Jeannette Hensley is a sweet lady who comes to our Queen of Hearts raffle every week. She gets there early to get a seat right up front near the action. It was at the Gibson Area Hospital Auxiliary meeting this past summer that I first had the pleasure of talking to Jeannette in depth. I spoke about the Burwell Building and our plans to restore it. She mentioned to me that there was a book in the Moyer District Library called Time that Was by Judy Mottier Frank that I should read. She even wrote the name of the book and author down for me and told me that the Opera House was mentioned on page 94.
I'm always very interested in anything Burwell Building related, so I went to Moyer Library not too long after that and asked to check it out. They weren't able to find it. They even looked it up in their system by the author's name. Nothing. I looked around the local section of the library for awhile but didn't have time to search for long. So I left the library empty handed that day.
I later told Jeannette that the library wasn't able to find that book. So, sweet Jeannette brought me in her copy of the book so I could see it. I took pictures of it and even read a few pages. I hesitantly returned the book to Jeannette knowing that I so desperately wanted to continue reading. She must have been able to see the despair in my face, because she went to the library several weeks later and found Judy's book. She knew it was there! But, not only did she find it, but she checked it out for me. Her sweet gesture meant so much to me that I made darn sure I read that book cover to cover and returned it myself to the front desk of the library by the check in date.
Time that Was is about the life of a young girl, Judy, growing up on a farm right outside of Gibson City, IL. She talks about her family, the farm they lived on, her house, the neighbors and much, much more. You might be wondering why Jeannette was such a fan of this book, so much so that she had her own copy. Jeannette has a connection to Mrs. Frank - she grew up on the farm that Mrs. Frank grew up on (the house that Mrs. Frank describes in the book has since been torn down and replaced with a newer ranch style house - which is the house Jeannette grew up in).
Jeannette was right that the Opera House is mentioned on Page 94. Mrs. Frank writes about moving into the new Drummer Township High School during her senior year and being the first class to graduate in the large auditorium. She mentions that commencement programs were no longer held in the Opera House on Main Street.
However, the opera house is also mentioned on page 58 where Julia talks about being in a program at the Opera House. She recalls the many trips her mother took to town to practice "drills and formations". In hindsight, Julia ponders "how her mother had the time and the patience to give her young daughter such a rewarding experience."
Being the inquisitive person that I am, I set out to find out more about Judy Mottier Frank and her family. While the book was written by Judy, you can read in the " A Word from the Author" section of the book that her real name was Julia. She wrote the book in third person to provide a 'documentary in story form'.
A quick internet search had me pulling up Julia Mottier Frank Erickson's obituary. I found that she had one daughter, Rosemary Lynette Frank and she married a doctor named Wiliam Cormack. I then found Rosemary's obituary and found that Rosemary had 3 children, Doug, David and Susan. I found Susan on Facebook and took a chance at reaching out to her. I mean, the worse she could do was ignore me, right?
Susan didn't ignore me, in fact, she was very open to talking with me and told me that her son, Andrew Casad had researched their family history. Susan gave me Andrew's contact information as he was very willing to share what he could of his great-grandmother. Susan shared with me that she remembers her grandmother, "Miss Honey", well. They called her Miss Honey because she was as sweet as honey.
Andrew shared this picture of Julia's mother, Mamie Mottier with me. She is mentioned quite often in Julia's book and it is quite evident that Julia and her mother were quite close.
Susan mentioned to her brothers that I had reached out to her about their grandmother. One of her brothers, Dave, joined our Gibson City Restoration Association Facebook group. He mentioned that he had copies of his grandmother's book. I put a shameless plug out there asking for a copy of it for our Restoration Association. Dave was happy to accommodate. I was delighted to have received a perfect copy of Time that Was this past week.
But, there's more! This copy has a pasted-in page #49. Years later, Julia found a picture of the ferris wheel that she tries to describe in her book. So, she had the book publisher paste in a new sheet to include in the 'yet to be sold' copies of this book. How awesome is that? I'll be sure to share this 'new page' with both Jeannette and the Moyer District Library.
While there is more to tell about 'Miss Honey' and her family, I will end this blog post here - for now. Expect to see a Part II soon.
I do want to thank the Cormack/Casad families for their generosity and cooperation. This is what our mission is all about. We aren't just restoring a building, we are telling the stories and sharing the history that goes along with it. That is the reason Judy wrote this book - to tell the history of her life and the small town on the prairie of Central Illinois. I think 'Miss Honey' said it best when she wrote "I hope that readers who knew this period will find nostalgic pleasure in these pages, and those who did not know it will learn what it was like - a "Time that Was" is no more and will never be again." It's up to us to make sure we preserve our history, learn from it and most of all, celebrate it!
Speaking of celebrations, we are still celebrating the 140th year of the Burwell Building. Come out to Mark's on First (during our normal Queen of Hearts drawing) on December 13th where we will have special treats to celebrate the 140th year. We'll have another blog post on December 14th - the date of the grand opening of the Burwell Opera House 140 years ago.
Remember, we are still holding our 140 Men and Women Fundraising Campaign. You can still participate in this event. Click here to donate today! Every dollar counts!
Comments