“Aunt Nettie is on the left, about 4′8″ or thereabouts, Gayle in the middle and Mom in the car.
“Nettie Belle Hook Poland was Alice Johnson Derry’s maternal aunt. Aunt Nettie was a fraternal twin, whose twin was the mother of Gayle Barnes Fisher. Aunt Nettie raised Gayle.” - from Jan
posted by Paula
“The Geo W. Derry, Sr. family - Doyle, Geo, Ardis, Alice, Duke with Janis in front. I think this was taken just before Duke and Marian were divorced - but I’m not sure what year that was. This was taken at Doyle’s house in Ft. Worth.” -from Jan
posted by Paula
“It looks like Melvin is showing Duke how to do something - shoot a gun? load one? slingshot? I think it’s Aunt Vivian in the background on the left. Duke looks like he’s about 7 or 8 years old.” -from Jan
posted by Paula
Alice Cecelia Johnson, age 18
Duke, Ardis, Doyle, Geo, Alice & Jan (in front of Doyle) - August 1952
“This was when everyone came home after we had moved to a 4 room apt the previous fall. Duke & Marian (she was pg with Mike) lived in Norfolk and didn’t stay overnight. It was crowded but a lot of fun. Paul was 16 months old.” -from Jan
posted by Paula
This was taken soon after their marriage which took place August 18, 1944. Ardis was 26 and Claude was 24.
posted by Paula
“In the background is the old Derry homestead. The porch is the front of the house but I don’t think the front door was ever used. Uncle Melvin is on the left, Daddy is in the middle and Uncle Sandy is on the right.” -from Jan
George would have been about sixty in this picture. Sandy was younger and Melvin was the youngest.
Click on the picture to see a slightly larger and more detailed version..
posted by Paula
“Grandpa & Gramma Derry - about 1935 or 1936… on their home place on Cedar Creek, near Oakdale, Nebraska. 8 miles from Elgin in the other direction. They homesteaded here in 1888 or 1889.” -from Jan
posted by Paula
Doyle went into Nurse’s Training at the University of Nebraska Nursing School in Omaha, Nebraska, September 1, 1933. That was 4 days before I was born. At that time when people learned to become nurses, they didn’t graduate with a college/university education like they do today. She graduated in 1936. I’m not quite sure when she moved to Chicago but I do know she became an Air Line Stewardess in 1937. She talked Ardis into joining her after I was 4.
Jan (Janis Derry Burch)
I heard a lot of stories that Doyle, Ardis and Duke told about their growing up years. Here are a few of them. These events took place after 1931 which is when they moved to Valentine.
1. Mom was in the hospital with phlebitis (legs packed in ice) and Daddy and the kids decided to make strawberry jam, with Daddy telling Doyle and Ardis how to do it. They thought he was so smart since he knew how to do this. What they didn’t know was he was going to the hospital and asking Mom what and how to do it.
2. Doyle was driving the car (she was 15 or 16) and a black cat started to cross her path. She backed the car up around the block so it couldn’t cross and so she wouldn’t have any bad luck.
3. Ardis and Duke were having an argument and Ardis became totally infuriated and threw the butcher knife at him. At the last second she hollered DUCK! - He did - because the knife went into the door in back of where his head had been. (Every time I heard this story, I could just see that knife moving back and forth in the door!)
4. Duke’s real name was George William Derry, Jr., and he got the nickname after they moved to Valentine. He said he was walking along, all dressed up and this man (whose name I don’t remember) saw him and asked him why he was all duded up - some how Duke came out of that.
5. When we moved to Wayne in 1939, Duke enrolled at Wayne City High School as Duke Derry. Mom didn’t find that out until it came time for graduation - at that time his name in the records was changed to his real one.
6. When they lived in Eli, there was a 1 room schoolhouse that Doyle and Ardis attended. Duke was 4 and bored - he wanted to go to school, too. He’d sneak in after school would start and the teacher would chase him out. One of the last times he got chased out she took the broom to him and hit him below his left shoulder blade. I think he was allowed back in school after that. When he was in the Army Air Corps, he had surgery on his back and the tumor that was caused by that broom hit was removed.
I never quite understood why but somehow in the transition from Eli to Valentine, he was dropped back a grade so he didn’t graduate until he was 18.
Jan (Janis Derry Burch)