The Nitty Gritty on Giving Up Vivian & Dale

For a while now I have been trying to figure out a timeline placement in the life of my great-grandmother Leta. I know that at some point her children Vivian (my grandmother) and Dale moved in with their father Ralph. Ralph was Leta’s first husband. She had no other children.

I know approximately when this happened from a variety of sources. First, she was married to her third husband Ora Freeman from December 27, 1927 to February 23, 1929. She filed for divorce on July 23, 1928. This indicates that the couple was separated from July to February. After her divorce, Leta almost immediately married Leech Hoose. This occurred on March 2, 1929. (This was one week actually.) Although he did not file for divorce from her until October 8, 1931, he claimed in the divorce filing that she left him “six months” after they married. This would be about September 1929. (There is no explanation as to why he waited a year to file for divorce.)

According to copies of her report cards, Vivian completed eighth grade at Sherman School in Toledo, Ohio, in June 1928. Her report cards were signed by her mother, Leta Freeman, as were her ninth grade report cards from September 1928 until June 1929. Although the report cards for this year do not indicate the school Vivian attended, simply nothing that she attended Toledo High Schools, the report cards were signed by “Leta Freeman.” For tenth grade (1929-1930), Vivian attended Waite High School in East Toledo, and her father, Ralph Chetister, signed her report cards. We have three yearbooks from Waite High School, 1930-1932 (10^th-12^th grades).

This information leads me to believe that sometime during the summer of 1929, most likely late in the summer, Leta delivered her children to their father’s care, and she subsequently left her husband Leech Hoose. Although she was officially Leta Hoose in June 1929, she signed Vivian’s report card as Leta Freeman. Perhaps she did not want to complicate matters at the school, or her marriage to Leech Hoose was already rocky.

In any case, Leta never lived with her children again.

What Leta did and how she lived from fall 1929 to her marriage to Robert Fields on September 17, 1937, has been a matter of speculation in the family. I have a few stories about it, which will be incorporated into that chapter of the book. Perhaps she did get married once or twice. Her niece June Scott (daughter of her brother Aaron) told me that she believed Leta was married a total of 12 times. If so, I have yet to find marriage records for four of these marriages. I searched in Lucas County (where she lived most of her adult life) and Wood County (which was adjacent), using all of her last names (primarily Mohr, Freeman and Hoose). Of course, some of the marriage records (in other counties) may not be available online yet. Only recently did I find a marriage record for a marriage for which I already had the divorce documents. However, I keep checking.

I appreciate your patience in reading my thinking-out-loud analysis, so to speak, and now think that my initial planning of Leta and her children’s transition from her separation from Ora Freeman to her transferring her children to their father’s primary care was most accurate.