Mom's Family - Aunt Alice

Mom's Family

Aunt Alice

   My personal life is rather hectic right now, so I'm taking a break from some of the blogging.  In order to focus on the more positive, I'm going to take another look at my mom's family.  This time I want to examine all of my mom's siblings in a more cohesive manner.  Starting with my Aunt Alice.

   Alice Connor was born in June of 1915.  A year and 3 days after her parents marriage.  She was born in the family home in Staten Island.  Babies weren't born in hospitals back then.  In fact, 5 of Vincent and Ruth's 7 children were born there.  It was an older home in a good neighborhood.  The family considered itself (upper) middle class, even though most of the men worked in what we would consider blue collar occupations.  The family had servants and raised all of the children living there with their middle class standards.

   Before Alice started school a series of disasters began to befall the family.  Between 1919 and 1920, almost all of Vincent and Ruth's parents and grandparents died.  Ruth's father died the next year.  With John Turnpenny's death things began to change.  Within 6 years (after probate and the splitting of the proceeds) the family had sold the family house and most of Ruth's siblings had moved to upstate New York.  Ruth, Vincent, and their 5 children bought a small dairy farm and joined them.  Alice would have been 7 years old.

   The 6th child, Louise, was born within months of the move to the farm.  Ruth was in the late part of the pregnancy during most of that.  The youngest, living child(Joan) was born 2 years later.  Looking at the records,  All of the children had the normal diseases.  As the oldest girl, Alice must have been very busy helping.

   Approximately 1936 both Alice and Ralph graduated from high school-Ralph 2 years early.  Despite the lack of money, it was expected that the children would go to college if they could.  Since Ralph was already a professional musician, it was decided that the limited family college funds would go to Alice.   And so started what was probably the first real freedom that Alice had ever known.

   Alice attended college (to become a school teacher) just far enough away from home that she would have to live on campus.  So she found a job with a family who let her stay there as long as she helped out-a sort of live in maid.  Before that she got a job at Tupper Lake-an upstate New York summer resort.  She enjoyed her time at the Lake.  In fact, that was her summer job throughout her college years.  She did come home, but only for short visits.

  In June of 1937, after only 10 years of unsuccessfully trying to run a dairy farm, Ruth and Vincent sold what was left and moved back to Staten Island.  Not to the nicer neighborhood Alice had spent her early childhood in.  Instead they moved to Manis Harbor, down by the docks.  If was a rough, blue collar neighborhood.  But there were a lot of families, equally down on their luck.  Alice visited, but it wasn't where or how she wanted to live.

   There are a lot of facts that I don't have.  I know that brother Ralph (who Alice stayed close to most of their lives) married Betty in 1939.  I don't know if Alice was able to finish college, though I think she did.  I do know that some time after 1941 (probably around 1943), when the War started, Alice moved out to California with Ralph and Betty.  Both Ralph and Betty were tired of Ralph always being on the road with his music.  And Ralph was finally ready to go to school to become a doctor.

   Alice was ready for the big move because of a personal tragedy.  While at college she had become engaged.  The young man joined the air force and became a pilot.  Whatever plans they had died when her young man died became a casualty of a Natzi sinking of his ship (transporting him to Europe).

   Why California?  I think partly because it was on the other side of the country.  And because of the better winters.  Brother Everett had come through CA, via San Francisco on his way to the fighting in the Pacific.  Everett had declared that after the War, he was moving to California.  I suspect the whole family became infected with "California fever", because almost all of the family eventually moved there.

   While Ralph and Betty were getting settled in, Alice found work at a plant that was involved in the War effort.  It was Southern California, in the Los Angeles area, so maybe an aircraft plant.  In any event, she met a young man there.  He was an efficiency expert (the source of many a family joke after), single, Roman Catholic (like her), and blessedly 4F.  This was a man she wouldn't lose to the War.  They married and their first child was born in 1944.

   Alice's life was very busy after that.  They ended up with 6 children total.  The last 2 were against the advice of her doctor.  Brother Del came out to CA in July of 1945.  Ruth, Vincent, Louise, and Joan came out to CA after the War ended, in August of 1946.  In September of that year, after a major fight with her mom, sister Joan came to live with Alice and Murry and their growing family.  It was a time for the two sisters to finally become friends.  The eleven year difference in their ages had made that difficult.  They remained friends the rest of their lives.

   In 1949 Joan moved out to marry Jack Houk.  By then Alice and her family had moved into a house in the city of Alhambra.  The housing tract was supposed to be for veterans, but they were the second owners of the house.  They lived there on Camellia Drive until after Alice died.  Joan had her wedding reception there.  It was a house filled with life, laughter, and love.  Joan and her family lived in the next town, so they were close enough to visit each other often.  Alice had no problem letting Joan's daughter stay with them so the young couple could have some vacation time alone.

  There are a lot more stories that could be inserted here.  Hopefully I can do so later.  But to close this for now...  Eventually Alice retired from teaching at a local Catholic elementary school.  All of her children had married.  Only one divorce, that of her policeman son.  All were doing well.

   Alice was diagnosed with Leukemia.  She and her family had time to spend with each other.  Her time with her sister, Joan was especially precious to her.  Finally she had only one more goal.  Her oldest granddaughter was due to get married.  She wanted to be healthy enough to attend the wedding.  The story is that Alice met with her oncologist, asking for stronger pain killers so she could take part in the wedding.  This young man initially refused, stating that he didn't want to take the risk of her becoming addicted.  My aunt had been a school teacher, raised 6 kids, and dealt with a difficult husband-a mere doctor wasn't going to stop her.  I think her response was something along the lines of, "And this is a problem why?"  She got her drugs and was able to participate in her granddaugher's wedding as she had wanted.  I remember that she died less than a month later.

   Alice's memorial service was very fitting.  Since she knew she was dying, Alice had planned her service.  And it happened the way she had planned.   She had been one of the pillars of her parish for many years.  I think it was a memorial by the church to make sure her plans were carried out.

   I remember my Aunt Alice with much love.  She was a woman who had gone through a lot, but always found a way to help others.  She and my uncle lived a life of service to their children and others.  In many ways, they were the best Catholic Christians I've ever known.