The prompt for Week 46 of 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History is Politics. The real prompt doesn't fit me very well, so I'm going to continue the story of my connection to Texas Governor Miriam A. "Ma" Ferguson.
As I wrote in an earlier post, my maternal grandfather, Charles Guokas Jr., was appointments secretary to Ma Ferguson from June 1933 to January 1935, when her second term ended. Ma and her husband, former governor James Edward "Pa" Ferguson , returned to their Austin home at 1500 Windsor Road (at the corner of Enfield). Although my grandparents, mother, and her siblings moved back to Houston, they stayed in touch with the Fergusons, as evidenced by a photograph of my grandfather and Pa Ferguson in Houston, and this photograph (below right) of Ma Ferguson with her grandson, James Stuart Watt (born 1939); my mother, Geraldine Guokas Pape (the taller girl in back); my aunt, Jo Ann (Sister Jean Marie) Guokas; and my uncle, Charles Guokas III (1927-1999). James looks to be about two in this picture, so I'm guessing it was taken about 1941, when my mother was 13:
When my mother attended the University of Texas at Austin (1945-1949), she roomed with Ma Ferguson in the house on Windsor. Pa had passed away in 1944. The photograph on the left of my mother and Ma Ferguson was taken December 18, 1945, at a Ford House (like a sorority) dance at the University of Texas.
The two black-and-white photographs below are in the book Miriam: The Southern Belle Who Became the First Woman Governor of Texas, by May Nelson Paulissen and Carl McQueary.
The first photograph (with the postman) is from page 281; the second is from page 172. Both are originally from the Bell County Museum. The color photograph at the bottom shows how 1500 Windsor looked this past summer.
Part 3 - the last bit of the connection - will be posted sometime in the future.
© Amanda Pape - 2011 - click here to e-mail me.
As I wrote in an earlier post, my maternal grandfather, Charles Guokas Jr., was appointments secretary to Ma Ferguson from June 1933 to January 1935, when her second term ended. Ma and her husband, former governor James Edward "Pa" Ferguson , returned to their Austin home at 1500 Windsor Road (at the corner of Enfield). Although my grandparents, mother, and her siblings moved back to Houston, they stayed in touch with the Fergusons, as evidenced by a photograph of my grandfather and Pa Ferguson in Houston, and this photograph (below right) of Ma Ferguson with her grandson, James Stuart Watt (born 1939); my mother, Geraldine Guokas Pape (the taller girl in back); my aunt, Jo Ann (Sister Jean Marie) Guokas; and my uncle, Charles Guokas III (1927-1999). James looks to be about two in this picture, so I'm guessing it was taken about 1941, when my mother was 13:
When my mother attended the University of Texas at Austin (1945-1949), she roomed with Ma Ferguson in the house on Windsor. Pa had passed away in 1944. The photograph on the left of my mother and Ma Ferguson was taken December 18, 1945, at a Ford House (like a sorority) dance at the University of Texas.
The two black-and-white photographs below are in the book Miriam: The Southern Belle Who Became the First Woman Governor of Texas, by May Nelson Paulissen and Carl McQueary.
The first photograph (with the postman) is from page 281; the second is from page 172. Both are originally from the Bell County Museum. The color photograph at the bottom shows how 1500 Windsor looked this past summer.
Part 3 - the last bit of the connection - will be posted sometime in the future.
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| 1500 Windsor, Austin, Texas, June 2011. An apartment building is now immediately behind the house fronting Enfield Rd. |
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