Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TBeezley1, post: 625755, member: 10852&quot;]Since you all have expressed such enjoyment and admiration perusing my mom&#039;s photo albums, I thought you might be interested in her back story, as well.&nbsp; Bertha Ida Thiel (Beezley) was one of three daughters and one son born to German immigrant parents.&nbsp; Her mother, Pauline, is seen working in the garden of their family home on the west side of Chicago.&nbsp; One of Bertha&#039;s sisters, Wanda, is seen with her in numerous pictures, including the tennis court shots.&nbsp; Bertha hated her name.&nbsp; It reminded her of &quot;Big Bertha&quot; the German artillery pieces used in WWI.&nbsp; She insisted that her acquaintances refer to her as &quot;Bee.&quot; Whether or not her &quot;re-christening&quot; resulted from marrying Franklin Beezley in 1944 with the charming alliteration of her married moniker, &quot;Bee Beezley,&quot; I do not know for sure.&nbsp; She frequently told my older brother Gary and me of the social whirl she had enjoyed during her young adulthood., and how &quot;Judge Eldert&quot; had even asked her to marry him.&nbsp; Sadly, he died of a sudden heart attack immediately after having popped the question.&nbsp; My mom met my father on one of her numerous summer vacation trips to Wisconsin.&nbsp; She discovered they lived just blocks away from each other, but had never met in the city because she lived within the Chicago city limits and my father resided across the border in suburban Oak Park, IL.&nbsp; My mother was born into a blue collar working class family.&nbsp; Her father was a plasterer who helped build the Field Museum in Chicago.&nbsp; But her obvious good looks and winning ways helped her to run in more elite circles, and my father was the son of a Vice-President at RR Donnelly Printing...the publishers of Time/Life magazines.&nbsp; Their family even had a live-in maid.&nbsp; LOL&nbsp; After the wedding, my parents moved to a suburb of Milwaukee where my dad established a successful career in advertising.&nbsp; I was the younger of their two children.&nbsp; My brother, Gary, worked for two Congressmen on capitol hill in the &#039;70s, and went on to serve for more than 30 years as a PR employee at General Telephone (Sprint).&nbsp; I spent over 30 years in radio, the last 20 in the Chicago market.&nbsp; Eventually, I did freelance news and writing work for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, but I&#039;ve been semi-retired for the better part of 20 years due to some health issues.&nbsp; Bertha has one, highly cherished grandson, who was born to us after 18 years of marriage.&nbsp; My father passed in 1984.&nbsp; My brother followed him in 2000.&nbsp; And my mom joined them both in Heaven in 2001 at the ripe old age of 91.&nbsp; Hers was a life well lived. And now you know, as Paul Harvey would say, &quot;The rest of the story.&quot;&nbsp; I&#039;m including a photo of our family standing in front of our Wisconsin home from the 1960s, so you can see the entire Beezley brood.&nbsp; God bless you al, Todd</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]181799[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in