Baby Marion is Kidnapped!

My grandmother was only 29 years old when she lay dying of tuberculosis in 1910. She was the mother of two boys and four girls, the youngest being only four weeks old. The baby was named Marion. A kind nurse was caring for my grandmother during her illness, and when grandma died, the nurse cared for all the children until Grandpa decided to go back to the "old country" and get himself a new wife. In only three months, Grandpa was on his way to marry his cousin who was a widow with two children. Greta's husband had been killed by a train.

Grandpa couldn't take all those kids with him, so he pawned off Al and Helen to neighbors and the nurse took baby Marion. My mother, her sister and a brother were going to be left in the "old country" and Grandpa would bring back his new wife and her children. But, the relatives did not accept my mother. So back to the USA she came! She was seven years old.

The families who had cared for Al and Helen decided to legally adopt them. But the nurse couldn't give up that darling baby, so she and baby Marion fled to another state. They call that kidnapping!! But nobody did anything about it. Three more children were born to this family.

and then the Spanish Flu hit hard. Greta was one of the victims. So Grandpa figured he would

send for the two kids he left in the"old country" as the older girl was now old enough to take care of all these kids.

Years passed. Grandpa was helping his friend harvest potatoes one sunny September day, when

he was felled by a stroke and died.

The family had a notion that if they advertised in a Chicago newspaper, Marion would see it and

be reunited with her biological family. It worked! Marion had been a registered nurse and served in WW2 right on the battlefield! She was now the fourth wife of an entertainer.

Eventually, everybody was reunited and kept up a correspondence with Marion for many years.

I met her in 1954. She was very attractive and had even been a clothes model in a Chicago store. Her husband Bill entertained us with a little dance.

And that was how it was.