Iva Essie Stieglitz

Iva Essie Grahm was neither dear nor Sweet... at least not to me. She was born April 4, 1897 under fiery Aries ruled by Mars. She disliked children and I headed her list. She never had any.

    Aunt Maude said she was just the type to have had some. 

She met Edward John Stieglitz, when she went to work at the Montgomary Ward Store in the shoe department. The very first day, she threw a box of shoes at him. She really married "above her station." Ed had one brother, Jim and nice little parents, who lived in a beautiful home. He was a World War I soldier... tall, slim, nice-looking. (aristocratic - A Leo)
They owned two beautiful homes. Ed and Iva - one all stone, other just as nice. They had "friends" - a Swiss couple, the Kerchoffs (six) they trusted to a fault. Daddy warned them that the Kerchoff's would take everything they had. They ignored this wise advice and this older couple (who had a nice home) beat Ed and Iva out of both homes! Daddy was a Pisces - they are psychic, so are cancers and Scorpios.
On her death bed, Cora told her mother, "Iva is moving in here to help you, Momma." Anna's temper flashed and she said, "I don't want Iva here in this house! Iva is a snake in the grass!" Iva and Ed moved in at 501; we had a full house!
Uncle Harry Graham was the first to go. He said to his mother,"I'd stay, but not after Iva hits me on the head with an iron skillet." I was seven years old, when she kicked out my Daddy. I remember he and I sat in one of those double free-standing swings (the next door neighbors), where the seats face each other. I was sobbing, my mother was gone and maybe I"d never see Daddy again, either. He moved to a room still in Kansas, uptown.
Ed tried several lines of work- Ralaigh's Products, etc. I was about eight when we moved further up the Bl'vd and a long block off of it to 1406 37th Avenue. A three-storie house built up like 501, a wrap-around porch, swing in front by big front window. The third floor never used due to no heat.
Iva worked at Loose-Wildes Biscuit Company, where "all the girls are loose and wild". Ed went into the tombstone business and the front yard was littered with monuments.
My room was at the top of the stairs and in the back and side. So, I didn't wake up to this grim sight. I found a friend, Patsy Ruth Parrott (now Mew) at Whitmore School. Pat was born uin 1927 and their boarder, Martha Mae Brown in 1923. Her mother was a pretty, smartly-dressed brunette and I"ve wondered since if Alice Brown was a high-class call girl? I practically lived there, too.
I suspect my mother bought the furniture, because Iva didn't add to it. Houses then had many doors... in case of fire. Iva and I got into a hand-to-dand combat in broad daylight in the front lawn.
Every Sunday brought Anna's and Will's adult children and families. There is a family story; I was too young and can't veify it. That Iva had a baby in this house and commanded/demanded Ed kill it, by striking it on the head/temples. There was a wodden, tree-covered hill in back of the barn and this was its burial ground. Ed wanted the child and was crying and pleading. I wouldn't put it past her. At some point, they bought an Arkansas farm, which Ed worked. Iva wrote him nightly and spent her two-week vacation with him. He retired and returned to K.C. Ed and I corresponded. I left the Dump, when Grandma fell and later went to Burkett's. No way was I living with Iva! At 20, I was homeless! An older telephone operator, Gladys McGinnis offered me two rooms in her and her mother's home, a lovely home with a sweeping staircase, but nearly to Olatke (Olathe). Took an hour on the street car to get to S.W. Bell.
Aunt Marie told me , Iva tried to lift Ed out of his casket crying out, "Oh, Ed, don't leave me!" So, I said, "All those wasted years when she stayed in K.C., they could have been together.": Aunt Marie replied, "Iva did not want ANY children"... Daddy called Iva "a married old maid."
A black man mugged Iva and hurt her head. She lived, as I've said, across the street from the Schulers and Mary had moved in with Blanche and Truman. Aunt Mary took a kettle of soup to Iva"s door. There was no answer. When Mary finally got in, she found Iva dead. I have no year. Iva was the first child of Anna and Will to be born in Kansas City, but in Jackson County, Missouri. (Birth date was April 4, 1897 - supplied by Barbara Hatch). So between 1895 and 1987 the Grahams left Nebraska for points east.
In a way, Iva was my mentor and an influence. Anna loved me and she, Iva, had a jealous nature. Uncle Ed was fond of me, too. He talked to me about "natural blondes". I wonder if he did not have a woman or two in Arkansas the other 350 weeks of all those lonely years.