My grandfather on my mom's side.

We called him Pappy. He died when I was 4. There are several pages about him elsewhere. You can click on one of the links below to see some more about him.

He worked for oil companies most of his life. When he first moved to this town, he was mistaken for the police chief, they looked like "twins separated at birth." Even their best friends got them confused occasionally. There was a newspaper article about them, showing their pictures, and they looked totally alike.

I remember him as being a kind man. My only solid memory of him was his holding me on his lap and rocking together on my grandparents screened in patio. My grandmother was holding my little sister.

Pappy had a heart attack as he was leaving a professional football game in Cleveland. He was watching the Cleveland Browns. 

My grandmother on my mom's side.

This is my mom's mother, Edie.
She didn't like being called grandma and asked us to call her by her first name. She was always the cosmopolitan kind of woman, at least she seemed like it to me.

With my grandfather dying relatively young, she was heartbroken and never remarried. She picked herself up (after a breakdown) and got a job and supported herself.

She would let us have "summer vacations" at her house. First my older sister would get some time alone, and then my younger sister and I would go together, and then my 2 older brothers. My younger brother never made it over. I guess she decided she was getting too old by the time he came around. These vacations were always a wonderful escape for me. She took us out to restaurants, helped us pick out songs on her piano, taught us manners, and gave us a week away from our brothers. That was the best part perhaps!