198. Daniel Gordon Fletcher (Gordon MacDonald Fletcher , Harrison Luce Fletcher , George Noble MacDonald Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ).
Daniel married Cynthia Rhine "Cindy".
They had the following children.
234 F i Erin Elizabeth Fletcher. 235 M ii Ryan Fletcher.
199. Gordon MacDonald Fletcher (Gordon MacDonald Fletcher , Harrison Luce Fletcher , George Noble MacDonald Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ).
He had the following children.
236 M i Blake MacDonald Fletcher.
200. Glen Whitfield Sutherland Jr. (Glen Whitfield Sutherland , Ella May Whitfield , Phebe Marie Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ) was born on 7 Jan 1921 in Tacoma, Pierce, Washington, USA. He died on 6 Jul 1999 in Seattle, KIng, Washington, USA.
Glen's address is 526 Lakeside South Apt. 5, Seattle, Washington 98144. Phone
# 206-325-0106.
Glen married Alice Dorthy Muessel, daughter of Louis Alexander Muessel and Edna Grace Bevans, on 18 Feb 1943 in Seattle, King, Washington, USA. The marriage ended in divorce. Alice was born on 13 Mar 1921 in Saint Paul, Ramsey. Minnesota, USA. She died on 6 Apr 2005 in Kirtland, King, Washington, USA.
They had the following children.
+ 237 F i Kristin Sutherland. + 238 M ii Mark Louis Sutherland.
Glen also married Barbara Curtis in 1953 in Spokane, Spokane, Washington, USA.
202. Barbara Sutherland (Ross Whitfield Sutherland , Ella May Whitfield , Phebe Marie Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ) was born on 3 Feb 1926 in , , Washington, USA. She died in 12 Apr 1992 in Seattle, King, Washington, USA.
They had the following children.
+ 239 F i Katharine Worsley.
204. Robert Clare Brady 1 (Clare Whitfield Brady , Jennie Belle Whitfield , Phebe Marie Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ) was born on 29 Apr 1919 in Fresno, Fresno, California, USA. He died on 26 Oct 1984 in Miami, Dade, Florida, USA.
Bob Brady
In World War II Bob was Commander of a Coast Guard Boat, stationed in and around Curacaos, Trinidad, and Barbados. After the War, Bob and his Dad, Clare started a garden sprayer business "Bradson Company". The sprayer was invented by my Dad, Gilbert Budwig. At the time they started their business my Dad was in charge of maintence department at National Airlines in Miami. I was in the advertising art business at the time 1946-1947-1/2 of 48. I took a vacation to California in 48'. My grandmother Aunts, Uncles, & friends were living there (L.A. area). My Dad told me to be sure to call Bob Brady. (Bob had come to Miami twice while I lived there on a sales trip.) Well I almost forgot - but just before I was to go back- I remembered & called. he invited me to dinner with his folks that night- and the next day we decided to get married. I never went back to Miami..... Well until much, much later. This has some gaps... let me know if you need more. Dot Brady
Hello -
I'm writing this letter for my Daddy- Bob Brady- I'm sure he would want you to know. Daddy passed away this Friday, October 26, while on a return flight from visiting his Mother in California. His Death was a terrible shock and we are all very sad. Daddy died of arterial sclerosia of the main arteries leading to the heart. Supposedly he fell asleep on the plane and just never woke up... I'm glad he died in such a peaceful way. And I guess it was his time to go,,,
Daddy and Mom recently bought a nice house. He was happy puttering about, fixing things and tending the garden. Well, the plumbing is on the "blink" and there are a lot of weeds to be pulled. Our live-in handyman is no longer here. How we are going to miss all the little, and big, things Daddy did for us!
So now it is time to pull from other resources. And it is comforting to knowwe have friends who will help and support us until we get back on our feet.
Daddy was a wonderful, loving, kind man; a good father and husband; and we are sorry we couldn't spend a few more years with him. But we are sorry we couldn't spend a few more years with him. But we are so glad for the years we shared together and that will remain in our thoughts and hearts forever... Jeanne Brady
Bob died on an airplane coming back from visiting his mother in California. His death was discovered when the plane landed in Miami, Florida. His remains were creamated.
Robert married Dorothy Marie Budwig, daughter of Gilbert George Budwig and Irma Linder, on 20 Aug 1948 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. Dorothy was born on 2 Jul 1921 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA. She died on 11 Feb 2016 in Hoover, , Alabama, USA.
In Memory of
Dorothy Marie Brady
July 2, 1921 - February 11, 2016
ObituaryDorothy "Dot" Brady, 94, of Hoover, Alabama, passed away on Thursday evening, February 11, 2016. A professional artist, she painted as she always lived her life – undaunted and with a dash of whimsey.
Dot trained at Chouinard Art Institute and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. At age 20, she began her career as a Bugs Bunny animator at Warner Brothers Studios.
When she tired of the assembly line of animation art, Dot decided to set her art and her spirit free, so she joined the circus as a member of the "ballet broads," a horse and elephant riding team with the Russell Brothers Circus. Her circus stint was short, but the summer of fast horses and three-ring adventures began a remarkable artistic career lived without apology.
In 1948, Dot met and married Bob Brady, her biggest fan. They had three daughters, Virginia, Linda, and Jeanne.
Dot's favorite medium was watercolor, and she made it her life's work. The family moved to Stuttgart, Germany, in 1965, and she "painted her way across Europe."
On their return to the United States in 1972, she and Bob moved to Miami, Florida, and there Dot became a member of the faculty at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, owned and managed an art gallery in Homestead, designed and built her own studio next to her home there, and branched out into large acrylic painting and metal sculpture. She never stopped growing and creating. She spent the last 13 years of her life in Birmingham, Alabama near her eldest daughter, Ginny.
Dot was preceded in death by her husband, Bob, and her parents, Gilbert and Irma Budwig. Survivors include her daughters and sons-in-law, eight grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.
The private service to celebrate Dot Brady's life will be at Alabama National Cemetery, Montevallo.
Memorial gifts may be made to Tennessee Craft, 1315 Adams Street Suite 101, Nashville, TN 37208 or www.tennesseecraft.org.
They had the following children.
+ 240 F i Virginia Marie "Ginny" Brady. + 241 F ii Linda Clare Brady. 242 F iii Jeanne Whitfield Brady. Jeanne married Timothy Allen Hintz "Tim".
205. William Whitfield Brady 1 (Clare Whitfield Brady , Jennie Belle Whitfield , Phebe Marie Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ) was born on 19 Jun 1923 in Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, USA. He was christened on 15 Jun 1924. He died on 13 Dec 1977 in Newport Beach, Orange, California, USA. He was buried on 17 Dec 1977 in Pacific View Cemetery, Corona Del Mar, Orange, California, USA.
William married Patrica Rhea Roe, daughter of Charles Linus Roe and Rhea Hawthorne Godman, on 30 Oct 1942 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. Patrica was born on 7 Feb 1924 in Altoona, Wilson, Kansas, USA. She died on 19 Aug 1993 in Scottsdale, Maricopa, Arizona, USA. She was buried on 23 Aug 1993 in Pacific View Cemetery, Corona Del Mar, Orange, USA.
"Patricia Rhea Brady, 69, a Huntington Beach homemaker, died Wednesday. Services at 11 a.m. Monday at Pacific View Memorial Park Mortuary, Newport Beach. Burial at the memorial park.
Survived by her daughter, Bonnie Reynolds of Arizona; son, Charles, of Hawaii; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren." The Orange County Register, Page B4, Saturday, August 21, 1993.
They had the following children.
243 F i Bonnie Rhea Brady was born on 28 Aug 1943 in Glendale, Los Angeles, California, USA. She died on 10 Jul 2000 in Scottsdale, Maricopa, Arizona, USA. She was buried on 13 Jul 2000 in Pacific View Cemetery, Corona Del Mar, Orange, California, USA. Bonnie married Dennis Michael Reynolds on 6 Sep 1969 in Costa Mesa, Orange, California, USA. + 244 M ii Charles Whitfield "Charlie" Brady.
206. Carol Jean Ingoldsby (Carol Altura Brady , Jennie Belle Whitfield , Phebe Marie Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ) was born on 30 May 1924 in Lindsay, Tulare, California, USA. She died on 7 Oct 2016 in Santa Rosa, Sonoma, California, USA. She was buried in Pleasant Hills Cemetery, Sebastopol, Sonoma, California, USA.
Carol Jean Carroll of Rancho Palos Verdes died peacefully at the age of 92 on October 7, 2016 in Santa Rosa, CA. Her daughters were with her. She is now at home with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Carol Jean grew up in Lindsay, California, known for its olive and orange groves. Her parents ran Ingoldsby's Nursery and Flower Shop. She graduated from Lindsay High School in 1942. While in high school, she edited the yearbook and participated in art and drama. She then went to San Jose State University to study education. There she greatly enjoyed living in Grace Hall, a co-op home, and being in the USO. She met a pilot named Joe Kirby and moved to St. Louis where she made more life long friends. They had a daughter, Rosanne.
After receiving her degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Carol taught elementary school there and then in the San Joaquin Valley town of Porterville and San Jose. After moving back to California, she was single again and met and married another Air Force man, John Carroll. She worked as a substitute and aide in the Palos Verdes Unified School District. She loved teaching and she loved being the good mother that she was. Her family and friends meant more to her that anything else. Gatherings with the beloved people in her life were her favorite things to do. She was very creative with words and kept in touch with loved ones far away by sending them long, lovely letters.
Carol lived in Rancho Palos Verdes for over 40 years where she made many friends. She was a member of St. Peter's by the Sea Presbyterian Church and served as a Deacon for many years. She was also a proud member of PEO, a philanthropic sisterhood.
She is predeceased by her husband John A. Carroll, her brother Norman Ingoldsby and his wife Daphine, her nephews Bron Ingoldsby and Donald Jarvis. She is survived by her sister Ann Jarvis (Jerry), brother Larry Ingoldsby (Judy), her children Rosanne Prandini (Steve), John Carroll (Marsha), Nancy Carroll, and Scott Carroll. Her grandchildren are Heather Prandini, Seth Prandini (Beth), Rachel Prandini (TJ McKillop), Cynthia Carroll, John Carroll, April Carroll and her great grandson, Danilo Prandini McKillop. She also leaves her beloved nephews Kirk Ingoldsby and Todd Ingoldsby, and nieces Pamela Kimball, Karen Dempsey, Diane Powers, Erin Ford and Tracy Ingoldsby Darling and their families.
She will be greatly missed.
There will be a Memorial Service Saturday, October 29 at 2 pm at St. Peter's by the Sea in Rancho Palos Verdes. Donations may be made in her name to St. Peter's. She was laid to rest in Sebastopol, CA
Published in Palos Verdes Peninsula News on Oct. 27, 2016
Carol married Joseph Dominic Kirby Jr., son of Joseph Dominic Kirby Sr. and Mary J., on 28 Jul 1945 in Lindsay, Tulare, California, USA. The marriage ended in divorce. Joseph was born on 19 Mar 1922 in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He died on 2 Feb 1969 in , Los Angeles, California, USA. He was buried in St. Louis, , Missouri, USA.
Is buried at the National Cemetary in St. Louis.
They had the following children.
+ 245 F i Carol Rosanne Kirby.
Carol also married John Arnold Carroll V, son of John Arnold Carroll IV and Inez Adeline Fritz, on 30 Jun 1957 in Lindsay, Tulare, California, USA. John was born on 10 Dec 1917 in Pocatello, Bannock, Idaho, USA. He died on 27 Dec 2002 in , Los Angeles, California, USA. He was buried on 3 Mar 2017 in Pleasant Hills Cemetery, Sebastopol, Sonoma, California, USA.
Information given by Jack Carroll, 10 April 1993.
They had the following children.
246 M ii John Arden Carroll. John married Susan L. Losey. John also married Marsha McHenry. 247 F iii Nancy Kathleen Carroll. + 248 M iv Scott Patrick Carroll.
207. Norman Judge Ingoldsby (Carol Altura Brady , Jennie Belle Whitfield , Phebe Marie Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ) was born on 9 Oct 1925 in Lindsay, Tulare, California, USA. He died on 19 Nov 2009 in Lindsay, Tulare, California, USA.
Autobiography of Norman Judge Ingoldsby
Written between 2006-2009Family Background
My father Laurence Ingoldsby came to Lindsay as a youth with his parents and two older brothers in or around 1911. At that time his father would have been in his mid sixties, an old man in those days. His mother was much younger. They moved from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Lindsay. They were lured here, I presume, because one of his mother’s sisters married a Mr. Rider and were living here. My grandfather Thomas Ingoldsby didn’t marry until his mother died and he was 50 years old. My grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Judge, was one of several Judge sisters, and their father worked with Thomas in some capacity on the railroad. My name Norman Judge Ingoldsby reflects this connection. The Ingoldsby home in Lindsay was on a one acre parcel on East Tulare Road, south side, just a little west of Lafayette. There are some rentals on that property today. It is no longer in the family. My two Ingoldsby uncles, Raymond and Harold, have no descendents. Uncle Ray never married. Uncle Harold married Beatrice Stafford, a New Yorker he met, I presume, while he was in the Navy during World War I and later brought to Lindsay. They had no children. I never asked why. Both uncles died relatively young in their fifties. They, my father and my paternal grandparents are buried in the Lindsay Cemetery.
My maternal grandfather, Terrence Brady, was born in Nauvoo, Illinois in the mid 1850’s. He was the last child of so-called Captain and Bridget Brady. The family story goes that Capt. Brady, from the Philadelphia area, brought his family up the Mississippi River and settled them at Nauvoo, eight to ten years after the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo, for reasons unknown to the family today. Either before or soon after my grandfather was born he returned to the east coast to settle business affairs or property or whatever and was taken ill and died. The family also believed, at the time at least, that they were cheated out of his property or money by crooked lawyers. At any rate, they received nothing. How Bridget was able to raise the family alone (she never remarried) is not known in any detail, but raise them she did. She is buried in the Nauvoo Cemetery with other descendents who stayed in the area. In my grandfather’s early man-hood he went to North Dakota and homesteaded land. He waited many years for my grandmother, Jennie Belle Whitfield, the daughter of a neighbor homesteader, to grow up before he could marry her. They had three children: my mother, Carol Altura the middle one, my uncle Clair the older, and Uncle Arden the younger. My mother was born in 1900 and arrived in Lindsay in 1914. She came by way of Washington State, French Corral near Nevada City, California in the gold rush country, Tulare, and finally Lindsay. My mother and maternal grandparents are buried in the Lindsay Cemetery.Birth/Early Memories
They tell me I was born at home on October 9, 1925. Dr. Bond was also in attendance. Home at that time was a small rental house on the east side of North Elmwood, a little ways south of Tulare Rd. I never knew the exact spot as the house was moved or destroyed.
The home that I remember and lived in until I was married in 1949 was 525 Homassel. It had two bedrooms, one bath, kitchen, dining room and a screened sleeping porch and laundry room across the back. At various times it housed my parents, my older sister Carol (1924), me, my younger sister Ann (1934), and brother Larry (1937). Somewhere in there it also housed my great-grandaunt (Grandma Brady’s sister) Lucy Catton and her daughter Mariel. Lucy and Mariel are also in the Lindsay Cemetery. The property belonged to my Brady grandparents who lived in a smaller house in back. I don’t know the financial arrangements but feel sure it was fair to my grandparents, and we lived in harmony as far as I know. There was also a garage in back by the alley. Sometimes the car was kept in the garage, but usually, I think, was left on the street in front. Later some of the neighbor guys and I used the rafters above garage as a sort of clubhouse or hide-out. After my parents built a new home for themselves in 1952 525 Homassel was used as a rental. It was damaged by fire, I don’t remember the year, and given a new lease on life in the repair and up-grading. After my mother died in 2001, my siblings and I donated the property to the Lindsay Cultural Arts Council who razed the small house and garage, made more improvements on the front house, and sold the property.
I remember the wood fired cook stove before the electric stove, the saw-dust insulated ice box on the back porch before the electric refrigerator, the wood fired heating stove in the living room-later converted to oil then replaced by natural gas. I also remember the grape arbor in back and the bed placed there in summer to beat the heat. My parents hired Burl Wood to dig a cellar under the house. It was pretty primitive with an outside cellar door to enter, all dirt, and wooden shelves to hold home-canned goods. There was a big fir tree on the south side of the house. A kid could climb the tree and get upon the roof. There were also two large Italian Cypress trees on each side of the front walk next to the sidewalk. One of them was girded by a heavy wire and fell into the street, completely blocking it until my dad could get some of his Nursery Crew to clear it. On the north side of our house to 3rd street that connects Homassel to Gale Hill was an open field comprising three city lots. It was a great place for guys to play, build fires, make caves, etc. I also have vague memories of seeing my Grandfather Brady’s horse-drawn orchard sprayers parked there and a horse barn in the north-west corner.
I had a happy childhood.Family Recollections
I know that the 1930’s were tough times for almost all families and mine was no exception, yet I never felt poor or deprived or even worried. I never went hungry or longed for something I never got. Most families were in similar or worse shape financially than ours. I almost always walked home from school for lunch. We usually had family dinner together. My sister and I often argued about who would wash and who would dry the evening dishes. My mother bought a piano on the installment plan before she was wed. She never learned to play it. C.J. took lessons-I don’t think she played well. I inherited the piano and Kirk and Pamela especially play well today.
I remember many family trips to the river in the summer. McKay’s Point, Slick Rock and a more primitive place on the Kaweah a short ways up the Dry Creek Road, Bartlett Park on the Tule before Lake Success was formed, the old Coffee Camp on the Tule and Cutler Park. Some summers my parents established a camp in Sequoia Park for several weeks. My dad would help set it up then go back to work in the valley and return on week-ends. It was great fun for kids-especially if you had a little money to spend on candy or ice-cream. In those earlier days the camp-grounds at Giant Forest were right in the Giant Forest among some of the largest trees in the world. Those camp-grounds have been relocated to preserve the trees. Deer and bears were frequent visitors. The deer by day and the bears by night came looking for food. At that more primitive time the camp-ground garbage was dumped at an open space not far from the Village. A popular thing to do was to go there to view the bears pawing through the garbage for food. When I was 12 years old my father took me on a back country fishing trip for the first time. Buck Canyon is on the middle fork trail of the Kaweah River. It was a great place and I’ve been there several times. I love the back country of the Sierras here in Tulare County and wish I had explored it more when I was physically able.
When I was growing up the Ingoldsby family kept frequent contact with the Brady family in southern California. My Uncle Arden’s wife was Helen whose parents had a beach house in Sunset Beach. We spent time there with them on several occasions. This was in the 1930’s. I grew up knowing my Brady cousins, Arden and Helen’s sons Dick and Jim, and Clair and Verle’s sons Bob and Bill. They were my only cousins. I especially liked Sunset Beach because it wasn’t far from the Long Beach Pike. Oh how I liked to go there as a kid! It was my Disneyland or Magic Mountain. I also remember riding the ferries in San Francisco before the Oakland Bay Bridge was built and attended the World’s Fair on Man Made Treasure Island. Life was good and I was generally a happy kid.Schooling
I attended Lindsay schools for 13 years starting with Kindergarten in the fall of 1930. Kindergarten then was held in a separate building on the northwest corner of the Washington Elementary School property. Some of that property was sold off for housing on Homassel and on Gale Hill. The balance of that property has been owned by the Presbyterian Church. The next six years 1931-1936 I attended Washington Elementary-just a short walk form home. I was probably liked by most teachers because I didn’t cause trouble in class (too shy perhaps). The next three years were at the Junior High located at Harvard and Hermosa. The school was just being finished that first year and for the first half of seventh grade we were in Lindsay’s first High School located on the north end of that property. When the new Jr. High was finished (actually it was never finished as it was to have an auditorium added on the east side that was never built) we moved into the new building. The old High School was torn down. Jr. High was three years in those days and we entered High School just across Hermosa Ave. as sophomores in the fall of 1940. I always got pretty good grades in elementary and junior high because it was easy. I didn’t do quite so well in High School as it wasn’t quite so easy. However, I did well enough to be admitted to Cal. Berkley in the summer of 1943 without having to take remedial English (so-called bone-head English). I remember some of the teachers:
Kindergarten-Miss Waldthall-a.k.a. Mrs. Williams (who lived in Lindsay the rest of her life)
Elementary-Mrs. Stansfield, Mrs. Palmore, Allison Hostetter
Jr. High-Mrs. Prizer, Mrs. Burnell, Mr. Beall
High School-Mr. Castle (principal), Mr. Hunting (Latin), Mr. Squires (History), Mr. Skadan (athletics), Mr. Young (English), Mr. Kellogg (Math).
I liked school okay and drifted through with the least mental effort. I was in several plays, went to the dances and proms, and lettered two years in tennis. Life was good.Childhood Friends
Naturally your early friends are the ones closest to your age and closest to where you live. There was a few that fit that category and a few others picked up a little later in my youth.
Gene Coday lived a few houses east on 2nd Street. A good quarterback could throw a football from my yard to his. I am 12 days older than he is. We were the best man each other’s wedding. We started Kindergarten together and are friends to this day.
Derrold Abel lived across the street a few houses south of us. His widowed mother had three sons and Derrold was the youngest. The middle son Maynard was a problem and the oldest son Lonn maybe some help to her. Derrold spent a lot of time at our house. With a rough start he turned out quite well. He married well but had no children and was a highway patrolman. Injured in a motorcycle accident, he ended up running a successful refreshment stand on the public beach in Pismo Beach. He is now deceased.
Verne Long, an only child, lived on the east side of Gale Hill a little north of our property. If we both stood in the alley behind our properties we could probably play a game of catch. We were in school together all the way from Kindergarten to High School. He is also now deceased.
Lyndon Ellis lived on Tulare Rd. between Homassel and Gale Hill. He was related to the Land family who lived next door to us on the south side. Lyndon was a good friend. He was a big, jolly guy. He married and spent most of his adult life in Visalia. He is now deceased.
Gene Wommack lived on the east side of Gale Hill in the 600 block. What can you say about a guy that was good-looking, a fair athlete, cocky, pre-cocious, and full of malarkey? The girls seemed to like him and the guys, too. We ran around some after the War and before we settled down. He died at the age of 50.
Thomas Eddy “Tom” lived on Orange Ave., near Tulare Rd. He had a step-mother and a younger step-sister. Tom was always in the same class as I and was always a good friend, but was not so much in the neighborhood gang as others. Tom was bright and well liked. He ran for school offices and things like that. Tom liked the girls (well so did I but he was more aggressive than I). Tom did well in life. He lived in or near Sacramento. I can’t explain it but Tom appears in my dreams more than any other friend. He has recently passed away.
Richard Fridlund comes late in my early life. The five Fridlunds (Papa, Mama, and three children) arrived in Lindsay from New Jersey in the Late 30’s or early 40’s. By the time we were seniors in High School Gene Coday, Dick Fridlund and I were good friends and did things together. After the War and when we were all married we were still good friends and socialized as couples. He lives in Colorado now.
Bob Houston was from a relatively well-to-do family who lived on Lindero St. He was a part of our group during the High School years. The family moved to Santa Barbara during or after the War. Bob was killed in an automobile accident in his early 20’s.
Everett Redmond was a big lovable bear of a guy and a lot of fun. He might have been dyslexic because he had trouble reading. He was always interested in electronics. A college professor told him after two or three tries that he would never master calculus, but he persevered and had a career in his chosen field. He and I ate out several times in the very popular (at the time) Spanish restaurant called Estrada’s on West Main in Visalia. Also, one time we hiked up Yokohl Creek and camped out overnight and then hiked back to Lindsay the next day (still alive!). These and other friends made my teenage life in Lindsay a pleasant one.Lindsay Memories
One of the things that I remember about Lindsay when I was growing up is that it seems to me there were a lot more wild flowers in the spring than now. Even vacant lots in town would have wild flowers as well as the local foothills. As kids my friends and I had many adventures on Fowl’s Hill, Elephants Back, Lindsay Peak, Strains Hill and others reachable on foot or bike. Fourth of July was always looked forward to. Firecrackers and more powerful explosives were available and legal. You could blow a tin can pretty high up in the air. Everyone had sparklers, pin wheels and roman candles. We usually had homemade ice cream also. The ice cream was hand-cranked in our White Mountain freezer. The freezers you buy today are junk even if they have a motor.
What I probably miss most about the old days now are all the car dealerships. At one point you could buy a new Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Plymouth, Buick, Pontiac, etc. locally, and have it serviced where you bought it. I used to like to buy a new car or pick-up-no more.
Teenagers my age remember the Sweet Shop, the Lindsay Theatre, the Shamrock Café, dances at the Mt. Whitney Hotel and in the High School Gym or at Lindsay Heights, and the swimming pool near Tonyville. If you wanted to go there and didn’t have transportation you just got on Parkside with your suit and towel and the first car going north would pick you up. Orange Blossom Festival was always fun for the youth and I suppose it still is.
I believe that Lindsay in the 1930’s and into the 1940’s was a typical Norman Rockwell small town. It had almost all the amenities including a hospital. It had the world’s largest (Lindsay Ripe Olive) olive plant to brag about, and other canning and olive oil plants. Thankfully, we still have the orange and other citrus trees and the packing plants to process and ship them to many places around the world. To me Lindsay was a great place to be born and grow up in. Lucky for me some of my children stayed and raised their families here, too. Life is good.World War II
I was 16 years old and a junior in High School on Dec. 7th, 1941. I remember being in the Lindsay Theatre that Sunday afternoon and a lot of the kids were there and everyone was talking about the attack on Pearl Harbor. No one I know thought then or later that the U.S. would not prevail in the war that followed. We had several Japanese students in our class and some in all the classes in the High School. They were all well liked. I think they finished out that school year, but by the summer of 1942 they were all gone, young and old. They were sent off to various relocation camps where they spent the duration of the war-a terrible mistake. The Akagi family had a farm north of town. They were good friends with my father and arranged with him to buy their farm. It had an older house and was planted to strawberries and tomato plants ready to harvest when they had to leave. I spent a lot of the summer of 1942 working there.
The war as yet didn’t affect us much as long as we were in school. We had scrap drives and many helped with the olive and orange harvests as labor was short. Quite a few guys had cars by then-mostly older jalopies. Gas was cheap but rationed, but we mostly had wheels to go where we wanted to go. Sometime in the spring of 1943 several senior boys from my class were selected (I presume selected by the school leaders) to be considered by the U.S. Navy for a special wartime program. The program consisted of university training in various technical careers. In essence it was a free college education. I was one of a small group selected. The first step was a physical exam which I did not pass. I was detected with a heart murmur which had been detected when I was younger but hadn’t been thought of for years. My good friend Richard Fridlund was the only one from Lindsay that I know of who actually got in the program. He spent the rest of the war years at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Co. and ended up owning his own medical laboratory.
Believing that I wouldn’t be accepted for military service I enrolled at Cal. Berkeley as stated in a previous section. I roomed at a fraternity house (Theta-Delta-Chi) a block form the campus. Fraternities took in borders then because of the lack of college-age students during the war. It was great fun and I was invited to join the fraternity, which I did before I left. I was ill-prepared for college at that time and believe I got poor advice from a counselor to take Math, Chemistry, Physics and German. Because of my heart murmur however I was not allowed to take compulsory ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Class). I finished that summer course with so, so grades and enrolled in the fall term.
I turned 18 that October and registered for the draft in Berkeley. A few weeks later I was notified to report at a certain place in San Francisco on a certain date. That date was 7 December 1943, two years after Pearl Harbor. I drove over the Bay Bridge in my 1932 four door Chevrolet to the appointed place thinking I wouldn’t be eligible because of the heart murmur. There were a number of others there that day none of whom I knew. We all had physicals and were lined up in a row and told to raise our right hands, and were sworn in. Nothing was said then or was ever said while I was in the service about a heart murmur, although I had several medical exams. We were sworn in but not to a particular branch of the military. There were three desks in the room. One desk was for the Army, one for the Navy and one for the Air Force. I wasn’t interested in the Air Force for some reason. The Navy was giving one week before you had to report. The Army was giving three weeks, letting me be home for Christmas. It was a no-brainer. I checked out of school and drove home. When my parents asked what I was doing there I said I was in the Army to their surprise and mine, too.
I had my basic training at Camp Barkley near Abilene Texas. Barkley was a temporary camp, built for the war effort and not a permanent facility. We lived in six men tarpaper shacks. It was primarily a medical training facility and support training. The first six weeks everyone did the same thing: exercise drill, marching, etc. After that you were either assigned to motor pool, cooks and bakers, clerk’s school or medical first aid, or litter bearers on the field of battle. You had no choice-you were assigned. I went to clerk’s school. Part way through I came down with scarlet fever and spent three weeks in the base hospital with others there for the same reason. On the whole, basic training was a good experience. Everybody was in the same boat making the best or it. By that time many of the recruits were older men, some married along with the 18 year olds like myself. After basic I spent some time in California at Camp Beale near Marysville, but by late summer I was at Fort Lewis, Washington near Tacoma. While there I was mostly working as a mail clerk in a Headquarters Battalion. It was basically a replacement outfit that re-assigned men to where the army needed them. I liked Fort Lewis. I had some good times and some good friends in the nine or ten months that I was there. I never had any weapons training anywhere in the army. However, while at Fort Lewis all the Headquarters Battalion personnel went to the firing range to shoot for record. I think our Sergeant Major (regular Army ten-year veteran) was behind it. He spotted the rest of us 10 points out of 200 (200 being a perfect score). He scored 190 and I scored 182 beating the 10 point spread and the only one to beat him. I won 50 cents. I wish I had kept it. Anyway, that made me an expert rifleman on my service record and I had never before fired anything higher powered than a .22 or shot gun.
In the spring of 1945 I was sent to Hawaii where I spent the rest of my military career. I just went where they sent me. I was about a five or ten minute walk from Waikiki Beach. You could also ride the free bus if you didn’t want to walk. By that summer the war was over and by the next March I was on my way home. Hawaii was a great place to be sent. I had good friends and a lot of fun there. Going back years later it had, of course, changed a lot, but was still a great place. The Moana and the Royal Hawaiian Hotels were the only ones at Waikiki when I was first there. Now there are many.
World War II was the defining happening of my generation and I am glad I didn’t miss it because of a heart murmur. Incidentally, I tried to buy a little life insurance after I was married and was turned down because I had a heart murmur-go figure. At this writing I am 82 years old and my doctor says I don’t have a heart murmur.Finding Love
I entered college in the fall of 1946. This time I went to UC Davis. There were a lot of returned servicemen there taking advantage of the G.I. Bill of Rights to get a college education. I was planning to enter the family business-a nursery and floral business in Lindsay (a retail flower shop and a retail and wholesale nursery operation). My father would contract from growers for deciduous fruit and shade trees and citrus trees and grapevines and wholesale them to other retail nurseries throughout the state. He was a born salesman and did all the selling himself. It was a busy and exciting time. I left school after three semesters to come home and go to work. In my mind I was a valuable employee from the beginning.
I have had just two serious girlfriends in my life. The first was a Porterville girl that a good friend of mine got serious about and was pushing for a commitment that she wasn’t ready to make at that time. So I started dating her. That began to get serious and I was almost to the point of being engaged when she was so confused with two suitors that she backed off and said she didn’t want to see either of us for a while. I stayed away, he persevered, and I was the best man at their wedding. By that time I was grateful that I had come in second because I had met my second serious girlfriend.
Daphine Owen was the second oldest in a family of six girls and one boy. The boy being the youngest. They came out from east Texas in the 1930’s along with thousands of other migrants from the dust bowl states during the Great Depression. The Owen family had relatives in Lindsay. The father got a job on a ranch in the hills above Springville after they were in Lindsay a while. The two older girls graduated from the eighth grade in Springville and the next year started high school in Porterville. A couple years later the family moved back to Lindsay. The older sister married a Springville fellow and Daphine got room and board with a family in Porterville and graduated from Porterville High School in 1943 (the same year I did in Lindsay). The third sister, Lula, was a sophomore in Lindsay the year I was a Senior. After graduation Daphine got a job with the U.S. Navy at Santa Anita in southern California. That turned into an opportunity to work for the Navy at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Interestingly enough, we were both in Hawaii on the same island at the same time. After the war she came back to the U.S. and always supported herself with office jobs. At one time she was a dance teacher with an Arthur Murray Studio in Dallas where she had relatives. At some point in late 1947 or early 1948 she came back to Lindsay to see family and probably to regroup. At this time the third daughter, Lula, whom I knew from high school, was married and was working for my father at the Nursery. Daphine was living at home and was working at the High School as a secretary for the principal. I had not, as yet, met Daphine.
The local Kiwanis Club was putting on a fund raiser in the High School Auditorium aptly called “hellzapoppin”. Sister Lula, knowing what a great guy I was, prevailed upon her older sister to invite me. The rest, as they say, is history. A lot of things had to come together to get us in the right place at the right time and to let nature take its course. In recent years I have come to believe that it was meant to be. I didn’t have much to do with it. She invited me out and after that we just spent most of our free time together. I don’t remember asking her to marry me. I don’t think I did. After a while I think it was just assumed that we would, and she set a date. I did get a ring. I used to think that when a guy was ready to get married he just looked around at his chances and asked the one he thought was the best that might say, “yes”. Somehow, the path was smoothed for me. I don’t think it was luck.Our Family
We were married April 3, 1949 in the Lindsay Friends Church by the pastor at that time Charlotte Warren. Daphine’s mother attended that church (now defunct). No one else then had a church home. We had a one week honeymoon in Carmel, then drove down the coast to Pismo Beach and then home. I like to tell the true story to honeymooners today. I had $100 for the honeymoon and bought gas for a five to six hundred mile trip. We rented lodging for five or six nights, ate restaurant meals, and bought a set of dishes in San Luis Obispo on the way home.
Little time was wasted in starting a family. Daphine planned to continue working for a year or two. That was not to be. Nine months and eight days later we had the twins, Kirk and Bron. The only time in her life that Daphine weighed more than I did was just before they were born. All of a sudden I had a slim, pretty wife, we had a home, a job, a car and two boys. Life was good. Four years later Pamela, our only daughter, was born. She was our only planned pregnancy. Life was good. The next year Todd came along. Life was still good but our little love-nest house at 547 Homassel was too small. So we moved out and rented our house and rented a house across west from Washington School (still on Homassel) from my father who had taken it in on a trade. We lived there for a year or so. I remember we were there when I had my 30th birthday. Daphine discovered that there was a large older home for sale on Central Ave. She took one look at it and reported to me, “I want that house”. When your wife wants something that bad you do whatever it takes to get it. Over the years we made some improvements to the house and it was a wonderful home to raise our family in. We kept the home until all the kids were out on their own. In 1980 we sold the house for enough to build the home up on the hill on Rancho Vista. By then the grandchildren were coming and life was good.Finding God
My parents were good law-abiding people. They worked hard, loved their children and did the best for them that they could-much of it under the bad conditions of the Great Depression of the 1930’s. My father’s side were Catholics, my mother’s side Protestant. Neither of them went to church often. We didn’t say a blessing at meal times, nor were we taught to say prayers at bedtime. Yet, somehow I think we all knew that they believed in an all-powerful God and in the Savior.
Shortly after the twins were born two sister missionaries from the LDS Church came by the house during the daytime. Sister missionaries were not allowed to track in the evening. Daphine was too busy taking care of two babies to talk to them but suggested they come in the evening sometime. She was interested in raising the children in a church environment. Her last two years of High School in Porterville she boarded with a large LDS family. They didn’t try to convert her in any way but the family made a good impression on her. The results were that for well over a year we had sporadic visits form the young elders who had to come from Visalia.
I think Daphine was ready to join the Church long before I was but she never said so. I remember saying that I didn’t care if we joined a church but Lindsay had lots of churches and if we joined the Mormons we would need to go to church in Exeter which had a small, newly organized Branch meeting in a rented facility. I had no problem with the doctrine the way it was explained but the story of the Father and the Son appearing to the boy Joseph Smith and later the Angel Moroni appearing and telling of gold plates hidden on a hillside nearby and the translation, etc. was a bigger hurdle. I have always read a lot so I read the Book of Mormon. I didn’t read it here or there but all the way through not knowing enough about the Bible to be critic. I just read it and believed it. To me it was Joseph Smiths proof that it came about the way that he said it did. How else could it have come about? So one Saturday night in October of 1952 we drove to Fresno and were baptized by some elder we didn’t know, nor did we know anyone else at that meeting. The next day we appeared in Exeter with our two boys, never having attended a LDS meeting and not knowing a soul in the audience.
Of course we were welcomed with open arms. We were a stable family with strong ties in the area with young children. I am not sure what our friends and family thought but I didn’t care. I soon came to know that it was the right move for us. I changed from an average good Joe stumbling through life taking care of my family and getting as much pleasure out of life as I could to someone striving for something higher and better and more eternal.
We all thrived in the Church. We felt that we were needed. We all accepted responsibilities. We all grew as people and we were all sealed together for time and eternity. We made great friends in the Church. I had the opportunity to serve in many positions of responsibility. That is not unique in the Church. I would have never ever considered being a Protestant minister but have served in a similar position more than once. One of the things I really liked about the Church, besides it being the “Restored Church”, is that it has a lay ministry. All worthy men have the Priesthood and can be called to most any position at any time.
I know that I am a better person than I would have been without the Church, and I think a healthier one also. I stopped smoking and drinking alcohol and caffeinated beverages in order to join. Now, of course, we have a Ward of the Church in Lindsay, and have had for some time. I was Lindsay’s first Branch President. I was released after our chapel was built and Lindsay was made a Ward. Daphine and Bron have gone on ahead, but we are sealed together and have great hopes for the future.
In the Church we have what is called a Patriarchal Blessing. Every Stake has a Patriarch set apart to give a special blessing to those mature enough to appreciate it as sort of a guide to their life. He doesn’t necessarily know those that come to him for a blessing, but is guided by the Spirit as to what blessing to give them. One small part of my blessing says, “It is not an accident that you are a member of the Church”. If it is not an accident then it was on purpose. I have always marveled that at that critical time in 1952 I got out of my comfort zone and joined a small Branch of a one and a quarter million member, Utah-centered, church. Since that time it has doubled its membership three times and gone a long way on the fourth. It has become a world-wide church, having more members outside the U.S. and Canada than in. The Lord moves in a mysterious way, and life is very good.Earning a Living
I came to work full time in the family business in late 1947 or early 1948. This was a busy time of year because my father’s wholesale bare root fruit and shade tree operation was in full swing. The stock had to be brought to the nursery and stored temporarily in wood shaving beds and assembled and delivered to the nursery customers by our own trucks. Later in the spring we would do similar with citrus trees. There was also the flower shop on the same property. Our main wholesale customers were in the S.F. Bay area, Los Angeles and San Diego regions. I don’t remember what my salary was in those early days, but it was enough. Over the years I became an adequate florist. This was the work pattern for the next ten years.
In 1957 we purchased a flower shop on an acre of land on Olive Ave. in Porterville. It was called Clifton’s after Clifton Landers the owner. The price was $25,000 and included a house, the building the flower shop was in, and the business and delivery wagon. I don’t think any cash was put up front-there was only payments. Clifton’s started slow but we kept making improvements. First we added a greenhouse on the west side so we could properly display green and flowering potted plants. Sometime later we got rid of the old house and added a nursery and a shed to hold fertilizers, etc. Many mornings in those early years I would rise early and go to Clifton’s to work on funeral flowers. Not long after adding a nursery to Clifton’s we were approached by the owners of Town and Country Market next to us on the west with a proposition we couldn’t refuse. They wanted our property for land directly behind us the same size and in line with the market and other stores in the shopping center. They would also give us $25,000 to help us move back. It turned out to be a profitable move. I don’t remember the year-sometime in the 1960’s.
My father died in the fall of 1958. I had been working in the family business for ten years. Now my mother and I were in charge. The first thing we did was to close out the wholesale fruit tree business as quickly as possible. That took two years because of growing contracts already made. My mother and I both thought it best that we concentrate on the retail business after my father’s death. We did continue the citrus wholesale business however for many years. The new Clifton’s Nursery and Floral was a big success. We were able to find good help which is so important. What would I have done without Buck, Alfred, Lois, Cliff, Gloria, Sherie and others? There was, of course, my mother who had worked in the floral business in Lindsay since 1923-at the Canary Cottage. That was my parent’s first flower shop. One important part of Ingoldsby’s Nursery in Lindsay has been olive trees for commercial planting. We would buy liners in small pots and shift them into gallons or buy them in gallons from wholesale nurseries in So. California and stake and tie them. They would soon be ready to plant in the field. Some years we would sell several thousand.
When Kirk and Bron were on their missions in South America (1970-1972) I made enough money to have a second home built on a lot I owned in Three Rivers. Those were good years.
I turned 50 in 1975 and for some reason I got the idea that I would like to have another flower shop in the Visalia Mall on Mooney Blvd. I made inquiries with the mall and was offered a suitable space with inside and outside entrances at a favorable five year lease. Flower Fair was born. Kirk was out of college by then and was the manger. A mall shop is a little different form what we were used to, but it did quite well. Believe me, it made the major holidays interesting. After the lease was up the mall wanted to at least double the monthly payments so we took another smaller space next door and continued on for a few more years. By then Kirk had had enough of it so we sold the shop and Kirk came to work in Lindsay. Flower Fair is still in business in Visalia but in another location-not in the mall. Somewhere in those years Clifton’s was also sold and Todd was working in Lindsay with Kirk and myself. Clifton’s was sold because neither of the boys wanted it and I was thinking of retirement at 62 when I would be eligible for Social Security.
Early retirement has been nice. Daphine and I had many nice vacation trips to many parts of this beautiful country, including five or six to Hawaii which we both loved. All my life I have never had to look for a job. I have always been able to support my family and send them to college and the boys on missions. I have enough to care for myself now and to leave a little. There were times in my working years when I would sometimes put in seventy or even eighty hours a week, but I don’t think it hurt me any. One time I figured that I had gone 25 years without missing a day of work because of illness.
A few years ago we (my siblings and I) sold the nursery property in Lindsay to my son Kirk. He has since sold the property and the business but is still working there, though probably not for long. There has been an Ingoldsby Nursery and Floral Shop in Lindsay for 85 years. No other business in town can make that claim. Maybe we were just stubborn. I look back in my working years and don’t have any regrets. Now most small businesses in small towns are in trouble. Big box stores have driven out many nurseries, and flower shops have been in decline for years. My timing was good but I had nothing to do with that.Reflections
I would have liked to have my dear wife with me longer had she been healthy and pain-free. As it was, all the family was relieved when she went unexpectedly but after many years of unexplained pain, and searching for cure or relief in many places. Even then there were good times, love and laughter, and, of course, grand-kids. She has missed out on the great-grand-kids (at least after they have been born-who knows what is going on in the other place). I have a good set up. I have my own house on property once owned by my parents and now owned by my daughter Pamela and son-in-law Dan. They are soon to be empty-nesters. They are responsible for nine of my twelve great-grand-kids to date and counting. I am planning on some more good years. Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die. I, at least, don’t want to die for a while yet. When I do I hope I don’t get lower than a “B” grade. I know that this life is important to all who come here no matter how long they live. I also know that it is just part of a process, or testing ground to determine where we belong in the eternities ahead. I can’t complain-life has been good to me.
INGOLDSBY -- Norman Ingoldsby, 84, of Lindsay died Friday. He was a florist and nursery owner. Church services: 10 a.m. Tuesday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1400 E. Hermosa St. Arrangements: Webb-Sanders Funeral Home. Fresno Bee, Published online on Friday, Nov. 13, 2009.
Norman Ingoldsby, age 84, of Lindsay, passed away on Nov. 13, 2009. He was a florist & nursery owner. Services will be held Nov. 17, 2009 at 10:00 AM at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, 1400 E. Hermosa, Lindsay, CA Arrangements under the direction of Webb-Sanders Funeral Home, Lindsay. Visalia Times-Delta, Published on November 14, 2009.
Eulogy for Norman Ingoldsby
November 17, 2009
"Norman Judge Ingoldsby, my Dad, was born in Lindsay, Calif. October 9, 1925—the second child and first son of Laurence (L.E.) and Carol Ingoldsby. His mother gave birth at home, in a small rented house on Elmwood Ave. Dr. Annie Bond was in attendance. Norman’s one year old sister Carol Jean fussed all night, perhaps sensing she was about to be displaced; but fell asleep shortly before his arrival at 4:20 a.m. He weighed 8 lbs. and was a very handsome baby, according to his mother. Later a sister Ann was added to the family, and then a brother Larry.
Norman grew up in the house at 525 Homassel which was originally built by his Brady grandparents out of the abandoned Socialist Hall, and which his mother had lived in. By then the grandparents had moved into a small house in the back. Interestingly enough, Norman spent the last five years of his life living in a small house in back of the house which his parents had built on Hamlin Way, and which my husband and I now live in. I guess it’s just the Ingoldsby way.
His Brady grandparents arrived in Lindsay in 1914, when his mother was a girl of 14. His Ingoldsby grandparents arrived in 1911, when his father was 11, so his roots in Lindsay go pretty far back. By 1919 his father had established a nursery business, and was opening a flower shop, called “Canary Cottage”. Miss Carol Brady was hired as a bookkeeper, and she later learned the floral trade. She also later married her boss, and Ingoldsby’s Nursery and Floral was solidly established as a family business. This business was to be forever after one of the major factors of Norman’s life.
Something else which was established early was Norman’s love of song. His mother wrote the following about him: “At 18 months he was putting words together and making long sentences for him. He cultivated song and could really carry a tune and would sing Rock-a-Bye, Always, and Mary Lou, and hum. Such a happy, loving baby. Everyone in the family so crazy about him,”
He grew up with the lyrics of thousands of songs in his head, mostly from the 30’s and 40’s, his favorite period for popular music. He liked to play a game where you would give him a word and he would sing a song that used that word. In later years he reconnected with Derrald Gregg from high school, and they would prepare and mail each other song quizzes—a line of lyrics from an old song and you were supposed to guess the song title. There are scraps of paper throughout his home right now with song titles written on them, in preparation for that next letter to Derrald. It was a true passion of his.
He of course attended all Lindsay Schools—Washington Elementary where the School District offices now are; Lincoln Jr. High, and the second Lindsay High School on Harvard Avenue, where he graduated with the class of 1943. He got good grades without much effort. Classmates and neighborhood friends were very important to him growing up. Naturally shy but also naturally cheerful and good natured, pals like Gene Coday helped him develop confidence and his sense of fun. He credited them with making his childhood and his teenage years in Lindsay very pleasant. Gene shared a story from those years just the other day. It was prom time, and Gene stopped by Norman’s house to tell him he was going to ask Holly Houghton to the prom. Holly was an attractive girl from a well-off family with a big house on Strain Hill. Norman congratulated him on finally getting his courage up to ask Holly out. So Gene drove on out to Holly’s house and knocked on the door. When she answered, he asked her if she would go to the prom with him. Holly was very nice, but said wasn’t that a strange coincidence! His best friend Norman Ingoldsby had just that minute called her up and asked her to prom, and she had accepted him!
As to family life, my Dad seemed to remember most fondly the many family trips to the Tule or Kaweah rivers in the summertime, and other outdoor activities such as camping in Giant Forest, and fishing in Buck Canyon. He made a point of doing the same kind of things with his own children when we were growing up.
Dad graduated high school in the midst of World War II. He had a chance to be in a special Navy program that would have given him a free University education, but he failed the physical because of a heart murmur. Thinking he would not then be drafted, he enrolled at Cal Berkeley for the summer and fall of 1943. Turning 18 in October, he registered for the draft, and was ordered to report to a certain location in San Francisco on Dec 7th of that year. He said he drove over the bay bridge without a care in the world, confident he would fail the physical. Next thing he knew he was being lined up in a room with a bunch of other guys, told to raise his right arm, and he was being sworn in! He checked out of Berkeley, drove home, and surprised his parents with the news that he was in the army now. He was assigned clerk’s duty and served first at Ft. Lewis, Washington, and later in Hawaii, which he rather enjoyed. No mention was ever made of a heart murmur in all the medical exams he had while in the army. He was honorably discharged in March of 1946. Of his military experience Dad later wrote:
“World War II was the defining happening of my generation and I am glad I didn’t miss it because of a heart murmur. Incidentally, I tried to buy a little life insurance after I was married and was turned down because I had a heart murmur. Go figure.”
Out of the army, he enrolled in a two year course in horticulture at UC Davis, but eventually decided he might as well come home and learn on the job, and he entered full time into the family business. Ingoldsby’s was doing a large wholesale business at the time in bareroot fruit and shade trees, and there was much work to do. But not so much that he couldn’t find time to date.
Lula Owen had married a classmate of Dad’s, Dom Spallina, and was working at the Nursery. She had an older sister Daphine who was working as secretary to the Lindsay High School principal. Lu, knowing what a great guy Norman was, talked her sister into inviting him to a Kiwanis benefit production held at the High School called HELLZAPOPPIN. The date was a hit, and the rest is history. Norman and Daphine were married April 3, 1949 in the Friends Church in Lindsay. Within five years the four of us children were born—first the twins Kirk and Bron, and then the Irish twins (barely a year apart) Todd and I. As far as any of us kids could ever tell, and we should know, theirs was a successful marriage of shared goals, and mutual love and respect and support. Dad kept it pretty hidden, but he was at heart a romantic, and he treated mom well. His support of her during her long and painful decline before her death in 2001 is legendary in the family for its uncomplaining self-sacrifice, and unfailing patience and kindness. During those same years, he also oversaw the care of his elderly mother. This was a very, very difficult time which Dad endured extremely well, focusing on opportunities that yet existed for love, laughter, and family.
Dad was a hard worker. With his own business to operate, he worked 6 days a week, and worked each day until the job was done. That often meant 60 and sometimes 80 hour weeks. Eventually he was at least part owner and operator in three businesses: Ingoldsbys in Lindsay, Clifton’s Flower and Garden Center in Porterville, and Flower Fair in the Visalia Mall. He seemed to thrive on it. He may not have been home a whole lot when we were kids, but when he was, he was truly present, interacting with his family. We had a set dinner hour; it was 6:30 pm. He would come home and eat and then go back to work if he must, but he almost always was home for that dinner hour, and we all enjoyed that time together. In fact, I think it is the single most important factor in why we all felt our family was something special growing up. We had such fun and satisfying dinner table conversations. It seems like we were never in a hurry to get up from the table. And then of course he taught us all how to work hard down at the Shop, especially during floral holidays like Mother’s Day. We worked together as a family. And we learned how to handle stress well and show grace under fire, because Dad always did. I never saw him out of control. I never heard him raise his voice in anger. If there was a problem, he went to work calmly to solve it and taught us to operate the same way. He was a scrupulously honest businessman who worked hard to provide good service and put out a quality product. Always more important to him than money, was his good name and his integrity.
Sundays Dad devoted to Church. He and mother joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1952, after more than a year of study. For Dad, he was not eager to travel to Exeter and meet with a small, newly organized Branch in a rented hall; but he read the Book of Mormon and was convinced of its truthfulness, so that is exactly what he did. In his own words he says of that momentous decision:
“I soon came to know that it was the right move for us. I changed from an average good Joe stumbling through life taking care of my family and getting as much pleasure out of life as I could to someone striving for something higher and better and more eternal. We all thrived in the Church. We felt that we were needed. We all accepted responsibilities, we all grew as people, and we were all sealed together for time and eternity.”
In a church made up of lay ministers, where everyone was expected to do their part, Dad stretched himself to serve as the Branch President of the Exeter Branch for 8 ½ years, an unusually long time. He oversaw the building of a Church Meetinghouse during that time, including ambitious fundraising projects. Later, as the Branch grew into a Ward, he served again as Bishop. When the Lindsay Branch was split off from Exeter in 1980, Dad was again called to serve as a Branch President, and again oversaw the building of a permanent Church Meetinghouse, this time in Lindsay, to his delight. His most recent Church service was as a worker in the Fresno Temple, which he did until he felt he could no longer make that drive. It was a great satisfaction to Dad that his numerous posterity was grateful for his decision to join the Church, and embraced the restored gospel of Jesus Christ for themselves. He supported his three sons as they served two year missions for the Church in South America, and has helped support financially his grandchildren that have served or are serving missions throughout the world.
Dad has been an excellent grandfather, and all of his admiring grandchildren are here today, gathered from several states to show their respect, with the exception of Bron Kimball, who is currently serving a mission for the church in New Zealand.
Work, family, and Church were the three main things in Dad’s life, but he did not leave out community service, particularly after his retirement. He was always active in a service club, first the Lions and then Rotary. He was particularly useful in landscaping projects, such as the Rotary effort to upgrade landscaping at the memorial building. He was also a board member of the Lindsay Community Theater for a number of years, and his special contribution was all the deep-dish apple pie he and mom baked for the annual fundraiser. After Mom passed away he still continued to bake the large pans of pie each year until that event was cancelled. In 1987 he and mom were the Honored Couple for the Lindsay Orange Blossom festival. And for the past several years Dad has been a board member of the Lindsay Cultural Arts Council. When his mother passed away in 2001, just weeks before his beloved wife Daphine left us, he and his siblings donated the house at 525 Homassel, the home of his youth, to the Cultural Arts Council. Proceeds from the sale of that home are now being used to convert the Old Lindsay Library into an Art and History Museum for Lindsay.
Dad set an example even in dying. He showed no fear. He told me he was unafraid. He looked forward to a reunion with Mom and Bron, who passed away in 2005, and with his parents. He looked forward to resurrection day, and to meeting his Savior. He said he was hoping for at least a B grade on judgment day! He put his financial affairs in order. He offered no complaints. He smiled at visitors and talked of normal things, not of himself. The man was a rock. He experienced one day of hallucinations when his medication was too strong, and they actually offered a window into a very beautiful soul. These are the places his mind went: he heard songs—old songs he was familiar with and enjoyed. He thought they were being played on the radio, but they weren’t. He was able to sing them to me. He thought two dear friends came in and visited with him—Dom Spallina and Gene Coday—only they never did that day. He told me he guessed it was just a dream, but they sure had a pleasant conversation! And then he thought he saw all these flats of bedding plants in my backyard, and asked me where they came from. He’d always loved bedding plants.
Old romantic songs from the forties, good friends, and flowers; those things summed up my father’s particular pleasures rather well.
I think my father was perfect, but he did have a few pet peeves. He didn’t really get angry, but he was sometimes annoyed by the actions of others. One of his pet peeves was long good-byes. He thought when it was time to go you should say your good-bye and go. Not drag it out, not over sentimentalize it, not say you are going and then chat for another hour. Go. I tried to remember that last Friday when it was time to say my good-bye and let him go. I will try to remember it today as well. We love you Dad. Go in peace." Pamela Gail Ingoldsby Kimball
Norman married Daphine Owen, daughter of Barnett Edward Owen and Elva Mae Upton, on 3 Apr 1949 in Lindsay, Tulare, California, USA. Daphine was born on 2 Aug 1924 in Wills Point, Van Zandt, Texas, USA. She died on 31 Oct 2001 in Lindsay, Tulare, California, USA. She was buried in Lindsay Cemetery, Tulare, California, USA.
They had the following children.
+ 249 M i Kirk Eugene Ingoldsby. + 250 M ii Bron Barnett Ingoldsby was born on 11 Jan 1950. He died on 18 Oct 2005. + 251 F iii Pamela Gail Ingoldsby. + 252 M iv Todd Alan Ingoldsby.
208. Ann Elizabeth Ingoldsby (Carol Altura Brady , Jennie Belle Whitfield , Phebe Marie Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ).
Ann married Jerry LeRoy Jarvis.
They had the following children.
+ 253 F i Karen Ann Jarvis. 254 M ii Donald Laurence Jarvis was born on 3 May 1963 in San Jose, Santa Clara, California, USA. He died on 12 Mar 1989 in Fillmore, Ventura, California, USA. He was buried on 23 Mar 1989 in Canejo Mtn. Prk., Camarillo, Ventura, California. + 255 F iii Diane Elizabeth Jarvis.
209. Laurence Arden "Larry" Ingoldsby (Carol Altura Brady , Jennie Belle Whitfield , Phebe Marie Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ).
Larry married Judith Lynn Prentice "Judy".
They had the following children.
+ 256 F i Erin Kelly Ingoldsby. + 257 F ii Tracy Robin Ingoldsby.
210. Richard Campbell "Dick" Brady (Arden Whitfield Brady , Jennie Belle Whitfield , Phebe Marie Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ).
Dick married Arline Elizabeth Arnold.
They had the following children.
+ 258 M i Blaine Arnold Brady. + 259 M ii Brent Scott Brady. + 260 F iii Shannon Dawn Brady. + 261 F iv Jennie Elizabeth Brady. 262 M v Brian Richard Brady. Brian married Caroline Elizabeth Sears.
211. James Arden "Jim" Brady (Arden Whitfield Brady , Jennie Belle Whitfield , Phebe Marie Fletcher , Lucy Wiggins , Nathaniel , Joshua ).
They had the following children.
+ 263 F i Stacy Lee Brady. + 264 F ii Susan Kathleen Brady. 265 M iii Craig Andrew Brady.