OF ENGLISH ANCESTRY
SINGER, PIANIST
DISTANT COUSIN OF 6 AMERICAN PRESIDENTS
-------------
A BIOGRAPHY OF ESTHER ADELAIDE WILLIAMS OVERMIRE, by Laurence Overmire (great grandson), genealogist and Overmire family historian, updated May 2020:
Esther Adelaide Williams was born Jan. 12, 1872, in Milton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, the youngest of three daughters born to Asa Hinckley Williams and Lucy Jane Lawrence, who emigrated to the U.S. from Quebec, Canada, about 1866. Esther was probably named after her maternal grandmother Esther (Thurston) Lawrence of Attleborough, Norfolk, England. Through her paternal grandmother Rosalinda (Torrey) Williams, Esther is related to the prominent Stockbridge and Dudley families of Massachusetts and shares common ancestors with many famous Americans, including Presidents James A. Garfield, William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Gerald R. Ford, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Her New England upbringing would always be a part of her; she retained her east-coast accent throughout her life.
On Sep. 24, 1890, at the age of 18, Esther married 25-year-old Edwin Parker Overmire, a budding young architect. They had 3 children: Dorothy Frances, Ruth Esther, and Edwin Raymond (who later reversed the name to Raymond Edwin).
In 1891, the couple moved to Minneapolis where Edwin planned to pursue his architectural career. Lucy Williams, Esther's mother, had relatives there--her brother Wesley Michael Lawrence and his family who operated a successful dry cleaning business--so she moved there as well with her daughters Lu and May. Lucy went into business almost immediately as the manager of the Summers Hotel on the corner of 10th Street and 4th Avenue South.
In 1905, with his architectural career beginning to skyrocket, Edwin was overtaken by illness and died at the age of 41, leaving Esther in a financially precarious situation with three children to raise. It must have been daunting for her, but she was up to the challenge. With characteristic optimism, she took a job as a cashier in the cafeteria dining room of the Curtis Court Hotel and forged a new life. As her son Ray Sr. recalled in his memoirs: "My mother was a large woman with generous figure. Working as cafeteria cashier, moving the family each year to a new location, keeping us all fed and clothed and healthy and happy, she reared her children to solid, respectable and useful citizenship. Hers was an incurable optimism... and her constant good nature and jolly disposition were a blessing to all who knew her."
Ray Sr. was only nine when his father died, but Esther made sure the man's influence would continue to live on in her children: "My mother surely guided me through my developing years both by reminder and by expectation. She often cited the fact that my father...'never smoked, drank, chewed or swore.' She made it clear to me that I was expected to live up to the memory of the man we both revered."
She probably understood she could never completely fulfill a father's role in the household, especially with her son, but she did her best. "How thoughtfully my mother tried to share her boy's baseball interest without understanding it in the least. I would come home from a game [Minneapolis Millers] talking enthusiastically about who pitched that day, who made great fielding plays... One day she volunteered to enter into my excitement, and queried, 'Who batted today?' Her teenage son was almost too disgusted to remind her that everyone on the entire team, as always, batted that day and each day!"
Esther was musically gifted. She played piano and enjoyed singing with the Philharmonic Society. Both she and her son Ray sang in the choir one night for a performance with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in the Minneapolis Auditorium.
Esther's daughter Dorothy or "Dot" was musically gifted as well, particularly as a singer. She was so talented that she went into vaudeville in 1924 with an operatic act called "The Madame du Barry Opera Troupe."
Sometime before 1930, Dorothy and Esther moved to Los Angeles, perhaps to further Dorothy's show business career. They took up residence at 1834 N. Argyle Ave.
Dorothy landed a job as secretary to Vernon Wood of the Vernon Wood Co., Hollywood, California, which handled the financial affairs of such movie stars as Bette Davis and Lyle Talbot.
Esther and Dorothy experienced a terrifying earthquake in 1933, which Dorothy wrote about in a letter dated Mar. 11:
"We were eating in a drugstore when the quake occurred, and the boys behind the counter jumped over, and everyone ran out into the street. The building swayed and rocked, lights went out... All during the evening and night we felt slight tremors... Huntington Park and Long Beach are wrecks. The whole Compton business area is in shambles... Our friend Mrs. Purcell was shopping, and got to the street just as the building she had been in collapsed."
In Aug. 1936, Dorothy married Jack Palmer. Jack moved in with Dorothy and Esther at 1834 N. Argyle. He probably died sometime between 1942 and 1948.
On Apr. 14, 1949, Esther passed away at the age of 77. Dot described the funeral in a letter to the family:
"The services are lovely - a Dr. McKean, of a Hollywood Presbyterian Church, spoke - and everyone said it was a wonderful talk - nothing preachy but just a nice heart to heart talk - it is hard to know what to say when a person is a stranger - but he certainly was good, and many of the people went up to him and thanked him afterwards. A fine baritone singer sang "Abide With Me" and "The Lord's Prayer" - and the organ music was beautiful all through.
"Mamma looked lovely - so rested and at peace - she had failed so rapidly the past ten days that I could hardly realize it - and the last night at the hospital when I sat there for several hours watching her try to breathe - helped by oxygen and other things - I know that death would be a release for her - she was so tired - could hardly lift her feet to get around. Of course it hurt that she didn't know me, or respond to me when I talked to her - but it was probably best - she wasn't suffering anyway - and just slipped away a little before seven in the morning - just before I got back to the hospital.
"I am glad that you are going to have services there for her, also - it will make you all feel better, and me, too - everyone here was wonderful to me - and there were so many people at the services whom I never dreamed would be there - that it made me happy - as it showed how many people loved her. There were 26 people just from this apartment house...
"The man in charge came to me afterwards and wanted to know if I had any wishes about disposition of the flowers - inasmuch as there would be no grave to put them on - he had had calls from three different churches here to ask if they might have flowers for their Easter services today - so I told him I thought that was the thing for them to do - so they were to come and pick them up - They will be serving to give pleasure to many people today in the three different churches. Don't you think that was nice?"
SINGER, PIANIST
DISTANT COUSIN OF 6 AMERICAN PRESIDENTS
-------------
A BIOGRAPHY OF ESTHER ADELAIDE WILLIAMS OVERMIRE, by Laurence Overmire (great grandson), genealogist and Overmire family historian, updated May 2020:
Esther Adelaide Williams was born Jan. 12, 1872, in Milton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, the youngest of three daughters born to Asa Hinckley Williams and Lucy Jane Lawrence, who emigrated to the U.S. from Quebec, Canada, about 1866. Esther was probably named after her maternal grandmother Esther (Thurston) Lawrence of Attleborough, Norfolk, England. Through her paternal grandmother Rosalinda (Torrey) Williams, Esther is related to the prominent Stockbridge and Dudley families of Massachusetts and shares common ancestors with many famous Americans, including Presidents James A. Garfield, William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Gerald R. Ford, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Her New England upbringing would always be a part of her; she retained her east-coast accent throughout her life.
On Sep. 24, 1890, at the age of 18, Esther married 25-year-old Edwin Parker Overmire, a budding young architect. They had 3 children: Dorothy Frances, Ruth Esther, and Edwin Raymond (who later reversed the name to Raymond Edwin).
In 1891, the couple moved to Minneapolis where Edwin planned to pursue his architectural career. Lucy Williams, Esther's mother, had relatives there--her brother Wesley Michael Lawrence and his family who operated a successful dry cleaning business--so she moved there as well with her daughters Lu and May. Lucy went into business almost immediately as the manager of the Summers Hotel on the corner of 10th Street and 4th Avenue South.
In 1905, with his architectural career beginning to skyrocket, Edwin was overtaken by illness and died at the age of 41, leaving Esther in a financially precarious situation with three children to raise. It must have been daunting for her, but she was up to the challenge. With characteristic optimism, she took a job as a cashier in the cafeteria dining room of the Curtis Court Hotel and forged a new life. As her son Ray Sr. recalled in his memoirs: "My mother was a large woman with generous figure. Working as cafeteria cashier, moving the family each year to a new location, keeping us all fed and clothed and healthy and happy, she reared her children to solid, respectable and useful citizenship. Hers was an incurable optimism... and her constant good nature and jolly disposition were a blessing to all who knew her."
Ray Sr. was only nine when his father died, but Esther made sure the man's influence would continue to live on in her children: "My mother surely guided me through my developing years both by reminder and by expectation. She often cited the fact that my father...'never smoked, drank, chewed or swore.' She made it clear to me that I was expected to live up to the memory of the man we both revered."
She probably understood she could never completely fulfill a father's role in the household, especially with her son, but she did her best. "How thoughtfully my mother tried to share her boy's baseball interest without understanding it in the least. I would come home from a game [Minneapolis Millers] talking enthusiastically about who pitched that day, who made great fielding plays... One day she volunteered to enter into my excitement, and queried, 'Who batted today?' Her teenage son was almost too disgusted to remind her that everyone on the entire team, as always, batted that day and each day!"
Esther was musically gifted. She played piano and enjoyed singing with the Philharmonic Society. Both she and her son Ray sang in the choir one night for a performance with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in the Minneapolis Auditorium.
Esther's daughter Dorothy or "Dot" was musically gifted as well, particularly as a singer. She was so talented that she went into vaudeville in 1924 with an operatic act called "The Madame du Barry Opera Troupe."
Sometime before 1930, Dorothy and Esther moved to Los Angeles, perhaps to further Dorothy's show business career. They took up residence at 1834 N. Argyle Ave.
Dorothy landed a job as secretary to Vernon Wood of the Vernon Wood Co., Hollywood, California, which handled the financial affairs of such movie stars as Bette Davis and Lyle Talbot.
Esther and Dorothy experienced a terrifying earthquake in 1933, which Dorothy wrote about in a letter dated Mar. 11:
"We were eating in a drugstore when the quake occurred, and the boys behind the counter jumped over, and everyone ran out into the street. The building swayed and rocked, lights went out... All during the evening and night we felt slight tremors... Huntington Park and Long Beach are wrecks. The whole Compton business area is in shambles... Our friend Mrs. Purcell was shopping, and got to the street just as the building she had been in collapsed."
In Aug. 1936, Dorothy married Jack Palmer. Jack moved in with Dorothy and Esther at 1834 N. Argyle. He probably died sometime between 1942 and 1948.
On Apr. 14, 1949, Esther passed away at the age of 77. Dot described the funeral in a letter to the family:
"The services are lovely - a Dr. McKean, of a Hollywood Presbyterian Church, spoke - and everyone said it was a wonderful talk - nothing preachy but just a nice heart to heart talk - it is hard to know what to say when a person is a stranger - but he certainly was good, and many of the people went up to him and thanked him afterwards. A fine baritone singer sang "Abide With Me" and "The Lord's Prayer" - and the organ music was beautiful all through.
"Mamma looked lovely - so rested and at peace - she had failed so rapidly the past ten days that I could hardly realize it - and the last night at the hospital when I sat there for several hours watching her try to breathe - helped by oxygen and other things - I know that death would be a release for her - she was so tired - could hardly lift her feet to get around. Of course it hurt that she didn't know me, or respond to me when I talked to her - but it was probably best - she wasn't suffering anyway - and just slipped away a little before seven in the morning - just before I got back to the hospital.
"I am glad that you are going to have services there for her, also - it will make you all feel better, and me, too - everyone here was wonderful to me - and there were so many people at the services whom I never dreamed would be there - that it made me happy - as it showed how many people loved her. There were 26 people just from this apartment house...
"The man in charge came to me afterwards and wanted to know if I had any wishes about disposition of the flowers - inasmuch as there would be no grave to put them on - he had had calls from three different churches here to ask if they might have flowers for their Easter services today - so I told him I thought that was the thing for them to do - so they were to come and pick them up - They will be serving to give pleasure to many people today in the three different churches. Don't you think that was nice?"
OF ENGLISH ANCESTRY
SINGER, PIANIST
DISTANT COUSIN OF 6 AMERICAN PRESIDENTS
-------------
A BIOGRAPHY OF ESTHER ADELAIDE WILLIAMS OVERMIRE, by Laurence Overmire (great grandson), genealogist and Overmire family historian, updated May 2020:
Esther Adelaide Williams was born Jan. 12, 1872, in Milton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, the youngest of three daughters born to Asa Hinckley Williams and Lucy Jane Lawrence, who emigrated to the U.S. from Quebec, Canada, about 1866. Esther was probably named after her maternal grandmother Esther (Thurston) Lawrence of Attleborough, Norfolk, England. Through her paternal grandmother Rosalinda (Torrey) Williams, Esther is related to the prominent Stockbridge and Dudley families of Massachusetts and shares common ancestors with many famous Americans, including Presidents James A. Garfield, William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Gerald R. Ford, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Her New England upbringing would always be a part of her; she retained her east-coast accent throughout her life.
On Sep. 24, 1890, at the age of 18, Esther married 25-year-old Edwin Parker Overmire, a budding young architect. They had 3 children: Dorothy Frances, Ruth Esther, and Edwin Raymond (who later reversed the name to Raymond Edwin).
In 1891, the couple moved to Minneapolis where Edwin planned to pursue his architectural career. Lucy Williams, Esther's mother, had relatives there--her brother Wesley Michael Lawrence and his family who operated a successful dry cleaning business--so she moved there as well with her daughters Lu and May. Lucy went into business almost immediately as the manager of the Summers Hotel on the corner of 10th Street and 4th Avenue South.
In 1905, with his architectural career beginning to skyrocket, Edwin was overtaken by illness and died at the age of 41, leaving Esther in a financially precarious situation with three children to raise. It must have been daunting for her, but she was up to the challenge. With characteristic optimism, she took a job as a cashier in the cafeteria dining room of the Curtis Court Hotel and forged a new life. As her son Ray Sr. recalled in his memoirs: "My mother was a large woman with generous figure. Working as cafeteria cashier, moving the family each year to a new location, keeping us all fed and clothed and healthy and happy, she reared her children to solid, respectable and useful citizenship. Hers was an incurable optimism... and her constant good nature and jolly disposition were a blessing to all who knew her."
Ray Sr. was only nine when his father died, but Esther made sure the man's influence would continue to live on in her children: "My mother surely guided me through my developing years both by reminder and by expectation. She often cited the fact that my father...'never smoked, drank, chewed or swore.' She made it clear to me that I was expected to live up to the memory of the man we both revered."
She probably understood she could never completely fulfill a father's role in the household, especially with her son, but she did her best. "How thoughtfully my mother tried to share her boy's baseball interest without understanding it in the least. I would come home from a game [Minneapolis Millers] talking enthusiastically about who pitched that day, who made great fielding plays... One day she volunteered to enter into my excitement, and queried, 'Who batted today?' Her teenage son was almost too disgusted to remind her that everyone on the entire team, as always, batted that day and each day!"
Esther was musically gifted. She played piano and enjoyed singing with the Philharmonic Society. Both she and her son Ray sang in the choir one night for a performance with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in the Minneapolis Auditorium.
Esther's daughter Dorothy or "Dot" was musically gifted as well, particularly as a singer. She was so talented that she went into vaudeville in 1924 with an operatic act called "The Madame du Barry Opera Troupe."
Sometime before 1930, Dorothy and Esther moved to Los Angeles, perhaps to further Dorothy's show business career. They took up residence at 1834 N. Argyle Ave.
Dorothy landed a job as secretary to Vernon Wood of the Vernon Wood Co., Hollywood, California, which handled the financial affairs of such movie stars as Bette Davis and Lyle Talbot.
Esther and Dorothy experienced a terrifying earthquake in 1933, which Dorothy wrote about in a letter dated Mar. 11:
"We were eating in a drugstore when the quake occurred, and the boys behind the counter jumped over, and everyone ran out into the street. The building swayed and rocked, lights went out... All during the evening and night we felt slight tremors... Huntington Park and Long Beach are wrecks. The whole Compton business area is in shambles... Our friend Mrs. Purcell was shopping, and got to the street just as the building she had been in collapsed."
In Aug. 1936, Dorothy married Jack Palmer. Jack moved in with Dorothy and Esther at 1834 N. Argyle. He probably died sometime between 1942 and 1948.
On Apr. 14, 1949, Esther passed away at the age of 77. Dot described the funeral in a letter to the family:
"The services are lovely - a Dr. McKean, of a Hollywood Presbyterian Church, spoke - and everyone said it was a wonderful talk - nothing preachy but just a nice heart to heart talk - it is hard to know what to say when a person is a stranger - but he certainly was good, and many of the people went up to him and thanked him afterwards. A fine baritone singer sang "Abide With Me" and "The Lord's Prayer" - and the organ music was beautiful all through.
"Mamma looked lovely - so rested and at peace - she had failed so rapidly the past ten days that I could hardly realize it - and the last night at the hospital when I sat there for several hours watching her try to breathe - helped by oxygen and other things - I know that death would be a release for her - she was so tired - could hardly lift her feet to get around. Of course it hurt that she didn't know me, or respond to me when I talked to her - but it was probably best - she wasn't suffering anyway - and just slipped away a little before seven in the morning - just before I got back to the hospital.
"I am glad that you are going to have services there for her, also - it will make you all feel better, and me, too - everyone here was wonderful to me - and there were so many people at the services whom I never dreamed would be there - that it made me happy - as it showed how many people loved her. There were 26 people just from this apartment house...
"The man in charge came to me afterwards and wanted to know if I had any wishes about disposition of the flowers - inasmuch as there would be no grave to put them on - he had had calls from three different churches here to ask if they might have flowers for their Easter services today - so I told him I thought that was the thing for them to do - so they were to come and pick them up - They will be serving to give pleasure to many people today in the three different churches. Don't you think that was nice?"
SINGER, PIANIST
DISTANT COUSIN OF 6 AMERICAN PRESIDENTS
-------------
A BIOGRAPHY OF ESTHER ADELAIDE WILLIAMS OVERMIRE, by Laurence Overmire (great grandson), genealogist and Overmire family historian, updated May 2020:
Esther Adelaide Williams was born Jan. 12, 1872, in Milton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, the youngest of three daughters born to Asa Hinckley Williams and Lucy Jane Lawrence, who emigrated to the U.S. from Quebec, Canada, about 1866. Esther was probably named after her maternal grandmother Esther (Thurston) Lawrence of Attleborough, Norfolk, England. Through her paternal grandmother Rosalinda (Torrey) Williams, Esther is related to the prominent Stockbridge and Dudley families of Massachusetts and shares common ancestors with many famous Americans, including Presidents James A. Garfield, William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Gerald R. Ford, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Her New England upbringing would always be a part of her; she retained her east-coast accent throughout her life.
On Sep. 24, 1890, at the age of 18, Esther married 25-year-old Edwin Parker Overmire, a budding young architect. They had 3 children: Dorothy Frances, Ruth Esther, and Edwin Raymond (who later reversed the name to Raymond Edwin).
In 1891, the couple moved to Minneapolis where Edwin planned to pursue his architectural career. Lucy Williams, Esther's mother, had relatives there--her brother Wesley Michael Lawrence and his family who operated a successful dry cleaning business--so she moved there as well with her daughters Lu and May. Lucy went into business almost immediately as the manager of the Summers Hotel on the corner of 10th Street and 4th Avenue South.
In 1905, with his architectural career beginning to skyrocket, Edwin was overtaken by illness and died at the age of 41, leaving Esther in a financially precarious situation with three children to raise. It must have been daunting for her, but she was up to the challenge. With characteristic optimism, she took a job as a cashier in the cafeteria dining room of the Curtis Court Hotel and forged a new life. As her son Ray Sr. recalled in his memoirs: "My mother was a large woman with generous figure. Working as cafeteria cashier, moving the family each year to a new location, keeping us all fed and clothed and healthy and happy, she reared her children to solid, respectable and useful citizenship. Hers was an incurable optimism... and her constant good nature and jolly disposition were a blessing to all who knew her."
Ray Sr. was only nine when his father died, but Esther made sure the man's influence would continue to live on in her children: "My mother surely guided me through my developing years both by reminder and by expectation. She often cited the fact that my father...'never smoked, drank, chewed or swore.' She made it clear to me that I was expected to live up to the memory of the man we both revered."
She probably understood she could never completely fulfill a father's role in the household, especially with her son, but she did her best. "How thoughtfully my mother tried to share her boy's baseball interest without understanding it in the least. I would come home from a game [Minneapolis Millers] talking enthusiastically about who pitched that day, who made great fielding plays... One day she volunteered to enter into my excitement, and queried, 'Who batted today?' Her teenage son was almost too disgusted to remind her that everyone on the entire team, as always, batted that day and each day!"
Esther was musically gifted. She played piano and enjoyed singing with the Philharmonic Society. Both she and her son Ray sang in the choir one night for a performance with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in the Minneapolis Auditorium.
Esther's daughter Dorothy or "Dot" was musically gifted as well, particularly as a singer. She was so talented that she went into vaudeville in 1924 with an operatic act called "The Madame du Barry Opera Troupe."
Sometime before 1930, Dorothy and Esther moved to Los Angeles, perhaps to further Dorothy's show business career. They took up residence at 1834 N. Argyle Ave.
Dorothy landed a job as secretary to Vernon Wood of the Vernon Wood Co., Hollywood, California, which handled the financial affairs of such movie stars as Bette Davis and Lyle Talbot.
Esther and Dorothy experienced a terrifying earthquake in 1933, which Dorothy wrote about in a letter dated Mar. 11:
"We were eating in a drugstore when the quake occurred, and the boys behind the counter jumped over, and everyone ran out into the street. The building swayed and rocked, lights went out... All during the evening and night we felt slight tremors... Huntington Park and Long Beach are wrecks. The whole Compton business area is in shambles... Our friend Mrs. Purcell was shopping, and got to the street just as the building she had been in collapsed."
In Aug. 1936, Dorothy married Jack Palmer. Jack moved in with Dorothy and Esther at 1834 N. Argyle. He probably died sometime between 1942 and 1948.
On Apr. 14, 1949, Esther passed away at the age of 77. Dot described the funeral in a letter to the family:
"The services are lovely - a Dr. McKean, of a Hollywood Presbyterian Church, spoke - and everyone said it was a wonderful talk - nothing preachy but just a nice heart to heart talk - it is hard to know what to say when a person is a stranger - but he certainly was good, and many of the people went up to him and thanked him afterwards. A fine baritone singer sang "Abide With Me" and "The Lord's Prayer" - and the organ music was beautiful all through.
"Mamma looked lovely - so rested and at peace - she had failed so rapidly the past ten days that I could hardly realize it - and the last night at the hospital when I sat there for several hours watching her try to breathe - helped by oxygen and other things - I know that death would be a release for her - she was so tired - could hardly lift her feet to get around. Of course it hurt that she didn't know me, or respond to me when I talked to her - but it was probably best - she wasn't suffering anyway - and just slipped away a little before seven in the morning - just before I got back to the hospital.
"I am glad that you are going to have services there for her, also - it will make you all feel better, and me, too - everyone here was wonderful to me - and there were so many people at the services whom I never dreamed would be there - that it made me happy - as it showed how many people loved her. There were 26 people just from this apartment house...
"The man in charge came to me afterwards and wanted to know if I had any wishes about disposition of the flowers - inasmuch as there would be no grave to put them on - he had had calls from three different churches here to ask if they might have flowers for their Easter services today - so I told him I thought that was the thing for them to do - so they were to come and pick them up - They will be serving to give pleasure to many people today in the three different churches. Don't you think that was nice?"
