Martha's high school graduation photo
My mother-in-law died on Saturday. She was 101.
The month before she was born the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre.
Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire the month Martha made her debut.
William Taft was president and Orville Wright set a world record that held for almost 10 years keeping a glider aloft in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina for 9 minutes and 45 seconds.
Planes were beginning to gain ground (or should we say air?) as potential military weapons.
The Indianapolis 500 was run for the first time and construction began on Fenway Park in Boston.
The Ford Model T faced its first competition as beloved American family car with the production the very first Chevrolet.
Another big move forward—the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) is incorporated in New York—better known as IBM.
The US postal bank is created and a 9 hour work day is introduced.
A change in the dynamics of the American family is underway as the first home for the aged in the US is opened in Prescott, Arizona.
During her lifetime she lived through a lot of history. Two world wars, the women’s suffrage movement, the prohibition, the great depression, two atomic bomb blasts, desegregation and civil rights. During the roaring 20s, a fun-loving and dance loving Martha saw women’s dress lengths go from dragging on the ground to a scandalous just above the ankles to well above the knees. Equally shocking was when women began sporting men’s clothing and then burn their bras, get rid of their bras and finally flaunt their bras.
Feisty huh?!!
The second child and only daughter of privilege she unexpectedly lost her father when she was 16. Not many years later she also lost her adored older brother. Tragedy struck again when her husband accidently died when her only child was 5 years old. Well educated but not terribly well prepared for the workplace she was forced to take on two jobs when the life insurance policy her husband had taken out a few weeks before his death wasn’t processed correctly and she was left without the resources he’d planned for her and his son. Today she’d sue. Back then she just hunkered down and forged ahead.
Martha and her mother--Nan.
A tiny somewhat frail looking woman her stamina would catch you off guard. She was a survivor. She was tenacious. She was tough. She was a devoted daughter, sister, wife, loving mother and adoring grandmother.
She was loved.
She will be missed.
