LETA PAULINE LOGAN
1910-1994
The source of the given name of Leta is "laeta",
a Latin word meaning "Gladly" or "Joyfully"
1910 Events:
Thomas Edison invented the Edison Battery
The birth of Mark Twain and Leo Tolstoy
Source: Microsoft Encarta 2000
Click on photo to enlarge
Born in Buffalo, Erie Co., New York, the daughter
of Edward Oliver Hamilton Logan & Adele Voos, Leta married
Frederick Lawrence Hapeman, the son of Edward Hapeman
& Laura May Mitchell.
The family was living at 1329 Niagara St., Buffalo, in Jan 1920. Leta was just 9 years old.
Leta attended Public School #9 until the end of the eighth grade. Due
to family financial problems, she was forced to leave school to find employment.
Her field of expertise was child care and she found a position as governess for
the four children of George P. and Florence Urban, of the George Urban Milling Co. She lived
at their residence on Linwood Avenue for a number of years. Their children were
Katharine, Henry,
Florence and Ada Marie. You can view their silhouettes as young children in the 1920s
(click to enlarge)
Her knowledge of crafts included sewing, crocheting, & knitting.
She taught her daughter all but knitting.
Leta's lack of education did not stop her from performing wizardry with finances after
she married Fred. During the depression years when Fred was out of work, she did the
menial job of house cleaning for affluent families. For a while Leta worked for Mary Lincoln
Candies, as a chocolate dipper. She also held a factory position at Colonial Radio, where
she learned how to solder wiring. Fred said that she was better at the task than he.
At the onset of World War Two, Leta worked at Curtiss-Wright on Grider Street where
she learned to rivet and was one of the original 'Rosie the Riveters' of that era.
Riveting was to be her trade for the rest of her career. After the war, she was
employed by an aircraft factory, Twin Coach Industries, Cheektowaga,
New York, until she retired in 1971.
In the summer of 1971, Leta and Fred sold their Olympic Ave. home and retired in San Diego,
California. They purchased a lovely home on Wendell St. It was in San Diego, that Leta
developed a love of gardening. She raised many fine vegetables, which she canned or gave
to others. As the love of the outdoors drew her, she joined The Geranium Society and The
Cactus and Succulent Society and was a member for many years. Leta never seemed to tire of learning. While in her late sixties,
she attended classes to make sewing patterns.
About 1992 she developed signs of Alzheimer's dementia. Fred, up in years, and in poor health, could no longer care for her.
Fred and Leta moved to their daughter's
home in the Mira Mesa area of San Diego, where she lived until her death at home in 1994
Leta is laid to rest beside Fred in Acacia Lawn at El Camino Memorial Park,
Sorrento Valley, San Diego.
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