From "The Fifteen Children of John W. Ketterman" by Romney J. Ketterman and Barbara Ketterman Pendleton. 2008. Use with permission from Barbara Ketterman Pendleton.

"Minnie Maud Ketterman was the first child born to John W. Ketterman and Nancy Walker Ketterman; the 1880 census shows the little family sharing quarters with Nancy's brother Elwood and his wife Phoebe.

Living space soon became tight. A brother, Harold, was born and died in 1881; a second brother, Guy, arrived in 1882. At some point Nancy's teenage sister Ella also spent time in the household before she married at age 16.

Somewhere around 1884 Minnie accompanied her parents as they left Illinois for southeast Kansas. Sister Chloe was apparently born on the way; little brothers Grover, Romney, and Derward were born in Pittsburg, Kansas, where the family settled.

Minnie was only 13 when her mother passed away in late 1892. She apparently left school that year to keep house for her demanding father. She went back to school as a 14-and 15-year-old, but after eighth grade her schooling was complete.

Meanwhile her father remarried--this time to a woman not much older than Minnie herself. the 1895 Kansas Census lists a 16-year-old Minnie living in Pittsburg with her 43 year-old father and his 24 year-old wife, and their newborn baby daughter Vera. It must have been a very uncomfortable situation.

By 1900 Minnie was no longer living at home. And sometime in 1901, Minnie discovered she was expecting a baby. The father was a local teamster and coal miner by the name of William J. Sale. Minnie and William married October 28, 1901 and set up housekeeping. Their baby girl arrived on January 5, 1902.

It's not clear what happened to Minnie's first baby, but it's assumed she died shortly after birth. But on December 18, 1903, Elmer Merle Sale (Always called Merle) arrived, and on September 6, 1905, a little girl, named Clare joined the family. The growing family moved to a farm about eight miles out of town.

Any happiness Minnie might have felt was short-lived, however. On November 21, 1906, her 34-year old husband died of an abscess at the city hospital. Minnie was left almost penniless with two small children to support. Somehow Minnie scraped together enough money to purchase a large plot at the Mt. Olive Cemetery, but soon afterwords she moved to Kansas City to look for work.

The 1910 census shows Minnie Sale Living in a boarding house in the Kansas City, MO area with her two children, Merle age 6 and Clare age 4. Her employment is listed as a warehouse janitor. She must have been pregnant at the time as well, because her youngest child Elvon Jack Sale (always called Jack) was born September 18, 1910. To this day we do not know the identity of Jack's natural father.

Sometime between 1910 and 1917 Minnie married William R. Blevins, a widowed carpenter eight years her senior. She and her children moved into a Kansas City home with Bill Blevins, his teenage daughter Geneva, and later his mother. Unfortunately, once again Minnie found herself in the midst of an extremely tense home situation.

The author has spoken to two persons who knew Minnie herself (her nephew, Romney J. Ketterman, and her daughter-in-law, Delores Sale) and both describe her as pleasant and loving, although care-worn and perhaps looking older than her years.

On the other hand, Bill Blevins could be a very cruel man...

It comes as no surprise to find that all Minnie's children left home at a young age. Merle was on his own and living in a hotel by 1918, when he was only about 14 years old. At that time he registered for WWI Army service, lying about his birth date in hopes of getting in. Clare married Carl Cooley at age 16 and settled near Pittsburg. And although the 1930 census shows a 19 year-old Jack Blevins still living in Kansas City with Minnie and Bill, not long afterward he dropped his stepfather's name and left home for good.

After the children left home, Minnie and her husband moved to a farm near Warrensburg, MO--possibly the farm where Bill had grown up. And it was there, on Dec. 12, 1936, that Minnie became a widow for the second time. Her 65 year- old husband had died of "carcinoma of the stomach" and was buried in Warrensburg's Liberty Cemetery.

Sometime after Bill's death, Minnie decided to move back to her hometown of Pittsburg, Kansas. possibly hoping to spend time with her daughter Clare and her family. ON January 25, 1950 her clothes caught fire and sh was severely burned. After some time in hospital, she moved into her cousin Frank Ketterman's household as she recovered Complications set in and she passed away at the end of March 1950.

Minnie Maud Ketterman Sale Blevins was buried in the Mt. Olive Cemetery in Pittsburg, KS, near her first husband William Sale. Between them lie two infants (Francis Sale 1923-1924, and Kenneth Sale, 1925-1926), whose identity I have not been able to establish.

Minnie's grave is unmarked."