Celebrating a 73rd wedding anniversary

Today would have been my in-laws 73rd wedding anniversary. 

Earl Lloyd Murphy and Mary Margaret Athya, who both lived in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio at the time, met at a Warren pizza parlor sometime between 1949 and 1950. They married on January 12, 1951 in what was probably a small, intimate ceremony performed by Rev. William B. Waters, pastor of the Derwood Church in Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland. More than likely, Earl’s brothers, Raymond and Glenn, who both lived in Montgomery County, attended the wedding. As you can see in the photo below, Mary wore a fitted jacket and skirt popular in the 1950s. The ensemble included a corsage pinned to her jacket lapel. Earl wore a suit jacket with a light color shirt and a tie. After the ceremony, it appears they had drinks and/or dinner at a local eatery.

 

A wedding announcement was published soon after, newspaper and date unknown:

Miss Athya Wed at Rockville, Md.—Mr. and Mrs. George Athya, 1019 Brier Pl. NE, announce the marriage of their daughter Mary to Earl L. Murphy of Littleton, W. Va. The double ring ceremony was performed January 12th by Rev. W. B. Walters [sic] of Rockville, Md. The bride is a graduate of Harding High School. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are living at Herndon, Va., where the groom is employed by a gas company.

The newspaper article stated theirs was a “double ring ceremony” and in the above photos, you can see both wearing a wedding ring. My husband has no memory of ever seeing his father wearing a wedding ring, nor does he know what happened to Earl’s ring. I do remember that Mary wore one, although it was not her original wedding ring. That would have been the one pictured below and now part of our family treasures. 

 

Earl purchased the original 18K gold wedding ring at Falls Church Jewelers in Falls Church, Virginia, located about 18 miles from Rockville, Maryland. He paid $6.50 for the ring. We found the receipt folded and tucked inside the ring box.

The ring is about the size of a penny and a tad bit larger than my pinkie finger. Mary was always a petite woman, with small hands and fingers. 

At the time of their marriage, Earl was 22 and Mary 21; both lived in Herndon, Fairfax County, Virginia. Earl worked as a pressure operator and Mary was unemployed. Their marriage license recorded Earl as a divorced man when he and Mary wed, something my husband knew nothing about until the early 2000s. For some reason, they chose to keep that information from their children for many years. His first marriage to Zania “Vernell” Tarkenton lasted from December 1948 to August 1950. I wrote about it in 2017, after my husband shared the divorce papers he now has possession of. Click here to read that story.

We celebrated Earl and Mary’s 40th anniversary as a family in January 1991. The next two photos were taken that day.

Mary and Earl

In January 1996, we celebrated their 45th anniversary. Truth be told, Mary had been diagnosed with lung cancer and we did not know what the future held for her. We asked family and friends to share their memories of Earl and Mary and then put a book together with what we received. These photos were taken that day.

Mary and daughter. Family friends in the background.

Mary and Earl. Family friend in the background.

Mary and granddaughter

Earl and his brother Glenn

In January 2001, we had a small celebration for their 50th anniversary that included my husband, our two boys, me, my mother, brother-in-law, and his wife. Mary had survived her bout with lung cancer but now had emphysema. Instead of a party, we all gathered at their house and just spent the day with them. This photo was taken that day.

Mary and Earl

Mary passed away on December 26, 2006, just shy of their 56th anniversary. Earl passed away on January 13, 2015—one day after their anniversary. Like so often happens, was he waiting for that day to arrive and pass before letting go? Only he knows.

References

• Earl L. Murphy and Mary Margaret Athya Marriage License no. 35415, State of Maryland, Montgomery County, 1951.
• U.S. Federal Census, Wheaton, Montgomery County, Maryland, 1950.
• Wedding announcement, publication unknown, 1951.  

Warren G. Harding Senior High School—Class of 1949

The 52 Ancestors theme this week is “school days.”

My mother-in-law, Mary Margaret Athya, graduated from Warren G. Harding Senior High School in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio on January 27, 1949, just before her 20th birthday. For my post this week, I thought I’d share several items and details related to her senior year at the school.

Mary Margaret Athya, senior photo (1949)

Graduation took place at 8 p.m. on Thursday, January 27, 1949 with 169 students walking across the stage. That year was the first time in the school’s history that graduates wore caps and gowns at the baccalaureate service and commencement exercise.

Warren G. Harding Senior High School graduation announcement (January 1949)

The Tribune Chronicle ran this photo on January 26, 1949.

Mary is in the fifth row, seventh person from the left.

She’s the young woman in the center.

Graduation commencement program, January Class of 1949.

With her last name starting with an “A,” Mary was listed near the top.

Mary’s diploma and cover.

I never noticed until I took this photo that her name is embossed on the diploma cover.

Her 1949 yearbook.

Mary as she appears in the yearbook. She once told me a bunch of girls wore the sweater she’s wearing in this photo. The photographer snapped the photo and then the sweater was passed to the next girl that wanted to wear it.

The yearbook tells us that she participated in two groups, Y-Teens and Pioneer. Unfortunately, I have no clue what activities either group did. This photo of the Y-Teens appears in the yearbook. If she’s in the photo, we can’t identify her.

This Certificate of Graduation covered four years of high school. Mary took the usual courses: English, Social Studies, Mathematics, Science (Biology and Mental Hygiene), Home Economics (Foods and Clothing), Commerce (Bookkeeping and Typewriting), Driving, and Physical Education. Mary quit school at some point but returned to finish and graduate. I don’t see that reflected on the certificate though.

Mary received a certificate of proficiency for driver education on January 24, 1949.

Her first name was spelled Marye (vs. Mary) in the yearbook, her senior card, diploma, and the driver training certificate. Mary herself spelled it that way when she wrote her name in the front of her autograph book. You can read about her autograph book here.

Mary's senior card (1949)

Warren G. Harding Senior High School (from the 1949 yearbook, Echoes)

References

• "169 Will Receive Diplomas At Harding Thursday Night," The Tribune Chronicle, Warren, Ohio, January 26, 1949.
• Echoes yearbook, Warren G. Harding Senior High School, Warren, Ohio, 1949.

Mary Athya’s vintage Bible

The theme for 52 Ancestors this week is “favorite name,” but unless I get creative (which I’m not), this blog post won’t have anything to do with the theme. Mary Athya Murphy was my mother-in-law. Today would have been her 89th birthday, so instead of writing about a favorite name, I want to remember her by writing about a family treasure she left behind—her Bible.

Mary’s maternal lines are from Apollo, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. Her brothers John, Howard, and James (Jim) were all born there. Mary’s family lived in Westmoreland County in 1929 when she was born but they moved back to Apollo before Jim’s birth in 1930.

As shown on the certificate below, Mary was enrolled in Apollo’s Presbyterian School Cradle Roll on December 9, 1930. I don’t know for certain, but assume the school was part of the First Presbyterian Church there in Apollo. Church records show that John and Howard were baptized at the First Presbyterian Church in Apollo so the family definitely attended that church.

Mary was nine years old when the Presbyterian Sunday School presented this Bible to her on September 25, 1938.

Mary remained a member of the First Presbyterian Church until her family moved to Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio sometime after 1943. I know that because on November 15, 1946, her church membership was transferred to the First Presbyterian Church of Warren, Ohio.

This Bible came into our possession after the death of my father-in-law, Earl Murphy, in 2015. When you open the Bible, you see that Mary wrote “Brothers – Matt 13:55, 56” in the bottom left corner of the back side of the title page. Turn to the page in the Bible that contains Matthew 13:55, 56 and you see that she again wrote “Brothers” at the top of that page. She also marked verses 55 – 56 with a large bracket. I have no idea what these verses meant to her but she must have had a reason for marking them. On the pages containing Matthew 3, 4, and 5, she left a small piece of paper between the pages with the word “First” written on it.

The writing on the piece of paper doesn’t look like her writing though. Mary had nearly perfect penmanship, as you can see from the poem “Now—Time Cannot Wait” that she wrote on the back cover page of the Bible.

Mary had beautiful cursive handwriting. She had that perfect slant, leaning towards the right. Like me, she was left-handed and I can tell you right now, I could never write that well. Sometimes I can’t read my own handwriting! In 1943, Mary received a certificate for “… proficiency in Writing” from the Peterson School of Penmanship. Unlike today, I guess penmanship was a serious subject at the time.

The exterior of Mary’s Bible is in poor condition. The edges are torn, the spine has pulled away from the bound pages, and it’s taped together by black electrical tape. The inside pages are still in good condition however. The writing on the title page is clearly marked and easy to read so there is no question as to who the Bible belonged to and where it came from. Unfortunately, they incorrectly recorded her birth date as February 19. They were off by 10 days since it was actually February 9.

We used Mary’s Bible at Earl’s graveside service in 2015. One of her granddaughter’s read the poem “Now” that was written on the back cover. Another granddaughter read the 23rd Psalm from the Bible. I felt it was a nice way to include Mary in the service.

Mary's first grade class in Paulton, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (ca. 1935).
Mary is the the back row, third from the right. This photo was taken three years
before she was given the Bible.

Enlarged photo of Mary from the photo above (ca. 1935).

Mary (ca. 1942)

Surrounded by six of her grandchildren on her birthday
(Melissa, Melodie, Maryanne, Mandy, Chris, Mary, and Kevin)

Her first grandchild, Michelle, with Mary on her birthday

Happy birthday in Heaven Mom. I hope you're munching on a box of Whitman's Samplers!

Anniversaries

Earl and Mary Murphy

Week 3: 52 Ancestors theme—LONGEVITY

Last Friday, January 12, would have been my in-laws (Earl and Mary (Athya) Murphy) 67th wedding anniversary. In this blog post, I’ll write about three milestone anniversaries we shared with them.

Mary’s family lived in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania metropolitan area before moving to Warren, Ohio. It was in Warren that Mary met Earl at a pizza parlor (maybe really a beer joint) around 1950. I’m not sure of the exact date but do know that Earl was granted a divorce from his first wife on August 26, 1950. Mary’s father (George Athya) was a union organizer in the Pittsburgh area. Earl worked for a union and wanted no parts of the organization. According to Earl’s recollection, George didn’t want Mary to have anything to do with Earl because he didn’t support the union. But that changed in one day when Earl and Mary’s brother (Jim Athya) picked George up at work. On that day, alcohol was involved somewhere along the line. We don’t really know what happened but after that day, Earl was allowed in the Athya household.

Earl and Mary were married in Rockville, Maryland on January 12, 1951. The following news clipping ran (date and newspaper unknown by most likely in Warren, Ohio):

Miss Athya Wed at Rockville, Md.—Mr. and Mrs. George Athya, 1019 Brier Pl. NE, announce the marriage of their daughter Mary to Earl L. Murphy of Littleton, W. Va. The double ring ceremony was performed January 12th by Rev. W. B. Walters of Rockville, Md. The bride is a graduate of Harding High School. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are living at Herndon, Va., where the groom is employed by a gas company.

On their wedding day

While they celebrated many anniversaries together, I only remember three—the 40th, 45th, and 50th. On the 40th, we had a small family party at their home. The photo below shows that Earl’s brothers Glenn and Raymond joined us that day.

After their 40th anniversary, Mary was diagnosed with lung cancer. We weren’t sure what the future held for her so we decided to celebrate their 45th anniversary with another party. In hopes of creating something special for the celebration, we wrote to friends and family members requesting that they share any memories they had if they weren’t able to attend. We heard from quite a few people. Earl and Mary loved the book of memories and cards we presented to them that day. The following letter, written by Earl’s brother Raymond, is an example of what we received:

June 7, 1996

None of you could possibly understand the differences in the lifestyle of those of our age and yours, however, let me try to explain a few encounters and difficulties along the road the we encountered.

We as a family always had adequate housing, food, clothing, etc., however, never really enough compared to your present-day world. 

We grew up in a small town where everybody knew everybody else, by family names and where they lived. 

Earl was the younger of five (5) children and he was therefore always the “Little Boy” who you tried to run away from, or ignore as a pest. I know you can relate to that.

He was a good kid as “kids” go, but too small and young for us older knowledgeable teenagers (so we thought). He was held in check by Dad, Mother, Sister, and his older brother Glenn after 1940. 

Ralph and Sis were gone but came home as frequent as possible. I left home for Wyoming in August 1940 and Earl was only 12 years old. During November 1940, we lost our Mother and I was only able to get back home two (2) hours prior to funeral. After four days on a Greyhound Bus, zero weather, snow storms unbelievable in the northwest, and broke, I arrived home to a very sad occasion. Three days after I had to again go back to Wyoming. 

The death of our Mother created difficult times for Dad, Glenn, and Earl. Evelyn also had problems since her husband was in the Army. Ralph and I were both away from home. Things began to fall apart for the family, moving to other homes, money not very available, Dad’s health was not good and the previous family control of having a Mother. Somehow along the line we were always able to stay together as a family.

 During August 1941, I returned from Wyoming and almost immediately left for Baltimore, Maryland to work in the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards. Earl was still too young so he had to stay at home again. Since Dad was not in very good health, rumors had it that Earl was becoming a little on the wild side. His older brothers tried to tame the young stallion, but unable to report any results of our attempts.

In August of 1942, I joined the Marine Corps and left immediately for Paris Island, N.C. then California, etc. I did not return, only for periodic visits, until 1946. Earl then being 18 years old.  

Glenn had gone in the Marine Corps and sometime later Earl left for the Navy. By that time, he must have had a very difficult time growing up being alone with Dad and “Pop eye,” and still trying to survive as part of a family. Reports again surfaced that he was still running around and having a good time but of course you must understand those were only rumors (Ha-Ha). 

I stayed in Washington, DC after my discharge from the Marines in 1946. I visited home as often as I could, but to be truthful with you, I have forgotten all the “Good-Times” we had together, since life in those days involved a lot of work and sacrifices. After our Father died the household, for all practical purposes, collapsed at the base and fell apart as a unit. We all scattered and seemed to go our own way. 

Finally, myself, Glenn and Earl all got jobs in Maryland, living in Kensington, we again became a family and got to visit each other. Since all the “Family” children are still living, we have continued our family relationship and have always enjoyed each other. We thank the “Big Man Upstairs” for this pleasure of life. 

Raymond and Marjorie

Celebrating their 50th anniversary

While the letter wasn’t specific to Earl and Mary’s marriage, it told us a lot about Earl’s early family life, which most likely helped shape his married life.

By the time Earl and Mary celebrated their 50th anniversary, she was suffering from emphysema. Instead of planning a party this time, my husband, boys, mother, and I, along with my brother-in-law and his wife spent the day with them.

If Mary’s father had gotten his way, my family would never have existed. But thankfully, things worked out for them and they were able to spend 55 years together.