Month: January 2023

Myrtle in 1958

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Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin in Hathaway, Louisiana, in 1958.

This is my grandmother in 1958.  She looks rather serious in this photo.  She was a teacher at the time, so when the students had their photos taken every year, she had hers taken as well.  Usually she smiled in the photos, but not in this one.  Was she having a hard day at school that day?  Was she worried about something going on at home?  Or was she staring deep into our eyes from the past?  I suppose we’ll never know.

What I do know is that her name was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin, and she was 52 years old at the time.  She had been teaching at Hathaway High School for the past twelve years.  She wasn’t teaching high school students, though.  She was a third-grade teacher for most of her career.  She was known as being quite stern, though most of her students speak fondly of her.  Since I am her grandson, people might be a bit more generous with positive reviews of her.  I also know that she was keen on penmanship and spelling.  I think she would be happy with my spelling abilities.  I think of it as my superpower!   She would definitely say that my penmanship was wanting.  

At school, she was known as Mrs. Bucklin.  At home, she was known as Myrtle, Mama, or Grandma.  Her husband was Fred Bucklin.  They were married in 1930, and the first of their four daughters was born in 1931 on the day before their first anniversary.  There was Sylvia, Betty Lou (my mom), Alma, and Loris.  The last of their children was Austin who was born in 1942.  By 1958, she was being called Grandma.  Not by me, of course.  I didn’t come along for two more years.  But my three older siblings and four of my cousins were around.   Those first seven grandchildren were born over a seven-year period.  The next six were born over a two-year period.  It was during the Baby Boom, and the Bucklin family was doing their part!

I enjoy looking at these older photos of my ancestors.  This one reminds me of some portrait paintings where the subject’s eyes follow you as you walk past it.  When you look into her eyes, she draws you in.  Try it!

Bob and Betty in the Round

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Bob and Betty – the round dancers – in 1988.

Today is the sixth anniversary of my mom’s death.  Betty Lou Bucklin was born in Hathaway, Louisiana, on May 20, 1933.  She died in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on January 19, 2017.  My dad was not far behind.  Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. was born on January 31, 1929, in Lake Charles, and died there on January 24, 2017.  Yes, it was only five days apart from natural causes.  They liked to do things together, so it was appropriate that they had a joint funeral on the 28th of that month.  They had 64 good years together.  Toward the end they were growing much more dependent on one another.  We always thought that when one of them went, the other wouldn’t be far behind.  I never thought that it would be that close.  

When I think about it, I always thought that my dad would be the first to go.  He was the one with the heart problems on his side of the family.  His dad (RJL, Sr.) died at the age of 64 from a heart attack in 1957.  His mom (Germaine Erie Patureau) died at the age of 78 in 1973 – also from a heart attack.  He had open-heart surgery and that’s probably what extended his life so much.  That and the healthy food my mom always cooked. 

But that didn’t stop us from worrying.  Most of the time when I would get a call from home, I would wonder if it was the news that the end was near or had already happened.  I did that for years – probably decades.  I know my sister Karen used to do the same thing.  I remember talking about it before.   Even toward the end we were thinking the same thing.  There was talk about moving my mom to Texas when my dad died.  She could be closer to my younger sister Jamie for a while.  

At the end we were still thinking that.  I got a call on the 18th about Daddy going into hospice and that he only had a few days left.  Later in the night I got a call that Mama had fallen out of bed and hit her head on the floor.  Something similar had happened before, but it was nothing too serious.  So the next morning it was my dad who had the Last Rites performed on him, but it was my mom who died.  She didn’t want to be left alone.

Ok, that’s enough sad talk.  I wanted to talk about Bob and Betty the Round Dancers.  They had so much fun dancing with each other through the years.  When my dad retired in the mid 1980s, he had hobbies like golf, barbershop singing, and genealogy.  Those are fine hobbies (especially the genealogy!), but they aren’t ones that included my mom.  So mom insisted that they come up with an activity that they could do together, and round dancing was the answer.  Most people don’t know what round dancing is, but it was perfect for them.

Now most people know what square dancing is.  Couples form a square and dance around, following the directions of someone giving them calls for specific steps to complete.  Sometimes the couples dance with other couples’ partners.  In round dancing it is more like ballroom dancing.  The person giving the instructions is a cuer (he gives cues, not calls).  The couples dance in a large circle and they stay with their partner.  

My mom and dad did this for years.  They loved it.  They would go to dances all over the South.  Every year the big one they went to was in Dallas at Thanksgiving.  My mom was able to incorporate another of her talents with the dancing.  She made all of the dresses that she would wear for the dances.  They had to be made from comfortable material that had a nice design to it and it flowed well when she’d twirl.  I saw them dance in their house, but never saw them dance at any of their dances they went to.  But I got to see the videos that they made at many of the dances.  My dad got to be a cuer and he would make up dances for some of his favorite songs.  So it helped to record the dances.  That way he could show the video when he’d teach people the dances.

Now that I’m talking about it, round dancing was also another thing that helped to extend my dad’s life.  That’s probably true for both of them.  It was such a good activity that they both really enjoyed doing together.  It also helped that they loved each other and enjoyed each other’s company. Their love for each other and their family is a legacy they left for us.  The dancing was just one way of many of demonstrating that.

Grandpa in His Greenhouse and More

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My grandfather Fred Bucklin in his greenhouse in Hathaway, Louisiana.

This photo of my grandfather Fred D. Bucklin (father of my mother Betty Lou Bucklin Landry) brings back memories from childhood.  It seems like lots of times when we would get to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Hathaway, Louisiana, Grandpa would be puttering around in his greenhouse.  He didn’t look at all tired from riding the pig through the fields as he raced us back to his house.  LOL The only one who wouldn’t need an explanation for that comment would be my sister Jamie!  When our family was driving up to Hathaway from Jennings, we would pretend that Grandpa was riding a pig out in the fields along the road we were on.  We thought it was hilariously funny!

But he wasn’t really.  He probably had been in the greenhouse as we approached their house.  There was a semicircular drive next to the road where we’d park, and next to that was a large live oak tree.  From what I remember, he had the greenhouse built around the base of that tree.  Of course he would have a greenhouse, he was a nurseryman!  He started out in that profession around 1930 with his twin brother Clarence.  He was still involved with it when we would visit their place in the 1960s.  They moved from the country into Jennings in 1975, so this photo is probably from some time in the 1960s or early 1970s.

I’m not really sure what he was doing in this photo, but he looks to be in his element.  There are lots of potted plants behind him as well as tables full of some of the starts of other plants.  I’m sure he started lots of those plants from seeds, but my mom always talked about how they would help him make cuttings of plants.  He also got creative with grafting citrus trees.  He had one tree that produced four different types of fruit.  I wonder if any of those plants he grafted are still around.

I’ve been thinking about Grandpa this week because I’ve had some interesting discoveries in his maternal grandmother’s family line.  Fred’s mother was Addie May Hine, and Addie’s mother was Susan G. Stanbrough.  I like to refer to my great great grandmother as Grandma Sue.  That’s because a while back I found some transcriptions of letters written by her, and she signed them as “Sister Sue” and “Aunt Sue.”  So Sue it is!  I’ve been wanting to find a photo or scan of those original letters, and I found someone who has a letter and is willing to send me a copy of it.  Woo  hoo!  I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for that since I told you about it in a previous post!  We’ll still have to wait until Cousin Stanbro puts his hands on the letter again and sends us a copy.

Albert Wicker and Mary Etta “Mollie” Stanbrough circa 1910 in Indiana.

Another thing that happened was that I’ve finally been able to identify the couple who are in this old photo.  I got this photo from Cousin Joseph a few years ago and their identities were unknown.  All that was known was that the photo came from our Hine/Stanbrough part of the family.  So we didn’t know if it was friends of the family, Hine family members, or Stanbrough family members.  

The woman in the photo always reminded me of Addie and her mother Susan, but that could have just been the rather stern look that she had on her face.  Still, I did think that she could have been Grandma Sue’s sister.  If you look at the 1900 photo of Sue Stanbrough and George Hine, you might see a resemblance also.  

Sue Stanbrough and George Hine in 1900 in Louisiana.

The other day I was looking at some information on Ancestry about the family, and saw an old, grainy Xerox copy of a photo of Albert Wicker.  It was a copy of the man in this photo.  So the man in the photo is Albert Wicker.  And who do you think Albert Wicker was married to?  Well, it just happened to be Sue Stanbrough’s older sister Mary Etta Stanbrough.  We like to call her Aunt Mollie. 

It was a photo of Sue’s sister after all.  I had just gotten an email from one of Aunt Mollie’s descendants a few days earlier.  She was interested in finding out what our connection was.  I was glad to tell her how we are related and also told her about this wonderful photo that I have of her ancestors.

Even though Grandma Sue moved down south from Indiana and never went back to visit, she did keep in touch with her family that had spread across the country.  The only reason I really know that is because of the letters that people have saved through the years.  At least two of the letters that she wrote to her family have survived.  I know that some of the letters that she received have been saved as well.  I’ve seen a reference to that but have never actually seen the letters.  Maybe one day someone will share them with me.  (Hint, hint, Joseph!) 

I do have copies of some of the photos that were included in those letters.  That’s what I shared with you today and in previous posts.  And now we know the identity of the people in one of those photos.  

Pee Paw’s 130th Birthday

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Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. circa 1893 in Westlake, Louisiana.

130 years ago in Westlake, Louisiana, my great grandmother Marie Celeste Leveque Landry was getting ready to give birth to her last child.  It was about time for her to stop – she had recently turned 45.  There were a few eventful things that happened during her pregnancy.  The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden were found murdered in their Massachusetts home. Thomas Edison received a patent for the two-way telegraph. The Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in the United States, and the next day the fifth moon of Jupiter was discovered. And The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was published in London on the Halloween of 1892.

I don’t know if she noted these events that happened during those nine months, but they are all things that most of us are familiar with.  But she was familiar with what to expect during pregnancy.  She had already given birth to nine children – seven boys and two girls.  Celeste and Alcide’s first child had been born 22 years earlier in Brusly, Louisiana.  That’s where most of their children were born. At some point in the 1880s, the family moved west across the state and settled in Westlake.

I believe they moved there for the railroad industry in the area.  There were a few family groups that moved from West Baton Rouge Parish to Calcasieu Parish.  Some of them – like Landry and Leveque – are who I descend from.  Others – like Myhand, Bird, and Thompson – are families who married some of my ancestors’ cousins. The closest family group to Marie Celeste and her husband Alcide Landry included two of their siblings.  Alcide was the youngest in his family, and he had an older brother named Pierre Belisaire.  Pierre Belisaire was married to Celeste’s older half-sister Lise Leveque.  They also ended up in Westlake.  So even though they moved across the state, there were still family members around.

So there were a few people waiting to see what Celeste would give birth to.  Would it be a girl?  A boy? They would just have to wait and see.  But not all of the children of Celeste and Alcide were still alive.  Their oldest, Lily, had died at the age of 19 in 1889.  Celeste had given birth to twins in 1879 and one of them did not make it.  Yet there were still seven siblings waiting to see the newest addition to the family.

Once 1893 arrived, they didn’t have to wait long.  Little Robert Joseph was born on the second Monday of the year.  And it just happens to be the same date – January 9 – as the second Monday of this year.  This coming Monday will be the 130th birthday of my paternal grandfather.  Happy birthday, Pee Paw!