Harry and Minerva Maupin Family Part One

 

Harry Maupin was my grandmother Vivian Maupin Long's oldest living brother.  We visited them often when in DeSoto but it was not my favorite place to go because they didn't have an indoor toilet and we had to go to the outhouse in the backyard.  When I asked Dad why they didn't have an indoor toilet he said Uncle Harry was too cheap.  Oddly Harry and Minerva seemed to take pride in being about the only house in DeSoto with outdoor toilets.  They were never embarrassed or ashamed---Dad said they could afford it but just chose not to install it.  The house was a small 2 bedroom house 304 9th Street in DeSoto with a lot of dark furniture---Harry in a big over-stuffed chair smoking.  I do recall looking around the house and not finding a suitable place for a bathroom.  But I looked up the house today and it has a bathroom----someplace! He was a machinist with the Missouri-Pacific Railroad, one of two big employers in town.

Charles with LeRoy Long

They had 3 children:  Charles, Betty and Marie. Charles was Dad's age (born in 1918) and was with Dad on the train when Dad met my mother Louise. At one time he was married/engaged to Mom's close friend "Reedy".  I got to know Charles pretty well because he lived next door when I was a child with my mother's parents (Wes and Vennie Wicker).  He had a bed in the dining room that he rented from them. This was very common at least among the DeSoto families. Charles was living with Roy and Vivian Maupin Long in the 1940 census (At lest twice we had "boarders" when we lived in the city and my grandparents always had someone from DeSoto living with them.) I haven't located Charles in the 1950 census---he was not with his parents, the Wickers or the Longs.

Charles worked at 3001 Chouteau at the Missouri Pacific "shop" in St. Louis where my dad, grandfather and even great-grandfather Henry Maupin worked. Charles was an assistant mechanic (in 1940 census).

Although Charles married, he never thought he had any children. I never met any of his wives, Grace Adams Kohlbry. According to her death certificate, Grace had been a bacteriologist at MO-Pac Hospital.  Charles was living at 3510 Wyoming in St. Louis MO.   

When he died Feb. 22, 1997, Charles was married to Cecil Inez Guthrie.  According to his obituary he had two children Ronald (Josephine) Cambron and Jo (Douglas) Skabo and  grandchildren:  Jay and Sarah Singer, Kaitlyn Skabo and Ronald Cambron III. I would doubt this was an obituary for him but everything else is correct including the funeral home (Kustis Affton) and contributions to Diabetes Association (both the funeral home and diabetes "run in the family"

I remember Charles as being easy to get along with. He took me at least once to see a movie: Alice in Wonderland (but he had to take me home in the middle of it because it freaked me out)  I also remember him smelling---body odor, stinky feet.  But, otherwise he was a nice guy.  My sister recalls him being "depressed" and stinking: "Daddy would drag me to Uncle Charlie's dismal apartment. It smelled of cigarettes and rancid wash clothes. He was always nice but seemed melancholy like Uncle Walter."

Photo below is of Jack McKay, Martha McKay Lalumandier, Charles Maupin and Maxine Long Delaney