, knowing how he felt about traveling. Following his instructions to stop every two hours to walk and rest, we went to Pennsylvania where my parents were living then. Sadly, we lost that baby the day after we arrived at my parents' house. My doctor said I might have lost it anyway even if I had not taken the trip. He also said it probably was not a healthy fetus. That sometimes "it's nature's way."

Three months after my second miscarriage, David was almost two years old, I got pregnant again. And again we were so happy!! While I was obviously pregnant with Susan, I would leave David in the nursery at church while we went to the worship service. For several weeks I saw another woman taking her son. She looked about as pregnant as I did. David and her son were both two years old. We began to talk to each other. Soon, we became friends. Marilyn and Lynn DeLand were expecting their second baby, too. Robert Deland was born a few weeks after Sue. Our families became very good friends and still are friends. However, Lynn is no longer living. We visited back and forth with our children to each other's house. The DeLands had a third child, Janet. I love all three of the DeLand offspring. Janet is one of the nicest young women I have ever known. Sue and Robert would play together especially from age three on. Sue would talk him into playing "dress-up" with her. She even talked him into wearing one of her plastic wigs. I asked her how she did that and she said, "I told him they were boy's wigs." I think she could have talked him into almost anything. They remained friends as teenagers, college students and even the first few years after Sue was married. Since Sue moved to Texas and then Florida they no longer have the opportunity to visit. We have some cute pictures of them "dressed up". The DeLands moved to Mascouta, Illinois a few years after Janet was born. She came back to Champaign to attend the University of Illinois. All three of the DeLand children graduated here. Janet lived with us one summer while she was attending graduate school. About six years ago she and her husband moved to Monticello, Illinois and after her father retired, Marilyn and Lynn moved to Monticello, too.

People would ask me what I wanted, a boy or a girl? My answer, "it doesn't matter as long as it is a healthy baby. BUT, if I could choose, I would CHOOSE a girl with brown eyes and curly hair." Guess my prayers were answered again, because on June 29, 1959 in the morning about 7:00, Susan Claire was born weighing 6 pounds and 12 ounces and healthy. Her first name is for Grandmother Zaring and her middle name is for Grandfather Calvert. She was supposed to be born June 14. The first week of waiting, I was impatient but the second week, I thought impatience won't help and just relaxed. She was just exactly what I wanted! She was a very good baby and was content in her playpen with her toys and watching everything going on around her. Wilson's Mother came a few days earlier to stay with David while I was in the hospital. After, I came home she went back to Kentucky and Bernie came to stay a week to help. Susan was not given quite as much attention as Dave. It is impossible to give the second one as much time since there is an older sibling to be cared for. Fortunately she was very good at entertaining herself. She had a "play kitchen" and would play by herself for much of the time or with Cindy from across the street. I would be working in the kitchen and she would "invite" me to a "Tea Party." I would go in for a little while and then go back to work. Susan loved to have birthday parties when she began going to school. She and I would plan special parties, like "Let's Play Dress Up." Or when the Beatles were popular, we planned a Beatles theme party. We gave a record to each child and the cake was decorated with wavy strips of color and miniature band player figures on it.

Susan enjoyed getting dressed up for Halloween very much. I would make her costumes. She was a ballerina once and was so disappointed because it was so cold she had to wear a coat. Once she was an Indian Princess. She said her best costume was when she was the "Flying Nun", a character in a TV series. When she went to a house, whoever answered the door would call to other people, "Look, the Flying Nun has landed." Sometimes Sue would not decide what character she wanted to be until the day before and I would be up most of the night making the costume. I didn't mind. In fact, I probably had as much fun making the costumes as she did wearing them.

We felt life was about perfect! We had a house, a son, a daughter and each other. Those were really happy days even though we didn't have much money. A few months before Sue was two, we traded our first National Home for a second one that was larger and in another neighborhood. Shirley and Bob Walters, the people across the street also had a little girl. She was exactly one week younger than Sue. We became very close friends and we still are. Shirley and I would have one birthday party together for our girls because we both would be inviting the same neighborhood children. It is surprising we ever became close friends because soon after we moved into our house, Dave was outside playing and the Walter's dog, a basset hound, came into our yard. Shirley came to get it and Dave said, "My Daddy said he wished you would keep your dog in your own yard."

When Susan and Cindy were five, the Walters had twin boys. Bob was a fireman and had to be gone from home 24 hours every third day. So, I would stay over night with Shirley to help take care of the boys. We were like one big family. In fact Shirley went back to work for a while when the boys, Robert TODD and Robert GREGORY, were about three months old. So, I took care of them. When I was helping Shirley take care of the boys, I nearly always took care of Greg. Todd was larger and hungrier. Shirley could feed him quicker than I, so I would feed Greg. He became very attached to me. Our two families went on a weekend camping trip one time. I was sitting in a lounge chair and Greg came over, crawled into my lap and said, "Why didn't you want me when God sent me down?" That was a real shocker, so I explained that he was not my little boy and he said to me, "But you always say 'How's my little boy?'" I learned then to be very careful what you say to a small child.

I had made a similar mistake when Dave started Kindergarten. He didn't want to go, so I said, "I'll go with you." I did go with him and when he seemed busy and happy, I left. Just a few years ago, since he has been a father, we were talking about raising children and I said, "It is important that you tell children the truth." Dave said, "You lied to me." I couldn't understand why he said that! I thought I had been truthful with him. He reminded me of the Kindergarten first day and I understood why he thought I had lied to him.

We think we impressed him with being truthful because as he was growing up if we asked him about something, even if he had done something he should not have, he would admit it. An example of his truthfulness is this story. He had come home from school for lunch one day and was eating when the doorbell rang. I went to the door and a little girl Dave's age said "David pushed me into the street." I was quite surprised, closed the door, and went to the kitchen and asked if he had done that. He answered, "Yes." A few days before this I had gone to get David after school in the car and saw some children pushing each other around. My teacher instincts took possession of me. I got out of the car and told them not to do that. David said, "Why don't you spank them Mom?" I told him I shouldn't do that. Anyway, I remembered what he had said that day, so I asked him if he thought he needed a spanking for pushing the little girl out into the street. His honest answer was yes. So, I spanked (not very hard). This all seemed strange to me so I decided to call David's best friend Kevin, another neighbor's son, the boys always walked together. I think his mother was a little taken aback when I asked to speak to him. I may have been a little stern voiced. When I asked Kevin about this he said, "Yes, David pushed her but she deserved it. She kept pushing him and finally David said, 'If you don't stop that, I am going to push you.' She did so he did." I really didn't think he was guilty of doing much wrong.

When Susan got big enough to get into David's things, he would sometimes push her, or pinch her and I had told him what he did to her, I would do to him, thinking it would stop that behavior. It worked after a time or two and the final action was when he picked her up a few inches and dropped her and I did the same to him. This may not have been the best method, but it worked then.

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One time Shirley and I took the twins shopping when they were still babies. As we were checking out, the cashier looked at Greg, whom I was carrying, and then at Todd, whom Shirley was carrying, and said, "You're babies look alike!" I guess I was feeling mischievous and said, "Yes, they had the same father." You should have seen the look on her face. She was astounded. We just walked out and had a good laugh.

Our neighborhood was like one big extended family. There were five families that were good friends - the Stoughs, Carol and Martin, Walters, Shirley and Bob, Vobornicks, Nancy and Jim, Koehnemanns, Shirley and Anthony and the Zarings. Everyone looked after all the children that were around including correcting them, if they did something they shouldn't have done. The Walters were our close friends because of Susan and Cindy and the Stoughs were our close friends because of David and Kevin. We are still friends with both families but the Stoughs moved away when the boys were about 10. They moved first to Bloomington/Normal, when Martin got a job with General Telephone, then out east in New Jersey, from there to Indianapolis to work and they now live in Noblesville. Kevin had a successful landscaping business that he sold and then retied to the Villages in Florida. Their daughter Tina had two boys Nick and Clint and now a daughter about 10. The Vobornicks moved to Florida many years ago, probably 35 years. The Koehnemanns moved to Tucson, Arizona about 30 years ago. Shirley Koehnemann died of cancer. Their daughter Julie married and lives near Champaign in Monticello and has been a widow about twelve years. She had one son. She married one of her teachers from Centennial High School. After the Vobornicks moved to Florida, they got a divorce and we did not have much contact, but they had three girls and one boy. The Walters moved to Philo when Cindy was about 12. They moved back to Champaign about twenty years ago. Cindy married, has three children and now lives near Ellingham.

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I have already told you about when David started Kindergarten, so I must tell you about Susan. She and Cindy started together but were not in the same room, which was probably best. I think they would have spent too much time with just each other. They went to and from school together every day. Susan was ready and eager to start. Since she was 5 in June and had Cindy to go with, she wasn't hesitant. David was not as eager to begin school. He was only 4 and did not have a close friend to go with because Kevin was a year younger.

One nice, warm evening, the Stoughs were having dinner with us. Wilson had purchased a small golf club for David and told him he could only use it when he was with him. Anyway, the children had finished eating and were excused from the table. We adults were still talking. David asked if he could use his golf club. Wilson thought he would be going outside very soon so told him yes. Well, those few minutes were too many. The next thing we knew, the children ran into the house. Susan was bleeding at the mouth. When we examined her, it was obvious she would need some stitches. So, off we went to the emergency room. David was crying as much as Susan. He kept saying, "I didn't mean to hit her!" Wilson went in with Susan for the stitches and I stayed out with David. When we were back home, we got the full story. It went like this. Dave, "I told her to move back, she did just a little, so I told her to move back some more and thought she was far enough away, so I swung the club and hit her". Susan agreed this was the way it happened and that she had not moved back as far as she should have. Anyway, the next day her Kindergarten class was to go on a field trip. She didn't want to go because of her swollen, cut lip. I told her I would go too. When we went to the school and explained the situation, her very nice teacher said, "Oh, I'll be your partner today!" That did it. I didn't have to go.

I remember one day Susan came home with a piece of green paper, a piece of blue and piece of tan. At school she was supposed to make a picture with grass, sky and a house. In some ways she was a perfectionist. She spent all the art time at school cutting very close slits in the green paper so it would look like blades of grass. She didn't get her project completed. As a seamstress, she is also a perfectionist. Every stitch is sewn carefully either by hand or machine. I began making her clothes when she was very small. She began sewing for herself at about age 12. She even would cut her own patterns when she got a little older. She even cut the pattern for her own wedding dress. As a young mother in Florida, she would sew for other people so that she could be at home with her boys. She also helped the Home Economics teacher make costumes for drama productions when she was in Junior High School.

As I said earlier, David was a very honest, dependable boy, even as a teenager. He would always ask or tell us where he was going and who he would be with. He was always home at curfew or would call and ask if he could stay at his friend's house long enough to finish whatever game or project was in progress. Until his senior year, he was more inclined to go places with several friends, rather than to date. In high school, he was on the tennis team and was the student photographer for the yearbook. His best friend in high school was Mike Carrico. They spent lots of time at each other's houses. We all liked Mike and took him with us on some trips to Kentucky.

She enjoyed dating more than Dave. In fact, if we had permitted her to, she would probably have started dating at fourteen. She really enjoyed her social life!

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I started substitute teaching when Sue was in fourth grade. The second semester of that year I was asked to become the full time teacher in a fourth grade class at South Side School. This was a very difficult class because the regular teacher had been out so much and there had been so many different substitutes. In the first week a boy was very disrespectful to me, while a mother was visiting the class. I took him out to the hallway and really gave him a talking to and one slap on the cheek because he continued to be disrespectful. Anyway, he began to improve and the other children improved too. It turned out well and my class had the highest end of the year achievement scores of the three fourth grade classes.

For three years, I substituted in many different elementary schools. One day the woman that called subs asked me if I knew anyone that would sub in the school's offices. I said, "Oh, I guess I can. I know how to answer the phone and put on band-aids." That began a new era in my life. I was subbing as a teacher and as a secretary and ended up being at Jefferson two three-month assignments as a sub for two different secretaries, each out with serious illnesses. When that was completed, there was only six more weeks of school. The principal asked if I would take the job in the cafeteria. That was not much of a job, so I said, "No, I don't want to do that." He said, "If you will do that just for the remaining three months of the year, I'll give you a job next year that you will like." So, I said, "Yes." The next year I was secretary in the Attendance Office and to the Counselors. I did enjoy that work. One day a student was waiting in my office to see the counselor or assistant principal. He used some foul language. I said, "You can't talk like that in my office!" A few days later he was back and there was another student there who started to use bad words. Before I had a chance to say anything, the first boy nudged the second one and said, "You can't use those words in here."

About one and a half years later, the Head Secretary position at Robeson Elementary School was vacant. I was hired there and stayed seven years. I loved that job! Once in a while if a teacher became ill late in the day, or a sub was late, I would be in a classroom. I had a wonderful principal, Mr. Tom Pickett. After eight years, I decided to retire, mostly because the assistant secretary had a nasty disposition and I had worked the ten years required to receive retirement pay. Except for the assistant secretary's unpleasantness, I LOVED that job.

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During the years that I was at Robeson School, Dave was in college and graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in Math and Computer Science. Sue started college but decided to quit after two years. She worked at Ducky's Tuxedo Store and was in charge after about a year. She was working there when she got married. .

Dave married Nora Cranmer in Mattoon on August 22, 1980. They married in the park. At that time Dave was working at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston and so was Nora. Several years later, they moved to Coal Valley, a very small town, near Moline, Illinois.

Sue married Ray Baker August 1, 1981. They had a formal wedding in our church. Ray was still a senior in the University, studying Electrical Engineering. When he graduated, he got a position with NASA in Houston, Texas, so they moved there. Although Dave was married one year before Sue, they did not have children till they had been married eight years. Sue and Ray had their first baby, Raymond Miles, May 25, 1983 so he was my first grandchild. Sue had to have a Caesarian section, so I went to Texas to help out. I was there two weeks. She and Miles came home with me and stayed two weeks. Three years later, on May 30, 1984 Morgan Paul was born. I went down to Texas again, to help with the boys. I loved being there both times!

Shortly before Miles was born, Wilson had a heart problem. The doctor said he needed angioplasty. This was a new procedure, developed by a doctor at Emery University Medical School in Atlanta. The procedure was being done in Atlanta and Houston. Wilson chose to go to Atlanta so that Sue would not have to worry about him. We had only a very brief wait until the procedure was scheduled. Wilson's cousin James Miles and his wife lived in Atlanta. So we had a place to stay. Miles was born a few days before we left for Atlanta. Dave and Nora went with us. I had already planned to go to Houston from Atlanta. When Wilson entered the hospital on Sunday afternoon his procedure was planned for Monday. I asked what time he was scheduled. They told me they could not say, they always did the most serious problems first.

It was ironic and scary that when Wilson's father had his fatal heart attack, twenty-seven years earlier, I was about two weeks from delivering David. Now Sue was about two weeks from delivering Miles when Wilson developed his heart problem. That was twenty years ago. Wilson has out lived the prognosis for length of life four times. It turned out, he was last and the only one that had a problem. Each time a patient was brought back from surgery, I would go to their room and ask about them. Each one was conscious and said it went well. I had a reservation to fly on to Houston, but the delays made it necessary for it to be changed several times. Fortunately, Evelyn, James's wife, took care of the rescheduling and took me to the airport when I left. The next day, Wilson, Dave and Nora left Atlanta for Houston to see Miles, and Sue, of course.

Anyway, it took longer for Wilson than anyone else. I was worried and rightfully so. When the doctor came to talk to me, he said he had had a problem. Wilson's heart had stopped beating regularly and he had to shock his heart to bring him back. Wilson remembers that. He said it was a peaceful experience and he wished they would let him alone. I was afraid to leave, but the doctor assured me everything was fine, so I left on the evening flight for Texas.

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Now that Miles had been born, I was a Grandmother and very happy about it. I stayed in Houston, actually a suburb named "Kemah", for two weeks and loved every minute of that time!

Sue would come to visit several times a year and we had a great time showing off our grandson and having them visit. On one of their visit's we went to Louisville to see Grandmother Calvert who was living in a nursing home. She could not walk very well, so Sue and I got a wheel chair, put Miles in her lap and walked around outside. It was as if Miles knew he must sit still because he never tried to get down and Grandmother enjoyed it so much.

At about age 16, Miles began to work, part time, at Publix, a regional grocery chain. He rapidly moved up in responsibility until he was doing customer relations, opening and closing the store, counting and depositing money and other managerial things. At Publix he met and married Ashley Sue LaBagh, daughter of John Andrew LaBagh and Robin van Duzer. Ashley was born on July 14, 1988, at Middletown, New York. To them was born, on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 2005, my first great grandchild, Amy Marie. Unfortunately this marriage ended in divorce soon thereafter. Miles continues to enjoy his work at Publix and remains single. He was granted full custody of Amy, and is a loving and responsible father.

Next to join our family was Morgan. He had a breathing problem when first born and was in an incubator for several days. Again, I went down to Texas when Sue and Morgan came home from the hospital and stayed two weeks. I was getting eager to come home, so brought Sue, Miles and Morgan home with me. This trip had a few minutes of stress and wear. We were eating and heard the announcement that our plane was loading. So, we took off running through the airport. Sue had Morgan in a sling on her chest and I was dragging Miles. He was crying. It is a wonder we got to the gate in time and that no one stopped us because I was dragging Miles. He was crying and people were becoming aware of children being kidnapped. I was very much afraid Sue would fall and injure Morgan and herself, especially since it was so soon after her C-section. We had a nice time together. We always enjoy having our children and grandchildren visit us.

Morgan's academic record in High School earned him a full scholarship from the State of Florida. He chose to study at Central Florida University, in Orlando, where he earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Because of his near perfect grade point he received a full scholarship to study at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where he earned a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Soon after he graduated, Morgan was hired by Draper Laboratory, in St. Petersburg, Florida.

On May 12, 2012, in St. Petersburg, Morgan married Ryann Ashleigh Irredell, daughter of Frank John Iredell and Joan Cathrine Durin. Ryann graduated from the University of South Florida, n Tampa, Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She is a Human Resources Specialist for Feld Entertainment. A company that produces shows, including Ringling Brothers, Disney on Ice, Women of Faith, and others.

Miles was named Raymond Miles for his father, grandfather, Wilson Miles Zaring, and great grandmother Susie Miles Zaring. Morgan Paul was named for his great grandmother Mattie Morgan Calvert. I don't know the significance of the name Paul.

We were sorry that Sue's marriage to Ray Baker was not a happy one. They divorced in 1991. On March 26, 2012, Sue married Dennis Charles Winter, son of Melvin Lawrence Winter and Kathleen Jane O'Leary. They seem so happy and I am delighted. Nothing comforts a mother more than knowing her children are happily married.

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In 1988 we became grandparents again when Dave and Nora had their first baby, a son. He was named Michael David, Michael for Nora's older brother and, of course, David for his father. Michael was born on Dave's birthday, October 22nd. Wasn't that a nice birthday present Nora gave him? We immediately went to see our new grandson. He was just as nice as the other two. We thought it was especially nice that they had a boy since Wilson is an only child and Dave our only son. Since they live only about an hour from Champaign, we were able to see them rather often. I had a lot of pleasure being with Michael.

Eighteen months later, grandson number four was born. Paul David joined the family. The name Paul was chosen, I think, because they liked it and David, so that both boys would have their father's name. I think that was a good idea. I especially like the name David. I went to stay with Michael while Nora was in the hospital to have Paul. Of course, I loved being there. Grandmothering is a great pleasure for me! I spent several days with Dave's family when Paul was born. I consider it a privilege to have been able to be with our grandsons when they were new born and with the older siblings at the same time. We had thought that Paul might be born on Nora's birthday, the 13th of April, but he decided to have his own birthday on the 10th. Nora said she didn't mind that he came a few days earlier. A short time after his birth, Dave changed employment. They moved to Springfield, Illinois. He was not real happy with that job, so looked for another one and they moved to Danvers, very close to Bloomington-Normal where he worked for the Mitsubishi Automobile Plant as a computer specialist. A few years later he made another change, continued to live in Danvers, but was a computer security consultant for a company out of Chicago. That company soon went bankrupt and Dave found another job as a consultant with John Deere. They did not want to move to Moline so after six months Dave was hired by another Consulting Company and was assigned to Country Companies Insurance. Country Companies decided to add him to their staff and he is working directly for them now. They are very active in the church and in the boy's sports. Nora is artistically talented, does oil painting and creates greeting cards and stationery for sale.

The four boys completed our family of grandchildren. We are proud of each one of them. It is especially interesting how different they each are since they are all boys and have the same heritage on our side.

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Through the years we have had MANY happy times with our children and their children, birthdays, Christmases and other special days. I'll tell about some of the other special days together. When we celebrated our 40th anniversary, Sue, Ray, Miles and Morgan came from Florida and Nora, Dave, Michael and Paul came from Coal Valley. We had a dinner at the Urbana Jumer's (formerly the Urbana Lincoln) Hotel in a private dining room. Paul was only 4 months old. Our other guests were, Anne and Dwight, Genny and Jim, my cousin Lula Mae and her husband Don Yoxthimer, our friends Carol and Marty Stough and Joan and Charles Amacher.

One of the best times for our whole family was when we celebrated our 50th anniversary. We wanted everyone to be there and no one to have to work. So, we decided to take everyone on a four-day Caribbean Cruise. The difficult part about that was finding a time when Dave, Sue, Miles and Morgan could all be away from work. We finally decided to take the trip during the Thanksgiving holiday. By this time, Dave was out of a job, because he had taken a position with a new Computer-Security company. They were paying him well, but were not getting the business they had expected, so he was released. Anyway, while we were on our cruise, Dave said, "I bet I'm the only one on this cruise that is getting unemployment pay."

We had a wonderful trip! The "children" made a special scrapbook for us of letters that they had asked our friends and relatives to write and pictures of the family through the years. They also ordered a special cake. It was great all being together for this special occasion. Everyone enjoyed the cruise!

Since everyone had a good time when we celebrated our fiftieth anniversary, we decided to do it again for our fifty-third. This time we had to schedule the trip around the workers, Dave, Sue, and Miles and around Dave's boys, Mike and Paul going to camp and Mike's trip to Texas for a national conference for Nazarene youth. Again, everyone had a good time. That will probably be our last family cruise. This year Morgan will graduate from high school and Mike and Paul are both old enough they have special activities. Most people are working.

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When I STARTED this biography, all my siblings were living and I had planned to give each one a copy. George died January 31, 1997 and Jim died November 30, 2002. I miss them both very much.

There are several stories about both Dave and Sue that gave us a good laugh. I am going to tell them now. When Dave was a little less than two years old, I decided it was time to start toilet training him. In those days, forty-five years ago, there was a little plastic bottle with a handle to use for little boys when traveling. We went on a trip to see my parents in Pennsylvania and then to Washington, D.C. to see George and his family.

We had been traveling a couple days. Each time we needed gasoline, we would stop at a filling station and the attendant would come out to give us service. In 1956, filling stations were not self-serve. Wilson would roll down the window and say, "Fill it up with regular." Any way one day, I decided to see if I could get Dave to use the "half-pint". I got it out, got him ready and said, "See if you can use this, Dave. Just fill it up." He said, "With regular?"

And my toilet training story about Sue goes this way. I would take her to the bathroom, get her situated and I would say, "Urinate, honey." A day or so later, she came to me and said "Mommy, I need to my-nate." Our children listened well!

Shortly before Dave was to start Kindergarten, we took him to have his pre-school physical, which included an eye test. He was only four but would be five in October. Children could start if they would be five before January. Soon after, we were on a trip and stopped at a restaurant to eat. The waitress brought papers and crayons for the children to use while waiting for our food. They both were busy with their drawings and Sue showed me her paper. She had written her name correctly except she had made the "S's" backward. I didn't even know she knew how to spell her name. I said, "Oh, Susan, that is great, except you made your "S's" backwards." Very seriously, Dave said to me, "But, Mom, no one is perfect. Not even me. I have a little astigmatism in my left eye."

Now one about Sue. When she was about three, my parents were visiting. Sue and Cindy Walters were only one week apart in age and such good friends! My dad said to Sue, "Are you and Cindy good friends?" She said, "Yes." Then he asked, "Do you ever get mad at Cindy?" Sue said, "Yes. And when I do, I go home and put on my 'hard shoes' and I kick her." She usually wore tennis shoes for playing. I guess Cindy forgave her and so did Cindy's mother, because they continued to be friends and playmates until they were grown and were in each other's weddings.

Instead of trying to give equal time to stories about the children, I will just tell some more. They may not be even in number.

Dave was proud of his little sister. While I was nursing her, soon after we came home from the hospital, he brought all his neighborhood friends into the house to see her. He also was her "protector" at times. We usually went to the university cafeteria to eat after church on Sundays. The children would be a few steps ahead of us. We always rode the elevator to the lower level where the cafeteria was located. As usual, they turned the corner to the elevator just a few steps ahead of us and we heard Sue yell. (She had learned this got attention if Dave did something she did not like.) As we caught up with them he was holding her back from getting on the elevator without us.

One time Susan got her finger caught in the car door, I don't remember the reason. Of course she cried and a few minutes later after she quit she said. "My finger is jumping." A pretty accurate description of "throbbing". I know how that feels. One day after church, I put both the children in the back seat and closed the door. After I was in the car and before Wilson started driving, I realized the back door was not closed tightly so I turned around braced one hand against the inside of the car, opened the door and slammed it shut. I misjudged the placement of my hand and mashed the three middle fingers. In fact, I had to open the door to get my hand out. I was determined not to cry in front of the children and succeeded. When we got home, I went into our bedroom and cried. It so happened, we were having guests for dinner that evening and I was really handicapped trying to cook, so I called a lady that sometimes cleaned for me to come and help.

Susan had a mole type spot on her face and our pediatrician thought it should be removed. He referred us to a Dermatologist. As he removed the mole, I think he had given her a shot of Novocain, one little tear rolled down her cheek, but she did not cry or resist. When he was finished, he picked her up and handed her to Wilson and said, "Doesn't she make you bust your buttons?"

In 1970 we moved into the Lincolnshire Fields subdivision and our third house. We were about the fifth or sixth house in the area. This house was conventionally built. I looked for house plans until I found one we liked and we had it built. Dave and Sue were not anxious to move, so we told them they could each choose the colors and decorate their rooms. Dave chose dark blue walls and carpet and a red bed spread. We hesitated about his choice, but soon saw a decorating magazine with those colors. Sue chose pale green walls and a fluffy, feminine ruffled white spread with gold patterned stitching. We were all pleased with our new house with its four bedrooms, four bathrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, family room and study. There is a full basement and a two-car garage. We wanted a large house because Wilson's mother and my mother were both widows and we thought we might need to have one or even both of them live with us someday. The study could have been converted to a bedroom. There is a bathroom right beside it.

We have had good neighbors here as we have had at each of our houses. We are the only ones in our close area that are the original owners. Now there are four couples very close that we are friends with. We all go out to eat together occasionally. The first few years we lived here, I drove Sue to and from the school she had been attending. She didn't want to change schools. We had to get permission for her to stay at that school. Dave was already in Junior High School and there was a school bus for him to ride. Some of the women in this neighborhood and the one just north of us would get together one morning a week to socialize and sew or knit or crochet or do some craft. It was a nice group and a nice way to get acquainted.

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During my life, I have had many happy times and interesting experiences. When Wilson was in graduate school at the University of Kentucky, I was a member of the PHT group. That was for wives working their husband's way through college. PHT stood for Putting Hubby Through. There were many married veterans in college. This was a social group that gave wives with similar interests something to do. We moved to Champaign-Urbana and I joined the Junior Woman's Club and was chairman of the Art, Music and Literature Department. I had an Art contest for elementary school children, started a newsletter for club members, started the Junior Woman's Chorus and two years later was elected president of the Club. When Dave started school I became active in PTA. I served as president of the elementary school PTA, the junior high school PTA, Champaign PTA Council, and was District Director. As District Director, I was on the PTA State Board and when I had completed my two terms (four years) as Director, I became state chairman of the Character and Spiritual Education Department. At age 35, a woman was no longer eligible for membership in the "junior" club and I became a member of the C-U Community Woman's Club. I have served as president several different times totaling 12 years. About eighteen years ago, I joined the Carle Hospital Auxiliary, where I have served as Chairman of the Membership Committee, Chairman of the Scholarship Committee, and as President of the Auxiliary. I also served on the Art of Entertaining Committee for three years, and was on the Hospitality Committee, that delivers a rose to each new patient every day.

I was the first Chairman of the Breast Feeding Center Committee. This introduced a new service for the auxiliary. Mothers of new babies could come to the Center where several nurses were available to provide professional advice on the advantages and best method for breast-feeding. Auxiliary volunteers greeted mothers, kept records, and sold items from a small shop.

For four years I planned and arranged the Past Presidents' Luncheon. I assisted with several Auxiliary annual, fund-raising sales. I also volunteered in the Auxiliary Office.

The accomplishment I am most proud of is the Guest House. It was my idea. One day I was at an information desk on the third floor of the hospital when a man came by with an armload of laundry and asked where a washing machine might be. He was passing through town when his wife had a heart attack that required open-heart surgery. He was out of clean clothes. I explained that washers were not available and directed him to the nearest launder mat. At that time I was Chairman of the Research and Recommendations Committee. I proposed to my committee that we renovate one of the houses that Carle owned and make a place for out of town people who have medical emergencies. Our proposal was approved by the Auxiliary's Governing Board and presented to the Carle Hospital Foundation Board. They liked the idea so much they proposed a larger project. Instead of renovating a house to accommodate six families, they propose building a beautiful twelve-room facility. The estimated cost was $1,000,000, of which the Foundation would pay half and the Auxiliary would pay half. This Guest House was conveniently located just across the street from the hospital. I met with the architects who designed the building, I helped select furniture, I helped decorate the dinning room and entry hall, and I contributed to the cost of the chandelier. We do not charge the people that stay here but we accept donations.

Through the years of our marriage, now 62, I have been involved in the church in Lexington and in Urbana-Champaign. In Lexington, I sang in the choir of the First Methodist Church. One time a man from the church came to make a call. He invited us to attend and Wilson said, "We are members of that church. In fact, my wife sings in the choir." He evidently didn't know this and said, "Jesus Christ!" After he was gone we had a good laugh about him and his response. In Champaign, at the First United Methodist Church (the name was changed about 55 years ago when the United Bretheren Church and Methodist Episcopal Church, became one organization) I have served on almost every committee and have been chairman of most of them. Several different times, I have served as chairman of my circle and on the board of the United Methodist Women. Wilson and I taught the teenage Sunday School class together for a short time. Wilson has taught our adult class for part of the time each year for many years.

I have been a member of the Symphony Guild Board, and the Carle Hospital Governing Board. I was Program Committee Chairman of my Woman's Club and Secretary of the District Woman's Club Scholarship Committee.

There are sad times in everyone's life, but I think I have had a very happy life. I had good parents, good brothers and sisters, a wonderful husband, two great children, four fine grandsons, and a delightful great granddaughter. I have been blessed with good health, good friends, interesting travel and a very comfortable living. I expect to live some more years, but decided to get this written while I still can and because Sue asked me to write it. Hope you enjoy reading it.

The following account of my family ancestry was compiled by Wilson from family records and historical material

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By family tradition, our Calvert family descends from George Calvert, the first Baron Lord Baltimore but I will limit this account to those members of the family we have definite information about. I begin with my great grandfather Benjamin Rotan Calvert, son of Jesse Calvert Jr. and Pamela Smith. Benjamin was born on November 20, 1835 and died on May 16, 1892. I do not know where he was born, but on October 17, 1856, in Campbell County, Kentucky, he married Marinda J. Boone, daughter of Jesse Boone and Susanna Sharp. Benjamin was a farmer in Bracken County, Kentucky, so that is probably where he died. Both Benjamin and Marinda are buried in the Lenoxburg Cemetery in Bracken County. Where and when Marinda died in unknown.

My grandfather, George Thomas Calvert, son of Benjamin Rotan Calvert and Marinda J. Boone, was born on October 8, 1859, at Flagg Springs in Campbell County, Kentucky and died on February 5, 1911, at Harrison, in Hamilton County, Ohio. On December 30, 1877, in Pendleton County, Kentucky, George married Anna Eliza Wallace, daughter of Frederick Francis Wallace and Elizabeth Jacobs. Anna didn't like the name "Eliza" so she changed to "Lyda". Lyda was born on December 29, 1863 and died on December 14, 1939. They are both buried in the Lenoxburg Cemetery. George was a farmer.

An interesting unsolved problem in our family history is the father of Frederick Francis Wallace, who is reported to have been an Ohio River steamboat pilot. No record has been found to confirm this.

My father, Wallace Clair Calvert, son of George Thomas Calvert and Anna Eliza Wallace, was born on July 4, 1899, at Addyston, in Hamilton County, Ohio. He, of course, married my mother, Mattie Jane Morgan

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The first in our Boone line in America was George Boone III, who was born on March 19, 1666, at Stoak Canon, a village near Exeter, in Devonshire, England. He died on July 27, 1744, in what is now Exeter Township, n Berks County, Pennsylvania. George was a weaver. He married Mary Maugridge, daughter of John Maugridge and Mary Milton. Where and when they married is unknown.

Squire Boone Sr., son of George Boone III and Mary Maugridge, was born on November 25, 1696, at Bradnich, Devonshire, England and did on January 2, 1765, in Rowan County, North Carolina. On September 23, 1720, in what is now Berks County, Square married Sarah Morgan. They both died in North Carolina and are buried in the Joppe Cemetery, at Mocksville, n Davie County.

Edward Boone, son of Squire Boone Sr. and Sarah Morgan, was born on November 19, 1740, in Oley Township, in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. On October 6, 1780, Edward was killed by Indians on the banks of what is now Boone Creek in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Edward and his brother Daniel were hunting when he was shot. Daniel ran all night long and reached their home at Boone Station the next morning. He returned the following day with a large party of men and buried Edward on the banks of the creek. Edward married Martha Bryan, daughter of Joseph Bryan and sister to Rebecca Bryan, wife of Daniel Boone.

George Boone, son of Edward Boone and Martha Bryan, was born on April 28, 1867 in Rowan County, North Carolina, and died on June 10, 1841, n Daviess County, Kentucky. On October 15, 1801, in Clark County, Kentucky, George married his second wife Hester Locke. Hester was born on August 11, 1784, in Kentucky, and died on October 5, 1853. Both George and Hester are buried on a farm near Philpot, in Daviess County.

Jesse Boone, son of George Boone and Hester Locke, was born about 1804 in Clark County, Kentucky, and died after 1860. On December 4, 1824, in Clark County, Jesse married Susanna Sharp, daughter of Elias Sharp.

My great grandmother Marinda J. Boone, daughter of Jesse Boone ad Susanna Sharp, was born on June 23, 1832, in Kentucky. She married Benjamin Rotan Calvert.

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Jeremiah Morgan was my great great grandfather. He was born on May 11, 1796 and died on May 18, 1879. I do not know exactly where he was born or who his parents were. I do know that he served in the War of 1812, with the Kentucky Militia. Jeremiah was a farmer, who owned land in what is now Gant County, Kentucky. On January 7, 1816, in Pendleton County, Kentucky, Jeremiah married Elizabeth New, daughter of Jacob New and Mary Coon. Elizabeth died on February 1, 1858, and is buried beside her husband in the Morgan Family Cemetery, near Cordova, in Grant County.

My great grandfather William Henry Morgan, son of Jeremiah Morgan and Elizabeth New, was born on November 13, 1816, and died on March 15, 1884. On February 9, 184, in Grant County, William married Pricilla Phillips Nelson, daughter of Robinson Nelson and Sarah P. Kendall. Priscilla was born on August 9, 1821 and died on November 24, 1887. They are both buried in the Morgan Family Cemetery near Cordova.

My grandfather William Napoleon Morgan, so of William Henry Morgan and Pricilla Phillips Nelson, was born on August 25, 1846, in Grant County and died on August 16, 1925. On December 30, 1875, in Grant County, William married Sarah Frances Edmondson, daughter of Richard Matson Edmondson and Elizabeth Fisher. Sarah was born n October 27, 1858 and died on January 15, 1933. They are both buried in the Morgan Family Cemetery near Cordova.

My mother, Mattie Jane Morgan, daughter of William Napoleon Morgan and Sarah Francis Edmondson, was born on October 19, 1803 at on the Morgan home near Cordova. She, of course, married my father Wallace Clair Calvert.

My great grandfather Richard Matson Edmondson died in the Andersonvillle Prison, which was a notorious prisoner of war camp, located near Andersonvillle, Georgia. Of 45,000 prisoners, 12,913 died, mostly of starvation and disease. I do not know when Richard died, but he is surely buried at the prison in an unmarked grave.
