Mary Violet Van Landingham

    Blonde, Mary Violet, the baby girl and the beauty of the family was born on July 18, 1901 in Rosedale, Wyandotte County, Kansas, USA.  She was bery close to Cora and to her mother.  She always said she had 

a(n) easier time with all her older sisters working and helping her. Pretty and popular, an early romance with Roy Merriman faded. At work, she met Alice Van Landingham, who introduced her to her only son, divorced L. B. (Leo Baily or (Bailey) Van Landingham), who had a small son, Ralph.

    Uncle Van and Mary were Married August 6, 1927.  She loved her name and all shades of violet; orchid she called it, right down to her mirror and hair brush.  She dressed well and wore high heels. 

    Van was tall and husky.  He said he was too old to have any more children, so Mary "mothered" Ralph.

    I loved her dearly and she wrote, "I love you from the bottom of my heart" to me.  I was her favorite niece.  I can see her now, presiding over her shining supper table in her nice dining roon - roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetable., tomatoes, cake and ice tea.  All my aunts were real cooks! And bakers.  Odd, Burketts and the Vans all had French doors leading to a bedroom  - one-storie.

    Van had elderly grandparents and his widowed mother in his care, when they married!  Then, just Alice, who slipped on a throw rug and was then an invalid.  She and her late husband had been farmers.

    Van worked at "Proctor and Gamble Soap Company." 

    I stayed many summers with them and played with the children in their neighborhood.  I have wondered just how happy Mary was?  Van, (good to me) and Alice could be domineering.  Mary had poor eyesight, like most of the Grahams.  They took me on visits and sightseeing.  We went to Abe Lincoln's former home in Springfield, IL.  In the foyer, furniture, his top had and cape-coat were all roped-off.  Mary bent over to see better and asked why one couldn't get closer.  A guide explained the possibility of theft.  "Well," Mary said, "I never took anything that didn't belong to me in my life!"

    After retirement, Van liked to serve on juries, then one day, he fell down the courthouse steps, his leg-bone had given away.  He was bedridden and Mary took care of him lovingly.

    Ralph was tall and handsome and I asked him to please wair 'till I grew up.  He did not.  He married a slim girl, Evelyn.  She had a sister, Mary-Dorothy, which amused Mary and me, our names.  They divorced and he married Madelaine and they had two little girls.  So, Aunt Mary fulfilled her maternal yearnings with Ralph,  Bonnie and you when we attended my tenth High School Reunion at Sunrise Beach.  And, with Ralph's daughters.  

    Ralph was a survivor of the Bataan Death March.  Good thing he was tall and husky like Van.  Ralph was never avle to tell them what the soldiers had to eat on that March.  He became an undertaker and got quite rich.

    Always, I shall be greatful to Uncle Van.  On our first trip to Kansas City (1948) - your father, me and you - we called on Iva at the Dump.  She didn't ask us in.  Uncle Van held your small hands and you were bouncing on your toes.  "Look at this nice little fellow, Iva", Uncle Van said.  "Well," Iva snarled, "I just hope he doesn't take after his mother!"  (Iola ? said before you had my jowls, Mike.)

    Aunt Mary held me by (the) hand and took me to kindergarten the first day (Columbian School).  I have been privileged to know lady angels on earth, Mary, Marie G., Marie Hatch, Lucille S., Connie J., Maude, Hazel.

    In the eighties, she (Mary) contracted cancer and was too modest to consult a doctor.  Mary died in 1981.  She always liked my father and I am greatful for that, too.  When he died in January. 1956, she and Van braved a blizzard to attend his funeral at the Nugent Funeral Home.  Emmet (Cousin) showed them portraits of Mary (dark-haired, dark-eyed like Daddy), Owen (I have his coloring) and the three oldest sons in 3 separate oval frames, (3 in all).  "My", Aunt Mary wrote, "Those boys in the picturure looked like angels!:"  They were painted in Ireland.  I couldn't go, Doug too young and Grandma Sophie had burned her hands and arms making "fried cakes".

    Shortly after Mary's death, Ralph had a fatal heart attack.  Oh, Mary with those big, blue eyes and golden curls!  "The Peacemaker."  I went on some of Mary's and Van's car dates and was asleep before they got up Westport Road.

    written by:  Dorothy Nugent Hatch