Minnie (Buss) Swank

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Minnie's mother died July 30, 1929, when she was just 8 years old. Dale Buss (Minnie's oldest nephew) says that Minnie's mother's four brothers came from Illinois for the funeral. They offered to take the three youngest children (Minnie, Ruth & Glen) back to Illinois with them, but Minnie's father John hated his wife's family and refused to let them go. I remember my mom Minnie telling me she lived with her grandfather (her father's father) John A. Buss, "until he died", but he died in Jan. 1930 so she couldn't have lived with him for very long. She went to live with her Aunt Hanna (Buss) Harding and her second husband William Henry Harding (b. Aug. 5, 1884, d. July 10, 1948) in Colorado (please see pics). The 1930 census shows Minnie Buss (age 9) living with them in Hillrose, Morgan, Colorado as a "lodger". My mother Minnie told me that her uncle went into her bedroom and put a gun in his mouth in an attempt to commit suicide, but was unsuccessful in doing so. Understandably, she said she never liked him after that. Dale Buss recalls the story that after that happened, she went to live with another of her dad's sisters and her husband: her Aunt Anna Gepka Ackerman (Buss) and her husband Uncle Eilert Jurgen Ackerman back in Nebraska. Around high school age, Minnie went to live with her cousin, John Eilert Ackerman (son of Eilert Jurgen Ackerman) and his wife Opal (Aunspaugh) Ackerman in Gothenburg, NE. Minnie always considered Opal her mother and called her "mom"; they remained close until Opal's death in 1984. In 1936, Opal and John Ackerman adopted the newborn Garry Allan Ackerman when Minnie was just 15 and living with them. Garry and Minnie always considered themselves to be brother and sister and they remained very close until Garry's death in 1988.

Dale Buss says that due to John J. Buss's drinking, that after Minnie's mother died, he lost the farm which had been given to him by his father. Dale, born in 1930, remembers from early childhood that if Minnie (10 years older than him), had a nickel for an apple or some other treat, she always shared it with him.

Minnie married Grover W. Swank, Opal (Aunspaugh) Ackerman's nephew, in Phillipsburg, Kansas on Jan. 6, 1947. They made their home in Southern California.