Roots in Middle America

The Howard side of my family was a typical white, conservative, blue collar family with roots in central Missouri and eastern Illinois near St. Louis.  My grandparents had four sons and a daughter in the 1920's living in and around the little towns of Madison and Granite City, Illinois.  They were Bill Jr, the oldest, then Don, my dad, then Frank, Dave and Shirley, the little sister. 

Grandpa's side of the family was from Madison.  Grandma's people, the Carr family, were from the Eminence, Missouri area about 150 miles southwest of St. Louis, at the entrance to the Ozarks. It might be said that I come from a long line of rednecks.

My memories of my grandpa and grandma are limited since they picked up and moved to California when I was about 5 or 6 years old, and we rarely saw them after that move.  By that time all of their kids were grown and were having families of their own and only our family and Uncle Bill's family were in the area.  Grandpa became the proprietor of a dry-cleaning business in Riverside, CA with Grandma helping in the store. 

Prior to their departure Grandpa Bill was a small-town Chief of Police in Madison, Illinois for an undetermined period of time.  He was a hard-drinkin', heavy smokin' old tough, from what I’ve heard, and he passed on some of his traits to his boys.  Grandma Howard was a very religious Christian lady all of her life and I’m told she never touched liquor or smoked tobacco. 

My grandpa died in the mid-60s of stomach cancer, but my grandma lived to be 100, passing away peacefully in 2008 just a month after her milestone birthday celebration attended by the whole family.

Cancer took Uncle Bill, Uncle Frank and my dad too but thankfully Uncle Dave and Aunt Shirley are both still with us enjoying the winter of their lives.