I was told to look for huge photos of Nancy and Franklin in the Des Moines newspapers.
“A searching hint……I remember that when I was a child there were Des Moines papers with huge photos of Nancy and Franklin in the Easter and Christmas editions. It must have been in the late 30’s.
I don’t know what happened to them. I think that there was a big water leak in our father’s storage unit.”
Bingo! I found the huge photo.
Easter Sunday April 17, 1938 The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa . Page 25
Thank you, I do remember this. I’m sure there are others. Yes
Nancy and Franklin had tragedy from the beginning. Luckily they
had Mommy and Poppy to care for them. I remember going to
Franklin’s birthday party in Des Moines before they moved to the
east. Nancy and I played together. I was 5 when we moved to NJ.
I didn’t understand why Nancy wasn’t with us. My new friends didn’t
believe that I had a big sister. How Nance remained so sweet spirited
after the neglect and abuse she suffered from our father is a miracle.
It was probably a failure of the optical character recognition used to digitize old newspapers.
I looked instead for those editions published in the late 30’s and I was sure to spot something.
After finding that article about Uncle Frank, I thought about poor Franklin who lost his Mother and his Father was away at War. Of course, poor Nancy had her Father away at a munitions factory.
There is a color photo of Nancy and Franklin looking at this old clipping. I can’t locate it but it will be posted when found.
Found it!
My brother, Frank, was living with his new mother (my mother, Gwendolyn Greene Bredimus), her sister (Roslyn Green Coleman) and Aunt Roz’s children during the war. My mother and father married before the war and took Frank from Mayme and Poppy’s house. As he had 2 other boys to play with, he was happy then. Before the war, he traveled with his dad and new mom from Army post to army post while my father was in training.