Category: Phenice

Myrtle Sylvia Bucklin circa 1930

You’ll have to thank cousin Toni for the blog I’m writing this week.  On Facebook she shared a blog that I wrote nine years ago.  In that post you get to hear our grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin (We called her Grandma.) sing a few songs.  The recordings were from 1944 when her brother Sylvan was experimenting with his newfangled cutting needle for recording on those old discs.  It was probably at the family home in Hathaway, Louisiana.  The post was part of a series I wrote on my family about the musical influences through the years.  Of course I had to do one on Grandma, she was always singing and playing the piano or organ.

When Toni shared that post, some of the cousins commented on how nice it was to have those recordings.  I had to agree.  It’s amazing to hear songs that were recorded in 1944 when she was just 36 years old or so.  It made me look to see if there were some other songs that I had from back then that I hadn’t shared.  I found one!  It’s not the greatest quality by far.  Her singing almost gets lost in the fog of all the static and crackling on the old recording.   But there is definitely a wonderful charm about the old song sung by our Myrtle.

It sounds like something you would hear in an old timey movie where someone was waiting in the parlor and listening to something on an old gramophone player.  She is singing in a high register, though it sounds like she has no problem with this.  It’s definitely higher than she sang on the other recordings.  It made me wonder for a while if it was possibly her mother Daisy Keys Phenice singing it.  But once I compared their singing from other recordings, I was pretty sure it was Myrtle.  Unless the recording of Daisy is a poor representation of her singing abilities, she didn’t seem to have the same pitch control that her daughter Myrtle had.

The song is called “Lost In a Fog” and it was introduced in the 1934 movie “Have a Heart.”  It was written by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh.  It has been recorded by several artist over the years.  In this recording Myrtle sings an introduction that I haven’t seen on the famous ones I found.  I can’t make out the words to the introduction because of the low quality of the recording.  The introduction occurs in the first thirty seconds of the song, and it is followed by the lyrics that are more commonly known:

Like a ship at sea
I’m just lost in a fog.
My mind is hazy;
My thoughts are blue.
Guess I’ll always be
kinda lost in a fog without you.

Waiting night and day
like a bump on a log.
I’m going crazy;
What can I do?
Help me find my way
’cause I’m lost in a fog without you.

It was sunny every day.
The sky was fair above,
but you took the light away
the day you took your love.

Only fools like me
could be tossed in a fog.
I’ve got a heartache;
I never knew
Guess I’ll always be
Kinda lost in a fog without you

Sadly, you will not be able to hear the last line of text that I’ve typed here.  That’s because when the recording gets to “Guess I’ll always be kinda lost in a fog without you,” all you hear is “Guess I’ll alw lawl lawl…”  It’s a reminder of what happens to those records if you didn’t take extra care of them.  A little scratch and it would repeat would repeat would repeat would repeat until you had a chance to knock it or gently pick up the needle and place it past the offending scratch!

Like I said, it’s not the best recording.  But it is another recording from long, long ago!  How can you not love that?

Click on this link for the song:  Lost In a Fog

Harry Clifton Phenice in 1906 and in 1950.

I was looking through my photos, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted a photo of my great grandfather when he was young or when he was older.  I decided to go with both.  I don’t remember ever comparing these two photos side by side before, but the photos are similar enough in style to work well with each other.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry, and she was the daughter of Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  Myrtle’s father was Harry Clifton Phenice, but he is usually referred to as H. C. or Grandpa Phenice.

H. C. was born in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in 1874.  His parents were Samuel Phenice and Cathrine Foster.  Their families had been in Pennsylvania for a few generations, but Samuel and Kate must have decided it was time to go somewhere different.  When H. C. was about six years old, the family relocated to Milford, Nebraska.  This was shortly after Samuel’s mother Susan Jackson had died.  Samuel’s father Daniel Phenice moved with the family to Nebraska.  He died within a few years.

The family was in McCook and Hitchcock, Nebraska, in 1890, and then in 1900 they had settled in Precept, Nebraska.  Samuel and Kate would spend the rest of their lives in that area.  I’m not sure if H. C. ever lived in Precept, because he had settled in Louisiana in 1898 at the age of 24.  That’s what my mom always said and wrote about her grandfather.  She also talked about him riding his bicycle from Trenton, Nebraska, to Colorado three times.  Trenton is the county seat for Hitchcock County, so that must have happened around the early 1890s when he was a teenager or in his early 20s.

After being in Louisiana a couple of years, he was married to English immigrant Daisy Keys.  I’ve never seen any photos from their wedding.  It seems like it must have been a simple affair in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  The photo of him as a young man was taken around 1906 when he was about 32 years old.  I don’t know of any earlier photos of him.  There is a photo of him in a gold mine, but it was taken around the same time and I’m not sure which one was taken first.  The one I’m showing was taken in March of 1906 at the time of his younger sister Myrtle’s wedding in Precept, Nebraska.

Both of these photos of H. C. were cropped from other photos that were taken with Daisy.  But I just wanted to look at H. C. and see how his looks changed through the years.  The photo of him as an older man was taken when he and Daisy were celebrating their Golden Anniversary in December of 1950.  There were 44 years that passed between the two photos.  I have to say that old H. C. aged pretty well.  You can definitely tell it is the same person.  There is the slight grin, the long nose, the twinkling eyes, and the hair curve. 

After looking at the two images together, I noticed that he didn’t show his teeth when he smiled.  I’ve always thought of him as a charming, pleasant person who smiled easily.  Perhaps that’s because my mom always talked fondly of him.  But none of the photos of him show him with a big smile.  You never see his teeth.  Yet, somehow, I always saw a smile. 

I think it’s in the eyes.  Those twinkling, smiling eyes.

It’s time for a Phenice photo.  It all started this morning when I received an email about an old Phenice photo from the 1880s.  Someone wants to find relatives of the subjects of this old studio portrait made in Kansas.  She was trying to find someone who knew about the family.  I think she found the right person.  I know who the people in the photo are and I know who some of their current descendants are.  I haven’t seen the photo yet, but I look forward to seeing a photo of my great grandfather’s first cousins as children in 1880s Kansas.

In the meantime, I’m satisfied with looking at some old photos of my great great grandfather Samuel Charles Phenice.  You remember him, right?  He fought for the Union Army during the Civil War out of Pennsylvania.  He only fought in one notable battle – the Battle of the Wilderness.  But one was enough.  He was injured on May 5, 1864, in Spotsylvania, Viriginia.  While recovering from his injuries, he was stationed at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC, as part of the Veteran’s unit.  He was there the night of the Lincoln Assassination.  I don’t have any early photos of him in military garb.

Samuel Charles Phenice with grandchildren circa 1927 in Nebraska. From the Lincoln Collection.

I do have photos of him in his later years.  That’s because he lived such a long time.  He made it to the ripe old age of 95 years.  But in the photo I’m sharing with you, he was only 83.  He’s standing with four of his grandchildren.  They are his youngest grandchildren.  He had grandchildren much older than these four.  In fact, some of them were already parents themselves.  Samuel had about ten great grandchildren at this point.

They are his youngest because these grandchildren are the children of his youngest child.  He and my great great grandmother Cathrine “Kate” Foster Phenice had their last child Emma in 1889 when he was 45 years old.  That’s bit older than the average parent.  Then Emma had her last child Harry in 1927 when she was 37.

There is another interesting Lincoln connection here.  Harry was born on February 12, 1927.  February 12th is the birth date of Abraham Lincoln, so Harry was given the middle name of Lincoln.  Harry Lincoln Quillen.  I’m sure Samuel must have told little Harry his story of the Lincoln Assassination.  Harry lived to the age of 90, dying on his 90th birthday.  This photo came from that line of the family through Harry’s daughter Emma.  Thanks again for the photo.  I refer to the photos that she shared with me as the Lincoln Collection.  It seems appropriate.

There is a little bit of confusion about the subjects of this photo.  The caption was written by Samuel’s daughter Emma Phenice Quillen.  I think the people are called out in two rows.  The back row starts with Papa – Samuel Phenice – at the left.  On the right we have “Emma” holding Harry.  I don’t think that is Emma, who was 37 years old at the time.  I think it is her daughter Erma who was 15.  That’s why I call this photo Samuel and His Grandkids.  The two boys in the front with ties are Dean on the left and younger brother Harold on the right.

Samuel lived in Nebraska near Beaver City at least until 1930.  I’m thinking this must have been a visit to Grandpa’s house around 1927.

Harry and Daisy Keys Phenice in Hathaway, Louisiana.

This is a post about the Phenice family.  My maternal grandmother was Myrtle Phenice Bucklin.  She is my connection to the name.  So I thought I would post a photo of her parents.  Actually, the photo was the only thing I knew I wanted to have in the story for tonight.  Everything else followed in its wake.  It’s a photo I only recently acquired from one of my mom’s Phenice cousins.  (Thanks, Marilyn!) 

The photo is very charming because it has my great grandparents standing front and center in front of their home in their later years.  It’s a very symmetric composition, with a window showing on each side and the front door at the center.  The top of the roof is cropped off at the top, and their feet just barely made it into the frame.  It’s a great old photo.  At least the original of it is probably great.  The quality of this one isn’t.  I hope I’ll be able to improve on that with the help of a sharing relative.

The photo must have been taken around the time that H. C. (Harry Clifton Phenice) and Daisy (Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys) had repeated a tradition in my Phenice family line.  They got married on December 27, 1900, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and I’m thinking this photo is from around 1950 or 1951.  They survived to make it through fifty years of marriage.  That’s right, they weren’t the first couple to accomplish this in the Phenice family line, and they weren’t the last.

I’ve mentioned this “tradition” before, but I haven’t given the details.  I think it’s time to do that.  The first Phenice marriage of fifty years or more – that I know of – happened on May 29, 1792, in Hagerstown, Maryland.  I’m pretty positive of the connection, but I’m not sure of the spelling of the name.  Pretty ironic since Grandma was a stickler for correct spelling and it is my superpower.  The document I’ve seen gives the groom’s name as John Archibald Phenicie.  He was born in 1765 to Stephen and Ann Finnacy.  I don’t know much about them.  I don’t know when they were married or how long they lived, so I don’t know if they were part of the tradition.

But John married Margaret Maurer in 1792.  She was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1774.  They had at least eight children that I can attribute to them, including a son named Daniel born in 1809 in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.  John and Margaret both lived until at least 1850, so they were married for 58 years or so.  Margaret shows up in the 1850 Census, and her last name is given as Finnessy.  John and Margaret are Golden Marriage #1.

Daniel also was shown with the last name of Finnessy in the 1850 Census.  I always use the last name Phenice for him, since that is the way his descendants spell the name.  There was another Daniel born around the same time and around the same place (born in 1808 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania), but he goes by the last name Phenicie.  Our Daniel was already married to Susan Jackson by the time of the 1850 Census.  They had gotten married in 1830 or 1831, probably in Somerset County.  Susan had been born (in 1806) and reared in Somerset.

Daniel and Susan did not technically make it to the 50-year mark.  That’s because Susan did not live quite long enough.  She might have made it to the beginning of the 50th year, but the dates are uncertain.  I give it to her because I have a letter that she wrote in 1877, and she was all about the family.  Daniel and Susan are Golden Marriage #2.

Another person that showed up in that 1850 Census was 6-year-old Samuel Charles Phenice.  He would grow up in Mercer, Pennsylvania, and joined the military there to fight for the North in the Civil War in 1864.  He was a witness at the Lincoln Assassination the following year.  The next year he was married to Cathrine Jane Foster, who was four years younger than him.  They had eight children, including Harry Clifton who was born in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in 1874.  A few years later the family moved to Nebraska, which is where Samuel and Kate spent the rest of their marriage.

As some of you may remember, tragedy struck in 1920 on the eve of Christmas Eve.  Kate had a terrible accident where her clothes caught on fire, and she was seriously injured.  She died from the injuries two weeks later.  For some reason I’ve always thought of her as dying young.  But she lived to be 72 and she had been married for 54 years.  She lived about the same amount of time as her mother-in-law Susan had lived, but she had gotten married younger.  Samuel and Kate are Golden Marriage #3.

H. C. and Daisy were my mom’s grandparents.  H. C. was the only grandfather my mom knew.  Her paternal grandfather died before she was born.  She seemed to be very fond of old H. C.  H.C and Daisy had seven children.  Their sons had some long marriages as well.  Sylvan was married to Mary for 56 years.  Henry and Irma were married for 57 years.  Orville was married to Elta for 59 years.  Warren and Wilma were married for just short of 54 years.  H.C. and Daisy are Golden Marriage #4.

At least Myrtle could say she had the longest lasting marriage between herself and her two sisters.  Because if there was a competition between siblings, three of her brothers outdid her.  Myrtle Phenice married Fred Bucklin on March 12, 1930, in Raymond, Louisiana.  They had five children, including my mom, Betty Lou.  They lived most of their lives in Hathaway, Louisiana, but then moved to Jennings for their last few years.  When Grandpa died in 1984, they had been married almost 54 years.  Myrtle and Fred are Golden Marriage #5.

And finally, we get to my parents.  I didn’t realize this post would be so long when I started it.  I was just going to write a short little thing about each of the six couples who set up such a stable family foundation for their children and grandchildren.  But I didn’t want to leave anyone out.  Especially my parents.  Betty Lou Bucklin married Bob Landry on November 1, 1952, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  I’m not sure about all of the previous marriage, but I can safely say that my parents had a happy marriage that lasted for 64 years.  It was the longest of all the marriages I mentioned, and they definitely were happy with each other.  Betty and Bob are Golden Marriage #6.

The tradition continues…

I was wanting to post something about Grandma today.  It was her turn, and I didn’t want to go way back in the past to some great great ancestor or something.  I started looking at my Phenice related photos on my computer.  I saw this photo, which I really love.  It’s such a wonderful photo of her, but I had used it before.  I went back and checked on how long it had been.  It’s been nine years ago that I shared it.  It was then that I noticed that it had been one hundred years since she graduated from high school.  How could I pass up a post about a 100-year celebration?!  It’s a centennial!

Myrtle Sylvia Phenice graduated from high school in Jennings, Louisiana, on May 29, 1925.

I also can share the enhanced version of the photo.  Isn’t it great?  It’s so formal and serious.  Myrtle Sylvia Phenice was a vision in white.  I’ve always thought that she looked like she could have had Native American blood in her.  The DNA of her children does not show any.  Maybe it’s just the dark hair and strong cheekbones.  She was a striking young woman.

Myrtle was born on December 19, 1906, in Hathaway, Louisiana, to Harry Clifton Phenice and Daisy Martha Keys Phenice.  “She was always a rather bashful child and continue(d) to be a rather bashful adult.”  Harry or H.C. was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, to a family that had been in Pennsylvania for several generations.  Daisy was born in the London borough of Hackney, and her family was all English.  Somehow H.C. and Daisy got together, married, and started a family in Louisiana.

Myrtle was the third of seven children.  She had an older sister, a younger sister, and five brothers.  She was close to all of them, so I knew them.  Most of them lived in or near Jefferson Davis Parish when I grew up there.  Sometimes I would see them at her house, and other times I’d see them at family get togethers or reunions.  My fondest memories of them are when her sisters were at her house and they would just laugh and laugh.

Myrtle’s school career was varied.  It started in a one-room school called St. Elmo, which was four miles northeast of their home in Elton.  This is where she learned to love reading and spelling.  She went to schools in the China, Raymond, and Hathaway area.  All of those places are in the northern part of Jeff Davis Parish.  She also had a year in Kinder, which is in the neighboring Allen Parish.  She even had her older sister Grace as a teacher one year.  Besides reading and spelling, Myrtle had an interest in music and basketball.

In the third grade she won first place in a singing contest sponsored by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.  She also learned how to play piano from her mother.  Later, at the age of fourteen, she took piano lessons from a Mrs. Gray.  She received what she called invaluable practice from Mr. and Mrs. Gray for singing and playing piano.  Her basketball skills were coached by Dr. L. E. Shirley when she was in eighth and ninth grades.  My grandmother reported that they had strong teams both years and that she “played basketball with a vengeance.”  I was a witness to one of the last times she played basketball.  It was at our family Christmas get together in 1977 at our home in Jennings.  I call it Basketball Spectaculare and it was thoroughly entertaining.  If you were there, you know what I’m talking about.

She graduated from high school in Jennings, Louisiana, on May 29, 1925.  I didn’t write about it in May, but it’s not too late now.  It was probably 100 years ago at this time of the year that she started her college career at Southwest Louisiana Institute in Lafayette.  She got a teaching certificate from SLI after two years.  It was good for life.  Even after SLI changed its name to USL and later to ULL.

Some of you may have wondered how I remembered all of this information about my grandmother.  I didn’t.  My grandmother wrote a small blurb about herself and her family for her cousin Edith Keys Segraves.  Cousin Edith was a family historian who put together an invaluable book about their Keys-Cook family.  I’m so glad Grandma cooperated with her and gave her some family info.  I’m sure it’s all true.  If she said she was a bashful adult, she must have been.  I will not doubt her, even though my mother did scoff at that proclamation when she read it!  Some people’s children!

Sometimes I have a difficult time coming up with a title for my post.  Just something that will tell people that it’s about someone they might be interested in.  I didn’t have difficulty deciding on a title or a photo for this week.  The photo is one that I’ve had for a while.  I’ve always thought that I would eventually use the photo for a post.  Of course I would!  It’s a photo of my great great grandfather and there aren’t many photos of him around.  But I never thought of what I would write about it, and now I can’t think of anything to say about it.  I guess I’ll just click on these keys and see what happens.

Edited version of photo of Samuel Phenice circa 1935.

The photo in question is this photo that I got from my Phenice cousin Mona several years ago.  I think it was in 2017.  It’s a photo of our common ancestor Samuel Charles Phenice.  But she is a great granddaughter of Samuel.  That’s because she descends from the youngest child of Samuel’s youngest child.  She’s not much older than I am, but she’s in the same generation as my mother.

Samuel’s youngest daughter was Emma Phenice.  Unlike her older brother Harry that I descend from, she stayed in the area that her parents had settled in.  Emma had a closer connection to her parents through the years, and her children got to know them well.  When Samuel grew to be elderly, he went to live with Emma and her family.

Harry, on the other hand, moved down to Louisiana and visited from time to time.  I really don’t know how often he visited.  I’ve seen a few photos through the years, but I don’t know if those were the only times he visited.  I probably don’t have all the photos that were taken at these visits with the parents.  My grandmother was Harry’s daughter Myrtle, and I don’t know if she ever visited.  Her younger sister Marguerite recounted that she only visited once and there are photos of that visit.  I think if my mom had visited, she would have remembered and talked about it.  She liked to talk about Samuel and Cathrine, but I don’t remember hearing that she had met either one.  Cathrine died before mom was born, so that didn’t happen for sure.

Emma’s family spent more time with him and consequently have more photos of him.  Fortunately for me, they have been willing to share some of those photos.  I’m hoping there are more that I haven’t seen.  I’m very good at wishful thinking!!  The image I have of the photo was of poor quality.  It was just a snapshot taken with a shadow across the image.  I’m not sure if the original photo is much better.  So, I decided to revise and enhance it.  

Sometimes enhancing a blurry photo has results that don’t look like the person.  I revised the enhanced version to try to get it to look like Samuel the best I can.  The results may make him look a little younger than the 90-year-old man at the estimated time of the photo.  It’s better than nothing.  Plus, I’m letting you know that it is a revised image.  That was hinted at in the title.  A person of the mind to reject revised photos might have just skipped right over this post.  I’m hoping that you that came along enjoyed the image of one of my progenitors.