Photo Album of Mom and Dad 1956-1964
Susan Grone and Joseph McKee photo album, 1956 - 1964
In Fall 1955 Dad went to Colorado to go to Colo School of Mines. She told him she was going to still go to parties, and not stay at home on weekends. So Dad went to Abuelita and Grandpa and begged them to help him fund a new life with Susan so he could marry her the next summer and they could live in a little apartment in Colorado. They finally agreed
So at Christmas, he came to St. Louis, went straight to her house on Christmas Eve, she saw him coming up the driveway and was jumping up and down excited. He came into the backdoor to the kitchen, and they hugged there and he asked her to marry him. They ran to the living room to tell the family. There is a photo of them right after that.
Susan Cassidy hosted a bridal shower for Mom. Susan Cassidy was a
bride’s maid too. Mom went to Visitation and SLU with her.
Mom and Dad were married July 21, 1956 in St. Louis, at Our Lady of the Presentation Church. Dad made Mom leave her very gorgeous fancy bouquet at the Mary statue instead of the florists’-made smaller version designed for that purpose. Dad wanted only the best for the Virgin Mary! The reception was at La Chateau in Frontenac.
They drove to Colorado and had 4 or 5 days honeymoon in Colorado Springs. They did the tourist thing, seeing Pike’s Peak, Garden of the Gods. Perfect tourists. They lived in a basement apartment in Denver where Mom was finishing her last year of school at Univ. of Denver. Dad drove every day to Golden to Colo School of Mines.
Mom’s parents (the Grones) came out to visit that fall to see where they were living; that they were getting along alright. The Stoddards (Ann and Elmer) were wonderful people, and watched over Mom and Dad. Mrs. Helped mom with some cooking tips etc. Mr. Stoddard loved hunting and would bring ducks home. Mrs. Stoddard knew how to make amazing roast duck!
Mary born the next year in 1957 (Nov 4). They took her home
for Christmas. Mom went back to St. Louis alone the following summer because Dad
was taking a course in Rangely Colorado.
In 1957 or 58 They moved to Venezuela. Transported with some crates on a small cargo ship with Alcoa lines. The stuff they brought was a car, a refrigerator, wedding gifts, towels, sheets, Mary’s crib, kitchen supplies. Only 20 passengers or so, so they got to know each other pretty well. They stopped in Jamaica (see photo of mom in white dress).
Larry and Dee Krekeler. Larry was a friend of Dad’s from
Chaminade.
Aunt Judy met her husband Vince Shaw through Dad. He was
quiet, nerdy, not too social, so they were surprised when those 2 got engaged,
because Judy is so social.
Photos from 1961 show Mom, Dad, friends and Mary in Silver
Island. This is off the coast of Venezuela and was a popular day trip for beach
and picnicking. Locals would take people out and pick them up at the end of the
day. On one trip (in the 70s), Mrs. Parsons (mom’s good friend and next door
neighbor in Anaco) got really sick after eating raw oysters sold by local boy
going up and down the beach.
When Mom got pregnant with Jennifer, Dad took her to Caracas
to stay alone in a small studio apartment rented by people they did not know.
He did not want her having the baby in Anaco. Caracas had better doctors etc.
Mom felt abandoned, this was too much. She had to go around this unknown place
alone with little Mary to get groceries and things they needed, not being great
with the language. Abuelita joined her later when the arrival date was closer.
Mom was knocked out for the birth, so had no pain. Apartment in the photos
looks nice!
Pics in the album show theatre; Dad liked to be a thespian sometimes and acted in some productions in Anaco at Mobil camp. He got to kiss other ladies??
Mom flew to St. Louis to have Margaret. She stayed with her parents on Boswell of course, and when she started having contractions, her dad drove her to the hospital. After a few red lights (in early morning) she told him “Dad, don’t stop for any more red lights!” They arrived and called the doctor. She went into a room and Margaret was delivered by a Persian intern. The doctor did not arrive in time. She came all the way to St. Louis to have the baby with a good American doctor, only to have a foreign intern deliver the baby, Mom laughed.
In the album there is a photo of Dad in April 1963 (the month Margaret was born) after his first solo flight; it was tradition to douse people with motor oil after they did this. Why was Dad nowhere near Mom when she was having babies? Brother!
Dad’s best friend ever, I think, was Jim Black. Jim stayed in touch with Dad personally for many years, until he died in 2002 or so. I visited Jim Black in Colorado springs around 1996 or so when I worked and traveled. In 1963 or so, they went to Ecuador to look for gold. Jim Black told me a story of the two traveling on donkeys and dad had a sweater with a chapstick in the pocket. The chapstick would fall out and dad would get mad and frustrated, and it was a big joke and very funny the way Jim told me the story. It highlighted Dad’s obsessive quirks and at the same time how endeared Jim was to Dad. The gold search did not seem to yield anything but a fun adventure.
Mom and Dad seemed to be invited to lots of costume parties.
Here are photos of kids on the front sidewalk of our house
in Anaco, Ven. And at Mobil camp where we liked to go swimming.
Mom was makeup director for one play at Mobil camp. It was
the one play that was in Spanish. All the plays were always in English, but the
Spanish speakers wanted to do a play so they finally got to do “Los Arboles
Mueren de Pie” and she was makeup director for that one play.
Mom really loved the orchids in S. America and always had
orchid boxes hanging from the trees in the yard. See one photo from 1964.
Grandma Grone sewed a costume for Mary and mailed it down. A
gypsy kind of thing (red vest, turquoise, bloomy pants) and she won a costume
contest with another kid. See pic Oct 1964.
1965 Mom took Mary to see her sister Mary Lou Golier and
family for the world’s fair in New York.
Margaret and Jennifer stayed with Mom’s parents and her
favorite Venezuelan nanny ever, Victoria, in St. Louis. Victoria was the only
maid/nanny that Mom ever brought to the states. Mom goes on about how wonderful
she was; trusting, sweet, calm, loving with kids. Jim and Grace Black were up
that way and met up with them, hung out for a day.
Here is Margaret tugging at the beard of Santa
knowing it was her Grandpa… (I have a memory of doing this myself, but maybe
it’s a false memory?)
Mary with Tveskov, and Mary 2nd Grade photo.
Jim Black to Joe McKee were best friends in Venezuela, both working in the petroleum industry in Anaco.
They both had single engine airplanes and would fly together
to fish on the back country rivers of Venezuela on weekends, or to run errands
into the oil fields.
One year on Grandma and Grandpa’s anniversary when they were
around 30 years old, the Blacks came over for the evening to have drinks and
play bridge.
Dad and Mr. Black went to Ecuador together in their planes to look into investing into a gold mine!
They took burros in the hills. Jim Black told me (I visited him in Colo Springs in the 1990s when I traveled there for work) the story of how dad had a sweater with Chapstick in the pocket. The chapstick kept falling out and Dad would stop and pick it up, but it would fall out again. Jim thought this was hilarious, he laughed so much telling this. Finally the burro stepped on the Chapstick. They never invested in a gold mine…
Jim sent a blanket home with me to give to my Dad. It was cotton throw, woven with images of trout. It was on our couch in the basement where Dad hung out every day for years (in the Sherwood house). I gave it to Andrew Roussin when he went to college. Jim had such a special love for Dad and visited him in St Louis in the 1980s with his wonderful wife Grace Black.
When Jim died, I was living in Amherst, MA and I begged my mom to let me take dad to the funeral but my mom refused, it would be too much stress on her.
Jim Black, far right.
Late 1950s, early 60s.
Jim at a cave, potential mine.
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