The first daughter of Etta Lorene (Tootie) Boling and Ream Everett Carpenter, Eleanor Leona was born on November 14, 1925 in St. Joseph, Missouri.
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| Eleanor Leona Carpenter |
She was a tiny baby and weighed only weighed three and a quarter pounds at birth. As typical for that era, Leona was born at home, but there was a doctor and a nurse or midwife in attendance. The doctor (surely joking) said, "Do you think it's worth keeping?" Grandma Tootie said she was furious with him since she had just gone to a lot of work to have that baby!
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| Leona - mid 1926 |
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| Do you see some family resemblance? Do you or your children look like this chubby cheeked baby girl? |
At the time of Leona's birth, her parents Lorene and Ream, along with Ream's sister Effie, were investigating The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and meeting regularly with the missionaries. One of the missionary sisters was Eleanor Bills, and Leona was named for her.
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| Bessie Williams - Eleanor Bills |
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| The picture back |
The back of the picture reads: (in Effie's handwriting) "the first missionary girls I ever met. Sr. Bessie Williams and Sr Eleanor Bills". Both good as gold"
2 comments:
I didn't know where Grandma got the name Eleanor. That is a great story!
I can't believe how little she was!
Grandma, what a beautiful baby you were. Sure glad grandma Tootie decided you were worth it:). I live seeing these pictures of you. No wonder you have such beautiful grandchildren:)
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