MOTHER COMPILES FAMILY HISTORY AS LEGACY TO 3 SONS.Byline: Bettie Rencoret LANCASTER - Lorraine Edwards says she was not a mixer or a mingler in her early years in the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley . ``I had small children at home,'' she explained. Her three sons are adults now, and scattered, but these words exemplify the meaning of Mother's Day to her. Motherhood has been an everyday, loving responsibility that she takes seriously. This manifested itself, as her children were growing up, in her drive to impress upon them a cultural appreciation and awareness of the value of their family heritage. Proud of her roots, both maternal and paternal, Edwards is bent on Adj. 1. bent on - fixed in your purpose; "bent on going to the theater"; "dead set against intervening"; "out to win every event" bent, dead set, out to providing a basis for familial pride in her boys through tracing her - and their - lineage. ``Call me a fanatic,'' she said. ``I am completely focused on this. You know I believe we are all here for a purpose, and I am convinced it is my mission in life to complete this family history.'' To this end she has made 32,000 entries in the computer within the last 10 years. She has cross-referenced everything and expects to go to press within days with 3,200 pages of her data in two volumes. ``I doubt that anyone else has ever documented that much,'' she said. A native Californian, born March 3, 1935, in Pomona, she lived for her first six years in Anaheim before moving to Oregon, where she received most of her education. Married at 17, she had all her babies within nine years, during which time she traveled to places as far-flung as Colorado, Newfoundland and France with her serviceman husband. When that marriage ended in 1964 she was hard-pressed as a single parent to support her brood. She accepted an assortment of jobs, sometimes working two at a time, but always tried to be home when her sons came home from school. In San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden she spent six hours a day for about two years as a telephone directory proofreader. When it became necessary, she moved with her boys to Antelope Valley where her parents, who resided in the Littlerock area, could provide temporary living space. It wasn't long before the young family got a place of their own with house payments of $45 per month. For a few years Edwards drove a special-education class bus for the Keppel Union School District on a route that spanned Saugus, Newhall, Acton and Littlerock. She drove the circuit twice a day and at noon pulled playground attendant duty. At the same time she worked for the Foothill News. In 1968 she was employed by two local department stores This is a list of department stores. In the case of department store groups the location of the flagship store is given. This list does not include large specialist stores, which sometimes resemble department stores. for $1.95 per hour. ``There was never enough money,'' Edwards said. ``Even though we got by, I knew I had to do something to make a living wage, so I took the exam to get on the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County civil service list. Eventually I was hired as an eligibility worker for the Department of Social Services social services Noun, pl welfare services provided by local authorities or a state agency for people with particular social needs social services npl → servicios mpl sociales .'' That job lasted until she quit in 1976 to take a position with the Community Concerts Association as a field representative for the Antelope Valley membership. ``The boys and I were members of the local group and I am proud of the fact that the one year I was membership chairman we went over the top. Concerts in those days were held in the (Antelope Valley) college cafetorium caf·e·to·ri·um n. pl. caf·e·to·ri·ums or caf·e·to·ri·a A large room, usually in an educational institution, that serves both as a cafeteria and as an auditorium. or gymnasium.'' By this time only one of her sons was still at home so she made arrangements for him to stay with good friends, whom he loved, in order for her to be worry-free. The job entailed widespread traveling to review and recruit artists for the area. ``I went from a maximum stress job with good pay to one of maximum enjoyment but half the salary. I couldn't have been happier. I met the most wonderful and interesting people anyone could imagine and I knew David was David Was (born David Weiss, 26 October 1952, Detroit) is, with his stage-brother Don Was, the founder of the influential 1980s pop group, Was (Not Was). Reviewed by The New York Times being well-cared for.'' Five months after they met at a New Year's Eve holiday retreat for singles, at the Forest (Naut.) at the fore royal masthead; - said of a flag, so raised as a signal for sailing, etc. See also: Fore Home Christian Conference Center in the hills above Redlands, she married Donald Edwards Donald Edwards, (D) California, was a congressman in the United States House of Representatives from 1962 through 1995. Edwards was a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Edwards was a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent in the early 1940s. . As a counselor for the Los Angeles County Department of Senior Affairs, he empathized with her former on-the-job stress and admired her audacity. She was attracted to him because she had always longed for a Christian husband, and he was a former Presbyterian minister. When her husband died in 1983, after six years of marriage, and in 1986 she returned to county civil service employment. She is currently employed as an intermediate typist clerk in the Environmental Health Department, which monitors sanitary conditions in restaurants, markets and apartment dwellings. Her sons - Thomas Ware of Missoula, Mont., Stephen Ware of Camarillo, and David (Ware) Edwards of New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of - and her 11 grandchildren GRANDCHILDREN, domestic relations. The children of one's children. Sometimes these may claim bequests given in a will to children, though in general they can make no such claim. 6 Co. 16. , are the reasons for her obsession with her roots. Deprived of knowledge of her forebears as she was growing up, she wants her progeny to experience the joy she has found as a result of her research. She has traced her mother's family back to 1600 and a man named Tristram Coffin. Several ancestors in the Coffin, Paddock, Showalter lineage authored hymns, including ``Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.'' ``I'm proud of my maternal ancestry,'' she said, ``but it is already well-chronicled. I am concentrating on my father's side now because there has been so little written information available on the Frantz family.'' Edwards decries the fact that her lineal That which comes in a line, particularly a direct line, as from parent to child or grandparent to grandchild. LINEAL. That which comes in a line. Lineal consanguinity is that which subsists between persons, one of whom is descended in a direct line from the other. group, in the Old German Baptist Brethren Old German Baptist Brethren (OGBB) descend from a pietist movement in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708, when Alexander Mack founded a fellowship with 8 believers. They are one of eight Brethren groups that trace themselves to that original founding body. , whose history is similar to the Amish, is only about 8,000 strong now. ``I attended an annual meeting in Springfield, Ohio Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark CountyGR6. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River and Buck Creek, approximately 45 miles (72 km) west of Columbus and 25 miles (40 , in 1991 and found out I was related to more than half of the 5,000 Brethren there.'' They welcomed her as a cousin, with loving warmth, and made her feel at home, she said. ``I think God has given me this extended family as a blessing. As a mother and grandmother, I want to leave my kids and grandkids the legacy of knowing what I have felt as a link between the distant past and the far-reaching future. I don't think I can give them anything better.'' LANCASTER - American Association of Retired Persons American Association of Retired Persons: see AARP. Chapter 549 will host its annual picnic from 4 to 6:30 p.m. June 14 at the Rancho Mirage Coach Club, on 20th Street East between Avenues J and K. Cost of the catered meal will be $5. Reservations must be made by June 12 with AARP AARP, a nonprofit, nonpartisan national organization dedicated to "enriching the experience of aging"; membership is open to people age 50 or older. Founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus as American Association of Retired Persons, AARP now has over 30 million chapter President Jeanne Ryan at (805) 264-4072. Reservations may also be made at the Tuesday chapter meeting in the Antelope Valley Senior Center, 777 W. Jackman St., Lancaster. MEMO: This column is devoted to activities and news of interest to all senior citizens. Those with any information pertaining to that age group are invited to contact Bettie Rencoret at (805) 943-2998 or leave messages at the Daily News' Antelope Valley Bureau at (805) 267-5741. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Lorraine Edwards shows off the volumes of genealogic al data she's compiled over the years as a gift for her sons and grandchildren. Bettie Rencoret/Special to the Daily News |
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