Happy Birthday Great Uncle Verl

The really cute one is me. I'm on Great Uncle Verl's knee, then Dad, smoking his pipe. We are at Great Great Aunt Nellie McKinley's house in Portland, probably  1950. Nellie was always happy when Dad visited with his family. Mom probably took the pic. 

Today is the 121st birth anniversary for Verl Edward Parker. He was born in Corvallis to Edward E. and Mary Luella Parker and attended Corvallis schools until the family moved to Portland or possibly a farm in Gresham. I'm not yet sure of the dates. He was a sweet man and a voracious writer. Nellie saved all his writings from World War I and there are lots of pictures taken Germany and France where he worked as a mechanic. In all the letters he wrote home he started, "I'm feeling fine as usual..." And he always ended, "Lots and Lots of Love and Kisses for you Nellie and for mother and Sister and Baby Jack." (Baby Jack was my Dad.)

Probably Germany, Verl is one of the mechanics. He was with the 148th Field Artillery, Army of Occupation.

  After the war, Verl worked on Swan Island on the family farm, security for Portland Woolen Mills and had short-term jobs. He purchased a slender acre of land on Garibaldi Bay and built a "shack" there in 1932 where he spent summers during the 30s and part of the 40s, fishing, crabbing and enjoying life. He had a circle of friends in the area that included his cousin Burr McKinley, wife Mae and their kids Burr Jr., Jay and Dorothy. He loved the Garibaldi, Rockaway area. He passed that love to my Dad, and on to my brother and me.

By 1926 Verl's parents and sister had died and when the Depression came, he and Nellie couldn't keep the farm out of foreclosure. After a time, they shared a home on Flint Street in Portland. They kept up a big backyard garden and cooked in a big wood kitchen stove. Neither Nellie nor Verl married. He took care of his aunt until he died in 1951, in her home on the front room lounge after lunch and while they were chatting. His heart gave out.

I just barely remember my Great Uncle Verl, but because he and Nellie tucked away all this family history, and because my parents saved it, I am getting to know him and Nellie and even their parents, grandparents and cousins. Thank you, thank you, thank you and Happy 121st Great Uncle Verl.

"Vocophone Band of Verndale, Minn." The caption says: "Drum Major is Maud Mede, Ette Wilson Speelman Kit, Ella Reynolds, Ida Eddy, Jen Dil, Nell Baetlau, Duck Lil Reynold, Dolly Scott, Ada Razes girl Harrison. Five front ones are Vennie Cecil Rose Covey, the family bearer. Edna Scott, Lore Lemierville."
My great-grandfather E.E. Parker (1849-1916) lived in Verndale, I believe, while he was a conductor on the railroad. His son was born in 1890 in Oregon, so this picture must be in the 1870-85 era. I don't know yet if I have a relative who is a vocophonist in the band, but many in my family are musically inclined.

Mom's Birthday

My Mom, Henrietta Adelaide Hackman Powell, would have been 92 today, if she had lived past 79. Seems like only yesterday we were navigating liver cancer, hospice and keeping family clued in. She died about a week after her 78th birthday. I remember two caregivers and myself, with a little cake -- singing the Happy Birthday song. I don't know if Mom heard us or not. We were all crying. It was a damp, yodelish, sad scene, but we each loved Mom in our ways.

I'm reading the daily letters between Mom and Dad, John "Jack" Edward Powell, during the War. So far, Dad is in Navy Flight School and deciding he doesn't have the passion to fly. Mom is at her family home in Seattle -- the huge Craftsman style I remember on Military Road. A magical place for a little girl. But Mom is trudging off to Boeing, working as a "steno" in the business her two brothers and a brother-in-law all made their careers. She and Dad became engaged and later married, all on his uncertain breaks between school and war. They married in the gardens of the Military Road house.