Charles Boester (aka Charles Bolster) was the only child of Edward and Helen (Howard) Boester. He entered into a legal marriage with Kathleen Popp and they had five children. In 1969 he deserted that family and ran off with a woman who was to be the mother of his other three children, Iva May Tracer. Charles and Iva spent 25 years together and were married in New Orleans in 1976 under the name Bolster. His last three children and grandchildren carry that name while the grandchildren from his first five children carry the name of Boester. Charles and Iva had a hard life and died too young. They finally came out of hiding in the early 1990s and began to use his true name following the death of his father. He never saw his first five children grow to adulthood and never knew four of his grandchildren or his two great grandchildren. He died after suffering a heart attack at the wheel of his car and ran into a tree.
Charles was a military policeman in the US Army and served in Korean during that conflict. Upon discharge, he was trained as a machinist. He worked for several years as a salesman working for his father and other companies in the St Louis area. He drove a school bus and a cab to help care for his growing family. When he left St Louis he took with him the family car and all liquid funds. Charles and Iva went to Georgia where he worked as a machinist. His wife had him declared dead in 1976. The social security administration identified him as living when he used his original SSN after beginning a new job in 1985. Once he was located, his father reestablished a relationship and enjoyed getting to know his son and his other grandchildren for several years. Neither man ever made contact again with Charles' first five children. Following Iva's death in 2007, their children found information about their half siblings and reached out to them. It is difficult but some of his children are trying to get to know each other which would probably NOT make any of their parents very happy. Well maybe Charles is happy, he once told me there was never a day he didn't think about his children.....all his children.