I know I did a blog post about my great aunt one time, but for whatever reason, I am having trouble locating it...either way, more information has been found and I would love to share it!
Backstory:
Ruth was my grandfather's younger sister. She was born on 16 Jan 1926 in Dayton, Ohio to Earl Dwight Mendenhall (1894-1972) and Edna Grace Niles (1894-1934). The story in my family is that she was kicked out of the house at the age of 14, it is assumed because she was pregnant. My great-grandparents destroyed all photos of her and basically erased her from the family. One photo was found behind a dresser at one point in time, a school picture of Ruth and her third grade class in 1935.
Apparently, the family tried to locate Ruth later in life by hiring a private investigator. I assume this was taken place after her parents had passed. She was discovered living in California, married to a doctor. And, she didn't want to be found, so that was the end. I don't know how much of this is true or not.
For years, this is all the information I had for Ruth. I craved more because her story facsinated me! I wanted to know if she really had a child at 14/15 years old, if she had really married a doctor or if she had any other children.
THEN, on September 23, of this year, I decided to try digging more, since it had been a couple of years and I found her!
Ruth Eileen Breckenridge ('nee Mendenhall)
b. 16 Jan 1926 in Dayton, Ohio
d. 08 Mar 2002 in Scottsdale, AZ
Ruth was married to Jack V. Breckenridge (1921-2011), a veteran. They are buried together in the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, Section A7, Row B, Site 32. I tried to find a newspaper article, an obituary, SOMETHING on their family, but it appears they never had children. I couldn't find a child born around 1941 either.
One interesting fact, that I had to laugh at, was that she was born in Dayton, Ohio (so was I) and then she died in Arizona. I have no idea how long she lived in Arizona, but I great up there, about 2 hrs North of Scottsdale.
If ANYONE out there reading this knows ANYTHING about Ruth or her husband Jack, PLEASE contact me either through this blog or my email- Carriesmith11411@yahoo.com.
May I copy the picture to put in the Shiloh School Fb pg? I’m not sure if the Shiloh Elementary School w/which I’m familiar is the same as the Shiloh Springs School, but Marguerite Smith was my mother’s favorite teacher at Shiloh. She had her as a teacher for two different yrs; Mom would have attended Shiloh about 1937-1943.
ReplyDelete(Reno Sweeney on Fb)
This looks like the exterior of Shiloh Elementary School; I believe those are the windows to the Janitor’s room behind the students.
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