Gladys Ione STRITE

Personal History from Gladys Strite

Written during the 1980s in San Francisco, CA

[missing pages] … Uncle Charlie [Charles Perkins Strite] at Hotel Edgewater Reach in Chicago.

He and his son, Lloyd [Lloyd Cecil Strite], had a coin meter business. They installed coin meters in apartments in Chicago and through working with Westinghouse Electric Co., later had an extremely successful venture called Laundromat and became extremely prosperous. When we lived in Appleton, I used to go to Chicago and always saw Uncle Charlie. One time he said, "Gladys, I'd love to see the old place in Iowa, but don't quite feel up to driving there." I said, "If you'll come home with me to Appleton for awhile and we can get Franklin to agree, I'll drive you there. So, we picked up his sister, Avah [Avah Strite], and my sister, Velma, at Minneapolis and drove to Springville. We stayed with two dear cousins. May [May L. Strite] was librarian and Jennie a retired principal. The school is now named for her: the Jane Birk school at Mt. Vernon, IA. It's quite close to Cedar Rapids.

The game Monopoly was all the rage then; we even stayed up a few nights, playing and had a real fun time. We had visited Uncle Jacob [Who is HE?] and Aunt Minerva Birk [WHO IS SHE? Only Birk I have is Catharine Birk] in that same house when I was a young child and it seemed like a place with a stairway. Now, it seemed like a crowded, little, old, overstuffed house. May was my age, but long gone. Jane lived much, much longer and wrote me letters in her beautiful, Spencerian handwriting.

Their cousin and mine, Arthur Bickel [who is he?], had a lovely daughter, Blanche, who is the Blanche Galaway at Menlo Park. We keep in close touch, lovingly, now through her daughter, Nancy, and Gilbert, whose son has just completed his second year at Yale.

But -- going back to Tama: When I was 1 1/2, Velma [Velma Strite] was born. I do remember Mama called the third baby, John [John Levi Strite], her little papoose. He is exactly 3 years younger than I. I remember him in his highchair out in the sunny back yard and Uncle Will [William Harrison Dunn] cutting his dark hair.

Aunt Mae [Mary Leona Coffits], Mama's loving, caring sister, had come to Tama and married uncle Will Dunn, such a nice man. At the time, he was a barber. I remember their cottage and their baby, Lee, who died as an infant -- such a tragedy it was. It nearly killed his adoring mother with a broken heart.

But I remember the pretty little cottage and still can taste Aunt Mae's chocolate pie, the best ever in my world, even to this day.

The Dunns had two more children, Raymond was not too happy, but loveable; however, his wife was left a widow with one child, Carol Jane, a nurse by profession. She had even worse back problems than me.

But Uncle Will and Aunt Mae were always so close to Mama and all of us, no matter who lived where and their precious daughter, Ethel, took great care of them. She is the "salt of the earth" kind. Goodness to the very core.

When my brother John, in about 1970 or '71, was in dire straits, living in a horrible, dangerous place in Minneapolis, I was literally sent to his rescue.

He wanted to leave what seemed to him as that time, the evil city. We arranged for Frank Fleming, who was kind, to move all his mountains of things (it did seem like junk to us) to Red Wing, MN. He had an apartment there; we helped him get settled in and he was relatively happy there for many years -- till he had a major heart attack. Fortunately for him, I happened to be visiting in Minneapolis with my dearest friend, Trix Watson.

John's doctor Hawley and Cousin Ethel phoned, "Come at once." So, I did. The doctor said John could no longer live alone. I was able to find a place, Haven Home in Red Wing, and move him there from St. John's Hospital. He is still there at the new Haven Home on the outskirts of beautiful Red Wing, where he gets excellent care, food and some activities and walks a great deal. That has always been his great love.

At nearly 90 (Oct 27, 1988), he is erect, walks swiftly with a light step and is as happy as he knows how to be. Like I, he has an excellent memory. Ethel is his legal guardian, bless her, and she still lives in the apartment we kept for him on Plum Street in Red Wing. Cousin Ethel has been such a blessing to me, to take over looking after John, which I've done (right or wrong) all my life.

I did this for Velma, too, in many troubles through her lifetime, and for my mother, too. What they could not seem to do, I did gladly and willingly. Maybe I just needed to feel "good for something." My need, as well as theirs.

When Mama had her fourth child in June 1889, Eda Louise was delicate (they said puny) and died in the heat of a hot summer August, living only two months.

Mama did not recover. Grandma Coffits, a saint, and Grandpa came to take care of her. She was very intensely ill -- could only be rolled over with moving her bed sheet.

I was taught at 4 years old that Velma (3) and John (1) were my responsibility -- that I must take care of them all the time, so I did.