Leta's Children

When she married her first husband Ralph Chetister on April 19, 1913, Leta Scott was 19 years old, and he was 21. In fact, they were just those ages, since both were born in April. While I suspect that neither knew she was going to have a baby, she was pregnant. Their first child—my grandmother Vivian Faye—was born on December 29, 1913. They had a second child—Dale Louis—not quite three years later, on October 13, 1916.

Leta & Vivan in 1914

Although she was only about 31 years old when she and Ralph divorced and her second husband Albert Mohr, was only about 40 years old, she had no other children.

This would hypothetically enable her to focus all of her motherly attention on Vivian and Dale. However, there is conflicting information about that.

“She never really knew she had a daughter,” her son-in-law Ed told me. Everyone in the family knew they didn’t really get along. He was never specifically hostile to her, but cool, more a respectful dislike. He recognized that she was his wife’s mother, but when it came to how his wife was treated as a child, he was a bit unforgiving. While Vivian was in high school and for many years after, she seems to have little direct relationship with her mother.

Vivian and Ed married in 1936 during the Depression. At the time, she was living with her father and grandmother. (After divorcing from Leta, Ralph moved in with his parents and lived with them until their deaths.) Ida Chetister, my great-great grandmother, supervised Vivian, and while she did not disapprove of Vivian’s dating Ed, she did nag a bit that her granddaughter was a drain on his meager financial resources. This is what Ed remembered.

Leta & Vivan (ninth grade)

Vivian’s elementary school report cards from second to ninth grade tell a different story. They are all signed by Leta, except one, which was signed by Albert Mohr. This indicates that Leta most likely raised her children until at least sometime during her marriage to Freeman (husband number 3). When Albert Mohr was shot in 1927, her son Dale was a witness and is quoted in the newspaper story of the incident as saying, “You shot Daddy!” So it seems that Vivian and Dale seem to have lived with their mother throughout their childhood, or at least until Vivian was in high school.

Even when they were adults and independent, she seems to have spent quite a bit of time with them, particularly Vivian. During World War II, while Ed was employed by the military and gone and their son Don was a very small child, Vivian and Don lived with Leta and her husband Bob Fields. In fact, one of Don’s earliest memories, at about age four, is that every Friday night, they would go to a local bar for a few beers, and he was able to drink all the root beer he wanted.

So why would Ed say that Leta never really knew she had a daughter?