Aunt Jean

Often, on the way to Michigan, we will stay with my Great Aunt Jean.  She is my Grandfather Lawson's younger sister.  She is such a sweetie.  She ALWAYS insists on cooking something for us whenever we visit, regardless of the time we arrive. 

Before heading up to Michigan, we learned that she was in the hospital that week, due to a fracture in her spine.  She had fallen earlier last year and broke her pelvis and shoulder and seemed to have recouperated well from that particular fall.  We were sad to learn she had recently fractured her spine. 

She was in the bathroom when she fell, she said.  Her neighbor's wife was able to help her as the ambulance arrived.  She got out of the hospital the day before we were heading up to Michigan.  I told her that we would like to visit her wherever she might be, but that we didn't want to spend the night at her house.  She INSISTED we stay with her.  I felt horrible, but also knew that she would probably like to see us.  She wanted to stay semi-active, to keep pneumonia at bay (she had a cough), and wore a brace around her torso for support.  She is fortunate to have a very nice neighbor named Robert who really watches after her.  She calls him "the boy", even though he is well into his 70's.  :)  While she was recouping at her sister-in-law's house from the pelvic fracture, Robert put a wooden ramp onto the back porch of her house.  Talk about timing.  I don't know how she would get up the steps to her house now, without this ramp!

We spend the night, arriving late in the evening due to bad traffic.  It was actually a good thing, I think.  (She still had a blueberry cheesecake waiting for us when we arrived.)  We were able to visit with her for a little bit before the kids were extremely tired.  We retired to our beds for the night.  She woke us up early with a knock on our door, as we said we wanted to get on the road early.  We were going to celebrate Christmas with my Mom and sister later that night, after driving the remaining miles to Michigan. 

We took these pictures before we headed out in the morning.  I wanted to show my Grandmother that Aunt Jean appeared to be doing well.  About three days after we left, her neighbor insisted (for the fourth time in the few days after we left) that she go to the E.R. due to a bad cough.  She finally agreed.  It turned out she had pneumonia, after all. 

She is one strong lady, let me tell you.  She has lived on a farm for most of her life.  She recently sold the farm across the street, which had been in her husband's family for generations.  She has a dog (Snowball) and a cat (Daisy) and LIVES for her babies (her animals).  She and her husband never had any children (she had a stillborn baby, unfortunately, back in the late 60's), so her animals are her life.  She LOVES to see Ava and Liam.  Ava called her "Grammy Jean" at one point, which I think really tickled her.  When we told Grammy Jean what Ava called her, she said in her sweet matter-of-fact Southern voice "Well, you just go ahead and call me that, then."  :) 

I love visiting her and hearing stories about my Grandfather.  She looked up to him and he took care of her, as well.  While we were there, she gave me one of his Navy award ribbons.  They were worn as an abbreviated version of a medal, I believe, so you wouldn't have to always wear all of the medals on your uniform.  I will be curious to see which medal this ribbon might represent.  I contacted the U.S. Navy Awards Office in hopes of getting a list of his awards. 

"The U.S. Navy can award a variety of ribbons to the dedicated men and women who serve. Ribbons are small rectangular bars, worn horizontally and attached to the uniform with specially made ribbon bars. The wearing of the Navy uniform, including ribbons, is governed by regulations. Ribbons worn on the uniform must be in order of precedence. U.S. Navy personnel who earn awards from other branches of service may also wear those ribbons, but they must be below the ribbons awarded by the Navy."

 Sitting up and drinking coffee at breakfast - with a fractured spine! 

The kids seem to hang the moon for her.  This picture was taken bright and early. 

I'm surprised the kids' eyes were open for it.  :)

Grandfather's World War II U.S. Navy ribbon.  He originally gave it to Aunt Jean years ago.  She then gave it to us this Christmas.  How special!  She says she remembers watching him "go around the bend" when he left for the Navy.  The bus ticket he used to join the Navy can be found in the scrapbook he kept. 

Aunt Jean says she was so sad when he left.  He is her only full-blood sibling.  He was 17 when he went into the Navy, so she would've been 15.  He chose the Navy (instead of being drafted) as the Navy was known to have more service members who returned to the United States alive.  He knew that if he was drafted, he probably wouldn't have a choice in where he served, and may end up in the Army.  I believe my Uncle Danny (Grandfather's only son) has Grandfather's service medals.  I told Aunt Jean that it probably would be best to give this ribbon to Uncle Danny, so all of Grandfather's medals are in one place. 

Aunt Jean was discharged from the hospital and continues to get better.  We're SO thankful for her health and pray she is only gets more healthy with each day!

Peace, love and Christmas ribbons,

Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam

Grandfather's Book

My Grandfather Clinton Lawson died in 1991.  I was 15 years old.  His example and legacy live on daily, through the memories we have of him.  He was one of the most Godly men I have ever known!  He was a friend to everyone, a quiet leader, a faithful husband (Liam's middle name is Grandfather's middle name of "Truman," which means "Faithful Man"), an avid bike rider, had quite a sense of humor and did an amazing job documenting his life.


In the years before he died, I remember him going through family pictures with me, telling me the names of people in the pictures.  He had a book that was chock-full of his memories, documenting his experience in the Navy in WWII, when he served over in Papua, New Guinea, and other phases in his life.  The book is nothing short of amazing.  He even has the bus ticket from the day he joined the Navy, leaving his hometown of Rockholds, Kentucky, when he was 17 years-old.  In addition to this scrapbook, he also wrote his own 39-page biography.  I cherish this information so much.


Before Grandfather died, he gave the book to my Mom, asking that she make a copy for Uncle Danny.  That was 20 years ago.  My Mom attempted to copy pictures from the book at CVS, but it became VERY costly, and that was before digital scanners were fairly affordable.  I know Uncle Danny has asked my Mom about the book in the past.  My Mom didn't really often want to get it out, as the pictures were out of the book and she didn't want to mess up the order. 


This past Christmas, I told my Mom I would like to take on the project of completing the book for everyone, as a secret.  :)  She gave the book to me.  We bought a new copier / scanner and printer, to get the job done.  I scanned each of the pages of his scrapbook and also scanned in Grandfather's separate biography.  I also added quite a few different family history pages (in Powerpoint, etc), as well as some supporting documentation on genealogy. 


My Grandfather always told me we were related to an Indian Chief named Standing Door.  It was my goal to find out more information on Standing Door and include that information in the book.  I did find out that we may be related to a Chief Standing Deer, who is documented on a monument in a cemetery in Kentucky.  Unfortunately (but fortunately) many Lawsons are searching to resolve the unanswered question regarding this relation.  I was able to include all of my genealogy research, including Chief Standing Deer information.  I know that if Grandfather were alive, he would probably be having a ball with http://www.ancestry.com/, trying to find the answer to that question...


I found a very cool Web site called http://www.zazzle.com/.  I was able to somewhat easily design customized three-ring binders that included Grandfather's Navy picture.  His name is written in scroll-like script on the binding.  On the back, in scroll-like font, it says "Families are forever".  I was amazed at how nice it turned-out!  Doug was patient enough to show me how to do some things in PhotoShop, to make the book look phenomenal.  We created a nice cover page on which each different phase of Grandfather's life is represented:

• A picture of Grandfather as a baby with his Mom and sister Jean,
• A picture of Grandfather with Grandmother, around the date of their marriage,
• A picture of Grandfather with his family (Grandmother, Uncle Danny and Mom),
• A picture of Grandfather with his grandkids (me, Sherry, Jamin and Ginger), when camping.

I wanted everything to be JUST right with this book.  I wanted to make Grandfather proud.  So, even if something might've "looked" fine but I felt like it needed to be tweaked a little bit, I couldn't let it sit without correcting it...  I told Doug that this will be one of the most MONUMENTAL things I have done in my life, of which I am proud. 


All of the pages are in clear sheet protectors and most are also on nice photo paper within this custom 3-ring binder.  Ideally I would've liked to have the book bound, but didn't feel I should do that;  I wanted to ensure family members could remove or add to it, if they chose to do so.  I made / included a cd of each of the pages in the book, and also included a cd to which I added family pictures, census information, marriage records, etc.  I tucked these two cd's into the back pocket of the binder.  I also created a section in which gravestones of family members were listed by cemetery location.  I had to do some research to find the GPS coordinates of graveyards in the middle of rural Kentucky.  Easier said than done...


We had a trip planned to go to Michigan in late July.  My goal was to be able to present this book when we were in Michigan.  I made the deadline!  I worked on the book through the beginning of July, tweaking things.  I made seven original copies of the book; one for Grandmother, Mom, Uncle Danny, Sherry, Jamin, Ginger and myself.  We were able to present the books to everyone the Saturday we were in Michigan.  Everyone seemed to sincerely appreciate the book. 


It's hard to believe that he has been gone 20 years.  What touched my heart was to see my nephew Jordan reading through the book, learning more about his Great Grandfather.  I pray through reading it, it will be made evident to him how faithfully Grandfather followed God and provided for his family.  I pray his example lives on for generations.  See below for highlights from the book.


Peace, love and great family memories,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam

They're all done!  Seven copies later...

The front cover

Clinton Lawson:  A Branch of the Lawson & Murray Family Tree

The back cover:

The binding:



Doug helped out quite a bit with this page.  We took a picture of the Oak Alley Plantation and put pictures of the different phases of Grandfather's life.  Honestly, it just worked out that way!

Close up of the cover page pictures.  I tried to keep any typing or writing that Grandfather did, to keep the book as true as possible to the original.  I enlarged his signature in some places, as well.

I created a color-coded Powerpoint slide with the different sides of Grandfather's family tree, to make the family tree more easily understandable...

Another Powerpoint slide I created, that has his relatives labeled by couple / generation.

Grandfather's biography, page 1 of 39. 

"I was born on March 13, 1926 on Good Friday at Corn Creek..."

This is the portion I made sure to note, that wasn't Grandfather's, relaying my attempt to resolve the unanswered question:  "Are we related to Chief Standing Door?"

I made sure to clearly identify which pages Grandfather didn't include originally...

This is the list of family gravestones and their location.  It took quite some time to put together, but hopefully it will be useful to someone one day.

Grandfather's signature.  He had such beautiful handwriting, I think!  I enlarged this fairly big and was sure to include this as the last page.

This is a collage of pictures of Grandfather and Grandmother together.  The upper left-hand picture was actually taken on their first date in 1946.  The lower right-hand picture is one taken on their 40th wedding anniversary trip to Niagra Falls.  :)  Doug helped teach me some PhotoShop skills to put this together.  I love this sheet.

A picture of Grandfather, his sister and cousins taken in 1935 on Grandfather Murray's porch.

A picture of Grandfather taken when he was in the Navy.

Grandfather had labeled a map of the places and dates he served in or near Papua, New Guinea when he was overseas. 

He kept some very interesting documents, newspaper clippings from WWII.

Very cool!

Grandfather's Navy picture.  I used this picture for the cover of the binder.

Currency from different places he visited while serving in the Navy.

Medals he received for serving.

This is a picture taken on Grandfather and Grandmother's first date, to a carnival, in 1946.  I love that they were able to capture this moment!

Va-va-voom!  Grandmother on her birthday. She was 17 in this picture.

My favorite picture of the two of them.  I think this was taken around the time they were married.

They were married before this picture was taken.  The picture was taken in Detroit, MI.

Love this picture of Grandfather. :)

Taken in Pontiac, MI.

A picture of the family.  Mom would've been almost two. :)

I created this page to show the different Lawson generations. Although Grandfather's Dad lived in Kentucky, I was able to meet him at least once. 

Amazingly, Grandfather documented the different generations of ancestors and what he knew about them.  All of the research I've done checks out entirely with his information.  I think it's pretty cool that he was interested in writing this down.