Family History - Part 38

Tennis in the Past

July 4, 2019 Van Leave a comment

With Wimbledon going on this week, I thought I would go with a tennis theme. Besides that, I recently came into possession of an old photo of my grandfather on a tennis court and holding a tennis racket. I had never seen the photo before, so I was excited to see this new image.

Bucklin tennis circa 1924

I got this photo from my cousin Carla. She let me know that she had some photos that I might be interested in. I was thinking it was just a few photos. Boy, was I wrong! There were dozens of old Bucklin family photos from the 1920s of my grandfather and his siblings. What a treasure trove!

Carla and mom (Betty Lou Bucklin Landry) were first cousins and their dads were identical twin brothers. Carla’s dad was Clarence and my grandfather was Fred. Since neither of us can tell which one is which in the photo, I’m gonna go with Fred being the one on the left and Clarence on the right. I don’t know who the girl in the middle is.

The twins were born on October 2, 1907. The photo was taken around 1924, so they would be teenagers at that time. That looks about right. I know that the family played basketball a lot and I did get some photos of that, but evidently they also played tennis. Being a fan and a player myself, I was excited to find a picture of them in tennis gear from the time. Those old wooden tennis rackets look so small, but that wouldn’t be changing for another fifty years or so. They look like the first racket I had in the 1970s.

Betty Lou Bucklin circa 1950

They also look very similar to the one my mom is holding in this photo from around 1950. Though my mom is holding a tennis racket, she is decidedly not dressed for tennis. I think the tennis racket is just a prop to hold while modeling her dress. The intent was probably to show off her dress-making skills, not her tennis ones.

I don’t even know if she ever played tennis. She was a very serious basketball player all through high school and equally devoted to playing in the band. But tennis? Not so much.

The other thing I realized is that the two photos show both my mom and my grandfather at about the same age. Even though I played tennis a little bit in high school, there isn’t a photo to prove it. That’s just as well – I posted a photo of myself at seventeen years old only two weeks ago.

Tennis anyone?

Bucklin

Landry Family at the Park

June 27, 2019 Van Leave a comment

Landry family circa 1952

Here is a nice photo of my dad’s family from around 1952. This is when the family was growing at a rapid pace. He and his brothers and sisters were getting married and starting to have children. As you can see, a few of them have already made their appearance.

My dad was Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. Most people called him Bob or Pluto, though the family called him Bobbie. Not me, of course, I called him Daddy. But I don’t think he was a father at this point. I’m not even sure if he was married then, either.

Of course I know that my parents were married on November 1, 1952, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. I’m thinking that this photo was taken either at the I-10 Park in Lake Charles or at Sam Houston Park north of Lake Charles. I’m judging the year based on who is in the photo. Of course my godmother Shirley is there. She is “The First” after all. The first three were born in the late 1940s, and that included her younger brother Hubey and cousin Mark.

Let me identify the people in the photo before I mention any more people. Starting on the left, you’ll find our dear sweet grandmother. That’s my dad’s mom. We called her Mee Maw. (or Memaw as some like to say) Her name was Germaine Erie Patureau Landry. She was “Mrs. Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.” She was very traditional, what can I say? Standing next to her is my aunt Mildred Sutherlin Landry. She was the mother of Shirley Landry Shaw, who is standing next to her. Shirley is standing in front of our aunt Frances Landry (later Raley). Frances looks like she might be thinking something negative about something she is looking at. But that couldn’t be possible, because she never had any negative thoughts! She’s likely just blinking while the camera shutter snaps.

In front of Shirley and Frances is a young boy. He’s most likely Hubey, because he’s sitting in his father Hubert Landry’s lap. Behind him are standing the oldest brother A. J. Landry and my dad. Sitting at the table is my godfather Johnny Landry. Now the next person definitely looks like she is not happy. That’s my aunt Marie Landry Reeves. She was the mother of my cousin Mark. Maybe she’s upset that she doesn’t have her son in the photo? Nor her husband. Or maybe that’s Mark in the photo and Aunt Germaine is holding him. If that were the case, then shouldn’t that glare be turned toward Germaine. I suppose I’m reading it all wrong. I’m sure Aunt Marie was very happy that day. Anyone can see that! Right?

So what’s throwing me off about the date of this photo is that when I first saw it, I thought the child on the right was Germaine’s daughter Daphne. She wasn’t born in the 40s, so it would push the year back a little. If it is her, there should be more grandchildren in the photo. Also missing from the photo is Pee Paw, Aunt Wana and Uncle Duffy, Uncle Ross, and Uncle Malloy. One of them was probably taking the photo. I’m sure my older cousins will help me out with these uncertainties.

Either way, it is a dreamy picture of some of the Landry family in the early 50s.

40 Year High School Reunions

June 20, 2019 Van Leave a comment

Van Landry, a 1979 graduate

This weekend I am going to my 40 year high school reunion. How can that be? I don’t feel like I’m 40 years older and I’m sure everybody is thinking that I don’t look old enough for a 40 year reunion from high school. Right? In my mind, I am that young guy going to the local photo studio one sunny summer afternoon in the late 70s to have a senior portrait made.

But really, who am I kidding? It was definitely forty years ago. My fellow classmates and I put on our caps and gowns on the evening of May 17, 1979, and got ready to head to the stadium. The girls in the group wore white gowns as the guys wore maroon. That’s because we were the Bulldogs from Jennings High School from Jennings, Louisiana, and those were our school colors.

Betty, Jamie, Van, and Bob Landry on May 17, 1979.

Before I left for the ceremony, I had to take a few photos with my family. Here I am with my mom and dad and my younger sister Jamie. I was the fifth child in my family to graduate from high school and Jamie would graduate the following year. My mom would be turning 46 a few days later, and my dad was 50 years old.

I remember thinking my dad was pretty old since I was in junior high, if not earlier. My mom was no spring chicken herself, yet they still had a few years before their own 40 year high school reunions. After taking the photos, we headed over to the stadium for the ceremony.

The Jennings High School class of 1979

I’m not going to look up the facts about the situation because using my memory will prove just how old I am! From what I remember there were 209 graduating seniors in our class. Supposedly it was the biggest class that there ever was at the time from the school. I also think that I’ve heard that there was never a larger class. Perhaps that’s true. I’m sure I’ll be corrected in the likely situation that I’m wrong.

Can you see me in the group photo? I’m on the right side of the photo in the maroon gown with a gold collar. That was another school color. So maroon, white, and gold were our school colors. Hmm, I think gray was another one. Can you have four school colors? But I think that’s all of them: maroon, white, gray, and gold. I won’t bore you with all of the other details from that night, mostly because I can’t remember them all! Remember? It was 40 years ago! Our class song was “The Theme From Mahogany.”

I was thinking about my reunion all this week. My classmates have been posting information off and on. I was looking through my family history information and ran across something interesting. It is a newspaper article about my grandfather’s 40th year high school anniversary in 1966. I knew when I saw it that I was going to have to include it in my post this week.

My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry, and her father is the Fred Bucklin talked about in this article. He also had four older siblings that had graduated before him, though his graduating class included his identical twin Clarence and their younger sister Edna.

I am not mentioned by name in the article, but I am one of the grandsons that helped him have more grandchildren than any of his classmates. I don’t remember my grandfather going to his reunion, but I can remember lots of things in my life from 1966 and before. And one thing I am quite sure of: my grandfather was a really old man ever since I was a kid.

So this brings me to one glaring conclusion – I really am an old fart! There’s no getting around it. But that’s okay. Like I said at the first, I’m not alone in this. All my classmates are old farts, too!

Reunion update:

Thank you, Jean Coco, for reminding me that “The Way We Were” was our class song. I went to my Memories book to confirm this and found a newspaper clipping from the day after our graduation.

…found another article about my grandfather’s 40th anniversary online…

1966 was the year of my grandfather Fred Bucklin’s 40th year anniversary of graduating Elton High School

The Bucklins in 1950: Color by Betty Lou

June 13, 2019 Van One comment

Fred D. and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin family in 1950

This is the best photo of my mom and her family from when she was growing up. I posted a family photo of them from 1948, but that one didn’t include her parents. There were several photos taken on the day of this photo, with some of them looking like they were trying to be serious. But inevitably, one of them was laughing or smiling.

This is the Fred and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin family in 1950. Fred Bucklin married Myrtle Phenice on March 12, 1930, at the Raymond Methodist Church in Raymond, Louisiana. The day before their first anniversary, they had their first daughter Sylvia Daisy Bucklin. She is the dark haired beauty standing on the far left of the photo. Their next daughter was my mom Betty Lou Bucklin, who was born on May 20, 1933. She is standing on the far right of the photo. Their next daughter was Alma Marie, who was born on November 10, 1935. She is the blond standing next to my mom. Their fourth and final daughter was Loris Janet, who was born August 31, 1937. She is the brunette with the inquisitive look standing next to Sylvia. Then, the day after their 12th wedding anniversary, a little boy finally showed up. Austin Harry can be seen front and center in the photo.

This photo is actually a composite of two of the photos taken that day. Most of the photo is from one original photo, but I swapped the part of my mom with another photo that I thought was better of her. These photos are really difficult to work with. They are textured and matte finish, which makes them look scaly when they are scanned. I remember my mom liking the quality of the paper with that particular finish. She said that it worked really well for tinting photos. And that’s exactly what she did with one of them.

The colorful Fred and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin family in 1950. Color by Betty Lou.

This is the family photo that she tinted. It was this photo that was on my mind this week when I was considering my blog post. I recently joined a group on Facebook that provides free colorizing of old photos. I submitted one of my dad’s father and it came out nicely.

When I first started doing any type of photo editing, one of the things that I did was tinting black and white photos. I later decided to focus on making the photos as clear as possible by removing blemishes and improving the contrast and lighting.

But I’ve seen some really good colorizing that has made me reconsider my view. Maybe I’ll follow in my mom’s tinted footsteps and you’ll see a future post titled “Color by Van.”

Update Dec. 20, 2020 – replace photos with enhanced versions for more detail in the faces

Christmas 1923 With Grandma Amelie

June 6, 2019 Van Leave a comment

The first time I remember seeing this photo was shortly after clearing out my parents’ house in January 2016. I was the one that took all of the old photos and genealogy information for both of my parents. I was thinking that I was familiar with all of the old photos that they had, but I was wrong. There were several photos that I had seen online from other relatives that I had hoped to get copies of, and I discovered that I now had those photos.

But there were several others like this one that I didn’t recall seeing anywhere else. I found this image on a slide that was in a box of many more. On the border of the slide, it reads “Grandma Amelie + women who spent last Christmas with her 1923.” (As you can see in the photo I posted.)

I knew who Amelie was. She is my great great grandmother. My dad was Bob Landry and his mother was Erie Patureau Landry. Her mother was Marie Therese Landry Patureau, who was the oldest daughter of Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry Babin. Boy, that is a mouth-full! But she was known by simpler names, such as Belite, Amelie, Grandma Amelie, or Grandma Babin.

But who were all of these women spending Grandma Belite’s last Christmas with her? My first thought was that it was some kind of women’s retreat that she had gone to. But really, what 80-year-old woman goes on a retreat a month before she dies? Not that she knew she was going to die just over a month later (Jan. 28, 1924), but you can see that she seems a bit frail in this photo. I then considered that some of the women were family members. I didn’t really give it much more thought, because I didn’t really recognize anyone in the photo.

Van Landry with dad’s first cousin Sis Vicknair.

A little over a year later in July 2017, I went to a Landry family reunion in Lake Charles. Of course there were lots of cousins there. One of those cousins was my dad’s first cousin Sis, who has been collecting Patureau family information for a while. When she was sharing her book, I saw this photo again! And she had the names of everyone in the photo! After seeing some more of her photos and some of the ones I had, we realized we need to meet up and share.

Amazingly, we actually followed through with that! Me and my own first cousins haven’t done the same thing, yet. We’ve been talking about it for a few years. Someday soon, I say, very soon.

Grandma Amelie + women Christmas 1923

So this is the photo that Sis shared with me. I’ve edited it to clean it up a bit and now I can tell you who all of those women are. I should have suspected that they were her grandchildren. She was referred to as “Grandma Amelie” on the notation after all! They all descended from her.

On the front row is Emma Patureau Mouton, Hazel Landry, and Wana C. Landry. The back row is Sylvie Patureau, Naomi “Sis” Landry, Therese Wynhoven “Tez” Mouton (held by Sis), Grandma Belite, Clemence Babin Landry, Lydwin Patureau, Mona Mel Mouton (held by MTP), Marie Therese “Bee” Patureau, and Zita Patureau.

The main thing I don’t like about this photo is that my Mee Maw isn’t in it! Neither is her sister Lorena. Their mother Marie Therese Landry Patureau wasn’t in it because she died in 1909, but their sisters Emma, Sylvie, Lydwin, Bee, and Zita were there. It also includes Emma’s daughters Tez and Mona Mel. Mee Maw was expecting her first child in a few months, so maybe that’s why she didn’t attend the gathering. Besides grandchildren and great grandchildren, one of her daughters is in the mix. Clemence was her daughter by Belite’s marriage to Magloire Babin. Clemence was married to Louis Joseph Peter Landry, and their daughters were Sis, Hazel, and Wana C.

I was considering explaining all of the other ways that everyone was related to one another, but it got really confusing quickly. Best just to say that Belite looks like she had a lovely gathering for her final Christmas with her family.

Dec. 17, 2021 – Update

I’ve been looking over some videos that my dad made and noticed some bits of information about this photo. This photo was taken at Uncle Louie and Aunt Clem’s home on South College Road in Lafayette, Louisiana. The copy of the photo I had from Daddy was a slide photo. I think he got that from his first cousin Naomi “Sis” Landry Vincent, the daughter of Louie and Clem. She put together a slide show of all of her old photos and got together with Daddy to explain who everyone was in those photos. An extremely helpful slideshow that fills in a lot of gaps that I had. Thanks again, Daddy and Sis, as well as cousin Tez who shared some of her photos as well.

Twins and Stilts

May 30, 2019 Van Leave a comment

I remember my mom telling me about her dad’s family when I was a child. I thought we were a pretty big family because I was one of six children. But my grandfather was from an even bigger family. He was one of twelve children! I was pretty impressed by that. It was like that book I read back then called “Cheaper By the Dozen.” But my great grandmother Addie Hine Bucklin cheated a little, because she had two sets of twins. So she only had ten pregnancies.

My grandfather Fred was in one set of twins. He had an identical brother named Clarence. They were born Oct. 2, 1907, and they were the seventh and eighth children of Louis and Addie Bucklin. I’m not sure who was born first. I wonder if anyone knows? After two other children were born (Edna and Robert), there was another set of twins in 1915. Obviously they were not identical, because the girl was named Ruth and the boy was named Roy.

Ruth Bucklin, Myrtle Phenice, Orville P., Clarence B., Myrtle Moon, Warren P., Roy B., Fred B., and Jack Jester circa 1927

Both of the sets of twins can be seen in this photo. Ruth is on the far left of the photo, while Roy is the one with the stilts on. I would say they look about 12 years old in this photo, which would put the year for this photo at 1927.

According to the IDs that I had on this photo from Joseph and Louise (ID’d by possibly Ruth and my mom), Clarence is the twin fourth from the left and Fred is the one second from the right. I really like this photo and really appreciate the IDs, but the original version of the photo that I got was rather poor. I was getting ready to inquire about a better version, but then I got this copy from my cousin Carla. And that’s why you’re seeing it today – I finally have that better version.

There aren’t any other twins in the photo, but there are some other similarities. If I got the date correct, Fred would later marry Myrtle Phenice and Clarence would later marry Myrtle Moon. Myrtle Phenice (or Grandma to us grandkids) is second from the left and Myrtle Moon is the center person in the photo. There are two other guys in the photo who kind of look alike, but they’re just regular brothers. Actually they are two of my grandmother’s younger brothers. Orville is to the right of Grandma, and Henry is to the right of the other Myrtle. That leaves just one more person in the photo. I thought of cropping him out of the photo, but didn’t have the heart. He’s not part of my family, but he is part of somebody’s. Maybe someone will know him. He is identified as Jack Jester. He must have been a friend of the family.

I like these photos of the two families – Phenice and Bucklin – together. With eleven children in the Bucklin group and eight in the Phenice group, there were a lot of opportunities for friendships. Two couples came out of the two groups – Sylvan P. married Mary B. in 1926 and Fred married Myrtle in 1930. I’m hopeful that there are more photos to be discovered and shared with everyone. I’m always on the lookout.

Pee Paw Strikes a Pose

May 23, 2019 Van One comment

I don’t remember when I first saw this photo of my paternal grandfather. I know that at one point I had an old version of it that I edited to get rid of scratches and such. Then shortly after I finished that, I got a better version from somewhere else. I’m thinking that I got the improved version from Uncle A. J., but I’m not sure. Either way, I put off working on the new version since I had just edited the old version nicely. So last year I posted a different photo of Pee Paw in the Great War and put off the redo on the upgraded version.

But now is the time for this great photo. This is a photo of Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. I have several photos of him from his time at training for World War I. On one of the photos I got from Uncle A. J., it stated that the date was 1919 and that he was at Camp Lee in Virginia. That was near the end of the war, so it looks like he went through the training for the war, but was never shipped anywhere.

But there were several photos. He was a big baseball player, so there’s a team photo with military uniforms. There is also another group photo with his unit, I presume. Many of them are just goofing around with friends or posing by himself. But this one has always been my favorite. He’s got such a casual pose, yet he looks rather dignified.

Everyone loves a man in uniform.

Landry

Keys Reunion 2019

May 16, 2019 Van One comment

I thought I would send out a reminder/invitation to this year’s Keys Family Reunion. We had a reunion two years ago, and it was such a success that we decided to have another one. The first Keys Reunion happened in 1973 and our family went to that one. (I’m still hoping to see a video from the people I remember recording the event. I didn’t know who it was with the recorders, but remember seeing them being lugged around.) I have photos from that reunion and from subsequent ones throughout the years.

I don’t know if the reunions went on consistently through the years, but I remember some happening in the 90s and 2000s. We started them up again two years ago and there was a good turnout. But it would be nice to have all of the children of Martha Ann Cook Keys represented. She was that brave woman who brought her five children from England to southern Louisiana in June of 1887. She also happens to be my great great grandmother. Her five children were Henry Alfred “The Judge” Keys, Leonard James Keys, Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice, Rosetta “Ruth” Keys Bryan, and Mabel Olive Keys Miller.

Mabel Keys Miller, Daisy Keys Phenice, Harry Clifton Phenice, Leonard James Keys, and Edessa Havenar Keys in 1938.

I got this photo recently that shows three of those five siblings. Since I’m wanting all five of them to be represented, I should use a photo that has all five of them in it. But I don’t have one! This one has Mabel, Daisy with her husband H. C., and Leonard with his wife Edessa in 1938. It was taken at Leonard’s home in Elton. I posted a larger group photo from the same day about nine months ago.

When I first saw this photo I was really excited because I was thinking it might be the five siblings in the same photo. Then I realized that two of them were spouses. I can’t be too disappointed since it is such a great photo and my great grandparents are in it. If anyone has a photo that includes all five siblings, I would love to see it and scan it. Bring any interesting photo to the reunion. I’ll take photos of them or borrow them to scan if possible. I tried to take a photo of Daisy and H. C. with some kids on a horse, but it didn’t come out very well. I’d like to try again, but can’t remember who had that photo.

I thought I’d post this photo of The Judge’s family, since he didn’t show up in the first photo. I got this from a cousin on Facebook, but can’t remember who that was. I need to take better notes! I’d also like to have a few names for people in the photo and the approximate year.

I know that many of them lived in Kinder. Henry Alfred and his wife Eugenia LaFosse had twelve children together, so there should be lots of descendants from that line. I’d like to see some of them at the reunion.

I can’t ignore the Ruth Keys Bryan line of the family! This photo is from the 1973 Keys Family Reunion and it shows the descendants of Ruth at that time – at least the ones that showed up and were willing to pose for a picture.

I know the names of some of these, but would like to know more. And if I were to guess who it was that had a video recorder back at that reunion, I would say it was this guy in the red jumpsuit. Who is that man in red?

We can discuss who these people are online, or you can wait until the family reunion. Like I said, I’d like to see you there. “Where?” you ask. It is going to be at the Raymond Methodist Church annex, which is located at 5532 Pine Island Hwy. The festivities are on Saturday June 15th and they start at 10:00 a.m.

Keys

Our Erie the Student

May 8, 2019 Van Leave a comment

Long before my dear sweet Mee Maw (Germaine Erie Patureau Landry) taught me and my siblings how to play Solitaire – even before she taught her own children how to play Canasta and Pinochle, she was just little ol’ Erie, student at SLI. According to this old school newspaper, she started school there in 1912 after graduating high school from Crescent, Louisiana.

Class photo from around 1914 at SLI in Lafayette, Louisiana

I think this picture titled “Fourth Year Class” was taken in 1914 at the beginning of her senior year at SLI. The accompanying school newspaper cover shows the graduating class of 1915 with Erie on the front row. Neither one of the photos is very clear. They are school newspaper photos after all and I think it’s amazing that they have survived in any form all of these years later. I like this photo because she looks so stylish with her black skirt and lace-up boots. (In the front on the right.)

I remember that when I was younger, I thought my Mee Maw was from Lafayette. Now I think of her a being from Plaquemine. Most of her childhood was spent in Crescent, which is a suburb of Plaquemine. Her mother died in 1909 when Erie was just 14 years old. Her mother’s mother Belite (Marie Amelie Bujol Landry Babin, known as Grandma Babin to some) moved to Lafayette by 1910. Her father Max (Vincent Maximilian Patureau) stayed in Crescent until 1912, which was around the time Erie finished high school. He set up practice in Lafayette in October of 1911 and brought the children over in April of 1912.

So once she finished high school, her home was Lafayette for about ten years. Even after she got married in 1921 and moved to Lake Charles to live, her father lived in Lafayette for several more years. When I was a kid I didn’t consider all of these details. I wish I had asked a bit more back then, but we were too busy playing games and singing songs. So it’s a good thing these articles were saved that have a few photos and some reminiscences of young Erie.

The front page photo has Erie second from the right on the front row. (See here for a better version of the photo.) It looks like the photo must have been taken in the cooler time because of the heavier clothes. This photo has more people in it than the previous one, so that is a little confusing for me. Usually classes get smaller as time goes on with people dropping out or moving away.

This front pages starts introducing members of the class and telling what each individual accomplished during the years. Mee Maw is not mentioned there.

The second pages gives a description of the paper and its staff. It also has a dedication. Someone must have asked the class what they wanted to will to the younger class mates. It’s called “LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE SENIOR CLASS.” Very dramatic. Check out number 19: I, Erie Patureau, do will and bequeath my good times to Pierre Hernandez.

My favorite part of the pages is the article on the right side called “HISTORY OF THE CLASS OF ’15.” (That’s 1915 in case you were unsure.) It mentions many of the class members, but what they write about Mee Maw is sweet – “The following January after all dangers of finals was over Erie showed up. Modest and retiring, she was hard to make friends with, but we were determined and now she’s ours.” I like that.

Page 3 continues with introductions to the class. There at the bottom of the first column is our Germaine Erie Patureau. That’s where I learned that she entered S. L. I. I. from Crescent Graded School in 1912. It doesn’t list any accomplishments at all. Not one. I wonder why that is? What it does have is a quote in Latin: “Dulce est recipere in loco.” According to Google translate, that means “Sweet is back in place.” That makes no sense.

I tried to reword it, but nothing really made sense. Put sweet back in its place? Give sweetness back in place? Dude? Sweet! (What does mine say?) So I searched again and found a famous Latin quote – “Dulce est desipere in loco.” That means, “It is sweet on occasion to play the fool” or “It is pleasant to be frivolous at the appropriate time.” I wonder if that is a quote that she liked, or was it said to her?

Page 4 has a letter that is a study in alternative reality. Someone wrote a letter as though it were years later and talks about the old classmates he runs into on his travels. There is a mention of our Erie in it. In that alternate reality, she went to Europe as a Red Cross nurse helping in a hospital.

While that would have been a grand and noble thing to do, I do prefer the reality of her staying here in the States and becoming my grandmother. Of course, I am biased.

Patureau

100 Years Gone, Bye George

May 2, 2019 Van Leave a comment

I’m repeating myself. Of course, these posts are all about repeating stories from the past. But this time I’m using a photo that I’ve used before. Twice before, actually. It’s just such a great photo, though. I really need to get a good print of this photo, by George. Those eyes mesmerize me.

The occasion for posting this photo again is that May 3, 2019, is the 100th anniversary of the death of our George. That would be my great great grandfather George Henry Hine. My mother was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry. Her father was Fred D. Bucklin. His mother was Addie May Hine Bucklin, the oldest child of George. George got married to Susan G. (Grandma Sue or just Sue) Stanbrough on October 12, 1873, in Hamilton County, Indiana. Besides having my great grandmother Addie, they had five sons.

“The People’s Guide: A Business, Political and Religious Directory of Boone Co., Ind.,” 1874, p. 136

The family was from Indiana and lived there until 1894. I’ve shared photos of the family in Indiana before, but recently I found some more history of George’s family in Indiana. I knew that Sue’s Stanbrough family had moved to Indiana from Ohio around 1830. I also knew that the Hine family had moved to Indiana from North Carolina around 1835. But George’s mother was Malina Cox and the Cox family name was a recent discovery. I found that Malina’s father was Benjamin Cox, who was born in 1796. In an old book about Boone County, Indiana, it had a small mention of the family moving to Indiana from North Carolina in 1829.

So sixty years later the Hine family – at least the George Henry Hine family – made their way south to Louisiana. They homesteaded in Jefferson Davis Parish around China. In a letter I shared previously from May of 1916, Sue wrote about how George had come close to dying on May 2 (1915). He was doing quite well in 1916 as a result of quitting his medicines and drinking cold water. (Per Grandma Sue’s letter.) She talks about how Addie and the family had moved back to Louisiana after their stint in Arkansas. She was also glad that their son Roe lived close by and could answer their ring when they needed something.

Obituary for Grandpa Hine in the Jennings Daily Times Record on May 22, 1919.

I always thought it was so sweet that Sue’s son Rowe (Roe) lived so close and could help them out in their older years. But then I realized that Rowe died only four months after that May 1916 letter was written. Like my sister Jodie, he died at the age of 36. And I’m sure his death must have impacted their family as it did ours. I’m sure that bell she mentioned in the letter was one of the bittersweet reminders of her son.

Then came that fateful day 100 years ago when George passed away after he and Sue had been married for 45 years. He was 72 years, 5 months, 6 days old. As Sue would say a few years later when speaking of her brother’s death, “the Death angel came for him.” The newspaper article that gave notice of his death talked about how much George suffered his last few years.

So Grandma Sue was probably thinking of her dear George when she wrote that letter to family about her brother’s death. Even though she wasn’t specifically writing about George, the words probably fit her sentiment about her husband’s death, “I was glad he did not have to suffer (any longer). and of course we all have that debt to pay sooner or later.”

Cox
Hine

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