Don Kramer and Rosemary Breving - Through the Eyes of a Six Year Old

Once upon a fairy tale time, I got to play the role of princess.  My cousin, Rosemary, was dreaming of her wedding.  I remember being at her house on Kinmont and being shown a 8 1/2 x 11 picture of her "prince".  She told me that they were going to get married as soon as he got back from Korea.

As a kindergartner at the time, this is what I took away from that experience: (1) this was the first time I realized anything about war and that it took loved ones away from us, (2) this was the first time I had seen what "young love" looked and felt like -- especially the anticipation, and (3) I was going to get to be in the wedding.

I remember my dress. I remember a bridal shower we had at our home. During the shower, the "ladies" asked me to show them how I was going to walk down the aisle. That was probably the first time I realized how totally uncoordinated I was but I sure enjoyed being the center of attention. I remember a ride in a limousine with the rest of the bridal party to the reception in the Golf Manor Municipal Building.

It was a fairy tale -- and one of my earliest childhood memories that will stick with me forever. Don and Rose got married on April 23, 1955.  They will soon be celebrating their 55th Wedding Anniversary!  I'd say that's quite a milestone in anyone's book.  Note to Rose and Don -- you still have four more years before you can claim the 59 years of marriage that Pop and Norine enjoyed.  I'm looking forward to your 60th!

Don and Rose went on to become the parents of four children. Pictured are Donna, Mary Beth, Julie and John.  They are grandparents of eight -- five girls and three boys. What a great family -- and Happy Birthday, Rose!

The Brevings

Somewhere in everyone's family is a collection of old photos.  It takes a little project like this to locate them and realize what a gold mine of memories we have.  I look at this picture of Edith and see that same wavy hair I've always had.

Rosemary told me she knew she had copies of pictures of her mother as a young student at St. Rose School.  Here are three of them.  In the first picture, Edith is the second person from the right in the second row.

I love this picture.  Edith is wearing glasses and is standing in the first row.  When I first saw it, I thought for sure I was looking at the face of one of my cousins.

This is a picture of 8th Grade Graduation from St. Rose.  There were 14 boys and 15 girls in this class.  Looking at what all of them are wearing, you know that this was a very important milestone.  Edith is in the first row and is the first one on the left.

Edith and her husband, Fritz, went on a vacation to Chicago with another couple in 1947.  Here is a picture of the other couple,  taken in front of the Holy Name Cathedral.  (I'll add the names later).  Rosemary told me that this was the last vacation they were able to take before Fritz's death at the age of 49.

This is a picture of Rosemary on her First Communion day with her father, Fritz.  Rose told me that every bit of her First Communion dress including her slip were sewn by Norine.

It's always the personal things that people do for us that we remember.


Here is a little experiment.  I put together a video (that has a couple of errors) with some pictures Rose and Donna loaned me.  It has music.  Give it a shot.
Breving Video

A Tribute to Lillian

When I first became interested in the history of the Joneses and my German and Irish lines, I had a couple of things going for me. First of all, my mother gave me a folder of family information she had collected over the years. A lot of her notes were the result of conversations she had had with Margaret Ann Scardina, my Dad's sister. (A few years back, Patty and I compared notes and found out that she had the same record -- her mother must have shared the information with mine). In the folder was a copy of a letter from Lillian Mears to Edith Breving.

As I was new to all of this, I called Rosemary Kramer and asked her to explain what she knew about the letter. Much to my surprise Rosemary told me all about Lillian, who was our grandfather's first cousin. She told me she lived in Harrison and was about 95 years old.

I called Lillian and despite macular degeneration and being somewhat frail, she invited Patty Volz and me to lunch at the home she shared with her daughter in Harrison, Ohio. She could practically quote all of the details in the letter, which had been written in 1978.

With a name like Jones, you need all of the clues you can get, and Lillian had a lot of them. Lillian was a retired school teacher who had graduated from Miami University. She had great stories about the lengths her parents went to to fund her education -- now I wish I had written them down. A lot of the things in her letter have now been documented. There were a few inaccuracies, but they were largely based on the recollections of her mother whose father (Alexander) died when she was only two years old.

As I write this history as I know it, I will often include quotes from her letter. Thank goodness that Edith Jones Breving asked Lillian to write down what she knew and my mother was given a copy. When Patty and I visited her she also gave us a photocopy of the Jones Family in 1916. Despite it's poor quality, it's one of my favorite items.

This picture was taken at Lillian's home in Harrison in 1916. The adults from left to right were:

John Lewis Amiss (husband of Elizabeth Jones Amiss)

Elizabeth Jones Amiss (daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth)

Leo Jones

Melissa Jones (wife of Leo)

Tom Jones

Norine Jones (wife of Charles Fred - our grandfather)

Ella Jones (wife of Tom)

Margaret Jones (wife of Harley)

Fred Jones (our grandfather)

Harley Jones

The children from left to right were:

Lillian Amiss Mears - daughter of John and Elizabeth

Edith Jones Breving - my aunt

Charles Jones - my uncle

Irma Jones - daughter of Margaret and Harley Jones

At least I had the good sense to have Lillian identify the people in the picture.

Lillian died just short of the age of 100 after suffering a fall in her home. She, too, is buried at New Haven Cemetery near Harrison.

More pictures from the luncheon:

Lillian, Patty Volz and Laura (Lillian's daughter)

Back Row:

Laura, Rosemary, Sue, Jeanne,

Front Row:

Patty, Lillian, Nan

Bottom Row: Kathy and Sue's son Spencer