A Star in her own right..

Our beautiful mother has been gone a year this month..leaving us in May of 2020....What a sweet, unselfish mom she was.. She could have been in the movies, and at one point in her life was asked to be the Coca Cola billboard model back in the thirties... But it was not to be... Our mom ended up having nine children, two of them who died before they were three months old....both being born with heart problems.... . She was a sparkling mom .... who taught her children not to be prejudiced, to always be thoughtful of others and have great respect for what is right..and all about the Lord.. I remember when i was about five years old she had to go to the hospital and leave us children (about four of us) at home ... the neighbor was a sweet Black lady named Anna May..... who came over and watched us and took care of us for a few days.. Mamma had lost a child, ... and when she came home could not pay Anna May...who baked us pies, and took care of us..Our sweet neighbor said not to worry about it, I remember asking mamma why was Anna Mays skin different, and our mamma told us that all of God's children come in different sizes and colors, and that she was our sister, in Christ... We were never taught prejudiced and i thank her for that ... She taught us not to make fun of people who are different, and always be generous to those less fortunate...Mamma was born in Bell County Kentucky the daughter of a Jesus Only minister.... married very young but had the marriage anulled... but rather than go back home, she then left to join a circus ... On her own at 16... always independent and thoughtful of others. She worked at Macys in New York at 16... and told us of meeting John Wayne...or as I liked to say he met her....Its funny that the fact that so many women today strive to be in show business at any cost... and she did not have to even try... was mesmerizing to her children, .... everyone always said how beautiful she was...but she let her light shine from within...and gave it all up, for her kids... She raised us alone for the most part... My moms married men who did not appreciate her at all in my opinion...Both Italian, both fished and both gambled.. We often said our daddy and her looked like the Mafia and the Movie Star.....But it put her in a bad situation because she had to go to work to support her children. This put her in places where other women would be so jealous that they would do things to cost her a job..I remember her telling us, that sometimes being born pretty can almost be more of a curse, than a blessing in so many ways.

I think one of the saddest things about our mom is up unto the time she left us, she would still break down over the loss of my two little brothers sixty years later.. Back in those days, if you did not have money to pay they ran you out of the Hospital... which is what happened to her....a Nun of all people found out that she could not afford to pay for her medical treatment and coldly told my mom to take your baby and leave... Of course he passed away 17 hours after being born with a hole in his heart...Today, they can do surgery while a baby is still in the womb. but both boys, suffered from the same thing. Mom always said it was her RH Factor blood...It saddens me to think she had to endure that much pain, but she always said it made her stronger...

I know many of you have amazing stories to tell about your own Moms..and I know they are just as,if not more, incredible.. but. to us when she passed away, another Star shone brightly that night and we knew she was with The Father..... We were kids of the sixties, and even with all that was going on, we didnt abuse drugs, we didnt go to prison, we were good kids..we may have been oversheltered she told us, which put us in situations out of gullibility... but we grew up kind and caring ...Sad that children today are being taught that if you are beautiful that you are somehow self centered, or dumb.. and yes, it does happen..

There are many aspects of her life, i have left out but only because some of my sibling insisted I do so. Mamma grew up in her old Kentucky Home,...in the Bible belt but was pretty ahead of her times, in many ways.. I am glad for that as well...

Had she stayed in New York i have no doubts she would have been a top model or movie star...She was selfless, loving, and not the slightest bit conceited..Mamma taught her children to be kind, compassionate, non judgmental and have honesty.. We were truly blessed to have her as our mother..

Mamma suffered in her life, but was one of the strongest women I will ever have known... A fighter till the end..and I believe that is what kept her going many times..

She had her way paid out here from New York in the thirties, for a screen test... but changed her mind when she got here to California.....I often wondered what would have happened to her, had she not given it all up for her children....She fought for her children all of her life...I guess i just wanted her beautiful face to be seen again..... she empowered her children by teaching them respect, honor, integrity and strength ... no matter how rich or poor you were...and i thank her for those qualities....beautiful inside and out ....Maybe God protected her from being destroyed in Hollywood or that movie lifestyle..The...she surely never craved it..She will always be our beautiful mamma, a very special woman to the end..