Eeva Delight Wall

Unfortunately, I don't remember much about my Aunt Eva, although I do know she married a man by the name of Herbert Wall, who was a pharmacist. They had two children, a son, Allen Randall Wall and daughter, Lorna Dale Wall. About 1959 Herbert took his own life and just a couple of years later, his daughter, Lorna, also took her own life. From the Winter of 1968 to the Summer of 1969, I lived briefly with my cousin, Allen, and his wife, Sharon, at Aunt Eva and Uncle Herbie's former home at 2130 Selby Avenue, not far from the Los Angeles Mormon Temple.

The reason I was living there was because I was not yet 18 years old, and although I had started a good job with the West Los Angeles Department of Public Social Services (county welfare pepartment), right out of high school, my parents did not want me to live on my own on "the other side of town", since we had been living in the San Fernando Valley when I was attending school, and they were still living there until about 1969 or 1970.

So as a result it was arranged for me to live with Allen and Sharon until I was 18 and got my own apartment. Aunt Eva was living some where else at the time, and I recall that she worked at a pharmacy, but not as a pharmacist like her husband, but perhaps as the pharmacist's assistant.

She was not my grandmother's favorite child, but if you look at the picture of her and her mom under the media tab above, you'd never know it, because my grandmother seemed quite proud of her one and only daughter. Although my cousin Shirley (Uncle Larry's daughter) recently told me that grandma once said that if she had given birth to Eva first, the four Smith brothers might never have been born.

Aunt Eva was always very nice to me, although she could be somewhat doting! I remember when my skin broke out as a teenager, she was always trying to get me to use some new product to improve the condition of my skin. And I appreciated her efforts, but she could be somewhat overbearing at times.

Wish I would have stayed in touch with Aunt Eva and her son Allen, but we lost touch years ago. I don't know if Allen and his wife Sharon ever had any children, but I do remember at the time I lived in their home, Sharon was raising Schnauzer puppies. They were very cute!

Sharon was a very nice lady, and I remember going to the Apple Pan restaurant after work and getting us two of their great hickory BBQ hamburgers, and taking them to Aunt Eva's old house, and devouring them at the big old antique dining room table, which probably at one time belonged to my grandmother.

Another thing I remember about living in that house was the old mantle clock that chimed every 15 minutes and on the half hour and hour, which kept me awake many times at night. I also was a bit squeemish about sleeping in my cousin Lorna's room, as that was the place where she took her life not long after her father did the same, by putting a bullet in her head. Unfortunately, her mother discovered her there after Lorna shot herself. It must have been a very gruesome discovery for my Aunt Eva.

Such a sad ending to what must have been at one time a very happy little family in the 1950's. Previously in the 1940 U.S. Federal Census for Los Angeles, California, they had been living at 1623 Crescent Place, and were listed there as follows: Herbert A. Wall, 29, Eeva D. Wall, 27, Allan Randall Wall, 1 year old, and Eeva's mother, Mattie Estella Smith, 66 years old. Herbie was working as a science teacher in the public schools, and Mattie was working as a child nurse in a private home, probably for her grandson Allen. They were renting their home for $30 per month. Herbie had 5 years of college, Eeva had 4 years of high school, and Mattie had 2 years of high school. They had been living in the same place in 1935. For the 36 weeks that Herbie had worked at 35 hours per week in 1939 his income was $1,440. and Mattie's was $176.

In a 1955 U.S.City Directory, Herbert A. Wall and Eeva D. Wall were living at 2130 Selby Avenue in Westwood, and he was working for E.R. Squibb & Sons.

Another address for Eeva in 1979 was 2610 Genesee Avenue, Los Angeles, California.

And another address in 1986 was 83 La Lomita, Newbury Park, California.

Aunt Eeva was living at 10044 E. Avenue R2, in Littlerock, California, at the time of her death in 1998.