Geraldine Ruth (Isenberg) Newey
The Isenberg’s emigrated from Germany and first settled in Pennsylvania. Mom’s parents Jesse and Blanch Isenberg left with their 5 children and headed West for California. They made it as far as Troy Kansas about 15 miles West of St. Joseph Mo. This is where the car broke down and that is where they settled. Mom was born there on April 30, 1922 the youngest of 6 children, five girls and one brother. Her mother died when she was only 6 years old and sometime later her father remarried and took mom and some of her family and headed to Sacramento Ca. She lived with them for a short while but did not get along well with her step mother. One day her step mother packed up Mom and put her on a bus and sent her unannounced back to Kansas to live with her sisters. They took her in and she was raised by them.
She loved her father and he died when she was 16 and mom was on her own. She graduated from Central High School.
Mom and Dad met on Mom’s 18th birthday. Dad worked at a place that a girlfriend of mom’s worked at. She told Dad that there was a woman he should meet. He called her up and mom said “I don’t even know you”. Dad talked her into going out with him. He shows up all gussied up and his hair all slicked down and he had on this off white suit and these weird square towed shoes… “She thought – what am I getting into.”
Dad was persistent and they were married on Jan 24, 1942. Dad had been in the navy before the war but 6 months before Pear Harbor he was discharged due to an inner ear problem. After Pear Harbor they were married and dad reenlisted this time in the Army.
One of my Dad’s favorite things was cherry pie. Mom told the story of how when dad was over seas she practiced making pie crust. She threw out lots of dough until she got it right. I have to tell you all of her life she made the best pies.
I was born on May the 8th 1944 while the war was still on. It was after that Dad was sent to Siapan and Guam. Mom and dad finally got to have their life together after the war was over. Dad had been trained as a photographer and mom and dad worked as a team taking pictures in night clubs. Mom would take the pictures and dad would work in basement darkroom making the prints that would be delivered to the partiers. Growing up I remember watching my dad make prints in the bathroom that had been turned into a photo lab, today I am a photographer.
We lived several places over the next few years until we ended up in apartments at Rosecrans Field Airport in St Joe. The Missouri river flooded in 1952 and we had to move out. I remember riding in a truck that my dad had borrowed from his boss looking out the window and seeing sand bags holding back the water while we got out. Mom had 4 kids and no place to live. They found an upstairs apartment and we all moved into that small space. Dad borrowed money from a member of the branch Dr. Benson and purchased a parcel of land on Miller Rd. He rented a tent and we moved into it. Mom stood by dad and managed the kids, while dad and members of the church built us a small 4 room house. We moved into that house with dirt floors. This was not her ideal but what was true for her was her family was the most important thing in her life. She made it work and the stuck it out eventually creating a home for 6 children.
What I remember most was that there was never enough money but somehow mom always had food for us and we always sat down as a family and had dinner together. We never went to bed hungry. She was determined that her family would have it better than she did a child.
We always had a garden and we raised the best tomatoes. But we never really raised enough so dad would go to the farmers market in St. Joe and buy bushels of vegetables for mom to can. I remember sitting around in the shade of the house and snapping green beans or husking corn. Mom would can enough for us to eat all year long. Picture this, the heat of Missouri in August, no air conditioning and mom working over a pressure cooker putting up green beans, corn or tomatoes.
Another memory I have was riding in the front seat of the car with my sister and a brother sitting between us. When ever she would have to come to a quick stop she would through out her right arm to keep us in our seats. Of course there was no such thing as seat belts in those days.
Mom worked at different times to earn extra money so she could have things she wanted. She worked at the Christmas tree ornament plant in St. Joe making bubble lights. But mostly she wanted to be a nurse. She had left nursing school to get married because you couldn’t be married and attend the school. Her sister Alice had become a RN and mom had to settle for being a nurse’s aid. For a long time she worked as a surgical tech. at Missouri Methodist Hospital and she loved this. By this time she had 6 kids, worked, made meals, took care of dad and kept the house going.
My mother loved her family, they were the most important thing to her. All her life she felt that when she was a child that she had been passed around from sister to sister or as she would say “from pillar to post”. She was determined that was not going to happen to her children. She made it work in spite of life not meeting her expectations. Both of my parents did the best they could to give their children a life with both parents there. What they got out of that was the family we have today. Thank you Mom for all you did for us.
