Tag Archives: Gladys R. (Foster) Yegerlehner

Siblings

Leave a reply

Gladys and Jim certainly enjoyed posing for the camera. They were the two youngest siblings of their family, born twenty-one months apart. By the 1920s, their oldest sister Lydia Allie (Foster) McCammon had died. An even older half brother—whom they may never have met in person—lived in Arkansas. Jesse was partially raised by their grandparents, James H. and Margaret (Rea) Lawhead, and an uncle Jasper Lawhead. Another brother Glenn moved west at some point. James E. Foster, the father, had long left the family so Gladys and Jim remained to take care of their mother. The siblings possessed strong work ethics and helped to support their mother until Emma died in 1943.

 

[Photographs from the private collection of the author.]

©2018 copyright owned by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/30/siblings/

A Family of Three

4 Replies

Roscoe, Gladys, and John Yegerlehner, 1932 (Photograph from the author’s collection)

Sometimes, even when you think a project is finished, the project isn’t done! I’ve been sorting through the digital images I have stored over the years, from scans of old photographs to my contemporary collection of iPhone photographs. When I posted the collection of pictures of my great grandmother holding my uncle John a few days ago, I completely forgot the above photograph. It belongs in the same pile.

The weather was certainly mild in late February 1932! The 28th landed on a Sunday that year. The perfect day for a family get-together and presumably attending church. Roscoe and Gladys moved frequently in the early days of their marriage. He worked in Clay County teaching school. The setting isn’t rural enough to be Clay County. I presume the photograph’s location to be Terre Haute. In 1932, Emma and James Foster resided at 719 Harrison Street, Terre Haute. When the photographs were taken, James’ divorce from his first wife Gladys was about to be finalized (March 1932). I am also making the assumption that the automobile belonged to Roscoe and Gladys. He bought his first car a year or two before he married Gladys.

719 Harrison Street, Terre Haute (Image courtesy of Google Maps)

If Roscoe, Gladys, Emma, and Jim were standing at the curb, looking back at the house when the photographs were taken, their house would not have been visible. By panning the angles in Google Street view, a large tree obscures the view of the house directly behind the family! Notice the newly planted trees in the background behind Roscoe and Gladys. However, by moving back down the street a house of interest is detected. The two-story house behind Gladys’ head has a gable window as well as roofs of two different heights.

Harrison Street, Terre Haute (Image courtesy of Google maps)

Emma and Jim’s house is the first house on the right. The tree obscures the house directly across the street, but the house with the two roofs and gable is visible to the left of the tree.

Have you searched for an ancestor’s home using Google yet?

©2018 copyright owned by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/29/a-family-of-three/

A Funeral

2 Replies

Another three photographs create a grouping in my collection. Since everyone is dressed in black—at least they seem to be in the black & white photographs—I assume the foursome attended a funeral. Again, the time frame appears to be the mid to late 1920s. None of the women are wearing jackets, but the ground is covered by a light layer of snow. The tree limbs are bare. The photographer is unknown (since they never make an appearance). The petite woman standing next to Gladys is believed to be her Aunt Minerva, fraternal twin to Gladys’ mother Emma. Minerva’s dress is old-fashioned compared to Gladys’ stylish frock. The longer skirt hem and squarish collared neckline hearkens back the the World War I years. James (Jim) and Emma stand in the background. He was quite tall; his shoe can be seen on the ground next to Minerva’s feet. While Emma stands on the lower step—her boot just visible behind Gladys’ legs—creating the illusion that mother and son are the same height.

Gladys, Emma, & Jim Foster, with Aunt Minerva (Photograph from the author’s private collection)

I do not know whose funeral generated these photographs—especially since the mood is not particularly somber. Gladys smiles in both pictures. I have not discovered a Foster or Lawhead relative, living in the Terre Haute area, whose death occurred in the late 1920s, who would have prompted such a reunion. Perhaps I will someday…

[Photographs from the author’s private collection.]

©2018 copyright owned Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/28/a-funeral/

Sunday in the Park

5 Replies

 

Another group of photographs in my possession likely dates from the spring of 1929. I did not acquire them together, but spread out over a few years. Until I started looking at each photograph closely—sometimes better achieved once a photograph is scanned—I did not realize that they were taken on the same day. Or at the very least, Gladys is wearing the same dress. Because of the quality of the photographs, the different angles, lighting, and her hat, it may be hard to tell that the dress is the same. The feature that stands out the most is the sleeves—a fitted upper sleeve with a gathered, more voluminous lower sleeve controlled into cuffs at the wrists.

In the five photographs, Gladys is captured alone and with both her husband, Roscoe, and her brother, James. My gut feeling tells me that the outing took place in the spring before Gladys and Roscoe married—perhaps an engagement photo shoot. They married on 25 May 1929. Gladys wears a ring on her right hand (the only one clearly visible in any of the photographs). While an engagement ring is traditionally worn today on the left hand prior to marriage in western cultures, that has not always been case. The band appears simple so it may or may not be relevant. Skirt hems rose during the 1920s, and the tight fitting bell-shaped hats, known as cloche hats, remained popular throughout the decade.

It appears that the threesome had fun taking turns with the camera. Unfortunately, it appears that they didn’t find a stranger to take a photo of all three of them together!

©2018 copyright owned Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/27/sunday-in-the-park/

Photographic Clues

8 Replies
[Photographs of Gladys Foster and unidentified female, early 1920s, Terre Haute, Indiana, from author’s private collection]

These photographs of my grandmother were taken in Terre Haute, Indiana, in the 1920s. Only these three survive in my collection, and who knows if  more were taken? The clothing and hair definitely say 1920s. The length of Gladys skirt indicates the earlier part of the decade, before skirt hems rose to knee length. Born in late 1905, Gladys would certainly have been in her late teens or early twenties when the pictures were taken. The company name on the window provides a fantastic clue for when the photograph might have been taken.

Terre Haute city directory, 1924, Foster listings (image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

I already knew that my grandmother worked as a stenographer before her marriage. After high school she attended some kind of secretarial school. The whole Foster family (with the exception of the eldest daughter Lydia who had married and was deceased by 1924) can be found in the Terre Haute city directory. They lived at 2046 N. 8th Street. Gladys’ entry shows that she worked as a stenographer at Pierson & Bro. I could conclude that the photographer was taken about 1924, possibly on her lunch break with one of her co-workers.

As an added bonus, I found 2046 N. 8th Street on Google Street view. Fortunately, this house still exists (light brown in the center). (One of Gladys’ later residences was torn down and was replaced by a freeway!)

2046 N. 8th Street, Terre Haute, Indiana (Image courtesy of Google Maps)

©2018 copyright Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/21/photographic-clues/

Momento Mori

5 Replies

This month our family lost one of its oldest surviving members. My father’s oldest cousin. The first grandchild of James E. Foster and Emma (Lawhead) Foster, my great grandparents.

Indiana birth certificate, 1914, “Waneta” Geneva McCammon (Image courtesy Ancestry.com)

Born in 1914, Juanita lived a long life! It was a life filled with tragedy early on. Her mother died when she was not yet five. Her only full sibling, Wesley, died in a car accident on his way to school, aged 11. Her father remarried and produced a large family with his second wife. Jesse McCammon survived until his 101st year, but his daughter surpassed him by celebrating her 103rd birthday last November.

I never met Juanita in person. I corresponded with her a few times after I discovered who she was. I even helped, in a small way, to bridge an introduction between Juanita and another first cousin whose branch of the family had disappeared for 50 years. Juanita shared some lovely stories of my grandmother and my great grandmother Emma. After Juanita’s mother died, she spent parts of her childhood living between her two sets of grandparents.

Gladys Foster with Juanita and Wesley, 1918 (Image author’s private collection)

My grandmother, Gladys, was only ten years older than her niece so they were close when they were younger. When my uncles John and Mark were young, Juanita came to stay for a while to help take care of the boys, while Gladys ran her beauty parlour and Roscoe attended medical school.

I am most grateful to Juanita because she left me a legacy, beyond her letters and stories. Her DNA. Several years ago, unbeknownst to me, her family asked her to do an autosomal DNA test. I use this data on a regular basis. Most likely, without really knowing it, Juanita has helped me to solve several family mysteries over the last few years. I will be forever grateful for Juanita’s willingness to take a DNA test. Rest in peace, dear cousin!

©2018 copyright Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/20/momento-mori/

Throwback Thursday

Leave a reply

David’s baptism certificate, April 1944

Digging through the family archives, here are a couple documents from the World War II era which I did not scan during the time I was transcribing the WWII letters. Some of my archive is a little more organized since then!  Roscoe and Gladys waited until Roscoe returned from the Pacific to celebrate David’s baptism. David was between 18-19 months old when he was baptized!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

©2018 copyright owned by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/18/throwback-thursday/

 

Gladys – 28 April 1971

Leave a reply

Letter transcription:

118 Juniper Court 47906
April 28, 1971

Dear David and Bonnie and Debbie,

Yours received today and since the rest of the week seems to be well taken, thought I had better get a line or two off tonight. I still do not have my own typewriter. The one the shop loaned me works, except the ribbon won’t turn and I have to give it a turn once in a while—hence the unevenness in the way the words show.

Tomorrow Edna is going with me to get the missionary who has been itinerating in Logansport and Lafayette Districts. He is speaking at a church near Logansport tomorrow evening. He will spend the night here and speak at our church Friday morning. I hope someone comes to hear him, since this meeting was a rather quickly arranged affair. Seems the Board of Missions sometimes doesn’t know what all is going on. We had his itineration set up so he would be at Trinity Sunday morning and at another Lafayette church in the evening, but he has to be in Buffalo, N.Y., by 8 PM April 30th. Did I mention in my last letter that Delmar Byler attended a meeting for North Indiana Conference Missionary Secretaries, members of Div. of Christian Outreach and District Superintendents? That meeting occurred the day before I went to Wichata. He told me he was going to come to Rockport to see you some time. It seems his wife has something in Boston from time to time.

Dad has the duty today, which lasts until 7 o’clock in the morning, so he isn’t carrying on a project tonight, except to watch tv and answer the phone.

One of the nurses who used to work at Purdue is married and lives in Germany. Her husband is a German, but an American citizen and serving in the Army. They have invited us to visit them this summer. We will have a week to drive around in Germany and Switzerland after we leave Africa. The Schillers live close to the French border, but in an American housing development for army personnel. We didn’t see much of Germany when we were there two years ago. We should see more this trip. There was an exchange student living with a family who attends Trinity last year. She helped the girl of the family she was living with make a banner for WSCS and I sent her a jewel box from Japan last summer. She sent me a very nice thank-you note. She lives in Marburg and we plan to see her while we are there.

Last week while I was in Wichata, I was able to enjoy real spring weather. Now that I am back home, it is like winter again. The flowers and trees—everything growing—was so much further along. The flower beds were full of blooming geraniums, and other flowers in full bloom. The part of Wichata that I saw was very clean. It was a delight to see the area around the Exhibit Hall—Century II. Everything so clean and orderly. The taxi driver who took me to the airport to come home said something about the stupid liquor law they have in Kansas. He seemed to think it kept Wichata from getting conventions, because most conventions have people attending who want to drink. That didn’t bother CWU. The convention center is a 13½ million dollar building—quite a place. Meets the needs of any convention.

There is a luncheon I plan to attend in Wabash Village—close to Glenwood Heights. It is a meeting of League of Women Voters which I have found is a very interesting organization. They really do get the facts on any subject they deal with. I haven’t been able to attend very many meetings, but have enjoyed the ones I have attended. If we could just get our church people to be as interested in getting the facts and to know what is really going on as the League, we might be able to accomplish more. I heard I.F. Stone on the Today Show this morning along with James Michener. It seems the Reader’s Digest condensed something Michener wrote about Kent State and left out something very important that seemed to give Michener’s article (book, really) a different meaning. Stone asked him why he permitted R.D. to do that to his book? They had quite a heated discussion about Kent State.

Love Mother

©2018 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/15/gladys-28-april-1971/

Gladys – 22 April 1971

Leave a reply

 

Letter transcription:

April 22, 1971

Dear David & Bonnie,

Had to get up at 5 this morning to get a ride to airport with a friend. We got the TWA 8:10 to Kansas City and changed planes and were in Wichata by 9:30. It was about 10:30 by the time I was ready for a nap. I am rooming alone, so had no competition from a room mate. It is about 12:30 now so I had a chance to catch up a little.

Yesterday morning a young girl from Indianapolis who had been a J-3 from the old Northwest Conference spoke to 5 of the circles of our W.S.C.S. We met in the church parlour. After the meeting was over I went to the Geneva Center to a meeting that had been called by the Ex. Director of North Ind. Conference. The Division of Christian outreach, all Missionary District Secy’s from the 10 districts and the D.S.’s were also present. Imagine my surprise when I arrived and saw Delmar Byler. He flew back to N.Y. from Indianapolis so saw him again this a.m. He says he is going to come see you sometime.

The convention center called Century 2 is just across the street from this hotel. I am on the 8th floor and have a grand view of the city and Arkansas River. We never did get to Wichata while living in Liberty, but I know in the past 25 or 26 years it has changed much. When I was in Kansas City in 1967 it didn’t

[page 2] look much like what I remembered when we lived close.

I read your letter after I got home yesterday and glad you have made contact with Lea and that she plans to stay with you after the baby comes. I will come when I can get away.

Spring has arrived a little early in W. Laf. and the ravine was beginning to show green when I left. I had noticed around town the red buds beginning to show some color. We are far enough south here, the trees are in full leaf and the red buds are far enough out that the blossoms are about gone from some.

This isn’t the most expensive hotel room I have ever stayed in. There were two sheets of paper and no envelopes. Guess I will have to see what I can find on a desk in the lobby.

Plan to be back home Monday the 26th.

Love Mother

©2018 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2018/01/11/gladys-22-april-1971/