Aaron and June

Remember Leta's brother Aaron? He was 12 years older than she. Aaron married Florence Burrel. They had two children, both daughters: Lucille (1915) and June (1917). When June was a child, Leta lived with them for a while. I suspect that this was after Leta’s marriage to Freeman. By that time, Vivian was in high school, and June was an adolescent. During her high school years, Vivian and her brother Dale lived with their father and grandmother.

I had one opportunity to speak with June before she passed away. Briefly (and I know this is confusing), June is my sister Michelle’s husband’s grandmother. From the top, Aaron and Leta are siblings, their children Vivian and June are first cousins, their children Don and Margery are second cousins, their children Michelle and David are third cousins (I think). Michelle is my sister, and David is her husband.

From the time my sister married her grandson, June lived in Arizona, and I lived in northern California. However, there was a time when we were both in Ohio for the Christmas holiday. My father, stepmother and step-grandmother also joined us from their home in Las Vegas. My sister threw a family New Year’s Eve party, where I played Yahtzee with her and my step-grandmother. They were tough Yahtzee players, and as we played, she talked intermittently about her Aunt Leta.

While Leta lived with Aaron and his family, she went out regularly. According to June, she would “get all dolled up, and she was beautiful.” The men would pick her up and off they went. No one ever spoke about what occurred on her dates, but when they “dumped her on the front porch” after a day or two, she looked like she had been “dragged behind the car through the mud.”

Ironically, her relationship with her sister-in-law Florence was rather strong. Florence was a church-going teetotaler, devoted mother and suffering wife. While Aaron was a good provider, he also possessed what I am interpreting is a Scott family wild-streak. Relatively close to where they lived was the Flat Iron Bar known for dancing, fast women and backroom poker. Aaron was a dealer in the backroom and quite a drinker. Leta also spent time in the bar, as she too enjoyed a few beers. At other times, she was Florence’s champion and would charge down to the Flat Iron to urge her brother to return to his highly distressed wife. June noted that brother and sister “used to give each other hell” quite often and yet got along as somewhat kindred spirits.

As for June, she adored her Aunt Leta, who seemed elegant, beautiful, charming, vivacious and strong, quite unlike her mother, and rare for women in the 1930s. While in her own life, Leta was adventurous, she supported Florence’s strict upbringing of her nieces.