1. AUNT ANNA

When she was born, her mother died and they gave her the mother's name. Deaths after childbirth were much too common in 1884. I have visited the grave of this, my great grandmother, and Aunt Anna's mother, Serena Ann Lafferty Graham in Liberty, Nebraska. She was only 29 years old and a mother for the fifth time when she died on leap year day. All the children found that this death brought difficulties. They lived where they could, with family and friends.

She became a beautiful and popular  young woman. Her father broke up two romances because the young men were not "good enough." As I heard the story from others, never one word from Aunt Anna, it seemed to me that the young men weren't good  enough for great grandfather! Don Ivol Wilson, son of Aunt Anna's sister Mary, tells me that Aunt Anna lived in their home in the Mt. Ayr area after she left her parental home. She fell in love with a brother of his father. This young man was also taken from her. He died in a tragic accident when his leaning gun fell, disharged, and fatally wounded him.

By then, Aunt Anna was older and not married. She moved to Council  Bluffs, Iowa, and as I heard the story, on the rebound she married Ernest Blakeman. He had a daughter, Margaret, whom Aunt Anna raised. She survived Aunt Anna and spent many years in Clarinda. She was somewhat reclusive and lived away from the mainstream. No one in the family seems to know anything about where Margaret came from or anything about Uncle Ernest's past. The family homesteaded in arid Colorado. As I heard the story, Uncle Ernest was no farmer or manager. They lived in a sod house and existed only slightly above starvation. Aunt Anna lost two babies because she and they were weak and hungry, according to the stories I heard. Eventually the family ended up in Clarinda. They had two daughters. The

oldest, a beautiful woman named Evelyn, married a man with syphilis and died during childbirth in 1937 at age 22. I can remember Gladys, the youngest. She was retarded and died in 1936 when she was 12 years old. I can remember Uncle Ernest. He was a lower achiever and as my Dad would say, just no good. He worked as a paper hanger and painter. Aunt Anna was going blind in those days and she wondered what all the night business was, as it didn't seem to trans late into wall paper or painting  jobs. Well - Uncle Ernest was bootlegging during prohibition. He was caught and told if he would leave the county, he would not be prosecuted. He did. Uncle Ernest walked away from Aunt Anna and she never heard from him again to the knowledge of anyone!

Aunt Anna lost her sight completely. She lived on the farm with her sister Dora who was my Grandma Williams. I recall her ambition as she helped with two jobs we boys hated - shelling peas and stemming gooseberries.

Aunt Anna went to Vinton, Iowa, and enrolled in the Iowa School for the Blind. She became sick less than half way through the course and had to leave, but she still managed to master braille. She was bedfast the rest of her life. Nursing homes were her home. She lived variously in Farragut, Shenandoah, Villisca and Clarinda. She died in Clarinda and her funeral was held at the United Methodist Church with Pastor John Beebout, a dear friend of mine who still lives in Knoxville, Iowa, and a great pastor, in charge.

Aunt Anna was a tiny person, weighing no more than 80 pounds in her later life. She had a kind and loving spirit, a beautiful personality, and an abiding faith. She belonged to a Pentecostal church in Clainda and supported many radio preachers, including Edyth Sterling, KMA Radio's Little Minister. She never spoke of her own hard life. I never heard her but once "say anything." Once, we stopped to see her at the Villisca Nursing Home as we came into Villisca from our eastern Iowa

home. I asked if anything was going on and she said that her sister (myGrandmother Dora) had just left. I asked her how Grandmother was. She paused and a big tear ran down her cheek. She said, "Dora was complaining as usual, but Dora doesn't know what trouble is!"

When she was in Villisca, all the pastors called on her at the nursing home. They said she did more for them than they could ever do for her. This is the way we all knew and loved and thanked God for this veryspecial person in our family!

Serena Anna Graham Blakeman

Born February 17, 1884, at Liberty, Gage County, Nebraska

The fifth child of Rensaellier Melville Graham

and Serena Anna Lafferty

Siblings: Ernest Leroy Graham (died in his first year),

Dora Grace Graham Williams, Fred Atchinson Graham, Mary Jane

Graham Wilson Kelley and half-brother William Earl Graham

Married October 5, 1912, to Ernest Blakeman

Died November 5, 1968, at the Clarinda Municipal Hospital

Buried in the Clarinda Cemetery