CATEGORY: THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE
PHOTO: LEVI AND EMMA MAY AND FAMILY (MOTHER AT LOWER RIGHT)
BACK ROW:  EVERETT, HARVEY, CLARA.  MIDDLE ROW:  LEVI AND EMMA.
FRONT ROW:  WALLACE, LULA AND GRACE.

Emma and Levi May were my mother’s parents.  Their children were:   Clara Jane May, born in Abilene, Kansas, June 3, 1886.   Clara married Guy Boyer, a rancher from John Day, Oregon.  His ranch was in the John Day Valley. After her children were grown, Clara opened a furniture store in John Day.  She sent Grandmother outdated fabric samples from which Grandmother made quilts.  Guy was famous for having, as a teenager, ridden his horse many miles at top speed to save the lives of the people of Mitchell from the 1884 flood that destroyed the town.

Thomas Everett May, born in Solomon City, Kansas, March 5, 1888.   Everett was chosen for the All-West Coast Football Team when he went to Oregon Agricultural College, later Oregon State.  He married Verna Weaver, a graduate in organic chemistry.  He later became a full Colonel in the army and retired to Carmel, California.

Harvey Austin May, born near Solomon City, Kansas, 1890.  Harvey met and married Inez Jones when they were both attending business college in Salem.  Harvey died of tuberculosis, June 25, 1915, survived by Inez and their baby daughter, Velma.  Inez later told me, “They called Harvey “The May with the twinkle in his eye.”

Leta Ethel May, born in Kansas, October 22, 1892.  She died of a heart defect when she was only four years old: Feb. 2, 1896 in Woodburn, Oregon.  Leta had red hair like her Uncle Ezra (Grandmother’s brother).  She was a beautiful child.  She was shown in one family photograph, since lost.

Lola Grace May, born in Woodburn, Oregon, November 25, 1895.   She was my mother.

Lula Litton May, born in Woodburn, Oregon in 1896.   Lou graduated from Oregon State College in Home Economics and married Esmond Brandt.  They were both college professors at the University of Iowa.  Uncle “Ez” became a nationally prominent mathematician, and was later with the Atomic Energy Commission.

Wallace Leon May, born in Woodburn, Oregon on December 8, 1899.  Uncle Wallace graduated from Oregon State College, and then stayed home on the ranch in Grass Valley.  He was good natured and full of fun.  He married Alta Walter of Hood River.  He and my grandfather were the most important men in my young life.