The history of Arlene, as told to me in December of 2004

Arlene was born in 1924, in Geneva, New York. She was the third of three children. Her sister, Verna, was the oldest and her brother, Ralph, was second.

Her mother, Maud, died when Arlene was only two years old. Her father was a milkman.

Soon after her mother's death, the kids were split up and sent to live with relatives. Verna went to live with the grandparents, Ralph went to live with an uncle, and Arlene went to live with an aunt. When Arlene was about 10, her uncle died and her aunt could no longer keep her. She went to live with her grandparents. Verna claimed Arlene had been spoiled by the aunt. After some time, Arlene left and went to live with her father.

When she was 16, she decided to leave home. She went to live at a local college, where she worked for $40 a month, plus room and board. She lived in a dormitory type setting, two girls to a room, until she met and married dad.

She said that when her girlfriend wanted to introduce her to Don, she wasn't interested because she already had a boyfriend. Eventually, they did meet and started dating. She said Dad had nothing!

They got married on December 15, 1944. I was born August 6, 1945. Dad got out of the Navy in 1946 and they moved back to North Dakota (near Dad's parents). Dad built a small house there and worked for Western Auto, selling appliances. He didn't like that job! Within a year or so, the new house got flooded out and Dad was fed up with North Dakota. He came home day and told Mom that he was going to join the army. She said ok (she didn't like ND either). A couple days later, he announced that they were moving to Fort Knox, Kentucky!

My sister Dawn had been born in 1947, in North Dakota. So, we must have left there for Fort Knox in late 1947 or early 1948. When we were at Fort Knox, Dad got the opportunity to go to OCS (Officer's Candidate School) and we moved to Georgia for a few months so Dad could go to that school (Fort Benning).

After school, we were stationed at some other hole-in-the-wall place in Kentucky. Then, we moved back to Fort Knox. In 1949-1950, Dad was sent to Korea to fight in that war. In 1950-1951, he was sent to Japan, and we joined him there in 1951-1952. We were only there for a few months, when all dependents were ordered back to the US. Mom, Dawn and I went to San Francisco where we lived until Dad came back.

Some time after Dad returned from Japan, we packed up the car (a 1956 Oldsmobile) and drove across the southern US and up the east coast to Massachusetts (Fort Devens, I think). I know I was in the 7th grade there, so it must have been 1957. Dad was shipped out to France from Massachusetts and we went to join him about December of 1957.

We returned to the US in July of 1960 and lived in Philadelphia until Dad left the service in 1961. We moved to Burlington, New Jersey. Mom, Dad, and Dawn left NJ for Ohio in April/May of 1963. I stayed with the Lawrence family until I graduated from high school in May.

Mom and Dad lived in Dayton, Ohio until about 1967, when they moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Dad died in 1969. Dawn died in 1979 in a collision with a train. Mom continues to live in Sheperdsville, KY.