The poppies are popping again out here in California. We had much more rain than usual this year, so we are having what they call a super-bloom season. Loving all the color! Wikipedia has posted this fabulous picture of a righteous coating of poppy-Cheeto-Dust on Walker Canyon in Riverside County (photo by Bluesnote):
Kentucky Klips, Plus!
One of the joys of doing genealogy is finding surprises in newspaper archives, and I've mined some real gems in recent weeks. The most important clippings found in this haul provide essential info regarding the month and year of the marriage of my maternal grandparents, Clarence Pryne and Dorothy Marksberry. My immediate family is not in possession of any documentation of their marriage, but on the 1940 U.S. Census my grandparents stated they were living in the same Covington, KY dwelling in 1935, and their first child--my mother Bonnie--was born in 1937. These facts provided the clue that they were married in 1935 or earlier. Their son, my uncle Jimmy, could not recall the date of their anniversary when I asked him recently, but he remembers seeing a photo of his mother in a wedding dress. Fortunately, now I have more clues!
The clip below is from the newspaper The Kentucky Post on March 28, 1934. It advertises a fundraising event for the local volunteer fire department. In the fourth paragraph of the article, my grandmother Miss Dorothy Marksberry and great-grandmother Mrs. Orin Marksberry (her name was Daisy) are listed as participants. The fifth paragraph states that my grandfather Clarence Pryne would be performing a specialty dance (he was known to be good at soft-shoe tap). From this clip, not only do I learn that my grandparents were not yet married in March of 1934, I also learn that my great-grandmother was probably a member of the Women's Auxiliary of the Elsmere Volunteer Fire Department! My great-grandfather and great-uncles may have been volunteer firemen, too.
This next clip from The Kentucky Post dated April 6, 1934 provides the society-column announcement about the Ladies' Auxiliary show in its second through fourth paragraphs. The article states that the show would take place Friday (April 6th was a Friday in 1934) at Lloyd High School, where my grandmother was likely a student. It is distasteful to read in the third paragraph that some men performed in black-face (hopefully Grandpa was not one of them!). Clarence Pryne (Grandpa C.P., as we knew him) is mentioned again as a dancer.
The most exciting find from my search of The Kentucky Post is this marriage announcement dated July 5, 1934. My grandparents are listed third. There is no exact date or place mentioned except for Kenton County, and I've yet to find an official record of their marriage, but my search has been narrowed considerably!
Nearly five years into their marriage, on April 21, 1939, Dorothy would give birth to boy-girl twins, James and Joan. Twins run on both sides of my grandfather's family--his mother Lorena Segondollar had a twin brother, and his father James Prine had a set of boy-girl twins by his second wife Madge. On April 22, 1939, The Kentucky Post printed a photograph of three nurses from St Elizabeth's Hospital holding three sets of twins that had been born there that week. The nurse on the right was holding the Pryne twins.
When I showed this picture to Uncle Jimmy last week, he did not remember seeing it before, and he also claimed he could not tell which baby was him, except to say that he was "the ugly one" (ha-ha!).
As you can tell from the date, Uncle Jimmy just celebrated his 80th birthday, but every year he mourns the loss of his twin Joanie, who died in 2001. Aunt Joanie and I bonded over music, as she was a gifted Gospel singer.
Here's another clip from The Kentucky Post dated June 10, 1950 in which there is a report about a picnic held at the home of my great-grandparents, Orin and Daisy Marksberry. The out-of-town visitors mentioned included Great-Grandma Daisy's brother Dr. Carl Romans and his family, who had come from Colorado. Grandma Dorothy's brother Ernest Marksberry, who was visiting with his wife Margaret, had moved in recent years from Kentucky to El Monte, California. My grandparents, mother Bonnie, and her twin siblings James and Joan (listed in the article after Ernest and wife) moved to California in 1951. Other members of the Marksberry family also would soon make the move to California, including sister Elva Riley and brother Elmer along with their families. Finally, Orin and Daisy would relocate to California in about 1957.
The article below is from the Riverside Independent Enterprise newspaper in California, dated September 22, 1960, and announces the celebration of Orin and Daisy Marksberry's 50th wedding anniversary. The article mistakenly lists the place of their wedding as "Tudlow," when in fact it was Ludlow, Kentucky. In the third paragraph are mentioned Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Pryne, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Schaack (my parents), and Mr. and Mrs. Roy McCullough (Aunt Joan and her husband), stating that they all lived in El Monte (probably not accurate, as I believe my parents lived in San Gabriel in 1960). By the way, Mom was 4 months pregnant with me at this time, and Joanie was 3 months along with my cousin Robin. In the second column of the article, Uncle Jimmy (Airman 2nd Class James Pryne) is noted to have been stationed in Germany with the Air Force. In the third column is listed Mrs. Lou Fugate, my grandfather's mother (the former Lorena Segondollar, now widow of George Fugate), who was living with my grandparents in El Monte.
Speaking of El Monte, California, that suburb of Los Angeles was to become quite an important location for our family. For a number of years, the family of Clarence and Dorothy Pryne resided there, and their children attended El Monte High School. My parents were married in Mom's parents' house in El Monte. My sister Denise and I were born in El Monte Community Hospital. We also lived in South El Monte for about 10 years.
Any of you who remember the old Dr. Demento radio show may recall the following lovely (a-hem!) ditty about El Monte, performed by a raucous garage band called The Rubber Band and their leader Llyn Foulkes (you can hear it for yourself at this link: "El Monte" on Dr. Demento).
I live in a town in East L.A., it's not very big
but it's got lots of stores with stereos and things like that you dig.
I have a nice apartment, it's got a pretty good view.
I can see three service stations and the Long Beach Freeway, too.
Chorus:
El Monte, El Monte, there ain't no other place like it.
El Monte, El Monte, I tell ya' it ain't worth (honking sounds)!
We got a drive-in movie, it has three shows every night.
There's one playin' now with John Wayne, it's really out-a sight.
My wife likes all the drug stores, they have everything.
That's where I bought my outboard motor and her wedding ring.
(chorus)
Now if you come to East L.A., be sure to give me a call.
There's a couple of bowling alleys, we'll really have a ball.
We're just about a mile from Rosemead and a little bit north of Whittier,
and you might like the City of Industry but our town's a whole lot prettier.
(chorus)
James, Joan, and Bonnie Pryne about 1945
probably in Olive Branch, Mississippi
(I'll check with Jimmy regarding the location)
Christ Is Risen!!! He Is Risen Indeed!!! Alleluia!!!
A Joyous Easter Season to you all!
--Annie
"Don't criticize or judge other people--regard everyone else as an angel, justify their mistakes and weaknesses, and condemn only yourself as the worst sinner. This is step one in any kind of spiritual life." -- Blessed Seraphim of Platina
