TwigTalk: The Generations

This is a 4-generation photo. I am the little girl on the left. My Mother, Madelyn Jaynes Brock is next, beside her my grandmother, Della Mae Alexander Jaynes and my great-grandmother, Olive Ellen Martin Alexander Robertson. My mom and I always called Olive, Grandma-Mom. I'm not sure why, but that is all I knew her as. I found her terrifying. She was a bit cold, sharp and believed a child should be seen not heard. So, I was a very quiet child when in her company.

The photo was taken at my house. I do recognize the background, but this fact is set in stone with this photo. My mother is the only one that does not have that purse on her arm. That purse was over-worked, heavy, stiff, leather and all the rage that year. We had a leather place in the county, and everyone had one. Grandma-Mom and Grandma have theirs on their arms. My mother had one as well and she would have it on her arm if we were not at home. I had a matching billfold with my name pressed into it. Sorry, I lost it. It was so stiff I couldn't get money in it anyway, so I lost nothing of value. Phew. By the way, I'm unlisted in case you find it.

Olive married William Hays Alexander in 1902. In the 1910 census, William and Ollie Alexander and the first 3 of their children are in a rural area of Jennings County, Indiana. William is listed as a farmer like his father was. He was not happy with that and soon moved his family to Seymour. In the 1920 census, William and Ollie Alexander and 6 of their 7 children are on Glen Lawn Road. This is a small area that was just beginning to be built up. Now it is just a small neiborhood of Seymour called Glenlawn. William repaired automobiles, Ollie stayed home.

In the 1930 Census, Olive L Alexander was 48 and widowed, as William died in 1928. The L should have been an E as her name was Olive Ellen, though she was always called Ollie. She was living on Euclid Avenue in Seymour, Indiana, and working at the Shoe Factory. She still had 4 children at home, Lucille, Opal, William and Norma, but her married son, Merrill, lived right down the street with his wife and daughter. Her son William, called Bill, was 10. This is interesting because living just around the corner on Noble Street. was a 4-year-old Lois Plumber staying with her grandmother, whom he would one day marry. I wonder if he ever met Lois as a child. She was a wonderful person.

Olive married Frederick C. Robertson, "Fred", in 1934. Fred was warm and nice. Introvert marries extrovert. Warm versus cold, nice versus mean, light versus dark, oh, never mind. I've noticed it happens a lot, though. Anyway, in the early 1960's Fred contracted TB and was put into a sanitorium. While he was gone Olive had a stroke in the night and could not get to the phone for help. She wasn't discovered until the following day. As soon as she was able to speak clearly, she ordered her lawyer to her side and divorced Fred, getting her name Alexander back. She said she was not going to die as a Robertson. She was going to die as an Alexander. So, 12 years later, in 1975, she did. I don't know why she felt that way.

The first time I saw a message about any of my family in the late 90's on the RootsWeb Mailing lists was a question about why Olive was buried as Olive Alexander when she was married to Fred Robertson. So now you know.

Now, she will probably haunt me.