Shirley KLAUS b. 17 Apr 1929 d. 15 Nov 1996: Our Family History

Fisher-Gunn Families Genealogy

The Leaves and Branches of Our Family Tree

1929 - 1996 (67 years)

Personal Information | Notes | All

Name Shirley KLAUS

Birth 17 Apr 1929

Gender Female

Death 15 Nov 1996

Person ID I161 Fisher | Lardizabal

Last Modified 6 Jul 2014

Notes

My childhood memories are a blend of sadness and happiness with my early life probably more difficult than most because my father died when I was a baby. That was a sad time.

I was born and grew up in Old Appleton, Missouri, a small German community where many of the residents were related. It was a typical Southern town where prejudice and segregation were the rule not the exception and black and white people went to separate schools and churches.

I went to the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church along with the other white people in the town while the blacks went to the "Nigra Church or the "Nigra" school. Prejudice is such a peculiar human failing. All the black and white children played together but they weren't allowed to attend the same schools or churches.

Life was a combination of love and hate during my early years and the love I had for my grandmother Pauline Frentzel was as strong as any I have ever known. She was a beautiful, kind woman; we could just sit together, not saying anything and I could feel that love between us. Sometimes she sang softly to me in German and she made me feel loved, and warm, and safe. We were very close.

School was not my favorite place when I was a child. When the teacher thought I had done something naughty she made me feel like I was garbage and put me in a waste paper box and told the other kids to throw rubbish at me. Other times she put me behind the piano, then pushed it until I said I was sorry for whatever I was supposed to have done.

Some of my happy memories are church picnics and listening to Negro spiritual music. I sat in the weeds outside the Negro churches listening to them sing. It was moving because they were so beautifully sad.

Sometimes after a church picnic I would sit in my bedroom and stare at the full moon, my mind full of marvelous dreams. My mother said I shouldn't do that because staring at a full moon would drive me crazy.

One of my teachers encouraged me to read and I loved it because in my imagination I became the character in the book. Mom thought I was just being lazy and sometimes she would pull the book from my hands and tell me to do something useful.

I started working when I was very young and the first job I remember was working for a family across the road. They paid me $1.50 a week to clean house and start fires in their stove.

When I was thirteen years old, I went to St. Louis where I was a maid and I earned six dollars a week. Then I left home when I was fourteen and I worked at the Chippewa Drug Store and earned 60 cents an hour. My rented room cost five dollars a week.

In St. Louis I worked in a brewery. The brand name was Mule Beer and they advertised it as "the beer with a kick." I was about ten years old then and they let us have all the beer we could drink but the treat I enjoyed most (when I could afford it) was a bottle of Pepsi. Now that was really something great. I can still hear that jingle being played on the radio:

"Pepsi Cola hits the spot; twelve full ounces, that's a lot.
Twice as much for a nickel too, Pepsi Cola is the drink for you."

There were difficult times in my life but the nice thing about memories is that the good times outweigh the bad and it is the happy times we remember best.

Father	Herbert Henry KLAUS, b. 29 Mar 1891 d. 4 Nov 1929 (Age 38 years)
Mother	Hedwig Sarah Hecht FRENTZEL, b. 31 Oct 1893 d. 30 Dec 1967 (Age 74 years)
Family ID	F121	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family Francisco LARDIZABAL, b. Apr 02 1902 d. May 01 1965 (Age ~ 62 years)

Children

	1. Living
	2. Living
	3. Cara LARDIZABAL d. Mar 18 1959
	4. Tina Marie LARDIZABAL d. Jul 15 1963

Family ID F120 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 30 Jun 2014

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