LARVALBUG LENS, January, 2005
Papa Frank was born in 1885, near Big Blue River, KS, and died in Austin, TX, in 1970, at age 85. He had married Pearl (whom Larry's family called Mama Pearl) several years before this picture was taken. She survived him and died in 1975. George was born near Pendleton, NY, in 1842, and died in Aldine, TX, in 1926. He had married Matilda, a Swedish American lady, in 1866. Matilda died in 1909. Both George and Matilda were church ministers. Mama Pearl's father was as well. Papa Frank took up the ministry as a young man and had a very long career leading Nazarene congregations and building new churches.
It is believed that Lillie, Bloomy, Arthur, Florence, A.D., and Ernest were all Papa Frank's older sisters and brothers, and so they were Larry's great aunts and uncles. Lillie married and moved with her husband to Kansas, we think. Bloomy married as well, but presumably did not move away, as it is not mentioned. Florence never married.
Ernest married Effie and lived in Omaha for many years.
Bloomy had an adopted son, Walter, who died just this past year (2004). He had suffered an electrocution many years ago and had to have both arms amputated below the elbow, but got along amazingly well with metal clamps attached to the stumps, with which he could perform many normal functions.
We had to do a little sleuthing about the correct name for A.D. It almost certainly stands for Ara Dudley, his first and middle names. Some research into the family's genealogy on the internet revealed Ara Dudley as among their relations, the only one with those initials. Ara was born in 1883, two years before Papa Frank. In the picture, he also looks just about the same age as, or perhaps a little older than, Frank. It may be objected that Ara sounds like a woman's name. We assume he thought so too, and that this is why he preferred being called by the initials.
(Many thanks to Julia for help with info on the photo and for a copy of the photo itself.)
Our lens focuses in this issue on a number of Larry's paternal relatives. Taken in Omaha (?) about 1915, when Larry's father, Leon, would have been around 3 years old, the photo shows a family gathering, including, starting with the back row, from left to right: Lillie, Frank (Larry's grandfather, known as Papa Frank, then about 30), Bloomy, Arthur, and Florence. In the front row, also from left to right, are: A.D., George (Larry's great grandfather & Papa Frank's father), and Ernest.