Anna Sarah Townsend Claycomb

The woman in the hammock is my great-grandmother, Anna Sarah Townsend Claycomb (1864-1892), wife of Frank Erwin Claycomb.  She is at a TB sanitarium in southern California, possibly Pasadena.  The year is about 1892.  I can’t prove it, but the family story is that the toddler is her youngest child, George Francis Claycomb, born 1889.  George becomes the father of the ‘Idaho Claycombs.’

Her residence was in Sycamore, illinois, but she made this trip to improve her health.  It wasn’t successful.

The photo is interesting because of the formal dress on people (family?) and the Asian care takers.  I’m glad they are included in the photograph.

Willard School Pasadena California 1945

Here’s my sister’s class photo from 1945 – Mrs. Anderson’s class at Frances E. Willard School in Pasadena, California.  Jeanie would have been about 6, so I’m thinking this is first grade.
And Mom labeled the photo – most of the kids anyway.  Apologies to those that she didn’t know.
The surnames are Morris, Lambert, Curry, Alten, Osborne, Gardner, Grizzle, Hemphill, Sand, Fernandez, Russell, Shirley, Argetsinger, Rhone, Wilson, Claycomb, Hanson, Woods, and Gaston.

Grandma Williams

Grandma Williams wasn’t a blood relative, but she became a friend to my parents when they lived in Pasadena, California in 1942.

I remember only one story about her that Mom told me when we were talking about psychic experiences.  Mom said that one night she woke up after seeing someone walk by the foot of the bed.  Dad awoke and asked what was wrong.  She told him, “It’s okay, it’s only Grandma Williams” and they went back to sleep.  They learned later that she had died that night.

I don’t know much about her.  She was Mrs. M G. Williams who may have had a daughter Mary and possibly sons, Gelen and Bennett.  These names are from a letter that she wrote to Mom in 1952 from Santa Rosa, California.  In Pasadena (1943) she lived at 454 Wordward Blvd.  I’ve dug through photos, but cannot find one with her name on it.

Something in me wants to make that friendship known, to keep it from ending, I guess, since I’m the only person in my family to know it existed.  So all I can do is put the information into the ethers of the internet.  Or depend on psychics to know about it!