Wallingford/Jarlov Family Trees

5 November 2008

Telephone conversion between Nick Wallingford and Neva Chastain nee Roberson.

Neva was surprised to hear from me, as she had known that Arrel Lee and Jeannie Roberson were researching the Roberson side of the family. When they had told her I would like to phone her, she immediately knew that I was on the Campbell side, so didn't understand how they had heard of me. I told her my genealogy work had a bit on both sides, but I'd not ever known all that much about the Robersons to start with.

She was apologetic, saying she couldn't even say whether Mom was still alive, as the last contact she had had was a family reunion of sorts held up at Mom's place in the county, which would have been nearly 20 years ago. I told her of Mom's death, and she said that it had happened at about the same time her own husband (of 57 years of marriage) and one of her daughters had died. The daughter had died of a pituitary tumor. Her other daughter lives in Colorado - she is involved with the Sports Authority there.

She and her sister Oretha are the only ones still living - Lorena (younger than Oretha), Irma and her younger brother Johnnie Clyde have all died. Johnny only died several years ago in a tragic accident when he drove off Pikes Peak in his car.

I think that each of her daughters have had one daughter of their own. The daughter of one of them, her grand daughter, is 18 years old and chose to move to Fort Collins, Colorado, to go to university.

Neva's older sister Oretha lives in Florida, and is not well. She has had several strokes, and says that she would not be able to really talk to anyone.

Neva is 81. She lives on her own, in north Houston. Though her daughter made her come to stay through the recent hurricane, after the actual day it hit, she stayed in her own house, 13 days without power or water (as she has an electric pump). Two of her big trees came down, and she is still waiting for repairs to her roof, though since it is not actually leaking she counts herself lucky.

She remembers Aunt Sister maybe more than Mom. Margie was closer to her own age; Mom she thought of as more like an older sister (Mom and Oretha being closer to together in age.)

She clearly remembers coming into Houston to stay at Mom's place (Henry Ogg's house) as a child. This would have been after Bessie died. She said that Henry had, she thought, originally hired Dovey Mae to take care of the children, then found it "more convenient" to marry.

She remembers clearly Mom and Addice Campbell coming up to stay with her family for the summers in Waller. I asked her just where they had lived - she said that it just wouldn't be easy for her to say, that it wasn't like they had street signs or real addresses. She said it was just "Route 2, Waller". She had been taken up there in the last few years and was really pleased to see that the old barn was still standing. The house was gone, but she sounded like she had really enjoyed the chance to go up there to see the area again.

Claude and Maggie, her parents, had moved to Houston only 3 months before her graduation from Waller High School. That would have been about 1943 or 1944, by my estimation (she was born in 1927). Neva had refused to move with them, and stayed with a neighboring family until after graduation - she said she had been all the way through the school until that time, and didn't want to leave before graduation.

After moving to Houston, she went to a business school, and then met her husband shortly after that. He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas.

When Mom was growing up in the Heights, Uncle Dorris was living on the next street over. Uncle John lived a few houses away. Aunt Cora was living next door to Henry's house.

Neva has an especially fond memory of Aunt Cora. Cora used to come up to visit them in Waller, and always brought 'special gifts'. At some point when Neva was young, Aunt Cora brought her a baby ring, that had three rubies (her birthstone) in it. She still has the ring...

She talked some about her father's family. I had asked about Robert Hand, and she confirmed he was the son of her father's sister Ora. She said he died in WWII, a "very sad time indeed". She said he was one of the most handsome boys that ever was. She said that "Aunt Nell" (Mary Alice Roberson) and another sister (it would be either "Sue" - Eugenia Ellis Roberson - or Clara Roberson) lived in a house in Hempstead. She mostly remembers going there to visit when she was young because they had an organ, and she used to really enjoy going to visit them so she could play on it.

She didn't ever know much about our family after Mom got married. She remembered only one story, about Joan. She tells it that Mom had milk delivered by a milkman. When Joan was about 3, she opened the door to the milkman and said "Please, can you leave us some chocolate milk tomorrow? It has been years and years since I've had any chocolate milk!". As Joan was so small, she was taken by the story and remembered it all these years.

She said that her own mother, Margaret Lorena (called "Maggie") had a big box of photos. After her mother's death, Neva kept them, until one of the other sisters wanted to look at them for some reason. That sister's husband, who was going a senile, took the whole box and burned them in the backyard. She still remembers one particular family photo what had all the children, including Johnny Clyde as a baby, that she she wishes she still had.