Daughter Pamela 182762854, 1949-1953
Son Fred b. 1/16/1953
Son James b. 8/30/1956
Son Charles b. 4/2/1959
Marji was the youngest of the two daughters of the Barron family. She was named Marji for her dad's sister Marji May, who was killed in a car crash in California. Marji was completely different from her older sister. Sister Jean was studious and made her parents proud. Marji was a hellcat, chasing boys and attention at all hours. She didn't care much for school. We have many photos of her dad, and he is never smiling. Even at her wedding he looks miserable. At 15 years old, Marji was on a date when news came over the car radio that Pearl Harbor was attacked. But I digress. So it should not surprise anyone that after an unsuccessful stint at Coe College in Iowa, Marji landed a job at Air Canada as a flight attendant. Yes, mom was a hot stewardess.
And she loved it. Somewhere along the line she met my dad Frank at a bowling alley, when she was 16 or 17. But he went off to war in January 1943, leaving this young beauty queen behind. That didn't stop him though. He wrote to her dozens of times. I remember the stacks of bound letters and I wish we still had them. In a fit of rage about something, she destroyed them all. Anyway, he returned from the war in early 1946 and they married the day after Christmas 1947. I hear it was a wild drunken affair. My poor grandparents. I understand Marji was really unhappy when she received the news that she was pregnant with Pam in the Spring of 1948. She had to quit the airline. Her jet-setting days were over. But things settled down. We have photos of our gorgeous mom with her gorgeous daughter. What a pair. But when Pam died in April 1953, the family came apart. Her poor second child Fred, then only a few months old, was abandoned and was forced to live with her sister's family. They almost divorced. But in time things came together again. Fred was returned and then there were more babies as they tried to replace Pam: me in 1956 and Charlie in 1959. Had I been a girl, I am afraid Charlie never would have been born.
Looking back I think Pam's death profoundly affected my parents. How could it have not? They were distant. Only late in life did they draw closer. But in time, Marji left her grief behind and became extremely active: raising money for leukemia on a national level, contacting Hollywood celebrities for gifts, getting involved in politics also at a national level. She also got into the real estate business. I remember being raised a good deal of the time by our housekeeper and by our grandmother. Mom was always gone somewhere. Mom also organized huge parties where the whole neighborhood would congregate. Giant holiday parties were always at our house. She organized a huge 80th birthday surprise party for her father at the local Holiday Inn, as a "this is your life" affair and found associates of his from the 1920s, who came and surprised him. What a lady.
Unfortunately, most of my memories are not good as a little kid in their house. I remember all the rage and the crying and my poor father trying to talk her down. Things were especially bad around the holidays and on our fishing vacations. My poor dad just never got a break.
But as time passed, things settled down. When my dad died of cancer in 1991, she was ok, relieved that it was over I suppose. Mom died in a nursing facility at 79 on new year's day in 2006, just down the way from the three boys who were visiting, trying to figure out what to do with her. She was senile by then, ravaged by the leukemia that killed her daughter and father. Her last words to me were expletives. When she died, I sobbed like a child. Some things you just never get over. Jim Anderson, 2020
Postscript: Fifteen years after her death, in June 2021, many members of her family gathered in Ely, Minnesota to finally lay her to rest with my dad, as she had directed. All of Mom's grandchildren were there, Michael, Eric, Neal, Noel, and Ashley, as well as spouses and a number of Mom's great-grandchildren, Lincoln, Hailey and Elliot. We took a pontoon boat out on White Iron Lake and held a little memorial service together across from where their little place used to be. After a few good words, we joined together and poured out her ashes. The children tossed rose petals to the gentle waves.
Son Fred b. 1/16/1953
Son James b. 8/30/1956
Son Charles b. 4/2/1959
Marji was the youngest of the two daughters of the Barron family. She was named Marji for her dad's sister Marji May, who was killed in a car crash in California. Marji was completely different from her older sister. Sister Jean was studious and made her parents proud. Marji was a hellcat, chasing boys and attention at all hours. She didn't care much for school. We have many photos of her dad, and he is never smiling. Even at her wedding he looks miserable. At 15 years old, Marji was on a date when news came over the car radio that Pearl Harbor was attacked. But I digress. So it should not surprise anyone that after an unsuccessful stint at Coe College in Iowa, Marji landed a job at Air Canada as a flight attendant. Yes, mom was a hot stewardess.
And she loved it. Somewhere along the line she met my dad Frank at a bowling alley, when she was 16 or 17. But he went off to war in January 1943, leaving this young beauty queen behind. That didn't stop him though. He wrote to her dozens of times. I remember the stacks of bound letters and I wish we still had them. In a fit of rage about something, she destroyed them all. Anyway, he returned from the war in early 1946 and they married the day after Christmas 1947. I hear it was a wild drunken affair. My poor grandparents. I understand Marji was really unhappy when she received the news that she was pregnant with Pam in the Spring of 1948. She had to quit the airline. Her jet-setting days were over. But things settled down. We have photos of our gorgeous mom with her gorgeous daughter. What a pair. But when Pam died in April 1953, the family came apart. Her poor second child Fred, then only a few months old, was abandoned and was forced to live with her sister's family. They almost divorced. But in time things came together again. Fred was returned and then there were more babies as they tried to replace Pam: me in 1956 and Charlie in 1959. Had I been a girl, I am afraid Charlie never would have been born.
Looking back I think Pam's death profoundly affected my parents. How could it have not? They were distant. Only late in life did they draw closer. But in time, Marji left her grief behind and became extremely active: raising money for leukemia on a national level, contacting Hollywood celebrities for gifts, getting involved in politics also at a national level. She also got into the real estate business. I remember being raised a good deal of the time by our housekeeper and by our grandmother. Mom was always gone somewhere. Mom also organized huge parties where the whole neighborhood would congregate. Giant holiday parties were always at our house. She organized a huge 80th birthday surprise party for her father at the local Holiday Inn, as a "this is your life" affair and found associates of his from the 1920s, who came and surprised him. What a lady.
Unfortunately, most of my memories are not good as a little kid in their house. I remember all the rage and the crying and my poor father trying to talk her down. Things were especially bad around the holidays and on our fishing vacations. My poor dad just never got a break.
But as time passed, things settled down. When my dad died of cancer in 1991, she was ok, relieved that it was over I suppose. Mom died in a nursing facility at 79 on new year's day in 2006, just down the way from the three boys who were visiting, trying to figure out what to do with her. She was senile by then, ravaged by the leukemia that killed her daughter and father. Her last words to me were expletives. When she died, I sobbed like a child. Some things you just never get over. Jim Anderson, 2020
Postscript: Fifteen years after her death, in June 2021, many members of her family gathered in Ely, Minnesota to finally lay her to rest with my dad, as she had directed. All of Mom's grandchildren were there, Michael, Eric, Neal, Noel, and Ashley, as well as spouses and a number of Mom's great-grandchildren, Lincoln, Hailey and Elliot. We took a pontoon boat out on White Iron Lake and held a little memorial service together across from where their little place used to be. After a few good words, we joined together and poured out her ashes. The children tossed rose petals to the gentle waves.
Daughter Pamela 182762854, 1949-1953
Son Fred b. 1/16/1953
Son James b. 8/30/1956
Son Charles b. 4/2/1959
Marji was the youngest of the two daughters of the Barron family. She was named Marji for her dad's sister Marji May, who was killed in a car crash in California. Marji was completely different from her older sister. Sister Jean was studious and made her parents proud. Marji was a hellcat, chasing boys and attention at all hours. She didn't care much for school. We have many photos of her dad, and he is never smiling. Even at her wedding he looks miserable. At 15 years old, Marji was on a date when news came over the car radio that Pearl Harbor was attacked. But I digress. So it should not surprise anyone that after an unsuccessful stint at Coe College in Iowa, Marji landed a job at Air Canada as a flight attendant. Yes, mom was a hot stewardess.
And she loved it. Somewhere along the line she met my dad Frank at a bowling alley, when she was 16 or 17. But he went off to war in January 1943, leaving this young beauty queen behind. That didn't stop him though. He wrote to her dozens of times. I remember the stacks of bound letters and I wish we still had them. In a fit of rage about something, she destroyed them all. Anyway, he returned from the war in early 1946 and they married the day after Christmas 1947. I hear it was a wild drunken affair. My poor grandparents. I understand Marji was really unhappy when she received the news that she was pregnant with Pam in the Spring of 1948. She had to quit the airline. Her jet-setting days were over. But things settled down. We have photos of our gorgeous mom with her gorgeous daughter. What a pair. But when Pam died in April 1953, the family came apart. Her poor second child Fred, then only a few months old, was abandoned and was forced to live with her sister's family. They almost divorced. But in time things came together again. Fred was returned and then there were more babies as they tried to replace Pam: me in 1956 and Charlie in 1959. Had I been a girl, I am afraid Charlie never would have been born.
Looking back I think Pam's death profoundly affected my parents. How could it have not? They were distant. Only late in life did they draw closer. But in time, Marji left her grief behind and became extremely active: raising money for leukemia on a national level, contacting Hollywood celebrities for gifts, getting involved in politics also at a national level. She also got into the real estate business. I remember being raised a good deal of the time by our housekeeper and by our grandmother. Mom was always gone somewhere. Mom also organized huge parties where the whole neighborhood would congregate. Giant holiday parties were always at our house. She organized a huge 80th birthday surprise party for her father at the local Holiday Inn, as a "this is your life" affair and found associates of his from the 1920s, who came and surprised him. What a lady.
Unfortunately, most of my memories are not good as a little kid in their house. I remember all the rage and the crying and my poor father trying to talk her down. Things were especially bad around the holidays and on our fishing vacations. My poor dad just never got a break.
But as time passed, things settled down. When my dad died of cancer in 1991, she was ok, relieved that it was over I suppose. Mom died in a nursing facility at 79 on new year's day in 2006, just down the way from the three boys who were visiting, trying to figure out what to do with her. She was senile by then, ravaged by the leukemia that killed her daughter and father. Her last words to me were expletives. When she died, I sobbed like a child. Some things you just never get over. Jim Anderson, 2020
Postscript: Fifteen years after her death, in June 2021, many members of her family gathered in Ely, Minnesota to finally lay her to rest with my dad, as she had directed. All of Mom's grandchildren were there, Michael, Eric, Neal, Noel, and Ashley, as well as spouses and a number of Mom's great-grandchildren, Lincoln, Hailey and Elliot. We took a pontoon boat out on White Iron Lake and held a little memorial service together across from where their little place used to be. After a few good words, we joined together and poured out her ashes. The children tossed rose petals to the gentle waves.
Son Fred b. 1/16/1953
Son James b. 8/30/1956
Son Charles b. 4/2/1959
Marji was the youngest of the two daughters of the Barron family. She was named Marji for her dad's sister Marji May, who was killed in a car crash in California. Marji was completely different from her older sister. Sister Jean was studious and made her parents proud. Marji was a hellcat, chasing boys and attention at all hours. She didn't care much for school. We have many photos of her dad, and he is never smiling. Even at her wedding he looks miserable. At 15 years old, Marji was on a date when news came over the car radio that Pearl Harbor was attacked. But I digress. So it should not surprise anyone that after an unsuccessful stint at Coe College in Iowa, Marji landed a job at Air Canada as a flight attendant. Yes, mom was a hot stewardess.
And she loved it. Somewhere along the line she met my dad Frank at a bowling alley, when she was 16 or 17. But he went off to war in January 1943, leaving this young beauty queen behind. That didn't stop him though. He wrote to her dozens of times. I remember the stacks of bound letters and I wish we still had them. In a fit of rage about something, she destroyed them all. Anyway, he returned from the war in early 1946 and they married the day after Christmas 1947. I hear it was a wild drunken affair. My poor grandparents. I understand Marji was really unhappy when she received the news that she was pregnant with Pam in the Spring of 1948. She had to quit the airline. Her jet-setting days were over. But things settled down. We have photos of our gorgeous mom with her gorgeous daughter. What a pair. But when Pam died in April 1953, the family came apart. Her poor second child Fred, then only a few months old, was abandoned and was forced to live with her sister's family. They almost divorced. But in time things came together again. Fred was returned and then there were more babies as they tried to replace Pam: me in 1956 and Charlie in 1959. Had I been a girl, I am afraid Charlie never would have been born.
Looking back I think Pam's death profoundly affected my parents. How could it have not? They were distant. Only late in life did they draw closer. But in time, Marji left her grief behind and became extremely active: raising money for leukemia on a national level, contacting Hollywood celebrities for gifts, getting involved in politics also at a national level. She also got into the real estate business. I remember being raised a good deal of the time by our housekeeper and by our grandmother. Mom was always gone somewhere. Mom also organized huge parties where the whole neighborhood would congregate. Giant holiday parties were always at our house. She organized a huge 80th birthday surprise party for her father at the local Holiday Inn, as a "this is your life" affair and found associates of his from the 1920s, who came and surprised him. What a lady.
Unfortunately, most of my memories are not good as a little kid in their house. I remember all the rage and the crying and my poor father trying to talk her down. Things were especially bad around the holidays and on our fishing vacations. My poor dad just never got a break.
But as time passed, things settled down. When my dad died of cancer in 1991, she was ok, relieved that it was over I suppose. Mom died in a nursing facility at 79 on new year's day in 2006, just down the way from the three boys who were visiting, trying to figure out what to do with her. She was senile by then, ravaged by the leukemia that killed her daughter and father. Her last words to me were expletives. When she died, I sobbed like a child. Some things you just never get over. Jim Anderson, 2020
Postscript: Fifteen years after her death, in June 2021, many members of her family gathered in Ely, Minnesota to finally lay her to rest with my dad, as she had directed. All of Mom's grandchildren were there, Michael, Eric, Neal, Noel, and Ashley, as well as spouses and a number of Mom's great-grandchildren, Lincoln, Hailey and Elliot. We took a pontoon boat out on White Iron Lake and held a little memorial service together across from where their little place used to be. After a few good words, we joined together and poured out her ashes. The children tossed rose petals to the gentle waves.
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