2.14 Mr. Wonderful

Noreen Clemens

August 4, 1955 • San Jose, another letter from Mom to her sister:
Dear Verda:
Hope you and your family are well as we have been (most of the time).

I was married last Sunday in Carson City to Ray Haynie. No, I know you don’t know him but that’s the name. He is a grand person and the kids are crazy about him. He owns a garage here in town and is in the process now of getting a contract to manufacture manifolds for a firm that builds trucks. Financially, my worries are over. As soon as we get squared away we are either buying or building a new home. Ray has had a garage, service station and Chevy & Buick agency in Guam for the past nine years, has only been back in the States since January. He has been gone for so long that he is just different from these guys you usually meet today. You know how orientals treat a white woman. Don’t get excited, he is half Irish and half Danish, but he has been around them so much he treats me like a queen. Anyhow, I don’t know whether to let Mom know or not. You know how she feels about remarriage. I never thought I would ever do it, but I’m sure not sorry, and even Larry, as little as he says, is all for it.

I’ll tell you a little more about him in case Mom hears. He is 42, about the same build as George was only he is 5’8” tall. Has black curly hair, dark skin, gentle nature. He graduated from college in Boulder City, Colo. He has one brother and a father is all, who are very wealthy, a lot more than Ray is. He was born a Mormon but doesn’t seem to have much of any kind of religion now. I never saw a man more tickled with a family in all my life. He thinks Betty and Claudia are as good as a three-ring circus and loves Cathy like she was his. He took the girls with him last week to S.F. before I quit work and they saw their Dad. Of course, blabbermouth Betty told him I was going to get married. All he said was “the poor sucker”. Betty said he acted like he was never going to see them again. He can see them more often now. I cut down on his support, what he has to send to each, from $50 a month to $40, and Ray said as soon as they get going on the factory for manifolds he doesn’t want him to send anything, in fact he could stop right now. But Carl has a lot of pride and that would be a slap in the face to him. By the first of the year, I’ll tell him he can send $75 a month for all three.

This afternoon I am going to look at houses. I can hardly believe this has all happened to me. My doctor said it was about time I was getting some good luck for a change. You know I had an impacted wisdom tooth pulled last month, and the next day I started uterine bleeding. I flowed for 22 days, went into the hospital on the second of July, had 2 blood transfusions the fourth, and was curetted the fifth. Was off work until last week. I may have to go back to the hospital and have my uterus out, as I have a fibroid tumor. I haven’t stopped flowing since and I am going to the doctor this afternoon. I told Ray what was wrong and the condition I was in and I might have to have an operation but he said that didn’t make any difference to him, that wasn’t what he was marrying me for and he could wait for a normal married life.

Please let me know what you think about letting Mom know, you know her condition. I don’t mind anyone else but if it is going to have any ill effects on her, maybe it would be better for her not to. If she weren’t so rabid, I think she would be happy that we are going to have a good home, a good man and security.

Betty has become a different girl since she has been here. She was running around with a bad crowd in S.F. (never saw a Catholic high school yet that didn’t have more than their full share). Now she runs around with girls her own age, their parents watch them pretty close, none of them smoke or ride around at night. Like 15 and 16 year olds should be, but seldom are.

Wish I could tell you just how happy I am. Excuse the scratching and scribbling but it has been so long since I have written a letter that I am out of practice.

Love to all, Noreen
P.S. By the way Haynie is pronounced hay-knee.

Note: We lived at 183 George Street, San Jose, California. Mom and Ray married on July 31, 1955; she was his fourth known wife. 

to be continued…

© 2018. Catherine Sevenau.
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