Saturday, April 28, 2012

GROSVENORS' GLENN   
 
April 7, 2012

It is with regret that we must note the passing of another of our own. Jack Harold Grosvenor, 87, passed away March 30th in Scottsboro Arizona from a heart attack. Jack was a boyhood friend of mine. A cousin. And for a while, during the depression years he was a next-door neighbor. Lay-offs in East St. Louis had forced Jack's parents, Larry and Marie, back to the farm . Larry constructed a very crude house on his father's land and moved Marie and Jack into it while he returned to the city to look for work. They were not there long. Larry got a job in East St Louis as a switchman in a railroad yard and Jack and his mother moved back to E. St. Louis. Not long thereafter Larry lost a leg when he fell under a railway car and the family moved to Arizona. I never saw any of them again. A month or so ago I included this family in my "missing Grosvenor" list and Robin furnished me with Jack's home phone number. I called, hoping to chat with him but got a nurse or caretaker who informed me that he was too ill to talk.
Jack's Obituary is on line. Just Google "Obit Jack H Grosvenor Chandler AZ" . I have created a findagrave memorial for him (Find A Grave Memorial# 88080784). It is incomplete as yet and I would welcome family assistance. I badly need to know the burial location (cemetery) of Larry and Marie so I can create their memorials and link them (and Jack) to the Grosvenor tree.
I have established contact with Cynthia (Welch) Carlsson of Champaign, Illinois, who emailed me wanting information on the Grosvenors. She is the grand daughter of Claude B and Grace (Grosvenor Welch who were murdered in E. St Louis in 1933. Her father was Claude V. Welsch. Her last contact with the Grosvenors was at the burial of Ethel (Grosvenor) Nelson at Glenn in 1985. Ethel and Connie Nelson raised two of the Welch orphans.
Another email contact was with a Wayne Batcheler from New York who is attempting to locate his boyhood chum, Robert Grosvenor, the adopted son of Otis and Fern Grosvenor.
I was really caught flat-footed on this one. I did not know Otis and Fern and all the records I have indicate they were childless. According to Mr Batcheler they also had an adopted daughter named Marilyn Grosvenor, who married Alexander Weaver and has four children. Can anyone fill me in on this? I promised Mr Batcheler that we would help.
Wisdom of the week: You should always attend funerals because if you don't go to other peoples' funerals they probably won't go to yours.

Cecil


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