Lillian Violet and her siblings....

My Grandmother Lillian Violet Losee was born on Febuary 25, 1905 to Mae E. (Boyer) and George Stephen Losee in Thetford Township, Genesee County, Michigan. I always wondered why her middle name was Violet. I wondered if it was Mae’s favorite color because it is mine so it makes me wonder but I don't remember if I asked her. She probably would not have known.

Lillian is the second oldest child and oldest daughter. She was 8 years old when her mother, Mae died. Lillian had been left in the house to watch the younger children while her mother went out to hang laundry on the clothes line. When her mother did not return to the house, Lillian went looking for her. Mae was found slumped over the wet laundry under the clothes line.  This event would turn Lillian and her siblings lives upside down.  Everything changed in an instant.

After Mae died, George was left with five children whose ages ranged from 11 to 1 year old. I can not imagine how overwelmed he must have felt.  Unfortunately his relationship with his children would change forever. Lillian, Florence and Ernest went to live with Mary Florence Boyer, Mae’s mother, in Flint.  Florence and Ernest were mere toddlers and would never have a memory of their mother. For several years I did not know why Lillian, Florence and Ernest lived in Flint with their Grandmother, Mary Florence while George and the older boys lived in Clio or at the farm in Gladwin. I assumed that it was because George was a farmer and the boys helped him but I wondered why Lillian didn't cook, clean and take over the household duties.  Eventually I found out that it was against the law for a father to raise an under age daughter by himself after a wife died. Daughter’s were shipped off to a female relative and George could not take care of an infant.
 
Eventually George would remarry,  and Ernest would go to live with his Father and his new wife Alice but by then the girls had been raised by their Grandma for so long that they remained in Flint with Mary Florence. They seemed to see their brothers and George regularly when they were at the Clio farm. There are a few pictures of kids together when they were small. And the oldest son Lester, attended the Doyle School with Lillian. Lester and Lillian are marked on the photo. This photo was likely taken a year or two after Mae’s death.
 

Lillian is 6th from the left in the middle row and Lester is 6th from the left seated in the front row.

 
 
Lillian is making a fashion statement in this picture as a teen in Flint. I always thought this was such a cute picture of her. It is one of the few that we have of her as a child.
 
Austin Boyer, Mary Florence’s husband died in 1908. After his death Mary Florence moved from Clio to Flint and ran a boarding house. The girls helped Mary Florence run the boarding house. I wish I had asked more questions about when she was young. She had very few pictures. Her Grandmother, Mary Florence was killed when she was hit by an interurban train in 1929. She was walking along the tracks on her way to Lillian’s house to see her Great Grandson for the first time. The Great Grandson was my Dad.
 
Lillian would lose a daughter at six years old, three short years later. Lose a mother, then a Grandmother  and then a daughter all with in 16 years.  Seems like an awful lot for one person to bear. Lillian’s faith was strong and she endured.  She did meet the love of her life during that 16 year , Everett Smith.

It was Grandma Lillian who decided that I ought to be the keeper of our family information all those years ago with that dusty old box of photo’s.

Love you Grandma Lillian!

Tombstone Tuesday - January 26, 2010

Lucile Mae Smith Daughter of Everett and Lillian Smith

Isn’t she cute? She was Lucile Mae Smith, was born on October 29, 1924. She’ll always remain a six year old girl. She died in the days before penicillin when she became ill with streptococcus. She died on March 21, 1934 at 11:50 PM.

She missed growing up to be a big sister to her brother, Harold. Today people do not generally die of Streptococcus because they recieve an antibiotic and they get better.  We missed out on knowing our Aunt and Dad missed out on having a sister.  I think that is why he decided to have such a big family all those years later... Well, the real reason was, he wanted to have a son so our Smith name continued. It just happened that he got four daughter before he had a son.  Then they decided that Mark, his first son, needed a brother. It just would not be fair to raise him alone with all of the girls!  Bless you Lucile, I wish I had known you!

Tombstone Tuesday - January, 19, 2010

Some where after the heat kicked in, I noticed that the red numbers on the ceiling said 2:11 AM. What seemed like a short while later I noticed it was 4:14. By now the brain has kicked in and memories are firing right and left before long the rest of me is awake too. I had wondered last night how I would get my Tombstone Tuesday written. Well, now I know…

With memories reeling in my brain and one of the frames that I noticed were of a man who in my life was larger than life. His name was Everett Alton Smith. He was the oldest son of Alvin and Cora Smith. He was born in 1904 in Uniondale, Indiana at the home of his maternal Grandparents, John and Emma Crites. Three years earlier the first automobile had been produced, 1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile, built by Ransom E. Olds. It’s hard for me to image a time when there wasn’t an automobile. Alvin, Everett’s father would decide 16 years later that it was time to get in on this “automobile action” which would begin a bit of a legacy in this Smith family with General Motors. Everett however would make a different decision about his life. As a young newly wed man, Everett work for a company which manufactured and sold batteries and other automotive parts.

Everett is seated at a display which is setup in a large tent for at some kind of a conference. On his marriage license, Everett states that he is a battery charger. Within 10 years Everett would find what would turn out to be his real calling. He enrolled in the seminary at Albion College where he lived and studied for a year while his young wife and small children remained in Flint with other family members. He was officially ordained as a minister in 1933, soon after the Great Depression. In 1934, he become an elder of the Methodist Protestant Church in the Michigan Conference. He would serve as a minister in seven church from 1934 until 1956 when he retired. Everett learned that he was afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis which cut short his career as a minister. He had decided that he would preach as long as he could stand behind the pulpit. When he could no longer be certain that he could stand, he would retire. The year would be 1956. After retiring, he and Lillian remained in Lapeer until 1965, when they moved into the West Grand Boulevard Temple Retirement home, in Detriot.

As the granddaughter of Everett, what I really remember the most is that he was a gentle giant. He seemed so big to me. As a child, his lap was a favorite place of mine. You were always welcome to come sit with him especially when he found a rocking chair or a large wing back. I could melt into his lap and listen to his mellow voice. When he gave you a hug you were engulfed by the most secure set of and loving arms. They reminded me of the arms of God. Looking back at his life, he knew then that he had MS and knew that his life would soon change in a radical way. He always had a smile on his bright face and a kind word. If he was afraid or anxious about his illness, he never showed it.



Here he is holding Sharon and you can see the brace that he wore on his right leg. It was this brace that I remembered that he wore when I was a kid. I remember that he could not run and play with us, like my Dad did but he was older and I just thought that maybe that was why. When I was seven, I spent a week in Lapeer with Grandma and Grandpa. It was during that week when I realized that something was wrong with Grandpa. Every morning and afternoon, Grandpa would spend twenty minutes on a stationary bike exercising his legs trying to keep them alive but in the hours between the morning and afternoon bike sessions he spent four hours at the WMRP radio station working. Grandma and I rode to the station early to pick him up from work each day. I remember sitting in the parking lot of the station where we listened to the last ten minutes of his broadcast. It was a bit strange hearing his familiar velvety voice coming out of the car speakers. Two short years later he could no longer make his legs work so he began to use the wheel chair that we all remember so well. From that time on he became a very dependent on all the people around him. There must have been a struggle within him. This once large robust man who can now can barely move but he bore his burden in silence. Thankful for those around him who helped him each day. For thirteen years he lived in a body which lost its ability to function day by day. On March 9,1978 , his heart finally quit beating and he was gone.