|
a.
|
Note: utchinson met my dad - Charles Bigelow Ely - at the University of North Dakota. She was a Theta and my dad got a job at the Theta house. He was putting himself through school. My mother was being helped by Uncle Fred at least - maybe others as well.
They both graduated with Bachelor of Science degrees in business in 1925. My mom went to work for the Great Northern in Lewistown, Montana, and my dad followed. They married in the Episcopal Church there in 1929 on September 7th.
Not too long after, they moved to Oregon and my brother was born in Portland March 24, 1934 - Fred Hutchinson Ely. Around that time my dad was activated into the beginning of his off and on military career. He had completed ROTC at UND and was a Lieutenant in the Army Reserve. In that capacity he ran camps in Oregon for the depression era Civilian Conservation Corp. This took my mom and dad to Mackenzie Bridge in the mountains east of Eugene. That's where they were living when I was born in the Eugene hospital January 30, 1936 - May Lane Ely.
My family moved frequently - the mobile Americans. Fred and I never spent more than 2 years in the same school and we thought moving was easy and the way everyone lived. When we moved to Great Falls, Montana in 1949, my parents stayed put for eight years - record breaking. They became very active in the Episcopal Church, the Loins Club, the Country Club and the Masons and Eastern Star. They both seemed to enjoy it immensely. My mother also enjoyed gardening and raising farm animals so they lived on about 5 acres outside of town. One spring they bought a year old calf to feed for butchering in the fall. Mother said she would feed it so my brother and I wouldn't get too attached and make trouble about the butchering. Well, of course, the calf came to the fence whenever she went outdoors and followed her all around as she worked in the garden. When fall butchering came, she went through with it but it was so difficult for her that that was the end of that.
During these Montana years we spent a lot of time with Grace and Tommy Dowen. Nancy, Tom, Dick, and Nick were our closest cousins. Dick's death from a brain tumor in our teenage years was like losing a best friend or brother - totally unfair, unjustified, and unexplainable.
Throughout Fred's and my childhood Aunty Blanche and Uncle Fred were much like grandparents in our lives. Whenever we lived in Portland or nearby, we spent Thanksgiving at their house and they spent Christmas morning - present opening time - at our house. They were usually there for dinner I guess but who remembers that part?
Until about 1946 Grandmother Hutchinson lived with us except in the summer when Grandmother Ely came. The former was Nonie to Fred and me, and the latter Nano. Nonie was tiny and read to us, did needlepoint and told Mother how to cook. When Nano retired from teaching in Rugby after the 2nd World War, she came to live with us and Nonie went to live with Aunt Ella and Uncle Frank in Minneapolis. When Nano died in 1959 it was the first time in 30 years of marriage that my mother and father had lived alone - without a parent.
Eugene Register-Guard, Eugene, Lane County, Oregeon, Thursday, July 30, 1970
Ely - Jean Hutchinson Ely of 1468 Linda Avenue died July 29, 1970. She was born December 30, 1904 in La Moure, North Dakota, and had been a Eugene resident for the past 10 years. Wife of Charles Bigelow; mother of Fred H. of Fort Lewis, Washington and Lane Fichtenau of Pontiac Michigan; a brother, 4 sisters and 3 grandchildren also survive. She was a member of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Olive Chapter No. 10 O.E.S., Great Falls, Montana, BL chapter of P.E.O., Portland; Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority. Funeral services will be held Saturday, August 1, at 10:30 a.m. in St. Thomas's Episcopal Church. Father Ted Tainton officiating. Concluding services private in Willamette National Cemetery. Visitation hours will be held Friday 2 p.m. - 9 p.m. in Lounsbury Musgrove Funeral Chapel.
Note: The following was provided by Jean's daughter, Lane. My mom -- Jean H
|
