Addie and Two Grandsons

Here’s a pleasant photo of my great grandmother Addie from 87 years ago.  She looks like such a doting, loving grandmother.  I wish I had known her.  She seems like such a warm, likable person.  She was alive when I was born, but she died just a month later.

Her name at birth was Addie May Hine.  She was born on September 23, 1876, in Noblesville, Indiana.  She was the firstborn of George Henry Hine and Susan G. Stanbrough.  She had five younger brothers.  The family moved south to Louisiana in 1894 and settled in Jefferson Davis Parish.  Addie lived the rest of her life in Louisiana, except for a short stint in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, around 1911.  She was married to Louis Charles Bucklin at that point.  She gave birth to their son Robert in Arkansas, but all the rest of the twelve children were born in Louisiana.  That would include my grandfather Fred Bucklin.  He would later become the father of my mom, Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.

I wish that I had a photo of my mom with Addie like this one.  I’ve never seen one, so I doubt there is one.  I would be happy to be proven wrong.  But we do have this one, and the back of the photo says that the photo was made in September of 1937.  I’m assuming that the photo was taken shortly before then.  If that is correct, I would think this photo is of Addie and her Bruchhaus grandsons.  Her youngest daughter was Ruth, who married William Charles “Budda” Bruchhaus.  They had two sons – Harley in 1933 and Laurence in 1936.  So that would be Harley standing to the right of Addie, and Laurence would be sitting in her lap. 

My mom was just a few months older than Harley.  Why aren’t there any photos of her or her sisters and brother with Grandma Addie?  To make matters worse, the cat made it into the photo.  And it’s not the only photo of this cat with Addie!  I’ve posted a different photo before that is just the two of them.  Why couldn’t there be any of mom and Addie together?  It’s probably the same reason that there were far more photos of my oldest sister Jodie when she was a child than there were of me and my younger sister Jamie.  Ain’t nobody got time for that!  Who’s going to be able to keep track of every event in a child’s life when there are six of them running around.  For Addie, there were 12 children and even more grandchildren.  It’s just a result of being in a big family.  My mom only had positive things to say about Addie.

Another thing this photo makes me think about is Addie’s hair.  It looks like she had it very long, but always seemed to keep it in a bun.  But not only that, her hair is very dark in this photo and she was 61 years old.  I remember my mom talking about that when I was a kid.  She hoped that her hair would get darker as she aged, just like her grandmother.  Addie lived to the age of 84.  In the photo taken on her last birthday, her hair was still pretty dark.  My mom did have a good bit of gray hair, but she had enough brown left to keep her hair from looking white as some people’s did.  Of course, by the time she was in her eighties she wasn’t too concerned about the color of her hair.

There are a few other things that things that this photo makes me think about.   Like – with all those Bucklin sons, that Bucklin surname didn’t multiply very well.  It seems like there are more Bruchhaus and Landry descendants than Bucklins.  Maybe it’ll make you think of something else.  If it does, let me know about it.  I like talking about old photos.  Have you noticed?