Leta's employment and activities

While she may have considered herself a housewife while raising her children, Leta pursued several kinds of employment throughout her life. It is difficult to ascertain when she needed employment for financial reasons or when she was employed to be active, although it is likely that she found herself more than once widowed (or divorced) without an income.

When she filed for divorce from Ralph Chetister in 1922, she noted in her claim that while they were married, they took in boarders to support the family. If accurate (this was, after all, a divorce document during an era when divorce required tremendous maneuvering), these would most likely have been her responsibility entirely. She was also raising two children at the time. There is also a picture of her as a rather young woman (undated) in a housekeeper’s uniform. In her life time-line this could have occurred after the death of her second husband Albert Mohr (1927) and before her marriage to Robert Fields (mid to late 1930s).

From 1954-1959, Leta worked as a secretary for the New York Life Insurance Company. Immediately prior to that she was head of housekeeping at Toledo Hospital. In 1960 when she married Richard Eckman, she listed her profession as “retired.” She was 66 by then.

According to her obituary, she was a secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters Local Pensioners Club #365. I am not sure whether or not this was a paid position or when she did it.

She also managed the restaurant at a truck stop for some time. In her life timeline, this came at a period, again, when she was not married. Both of her children, however, were married at the time, and my dad was old enough to remember it. Also, my great-aunt Kate (her daughter-in-law) remembered going to the restaurant. It was a small place. This I know from the picture, and she did most of the cooking with a younger woman to assist her. If you know Bus Stop, then this is the image that comes to mind, although truckers would be a rougher crowd than the bus-riding patrons in the play/movie.

According to Aunt Kate, her specialties were fried chicken and hamburgers. Once, she recalled, when she and Leta’s son Dale (Kate’s husband) went there to eat, she served them undercooked chicken. I like to think that Leta did not make that chicken, but her waitress/assistant did.

Leta’s obituary also notes that she was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary. I know that her son Dale served during World War II, and that might have initially connected her.

She was also active at East Christian Church, a non-denominational parish, where she was a president of the loyal Workers Sunday school class and active in the Esther Missionary Circle.