LARVALBUG LENS, January, 2008
This month's featured photo was taken in 1928, at the wedding of Raymond and May. Ray was a brother of Evelyn's father, Charles, and Ev has graciously provided the following information about her uncles and aunts:"The people standing behind are, from the left - Uncle Steve, Uncle Rudy, and Aunt Helen (wife of Uncle Jack). The man on the right is unknown. Aunt Helen's family had a physical genetic anomaly of one leg shorter than the other and it is apparent in the photo, but it was more obvious with her brothers. Aunt May was originally from St. Louis, Missouri, and I think the other people in the picture may have been her relatives.
Uncle Ray was a family doctor who took exceptional care of us. He was the only one in the family to go to college. He was well known for his "APC" pill that cured most ailments (probably common aspirin). Everybody loved him. He delivered me and my cousins, removed my tonsils, and always welcomed all of us into their home and activities. His text books were stored in trunks in one of the barns at my paternal grandparents' farm and we kids used to climb up into the loft and look at the "pictures." What an education! We didn't have comic books in those days.
They had three children: Dorothy May, Raymond V. (my age), and Shirley (youngest). Uncle Ray died when I was about 13. He had a heart attack and drowned while saving his niece, who had come from St. Louis, after she stepped into a deep hole in the Fox River. His son Ray tried to save him. The accident happened at a resort on the Fox River below Yorkville, Illinois, at one of the places my dad used to go fishing. One of the things that really bugged me was that the niece was more upset about how she looked for the publicity photos than she was about Uncle Ray."