I come from a family of five girls, two boys, and a foster brother. My sister Gladys was born in 1932 and was sixteen years older than me. She moved to Clarksville with my grandparents to go to high school so she never lived at home when I did. She married Clarence DeGroote and had four boys and two girls. They were Gene, Jim, Bill, Dick, Dorothy, and Debbie. My sister Lavon also went to school in Clarksville while living with our Grandparents. She was fourteen years older than me so wasn’t at home when I was. She married John Flugga and they had two girls: Sandy and Kim. My brother August stayed home and helped Dad farm. He then went into the army. He didn’t go to high school. I do remember him being home with us but feel like it was after he was in the service. He married Gloria Bowers and they had Jackie, Russell, and Colette. Bruce Lawrence was a friend of my brother’s whose mother died. His father, as I remember the story, left a note telling each of his children who they should live with. The family that Bruce was to stay with didn’t want another child so my parents took him in. He was very special to me as a child. He didn’t go to high school either and enlisted in the army. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge while in the service. He was recovering in the hospital and while out with friends one night was killed in a car accident. This was a very hard time for our family. I believe I was ten at the time. I vividly remember the funeral service and the service men giving my Mom the flag. Bruce had two sisters and two brothers who grew up in the orphanage in Waverly, Iowa. My sister Marva moved to Clarksville to go to school but dropped out and moved to Waterloo and worked at Blacks Department Store. She married Gene Haack and they later divorced. She then married Glynn Crow and they had Rick and Jerry. My sister Norma moved to Waterloo and lived with Lavon and went to West High School. She came home on weekends so I remember her being around some. She married John Sulentic. They had one son, Steve. John died when she was fifty two and she later married and divorced Corvin Phillio. I was next in line and by the time I was in fourth grade the country schools closed and there were school buses. I, of course, went to Clarksville High. My brother Darrell was five years younger than me. After graduation from Clarksville High he enlisted in the Navy. He went home with a friend from Ohio and met Sandy Butler and married her. Darrell was in the service for twenty years. Darrell and Sandy had two sons and a daughter: Jeff, Tim, and Bobbie Sue. People around Clarksville are usually amazed to hear that I was from a family of seven. They assume that it was just Darrell and me since none of the others were around when the two of us were in school. Lavon, Marva, Auggie, Joyce, Norma, Darrell, Gladys.
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