Do-it-yourself Living History Interview

There are some great ideas out there, and one of them is being promoted by a company called Story Corps. It is a national organization and offers self-help and family starter kits for rent to teach people how to record family histories orally. It is somewhat expensive - you might want to buy your own equipment - but the point is, it gets you started. Here is a quote from their Do-It-Yourself page:

"Record interviews to honor the lives of the people you love, to create your own archive, and to celebrate holidays and family events, such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or graduation. The stories you collect will become treasured keepsakes that grow more valuable with each passing generation."

I couldn't agree more, candidly, as I started this project with this exact sentiment in mind. Your story may interest me and future generations, but the most likely fans of your living history will be those from future generations in your own family.

So often I hear older people say to their friends, children or grandchildren, "I wish you had known my mother (or father, or brother). You would have loved her (him, etc.).  And she would have loved you too!"

Or a relative says, "You remind me so much of your grandmother! She had the same beautiful smile."

I never met my maternal grandmother as she died when my mother was only 18. My grandfather remarried my step-grandmother and they were together for almost forty years, but he would always hug me when he saw me and say, "You know why I love you? Because you remind me so much of my wife!" Of course, it was a bit mortifying that my other grandmother had to bear witness to this I thought at the time, but at one point that grandmother lived with my husband and me. She told me that she was just a girl when she met my grandfather. He was her brother's good friend in the police department. 

This man I knew as Uncle Gene Tobin, who was probably the most wonderful man I have ever met. He was kind and understanding, had a great sense of humor, was beloved when he was the Chief of Police in Everett, Massachusetts and after retirement - because he was so social - became involved with the security department at the Museum of Natural History in Boston. All I remember is taking my kids there when little baby chicks were hatching from an incubator and were on display. Luckily I was tall enough to see over the heads of all the small children who were mobbing the display and could lift mine up to see too.

I am sure my children don't remember, they were small then, but I do. I was happy to see him if it was only for ten minutes.  Everybody was. And my step-grandmother, Joanne, was never jealous of my grandmother either. She was a professional woman - which in those days meant a secretary for John Hancock Insurance in Boston - and she had opted not to have children when Mr. Right hadn't come along early in her life. By the time she met my grandfather she was in her late thirties and my grandfather was a rather tragic figure with thousands of dollars in medical bills from my bio-grandmother's 11 year battle with cancer.

My mother had been jealous of losing her father's attention when he remarried - she was in her second year of college, I might add - and disliked her grandmother intensely because of it. When I adored her, my mother told me she was a 'flapper and wore bright red lipstick'. My mother wore bright red lipstick, too, but somehow she didn't get the connection.  Flappers?  I thought they looked so cool with their beads, short hair, hats and flouncy dresses. That made my grandmother so exciting, as I knew her as an old woman, of course.

Grandma Joanne ended up living with my husband and me for a while when we lived overseas. learned from my grandmother that she wasn't jealous of my bio-grandmother. She'd been 12 years younger than my grandfather and that was a different lifetime that had nothing to do with her. They were happily married a long time and had a good life together. He deserved it and so did she.


It was sad to see this woman who had been so full of life and expectations lose her mental faculties, as it was the first experience I had as an adult with death.  My father died three months later, which was a terribly distressing time for all of us. I still think back and wish I had spent more time with him. How I wish I had asked him about his life, his dreams, his political beliefs, but I was too self-centered at the time, like many young (and old) people. I
I hope you write your stories or record them or preserve them on video. You won't regret it.

Finding Belonging through Genealogy

We understand that we come into this world and leave it alone. In between is the tricky part and at times we long for that sense that we are part of something greater than ourselves. I am not sure if this is a developmental stage in adulthood, something we didn't 'finish' during adolescence, an understanding of our need for each other or something else. This need for acceptance and belonging seems universal, however, and perhaps is the glue that can bind us together as humans.

Some of us satisfy this need through tradition, religion, a political party, devotion to a community or cause, the arts, good friends or our nuclear family. Others may attempt to silence the longing through addiction and destructive behaviors. After a certain age, however, it becomes clear for most of us that some desires cannot be fulfilled with anything material or through another person.

Learning about my ancestors and what I call my 'tribe' has always seemed to provide a sense of belonging for me.  It keeps me from feeling too isolated from humanity as it provides the sense of place, time and belonging I receive from knowing who my people were. In fact, I can imagine some of my ancestors were quite terrified as they boarded the Mayflower and anticipated the danger. Others would have been like my seafaring father, thrilled with the idea of a grand adventure.

When my ancestor (pictured above in a bronze statue), Jean Nicolet, made the voyage to 'New France' as a 20-year-old man in 1618, where did he find the bravery to accept an assignment from Governor Champlain? This great-grandfather lived with the Native Americans and learned their language and a way of life that had nothing in common with his childhood in France. By all accounts he was a virtuous and pious man, and great-grandfather Nicolet was as loyal to France as he was to the Roman Catholic Church. He also was able to adapt well enough to live independently among the Nipissing tribe from 1620 to 1628, but how did he end up having a daughter, my ancestor, with a Nipissing woman named Giizis (my 10th great-grandmother on that side)?

What made him reunite with this daughter later and bring her back to Quebec City? When she was 15 the records show he married her off  to another Frenchman, by the name of Jean LeBlanc. When this 10th great-grandfather Nicolet married Marguerite Couillard in 1637, where was his first 'wife' Giizis? Had he retrieved his daughter because her mother died, or was his legal marriage to a Frenchwoman the only one that mattered in his eyes or the eyes of his church? I have more research to do if I want to know, but there may not be any recorded answers. The Jesuits did some biographical work on this great-grandfather, but I doubt if they would have wanted to record much about his dalliance with Giizis.  Then again, I may be wrong, so I am keeping my French-English dictionary handy and have bookmarked the Google Translator site. Armed as well with that old French grammar still rolling around in my head, I can read most of the historical records.

I know that great-grandfather Nicolet also 'discovered' Wisconsin in 1635, and there are monuments and murals in his honor there. Then he had a few children with Marguerite as well, but he died in 1642 in a canoe drowning. It was not because it was particularly treacherous - although it was during a storm - but because he did not know how to swim. This is completely weird to me, as everyone in my family learned to swim by 4 or 5 years old at the latest. It was a matter of pride and honor. We were seacoasters, you see. Still, I don't remember my mother swimming much, but I think she was too concerned about her hair, an obsession I surely inherited.:) My mother had the most beautiful mane of hair. My husband and daughters, who also have that 'movie star' thick, beautiful, shiny, wavy hair, look much more like her than I do. Ah well, the hair will show up in future generations again if we're lucky.

There are so many stories of my female ancestors on that French Canadian side that I have only recently uncovered. One ancestor married a French Quebec soldier and spent her honeymoon in a canoe with him and his regiment when he was being transferred to Detroit. How this woman coped with all these Frenchman - there was even a murder that occurred on the trip - rapids, the canoe, the Native Americans they encountered, the culture gap and the challenges of pioneer life is beyond me. Yet she had two daughters while they were stationed there and the four of them returned to Quebec seemingly happy and unharmed.

Two other great-grandmothers, a widowed Frenchwoman and daughter, were 'Filles de Roi', or 'daughters of the king', part of 800 to 1000 Frenchwomen sponsored by King Louis between 1663 and 1673 when he wanted to prove his claim on Quebec by showing growing populated settlements. He selected women from three classes, they were sent to Quebec and the French soldiers were allowed to propose to the women.  In France most marriages were still arranged by families, so the offer to these women to select their own husbands must have been of great appeal. The legal age for women to marry at the time was 12, with boys held back until 14. The Frenchwomen in Quebec managed to almost double the population within ten years, so it was a very good investment on the King's part to pay for their passage and dowries.

I have a tiny concept of what it felt like to be in an 'alien' land with two small children and my husband, as I lived out of the country for three years when I was in my thirties. Of course, we didn't take two or three months to sail across an ocean and we were able to fly back and see family when it was important. The msot inconvenient thing I experienced was a shortage once in a while of American-style frozen vegetables. We lived in Mexico City while there and I learned to speak Spanish, the art of Mexican cooking and so much about Latin culture (and my own by contrast) that my life was truly enriched.  I also came to appreciate what it means to be a loving, supportive family, in a culture that revers aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews and cousins as much as mom, dad, grandma and grandpa. After a spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child, strict New England upbringing, I was able to choose a different style of child-rearing for my own family and that alone enriched my life more than I could ever describe in a blog.

My biggest and most dangerous adventure occurred when I was 19, although is pale by comparison to my forebearers. I moved 3,000 miles away from my hometown by myself. Going from a small town in New England to Los Angeles was not only culture shock but probably an incredibly stupid thing to do as unprepared as I was. Smog was a horrible shock, as was the dried-out, brown appearance of the city by late September. As a silly example, I was naive enough to think that California was just like the Beach Boys' songs. It was expensive to ship things in those days, so I hadn't packed an umbrella, a raincoat or any winter clothes. When that first 'moonsoon' hit in January a few months later, I got the drenching of my life. I also learned how to do a little research before I gave into impulse.

There are some things we learn only through experience, of course, but others from our ancestors. May you find your wisdom where your destiny leads you, whether that is back in time or forward in life.

First Meeting Summary of Ridgefield Living History Project

Just for fun I am showing the picture of a baby bat who decided to move into my patio umbrella. Ridgefield wildlife has no boundaries, folks.:)

Anyway, our first meeting was attended by a few people, but not as many as I expected.  Present were a well-known blogger and living history buff interested in doing a WWII project, a heritage committee member, a lovely mother and daughter of a family interested in being contributors, a town sage, a retired museum curator also on the cemetery committee, a nice man in the investigative/organizational stage for a similar project for Battle Ground and me. Not what I would call a crowd, folks.

I would also like to publicly thank Kay Stringfellow, owner of the Pickled Heron Gallery, who donated the use of her lovely banquet hall so that we could have our meeting.  She's a huge community supporter, by the way, so please make sure you frequent her frame shop and art supply store. 

Anyway, I publicized the meeting pretty well, but I didn't want to over-promote it.  Candidly, I wanted only those with a burning passion of some sort to show up. Selling people on the idea was not my impulse, as I wanted to find like souls who find this sort of historical treasure hunt incredibly meaningful.  Our town is small, but our area has about 15,000 people in it. Granted, I could have chosen a bad night - there were many other things going on all over Ridgefield, as usual - but we all make time for what we find compelling.

So I have not yet decided how I will continue. There were some territorial issues some brought to the meeting, others had a personal interest in a particular area of the project only, and my idea of collaboration did not seem to resonate with more than three of the attendees.

My original community-building enterprise was envisioned to bring all these groups together, and to add a major element, newcomers.  This would be defined as anyone who has been born, lived or come here only sometime in the last 50 years (starting on January 1, 1960 and anytime until present). After the meeting I would expect this 'Newcomers' segment will probably be the thrust of what I will be doing in the future. The Heritage Committee, of course, will continue its efforts with its target group. I wish them great future success although accept there is no interest on their part in collaboration at this time.

As there is no interest to my knowledge in the Newcomers either, I should not be stepping on toes or duplicating what is already being done as I pursue that avenue.  It will provide my effort with plenty of wonderful living histories to collect and preserve. Of course, there may be some crossovers on both sides, as some people may choose to contribute to one effort or the other. That's certainly not a problem for me.

The photo grid project will be mothballed for now. There was no one interested in that project at all. Some members expressed concerns about the idea of people snapping shots of their homes, although I explained the photos would always be from public access only. Then again, it can be difficult to contain enthusiasm, so one has to respect this viewpoint as valid.


This may be something the photographers in town may want to do, or perhaps it could be a contest used as a fundraiser for Birdfest or Overlook Park as it will take something to get that one going.  We have such a beautiful refuge, all those river and lake banks, the woods and territorial views.  It would be absolutely wonderful if we could get our population snapping shots of their back or front yards and emailing them all to the blog or some other archive vehicle.
 
The historical society and museum seemed to be something that attendees felt was a good long-term goal, although the difficulties of getting there are obvious. Mainly money, fundraising, etc. Certainly, this would be a long-term goal.  The eventual museum might want to be independent or affiliated in some way with the Clark County Historical Museum, but this is a future vision. Archiving is expensive, of course, but a rotating or active, temporary series of exhibits would seem to be the most logical with 'borrowed items'. One attendee suggested she would like to see the mammoth tusk that was found in Ridgefield returned to Ridgefield.  I agree, as fair is fair, after all. That cannot happen, of course, until we have a way to exhibit or store this kind of fossil.

Well, friends, onward and upward. Not all ideas are embraced as enthusiastically as I would like, and so I will march to the sound of my own drum for a while.  I had intended to pursue this in a more dramatic way if there was community support.  As there does not seem to be a burning desire for leadership in this area, I will paddle along solo. In the interim, anything that people want to post on the blog, please send it to me at: ridgefieldlivinghistory@gmail.com  If you don't have email, call me at 360-887-4530 and I'll arrange to pick it up or give you my mailing address.

Family Genealogy & Federal Assistance

Genealogy has been one of my hobbies for quite some time.  It can be an expensive endeavor if you try to follow your family's path through history with trips and acquiring certified copies of documents.  An easier, perhaps more accessible way to find your ancestral path is through some of the free sites offered by the United States Government. There are many archives now on-line with collections that might help you with your research.

These links below are also on our Resources Page, but this personal genealogy account was recently posted on the U.S. Government Gab blog.  http://blog.usa.gov/roller/govgab/entry/family_genealogy

"My mom used to tell her school friends that she was related to the actor, Roy Rogers. She wasn't. As a kid I used to tell people I was half German, half English, half Irish, and half American. Knowing these two things, you could extrapolate that my family tree contains liars and people that can't do fractions.


On my dad's side, it was believed that my first ancestor in America was born in Germany, because he spoke German. Some relatives said he came to America with a brother and that they were from Frankfurt, Germany. However, these details turned out to be incorrect.  Within a short generational span, no one in the family spoke German and the family history was lost.

My sister, Paula, the “Nancy Drew” of the family, decided to do some research because she was interested in the details of our ancestry. When she told me she wanted to check into thisI suggested she start with the USA.gov Family History and Genealogy page. It is a great launch point with all kinds of links to other resources.

She then went to the National Archives website. The National Archives has a terrific Genealogists/Family Historian web section. They have guidance on how to start your family history search, search-able databases, publications, and a list of independent researchers you can hire to help you with family history search.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website. You can make requests for USCIS to search its historical indices for file citations related to particular individual. From that information you can request copies of specific records. Check the site for the fees for index searches and copies of documents.

If you are of Native American ancestry, you may want to go to the Department of Interior to trace your Indian ancestry. They have guidance on determining if you are eligible for tribal membership.

Although my sister was able to obtain additional information about my great-grandfather, it was only dates and locations. She didn't learn what motivated my great-grandfather to leave Prussia, why he chose to settle in Iowa, how he felt passing through Ellis Island, or what his circumstances were as an immigrant. Those are the types of details that can only be learned through the intimate sharing of family stories. While you are conducting your search into the past, don't forget to pass on your family stories and share your history with your children."

 Have fun!

Don't Forget! First Meeting this Tuesday (May 25th) at 7:00 p.m.!

Just a quick reminder that our first organizational and information meeting for the Ridgefield Living History Project is scheduled for this Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at the Pickled Heron Gallery in Ridgefield, Washington.

If you are Ridgefield-curious and haven't actually been to downtown Ridgefield before, here are the directions from the Interstate 5:

From Portland to Ridgefield:

• Take the I-5 going north
• Exit at Pioneer Street, which is Exit 16.
• Turn left (west) as you and stay on Pioneer.
• When you hit the Round-About keep going straight, still staying on Pioneer.
• It will curve around and go down and up a hill, but keep going straight.
• By the way, the speed limit is 25 miles per hour. (Go faster if you feel it is your civic duty to support the police department through speeding tickets. I'm sure they could use the money.)
• As you come into downtown, you will see a few number Avenues.
• Proceed until you come to View Ridge and Pioneer.
• The Pickled Heron Gallery and Banquet Facility will be at the end of the block on the corner of 4th and Pioneer on your right.

From Seattle to Ridgefield:

• Take the Interstate 5 south.
• Exit at Pioneer Avenue (Exit 14)
• Turn right (west) onto Pioneer
• Follow directions from above.
• When you hit the Round-About keep going straight, still staying on Pioneer.
• It will curve around and go down and up a hill, but keep going straight.
• By the way, the speed limit is 25 miles per hour. (Go faster if you feel it is your civic duty to support the police department through speeding tickets. I'm sure they could use the money.
• As you come into downtown, you will see a few number Avenues.
• Proceed until you come to View Ridge and Pioneer - slow down here as in school zones limit is 20mph.
• The Pickled Heron Gallery and Banquet Facility will be at the end of the block on the corner of 4th and Pioneer on your right.  The address is 418 Pioneer Street, Ridgefield, WA 98642.

See you all Tuesday!

For info:  Elizabeth Madrigal  360-887-4530 or email: ridgefieldlivinghistoryproject@gmail.com.

Invitation to Our 1st Organizational Meeting: Tuesday, May 25th @ 7:00 pm

A big hello to all of you and just a reminder that our first organizational and information meeting is scheduled for next week.  Here are the details:

RIDGEFIELD LIVING HISTORY PROJECT

WHEN:      Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 @ 7:00 pm

WHERE:    Pickled Heron Gallery, 418 Pioneer Street, Ridgefield, WA 98642

DURATION:  7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

PURPOSE: 

• Introduce the concept of  an on-going living history project and what ours will entail intially as well as collaborate on forming a vision for the future of the project. 
• Create an email list of interested people
• Sign up participants, volunteers, etc.
• Form a collaboration with the other historical preservation groups in town
• Start a genealogy workshop group, gauge interest in free genealogy & research classes for participants
• Give groups like the Heritage Committee and the Cemetery Preservation committees the opportunity to solicit new volunteers and members
• Gauge interest in forming a 501(c)(3) to eventually fund and create a historical museum in Ridgefield either independently or as a branch of the Clark County Historical Museum
• To meet each other, share fellowship and see if this idea has any "legs".

INFORMATION: 

Please call Elizabeth Madrigal at 360-887-4530 or email:  ridgefieldlivinghistoryproject@gmail.com

IF YOU CAN'T ATTEND BUT ARE INTERESTED IN THIS PROJECT, PLEASE:

Please let Elizabeth know via email or telephone or follow us on Facebook for a summary of the meeting. 

WHAT IS APPROPRIATE FOR THIS EFFORT?

Except for anything that could get us in trouble or hurt someone - such as slander, libel, gossip and those kinds of no-nos - the project is pretty open. Any family stories, histories, photos of people or the area are welcome regardless of whether you lived here your entire life or moved here yesterday. We'd love pictures of old farms and e Stories can be about anything that is related to your life or the lives of the people in your life.  Please do not send original photos without first contacting Elizabeth, as these may be ruined or lost in the mail.  We will not be archiving anything at this point, but simply scanning and returning anything you provide.  Hand-delivery is even better (I or a volunteer can always pick them up), or just emailing them from home or a scanner/copier at our local copier shop.

IS ANYTHING POSTED YET?   Yes, we have our first posting.  Some of you may remember Avis Alice (Reid) Eaves who lived here with her family in the mid-1960's. Avis passed away last year and her son and daughter have supplied pictures of Avis in her Ridgefield garden, her memorial posting and their contact information for cards or letters.  This is the first of what I hope will be many stories of the lives of people who have graced Ridgefield with their presence and been 'graced back' in return.

PLEASE JOIN US!

         OR GO TO OUR BLOG:  http://ridgefieldlivinghistoryproject.blogspot.com/

   OR GO TO OUR FACEBOOK PAGE:  http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=104465476259928

MY HOME, RIDGEFIELD, a Poem by Avis Alice (Reid) Eaves 1964

I received this email today from David Eaves. I am posting it in its entirety and am excited that we have our first oral history contribution.  Thank you, David, for sharing your treasure with us.

Avis Alice (Reid) Eaves
Born March 20, 1923 - Died January 8, 2009

"My name is David Eaves. My family lived in Ridgefield in 1964. We lived high on a hill overlooking all the Ridgefield valley. This view inspired my Mom to write this poem about Ridgefield.  My mom passed away last year and I would like to donate this poem to your town historical group in her memory." 

My Home, Ridgefield

                     By Avis A. (Reid) Eaves

I’m in love with Ridgefield town.

So peaceful and so small.

Its building memories renown,

And I treasure each and all.

For I live high on top of a hill,

In the land of rivers and trees.

And rise up early at my will,

To see the sights like these.

Majestic mountains in the east,

Snow-capped and standing high.

Glittering light shine in the west,

And a river boat goes by.

This is my town, my very own,

My heart and soul, they call it home.

***

Memorial Services for Avis:

We are gathered here in the sight of God, and amongst loved ones and friends to remember the life of our mother, a grandmother, and a great grand mother.

To remember the life of Avis, I would like to take you back to before Avis was even born. For to know the character of who Avis was, you must also understand the roots of the parents who brought her into this world and the surroundings that formed her into the loving, caring, nurturing person we call mom.

Avis was the youngest sibling of Charles Reid, Sr. Charles was a pioneer settler in Oklahoma during the time of the American migration into the mid-west. Charles Reid was a young man in Kansas when the Cherokee Outlet was opened for settlement in Oklahoma on September 16, 1893. He and his neighbor friends decided to make the run on horseback. They started at the state line of Kansas south of Hunnewell and arrived at a site north of Tonkawa Oklahoma. As Avis had told the story to us, Charles staked his claim in a valley where it was a foggy misty morning and when the air had cleared mid-day, he noticed that someone else had also staked the same section of land. Charles simply picked up his stake and relinquished the claim to the other man. Avis said that her dad noticed that the other man had a bigger gun and he didn’t think it wise to argue with him. The following spring, Charles did purchase a relinquished stake near what is now known as Deer Creek, Oklahoma. Charles was a bachelor on his homestead farm for a number of years, and as Avis tells it, he was quite the eligible bachelor. His friends were always trying to match him up with some young single woman by hosting parties and inviting all the eligible young women in the area. In the summer of 1906, Florence O. Robinson came to visit her sister and attended one of these parties. A romance started soon after and on November 27, 1907 they were married. As the years went by Charles and Florence had six children. Avis being the youngest of them all.

Now Avis lived in a time of our history where she experienced a worldwide depression, a dust bowl, a world war. This generation of time has been characterized as the “Greatest Generation”. There is a popular book written that describes this generation as “the generation who grew up in the Great Depression of 1929, who came of age in World War II, and following the war shaped the world thru the greatest times of national growth and innovation. This is a time in Avis’s life where personal sacrifice was common place. These times shaped her life and built character of one who was to influence each us here today. It was this generation that had grown accustomed to personal sacrifice, honesty, integrity and caring for their neighbor. This attitude of personal sacrifice for the benefit of those around you was developed within them from their own experiences as they lived life in the era known as the greatest generation. I recall Mom discussing these times as I wondered how they were able to endure such great hardships as the depression, the dust bowl era, and the war, and their willingness to sacrifice of themselves as they pursued their own way thru life. They did it because they knew it was the right thing to do. As Avis once stated, ” we did not think of ourselves as sacrificing but simply we were living life the best way we knew how”. This attitude of sacrifice and doing the right thing was an integral part of their daily living and became a strong trait that was instilled in each of us thru Avis nurturing ways.

In 1942, Avis being a young woman of 19 was attending a local community college. She met a young man, Leland Edward Eaves of Fairfax, Oklahoma, who was also attending the same community college. They dated for some time even though Avis was in love with her high school sweetheart and had fully expected to marry him. Lee, however, was persistent in perusing Avis’s heart despite her many refusals when Lee would propose to her. Lee finally won her over thru numerous proposals which concluded with the possibility that Lee might join the Marines. This news was too much for Avis to bear and her heart revealed that this was the man whom she would spend her life with. In February 1942, Avis and Lee left northern Oklahoma to get married in Oklahoma City and start a life together. It wasn’t long before they discovered that Avis was pregnant with their 1st child. By June of 1942, the news of bringing a child into the world was received with the concerns that there was no way they could make it on Lee’s current salary of $90 per month. Being that this was a wartime era, the news of good jobs in the shipyards of the Pacific Northwest led Lee and Avis to set out for Portland, Oregon. Upon arriving in Portland, they only had $10 in their pockets. They rented an apartment for $7 a month, leaving them only $3 to survive until Lee could get a job and get paid.

Lee quickly got a welding job at the shipyard and they were able to rent a small house in the countryside near Woodburn, Oregon. Shortly after, their 1st son was born. Leland Edward Eaves Jr. was born on September 17, 1942. The baby was born pre-mature and Avis was sacred to be raising a new born baby. Shortly after Lee Jr. was born, notice to appear for induction into the Army was received. Being that Lee was from Fairfax, Oklahoma, he was required to return there to be drafted into the U.S. Army. Avis, Leland, and Lee Jr. boarded a train and returned to Oklahoma.

Avis Eaves remembrance set in Puerto Rico (Obituary)

Avis Alice (Reid) Eaves, formerly of Deer Creek, Okla. Died in Thornton Colorado on Thursday, Jan. 8th 2009.


Avis is the last surviving daughter of Charles and Florence (Robinson) Reid of Deer Creek, known as being a pioneer settler of Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma in 1893. Avis was 85 when she died. In her life, she was a devoted loving wife, mother and grandmother. She was married to Leland Edward Eaves of Fairfax, Oklahoma for 48 years. Avis is survived by 7 children, Leland Edward Eaves Jr., Charles Lamar Eaves , Deanna Janell (DeLong) Eaves, David Reid Eaves, Jay Clifton Eaves, Laura Ellen (Ballard) Eaves and Earnest Lee Eaves. Avis and Lee were proud loving grandparents of 15 grandchildren and many great grandchildren. Avis will be put rest next to her loving husband, Leland Edward Eaves Sr., in Ponce, Puerto Rico at a private family memorial service on March 21, 2009. The family may be contacted by writing David R. Eaves, 26802 Via Zaragosa, Mission Viejo, Ca. 92691