Jennie Reed Nolette

by David Nolette

My mother, Jennie Reed was born in Boone County, Iowa May 5, 1917, There no records of her birth at the courthouse though. I looked in the summer of 1995. She told me later that her father had looked at one time and couldn't find any either. For her Social Security she had to find alternate records.

She was born near Woodwood Iowa. She was the third child and the first girl in the family. Her father always wanted her dressed like a girl. When she was three, the family, following her grandfather Dugan's lead, moved to Deer River. That's where she lived until her marriage. She went to grade school in a little white schoolhouse.

When she was older, they made a small addition on the house for her bedroom. She greatly appreciated the privacy.

In 1935, my mother Jennie Nolette, made a trip to Iowa with the Blanshaws. They wanted her to visit and help out around the house. They had four boys and no girls. She remembered the ride down in the Blanshaw car as being long and hot. Soon after her arrival they arranged a family reunion so she could meet all the relatives. The only one she can remember meeting at the reunion was Boyd Dugan.

Sixty years later there wasn't a lot she could remember about her stay in Iowa. Leila Blanshaw was a sister of Amy Reed. Her husband's name was Earnest and they lived on a farm. My mother says she was very pretty but heavy. One of the things she remembers was going to a movie with the two oldest Blanshaw boys and a Blanshaw relative from the other side of the family that wasn't related to my mother.

One thing she remembered clearly was a toothache she got. A wisdom tooth became infected and they had to take her to town to a dentist. The dentist pulled the tooth.

During her stay, she spent a few days visiting her Grandmother Mary Reed in Madrid. Mary Reed was a 79-year-old widow at this time. When my mother left, her Grandmother Mary Reed gave her a bag of black walnuts.

After three months she wanted to go home. The Blanshaws tried to talk her in to staying longer but she had enough. She took a bus home to Deer River. When she got home there was snow on the ground and her brothers Marion and Otis were waiting for her. She was shocked to see them smoking. Her mother was glad to see her. She needed help taking care of the twins who had been born that January in 1935.

In January of 1941 she married Alden Nolette. In September of 1995, I asked Mama for more details about their marriage. They were married January 25, 1941 in the parsonage of the Catholic church in Deer River. She said, "It was a very cold day." After the marriage they ate dinner at her folks and then later they ate supper at his folks. Daddy had to go to work the next day. They rented a house in Cohasset that had formerly belonged to a Doctor and later owned by Ray Flemming but it was too big for them. After a couple of months they rented a small house behind Nap Nolette's house. They paid six dollars a month in rent.

On March 2, 2006 when I talked to my mother on the phone about birthdays in March, somehow the converstation got around to people being born at home. Because she wanted me to be born at home, she asked the doctor if I could be born at home. He told her, we don't do that anymore. So David was born in a hospital in Grand Rapids in 1943. It was also the same hospital that Douglas, Ronnie and Dennis would be born in. It was also the same hospital where singer Judy Garland was born.

In the time before and after David was born they lived in Grand Rapids. The first small house they were renting when David was born is still there. It is connected to a Bait station on Highway 2. The other house was in the location of the County Market. When David was about 14 months, they moved to Cohasset, where she still lives at the present time. ( She stayed with Douglas after the fall of 2003.)

In later years, although often sickly, she sends out lots of cards and letters to friends and relatives. She usually signed her cards to me, "Jesus loves you, and so do I."

For a more complete ancestor chart as of November 20, 2000 go to Jennie Nolette .

David Nolette, written sometime in 1990's
Copied from history pages and added to biography page, Feb 3, 2006
Additions on March 2, 2006

Source:
My own first hand knowledge, my mother Jennie herself, Courthouse records in Grand Rapids and also in Iowa.