Tuesday, November 27, 2007

MEET INA AND HER CHILDREN, 1953


I'm experimenting here to see if I can scan and post some old pictures. This picture of Ina Dobson surrounded by her children was taken in July 1953. From left they are: Myrtle, Earle, Vance, Ethel, and Shirley. The eldest child, Pearl, passed away in this timeframe. The location is the woodshed at the farm. It's not much of a building but picturesque.
Myrtle preferred to be called "Lynn" in her younger years; I always refer to her as "Aunt Lynn." She never married and became Ina's caregiver and companion in her last years. Earle's birth name was Irl; he didn't like the different spelling so he changed it to "Earl" and later to "Earle" so that it would be different. (Hmmmm!) Earle's wife was Bernice Dryden from Peck. They both taught in Idaho Falls. Bernice passed away in the late 1950s and Earle and Lynn eventually lived in Nezperce and made frequent visits to the farm. Vance, of course, is my dad; he took over the farm for Grandma when Grandpa Jack died, but our family lived in Orofino where he was a piano teacher. Ethel and her husband, Ernest Robinson, moved to Orofino in the 1950s where he was retired and she worked for the Employment Office. Ethel and my dad were good friends. Shirley, the youngest, married Henry Shockley in 1936 and they moved to Seattle in the late '30s where he worked for Boeing until retirement. Seattle continued to be their home.
Ina's grandchildren were: Stanley (Pearl's only son), 1920-1995; Shirley Jean (Ethel's daughter), 1926-1996; Roberta (1939?) and Marilyn Shockley (1943?), Shirley's daughters; and Kathy (1949). I have lost touch with Roberta and Marilyn.
There will not be a test -- but I wanted to introduce this family because over the next month I am going to share "Christmas at Ina's House" from letters she and others wrote to my dad in the 1930s. (KW)

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