Friday's Faces from the Past: Agnes Verna Guokas, circa 1910

This is my great aunt Agnes "Aggie" Verna Guokas Payne (1905-1974) on a donkey, probably around 1910, and probably near the Guokas family home at 1717 Shearn in Houston, Texas.

Aggie was born October 11, 1905, perhaps at 1314 Railroad in Houston, which was the Guokas family address through 1907.  She is the fourth child born to my great-grandmother, Elizabeth (Elžbieta) Banevich (Benevičiūtė, 1875–1929).

In the 1920-21 Morrison & Fourmy Houston City Directory, on page 686, 15-year-old Aggie is listed as a student at Massey Business College. By 1925, Aggie is married.  In the 1925 Houston city directory, she and her husband, Milton Clyde "Jack" Payne (1904-1991) are rooming at 2215 Shearn, also owned by Aggie's father, my great-grandfather Charles Peter Guokas Sr. (1863-1939).

By 1929, Aggie and Jack are living in their own home at 2215 Quenby in Houston, where they will live for at least the next 13 years.  In the 1929 city directory, Aggie is a stenographer for J. C. Leonard, a bond and mortgage company, and she continues in this job through at least 1935.

In 1937, Aggie and Jack's only child, daughter Laura Lee, is born.  Also at this time, they own a piece of property out near Alief, Texas, where they keep a horse. 

Aggie and Jack are in the 1951 Houston city directory living at 105 N. Haywood Dr., but sometime between then and 1958, they get divorced.  My mother thinks this happened before my parents married in 1954, as she remembers Aggie hosting a shower for her.  The 1958 Houston city directory shows Jack still living on Haywood, while Aggie has a separate listing at 3103 Roe Dr.  She is office manager for Continental Trailways Bus System.  An article in the Daily Court Review from February, 19, 1953, shows Aggie obtained this piece of property (Lot 38, Block 3, Roe subdivision) via a deed of trust on January 30, 1953, so perhaps the divorce occurred around then.

My mother says Laura Lee was interested in competitive swimming, so sometime in the late 1950s (apparently after 1958), Aggie and Laura Lee moved to California.  Aggie lived the rest of her life in San Pedro, and died there on July 28, 1974.  According to my mother, she is buried in Houston.  She had a double plot at a cemetery and her brother Roy Lee Guokas (1917-1959) is also buried there.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

(Not-So) Wordless Wednesday: Mom's First Communion Class, probably 1936-37

I believe the photo above was taken in 1936-37, when Mom (Geraldine Margaret Guokas) was in third grade and her older brother Charles Peter Guokas III (1927-1999) was in fourth grade.  She and Charles had attended public school the year before, and Charles must have missed First Communion preparations.  Thus, I now think this is their First Communion class.  

Below left is a closeup from the photo, showing Gerrie and Charles.  Below right is Gerrie's report card from third grade.



© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

 My mom, Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape, and me, 1957, probably in Chicago, Illinois.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wednesday: Gerrie, Charlie, and Jo Ann, early 1930s

My mother and her two siblings, sometime in the early 1930s.  My aunt recently gave this photo to my mother.  I'm going to see about having it professionally restored.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Church Record Sunday Obituary - Lorenz Pape, March 1932, Wisconsin

The March 25, 1932, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune had the brief obituary at left on page 3 for my great grand uncle Lorenz Pape (1862-1932).  He died at the home of his daughter Mary Walter (not Walters) in Nekoosa, Wisconsin, on March 24, 1932, which was Holy Thursday that year (meaning the obituary was published on Good Friday).  According to the records of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Nekoosa (in book 7), Lorenz (whose name was spelled as Leonard in the church records) was apparently buried on Easter Sunday, March 27, 1932, in Sacred Heart Cemetery (now part of Riverside Cemetery in Nekoosa). 

I was able to obtain a list of tombstone transcriptions for this cemetery through April 1976,  from the McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin Rapids.  Lorenz Pape and his daughters Mary Pape Walter and Petronella "Nellie" Pape Arendt are all buried there.  Lorenz is in Section E, row 2, right next to the Walter plot that has Mary's husband Herman, who died October 24, 1931.  Lorenz's tombstone says: "PAPE-Father Lorenz-1862-1932"

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wedding Wednesday: Sara Melzina Wolfe & Charles Peter Guokas Jr., 1926

 

My maternal grandparents, Sara Melzina Wolfe (Guokas Archibald, 1907-1997) and Charles Peter Guokas Jr. (1903-1967) on their wedding day, July 20, 1926.  The photo is embossed "Keystone Studio" in the lower left hand corner.  According to an article on page 2 of the February 26, 1926, Rice Institute (now University) Thresher student newspaper (Vol. 11, No. 19, Ed. 1), "The Keystone studio is located on the second floor of the Keystone building, corner Texas avenue and San Jacinto street" in Houston, Texas.  More than likely, they had their wedding portrait made at this studio shortly after the wedding at St. Joseph Catholic Church, and perhaps boarded the Galveston - Houston Electric Railway at nearby Union Station (now Minute Maid Park) to head to Galveston for their honeymoon at the Hotel Galvez.  The photo is signed, "With Love, Melzina and Charlie."

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wedding Wednesday: Another J. D. Toloff Photo

Martha Pape Bleidt on her wedding day, May 11, 1921
Photo by Joseph David (J. D.) Toloff (1888-1957), Evanston, Illinois

Jim Craig has an excellent blog post about Toloff, with more examples of his work.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Church Record Sunday: Walter Francis Pape Baptism, August 1900

Above are the pages for 1899-1900 from the baptismal registry of St. Philomena Catholic Church in Chicago that have the baptismal record for my paternal great uncle, Walter Francis Pape.  His record is second from the bottom of the page.

Below is an enlargement of Walter's record, with the information from the left page placed above the information from the right page to make it easier to read.

From the left on the top row are:

• the record number, from the beginning of the registry in August 1893, with the number for that year (1900) in parentheses.  Walter's was the 278th baptism overall and the 26th in 1900.
• Walter's baptismal name, Francis Walter*
• Walter's date of birth, August 2, 1900
• Walter's baptism date, August 12, 1900
• his father's name, John Pape

and on the second row, from the left:

• his mother's maiden name, Gertrude Cramer
• his godfather's name, Francis J. Senge**
• his godmother's name, Cath[erine] Wahle, and
• the name of the priest who performed the baptism, Rev. J. P. Schiffer***

*Walter was baptized Francis Walter, probably to honor his godfather, but was always called Walter and used F. as a middle initial.

**Francis "Frank" J. Senge was John Pape's business partner at this time, at nearby 883/885/889 Armitage Avenue in Chicago, in Senge & Pape dry goods merchants.  John briefly (some time between 1899 and 1904) rented out his home at 1043 Sherman Avenue in Evanston, and on the 1900 Census (shortly before Walter's birth), the family was renting at 1072 (now 1943) Lawndale Avenue in Chicago, close to the store and to St. Philomena.

***This signature was copied from the previous page in the registry, where it was legible.  According to page 96 of the 1909 Chicago Blue Book of Selected Names of Chicago and Suburban Towns: Containing the Names and Addresses of Prominent Residents, Schiffer was pastor of the parish in that year.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces From the Past: Charles Guokas Jr. in Galveston, 1926

Below left is my maternal grandfather, Charles Peter Guokas Jr. (1903-1967).  A note on the back of the picture says it was taken in Galveston, Texas, in 1926.  That was the year my grandparents got married and honeymooned at the Hotel Galvez.  This picture is taken along the Galveston Seawall (built in 1904), and I believe the building you can see in the background is the Hotel Galvez. 

In the collage above, the top photo is an enlargement of the building in the photograph of my grandfather, and the bottom photo is an enlargement of the same area from the roof of the Hotel Galvez in the photo below that I took in January 2012.  The photo was taken from the top of the Seawall, across Seawall Boulevard from the hotel.  The angle isn't quite the same (since the photo of my grandfather was taken from the bottom of the Seawall), but I think it's the same building.  My grandmother, Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald (1907-1997), might very well have taken this photograph of her newlywed husband during their honeymoon.

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wedding Wednesday: Elizabeth Massmann Pape, September 3, 1924

Photo by Joseph David (J. D.) Toloff (1888-1957), Evanston, Illinois

© Amanda Pape - 2013 - click here to e-mail me.