BIOGRAPHY: Father, Elbert A. Turner, abandoned wife and 2 children about 1893.
Rubie's mother returned to live with her parents. Lona Flemming, Rubie's
mother, remarried Volney M. Combs. Rubie used the surname Combs informally,
but the surname Turner appeared on her marriage certificate to James Clark
Earnest.
BIOGRAPHY: Left Catholic church just before his marriage to Lenora Baier.
Experienced persecution from members of that faith in his community. Daughter
Frances Molitor was poisoned with striknine at an early age because of his
action to leave the church.
Was a farsighted farmer. Was able to keep the family farm during the
Great Depression. The farmhouse was built over the original "soddy" (sod
house)built by his parents. Stories are told in the family about that first
year that they lived in the soddy, how snakes had laid their eggs in the mud,
and how the eggs hatched and the little snakes came wriggling out of the mud
walls of the soddy.
My memories of my grandfather include picking asparagus with him one
bright spring day, and having a wonderful dinner that night. I also remember
spending Christmas with my grandparents every year until they died. We always
opened the presents on Christmas eve, then we'd have to go to bed. I was
always sick from the long trip in a smoke-filled car.
BIOGRAPHY: Lenora was raised a very staunch Catholic. After her
marriage to Charles Molitor, he convinced her to leave that church-an act for
which she was shunned by her family and friends.
She was known for her beautiful crochet work. My mother told stories of
her sense of humor. How she would tease two children fighting over a toy by
first giving the toy to one and watch the other cry, and then take the toy
from the first child and give it to the other and watch the first child cry,
and laugh all the while.
My grandmother played the piano, having come from a musical family.