2.27 Year of Change 1956

Nellie Chatfield

A year of family comings and goings ~
January 1956 • My maternal grandmother, Nellie Chatfield, at the age of 82, died in Chico, California. She outlived her husband by 14 years along with two of her ten children. Gordon, her sixth child, died in 1948 (the year I was born) from injuries incurred in WWII, and Howard, her third, died of Bright’s disease in 1953. Grandma and Grandpa are buried in the Chico Cemetery, though Grandpa is buried away from the family plots. She was still mad when he died, and wasn’t about to be anywhere near him when her time came.

Claudia, Cathy, Larry 1956, San Jose

Mar 30, 1956 • Ohio ~ Portion of a letter from Larry to Marian, who was teaching second grade in the beach town of Ventura, California:  
Received a letter from Claudia today. She is spending Easter vacation with my father in San Francisco. Also had nice card from my father. Cathy is also in San Francisco, and Betty is in Santa Cruz for the vacation period. Claudia says she is “working part-time and Cathy is fooling around full-time in the store.” Cute letter.

Cathy, Claudia, Easter Apr 1, 1956

April 1, 1956 • We always attended Sunday Mass along with going to church at Christmas, Easter, and the other Holy Days of Obligation. Well, Mom didn’t, but the rest of us did. Between the Feast of Mary, Ascension Thursday, the Assumption, All Saint’s Day, the Immaculate Conception, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, 40 days of Lent, the Stations of the Cross, confession, and all the genuflecting, prayers and disciples and saints, it was a lot to keep track of.

Cathy, 1st Communion

May 13, 1956 • I received my First Holy Communion at Sacred Heart, our church in the Willow Glen area of San Jose. First Communion is not only a big occasion, but also a sacred event for Catholic families. 

May 21, 1956 • Carleen, Chuck and Debbie are living in sunny Southern California. (picture at bottom of page)

Sometime before June • My father, Carl John Clemens (age 51) married Irene Venita (Tregear) Whitehed (age 70), a woman nineteen years his senior. He moved into her flat on Belvedere in the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco.

Irene and Dad, New Years Eve 1956

Larry/Gordon 1956

June 1956 • My brother Larry Clemens graduated from Ohio State University.

Larry and Marian

June 16, 1956 • Larry (now Gordon) Clemens (age 22) married Marian McLellan (age 23) in Upland, California. It was the first after our parents’ divorce and the final time that we would all be together.

Leo Chatfield

July 20, 1956 • My mother’s brother, Leo Chatfield (age 58), a forest ranger in Camptonville, died of a heart attack in Grass Valley, California. Having served in the Mexican Border War and in WWI, he was buried in the military section of Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno.

Jo and Roy, 1952

August • My mother’s brother, Roy Chatfield (age 55), married Josephine Chambers (age 56) in Reno, after a 30-year courtship. Roy and Jo were best friends, more like brother and sister. He proposed to Jo when he was eighteen and she nineteen, but he’d promised his mother he would stay home and not marry until she died. In return, Nellie promised Roy she’d leave him the house for as long as he lived. Jo had also promised her mother she wouldn’t marry until her mother died, and although her mother had passed away some years before, Jo understood Roy’s promise. He lived with Nellie until her death in 1956, respectfully waiting six months to marry. They spent the next twenty-three years of married life in the Boucher Street house until Roy, at age 77, died of heart failure. He left the shingle and clapboard Chatfield house to Jo, and she remained there until her death.

Beginning of September • I started the 4th grade, Claudia entered her sophomore year, and Betty became a senior, all of us attending San Jose public schools in Willow Glen.

Claudia and Bobby

September 15, 1956 • My sister Claudia Clemens (age 14) married Bobby McDaniel (age 19), in Sparks, Washoe County, Nevada.

Note from my brother:
“I married Marian McLellan June 16, 1956 in Upland, California. Dad was the best man at my wedding. Mom also attended and I believe it was the last time they ever saw each other; they did not talk to each other as the divorce was a bitter one. Marian and I left after the wedding and I attended school at Ohio University so I could finish my Masters Degree. Exactly three months later Claudia married Bobby McDaniel in Sparks, Nevada. I don’t know if any family members attended the wedding. I attempted to talk Claudia out of it as she was only fourteen, but her mind was made up.”

Carleen and Debbie, Huntington Beach, May 21, 1956

to be continued…

© 2018. Catherine Sevenau.
All rights reserved.