Week 14 The Maiden Aunt
When my mama talked about my Grandma Betty’s (1927 – 2012) oldest sister Ardice Keele (3/23/1907 – 4/26/1984) she called her “Aunt Ardie”.
My mother was not close to her Aunt, mostly because she lived in Oregon State for a good while and there was 20 year age gap between my grandma Betty and Ardice.
My mother was under the impression that Ardie did not like children. When my mother would visit with her Grandmother Florence, Ardice would be around but other than that her memories of Ardice are vague.
When I added Ardice to my tree there was some speculation around her birth. I have touched a bit on the mystery this tree provides me in Week 5. For Ardice it was thought by some that she was actually Grandma Betty’s Aunt. Others have said that Grandma’s mother Florence was married before and Ardie was her child from this marriage.
I have not found evidence to either of those theories. I believe that she was the daughter of Harrison Richmond Keele (9/4/1879 – 2/16/1948) and Louise Williams (3/1885 – 1907), his first wife. Louise died in the same year Ardice was born. I have yet to find cause of death but I have ruled out child birth. Ardice was born in March and in October Louise filed for divorce from Harrison. She would have had to be alive to do that so her death is some time after October 14th 1907.
Ardice died in 1984, I do not believe that I ever met her. I struggled to find any information on her after 1930. It was not until I stumbled on to a grave of an Ardice F Dalton that I discover that Ardie had been married. I was surprised by this, my mother never knew.
Searching for Ardice I assumed she was buried in Kansas because she had moved back there. Turns out she was buried in Portland Oregon at Willamette National Cemetery. It listed her as the wife of Charlie Dalton (9/8/1892 – 5/31/1961).
1954 shows Ardice living in Leavenworth Kansas. As a wife of a military man I hope to find out if it was related to his serves or why he was there. I am also on the hunt for the marriage certificate to find out when and for how long they were married.