Earl Jr. had child onset diabetes and died of it on 20 June 1964. Gordon died 22 February 2017.
Grandma Utter worked at A&P Bakery in her early days and later on was a alterations seamstress for Herpolsheimer's store in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. She was very skilled with all things domestic... cooking, crochet, sewing, gardening. She attended a Wesleyan church.
When I would go to visit her,I was drawn to a special photo in a silver frame of her parents. She had it on her TV and I thought Grandma's mother was so beautiful! Her mother's name was Clytie Agnes Harris and her father's name was Camlin Foster DeArmond.Clytie was a female barber in Greenville, Michigan and Camlin was a mechanic in the same area. I wonder if they met because he had come to her for a haircut? Camlin was 39 and marrying for a second time when he wed 17 year old Clytie on13 September 1905 in Greenville, Michigan.
My Grandma (Dorothy Utter) told me that her mother Clytie would tell her about coming up from Indiana to Michigan in a wagon. I had only ridden in cars so I thought that was a magical story!
I remember meeting her once as a child, at a family reunion. She was horrified that my mother had painted my nails red and warned that I might " go to hell". My mother was equally horrified at that statement. My dad remembers being forced by Grandma Clytie to be baptised several times in the Grand River in Ionia, Michigan. She had some strong religious opinions, that is for sure.
As I got older I told my Grandma that I would love to have that photo someday. She died 22 Aug 1986. When we cleaned out her house, I came across that photo and asked if I could have it and that is how it became mine. It is a painted photo and some of it is flaking off so I need to get it restored. I will try to get that done in the next 52 weeks as well.
These were the people that gave me a "start" in my interest in genealogy and photo preservation. #52ancestors
