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Note: HI57
Note: (Research):Kay Avanelle Dittemore.
b. May 23, 1921. d. Tuesday, Jul 30 2002, Spanish Fork, Utah County, Utah. Note: Name - Kay Avanelle Dittemore per daughter, Sharon Ann (French / McKeand) Scarborough. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Obituary.
Deaths: Deseret News, The (Salt Lake City, UT). August 2, 2002
[Buried: Section J, Santaquin City Cemetery., Santaquin, Utah County, Utah on Friday Aug. 02, 2002. South of E 300 South Street and West of S 200 East Street.]
Approximate. Geographic Coord.: W 111� 46' 55" ; N 39� 58' 12". Services held at Santaquin first Ward Chapel, 90 South 200 East, Santaquin, Utah. Directors of the funeral were: Walker Mortuary; Payson, Utah County, Utah. She had resided at the Hall Rest home, Spanish Fork, Utah County, Utah for the past 1Yr. 2Mo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Married 1st: Oren Dean French. He was 2 Years, 6 Months, 20 Days older than Kay Avanelle. Married 2nd: Thomas James McKeand, Jun 2, 1953, Harlingen, Cameron County, Texas. Note: Thomas James McKeand was 25 Years, 7 Months, 25 Days older than Kay Avanelle (Dittemore) French when they were married.
Kay Avanelle (Dittemore) French/McKeand had dark hair, all her children had red hair; Her Sister, Loraine (Dittemore) Maczko was a red head.
Adopted Children of Thomas James McKeand are: Jerry Otis, Sharon Ann, Thomas J. and Susan Jane. [Note: Jerry Otis changed middle name from Dean to Otis {after grandfather Otis Finley Dittemore at the adoption proceedings, approved by the court]. Note: {Birth Father of Children - Oren Dean French. b. Nov. 3, 1918 - d. Nov. 1, 2002.} Note: Per Jerry Allen Dittemore; Thomas J. McKeand looks like his birth father; Oren Dean French.
Kay Avanelle smoked cigarettes at some time in her life; I do not believe she has smoked a cigarette since I have known her.
Kay Avanelle is now a devout Mormon (LDS).
Kay Avanelle placed in Nursing Home in Utah (Alsheimers Disease) in May 2001 (Age 79+), by Sharon Ann and Susan Jane with consent of Jerry Otis and Thomas J. McKeand. A nice, caring place; for Women only. Sharon called Kay Avanelle on her 80th birthday, Avanelle did not know who she was talking too, I know Sharon is Heartbroken.
May 2001 - Kay Avanelle (Dittemore) French McKeand residing at Hale Nursing Home, P. O. Box 606, Spanish Fork, Utah 84660. Avanelle is suffering from Alsheimers Disease, a debilitating disease that affects the brain in regards to Memory. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FEDERAL POPULATION SCHEDULES
Census of 1930, El Paso County, Colorado. See Otis Finley Dittemore.
Census of 1940. See Oren Dean French. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History.
I really don't know how Lorraine and I got the title of "Otis's Indians". Mom loved to keep us busy. I suspect this was due to Uncle Fred's theory, "A busy child is a good child." To avoid busy work we would run wild outside as far from parental supervision as we could get.
One day Lorraine and I were very hungry. We didn't want to ask for a "hand out" because a dreaded chore would surely be assigned. We were tired of eating the rhubarb when I noticed the onions that mother had planted a few days before. Oh but we did ..eat them .. all 100 of them!! The Other House!
There were two houses on Grandpa Jones' ranch. I could never figure out why these houses were built only three feet apart on a place with 1200 acres of land.
One day Grandma was keeping us Indians. The weather was bad so we were playing inside. All too soon we were getting on grandma's nerves.
Grandma Jones gave us a buttered soda biscuit and sent us to play in the other house. She told us not to go into the back room. This instruction immediately doubled our curiosity about that back room.
The house had 3 rooms, and a lot of interesting things was stored there. Of course we had to see why we were not to go into the back room. We found this room was used to store old clothes. It was a paradise for kids who liked to play dress up.
We were having a ball until I got my shoe stuck in a boot. No matter what we tried, we could not free my foot. Fortunately Lorraine was able to locate Grandpa Jones. He managed to get the boot off. Kay Avanelle (Dittemore) French McKeand
The Goose's Revenge Once upon a time on a beautiful ranch in Colorado there lived the Dittemore family. There was Father, Mother and two little girls named Avanelle and Lorraine aged 2 and 3.
All kinds of animals lived on the ranch. Among them were ducks, chickens, and a pair of geese.
The momma goose, Hannah, had built a nest in the chicken house and was sitting on her eggs. Otis's Indians, Avanelle and Lorraine, loved to tease that goose Hannah. As they teased, Hannah would stretch her neck out as far as possible and carry on , but she would not leave her precious nest.
The Indians momma had told them repeatedly to leave the goose alone, but they did not pay their mother any heed. It just was too much fun to poke a straw at Hannah and watch her antics.
One morning as Otis's Indians giggled and played their game with the Hannah, the gander, Jake, returned from a swim in the pond.
Jake took one look at what was going on and went into action. He grabbed the nearest Indian by the seat of her pants and began beating her with his wings. The giggles turned into screams and pandemonium broke out. When Jake grabbed Avanelle, Hannah came off her nest and began to give Lorraine the same punishment.
The two little Indians ran to the house with the angry geese flogging them every step of the way.
For some unknown reason they received not even the tiniest bit of sympathy from their mother. In the future they gave the geese plenty of room and never teased them again.
The Picket Caper!
Once upon a time Otis's Indians were left in the care of their Grandmother while their parents went to town.
Grandma Jones handed each of us a peppermint pillow, then she admonished us "Now you girls listen to me. Don't pull any pickets off my fence. Now go out and play."
Now we had never thought of pulling a picket off of the fence before.
"Do you think that a picket could be pulled from the fence?" I asked.
"I don't know. Why don't you try one?" answered Lorraine. "I don't think Grandma would miss just one picket."
"Well.. I don't know." I hedged.
"I'll pull one if you will." challenged Lorraine.
I was not too worried as everyone knew that Grandma Jones did not spank other people's kids. I grabbed one of the pickets and gave it a yank. Pop! The picket came off very easily. Lorraine tried her hand and with the same result.
It was so much fun that before we knew it we had pulled a number of pickets off of the fence.
Grandma was fit to be tied when she checked up on us and found her fence demolished. Grandma forgot that she never spanked other people's kids and grabbed me. While Grandma administered to me, Lorraine ran and found a place to hide. The idea that Grandma would spank anyone was so strange that Lorraine just had to see for herself. So she crept quietly up and peeked around the corner of the house. This was a mistake. Grandma spotted her and she paid the same price.
When Otis and Nora came to pick up their little Indians, Grandma was still very upset about the fence. When Mom found out the whole story, she was less than understanding. She pointed out Grandma's error of giving us the idea that pickets could be pulled from the fence. We found enough to get into without suggestions from our elders. So Otis's Indians learned that even Grandma's patience had a limit. Note: The above account of picket fences confirmed by Loraine (Dittemore) Maczko.
The Bloomer Rebellion!
Once upon a time, Otis's Indians lived with their family in a log cabin on Grandma Jones's ranch. In this ancient time, all women and girls wore bloomers. These under garments were like baggy pants that came down below the knees and were tied with a ribbon.
Stacked outside the cabin was a pile of wood shingles. Their Mom frequently broke shingles on the Indian's backsides. The bloomers provided extra padding when discipline was administered.
Quite by accident, the Indians discovered another use for their bloomers. The girls loved to slide down a bank on their seats. The satin bloomers worked great for reducing the friction and increasing the speed of their ride. All too soon the seat of the bloomers was worn through. Their parents gave up trying to get their Indians to behave like young ladies and dressed them in denim coveralls. As the Indians got older the bloomers became more and more a nuisance. Then Eureka! Someone invented panties. The Indians thought that panties were probably one of the greatest advancements of modern time and wanted to order some right away. Here they fell into the generation gap. The elder women of the clan believed that panties were too immodest, and no decent women would ever ware them. The Indians soon gave up trying to convince their mom. They exchange their money with their Father for a check to order "something" from the catalog. Their father did not ask what the "something" was. When the panties were discovered in the laundry there was quite a stir. The Indians were more stubborn than their Mother and bloomers became history. Note: Avanelle and Loraine wore their panties to school on a cold day in Colorado, they had to wait far a Bus to pick them up for School; they nearly 'froze' their little 'butts'' waiting for the bus. (Reference: Sharon Ann (McKeand) Scarborough as told to her by Avanelle.)
OUCH! It was a beautiful sun shinny day in Jan. The a snow was perfect for sledding and the ice nice and smooth, perfect for skating. On this day that was meant to be spent outdoors found Lorraine and I polishing furniture, unpiling the piano emptying ash buckets, mopping, and giving the house a good cleaning. We fixed an early dinner, the works. The reason? Mrs R.C. the school principal was coming out to see our dad who was the secretary of the school board. It was not the prospect of the principal's visit that was casting a shadow over our beautiful day, it was the fact that she didn't drive a car so her jerk of a son drove her. To add to our disgust he was bringing his violin and we would waste all afternoon with him.
When the girls at our school heard that the new principal had a son Teddy who was our age, we had all been anxious to meet him. As it turned out, and no one Date'd him twice.
Well Teddy arrived, violin and all. While he was tuning up Lorraine and I decided to go sledding and skating. Jerry was too young to be of any help in side tracking Teddy, so of course he tagged along. After a few runs down the hill we decided that we could get away from Teddy by going on to the ice, because Teddy did not have skates.
Now Lorraine and I did not plan what was to follow, honestly we didn't. I had gotten my skates on and Lorraine was sitting on the sled putting on her skates, when opportunity came our way. Teddy gave the sled a flip to unseat her. Beautifully his feet flew out from under him and down he went flat! As he lay there and we decided he needed some snow in his face. With this cold treatment he arose very quickly and fled. We had a short but beautiful afternoon. From that day on we under stood why everyone always laugh's when they read the , "Katsinjammer Kids."
Sometime in the 1950's; Avanelle and family with Loraine were visiting Jerry Dittemore on July 4th, Avanelle and Loraine got a hold of some Roman Candles or similar and had a great time shooting them. This was the only time that Sharon recalls her mother "letting her down" and acting a 'little wild'. Avanelle was usually a very 'straight laced and calm person'.
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