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CONVERSE Family History, Part IV

Mabel CONVERSE (1882-)

12211. Mabel Converse was born in February 1882 in Iowa. She worked as a school teacher in Valley Township, Pottawattamie County before she married her father's cousin, Charles Albert Converse, about 1904. They moved to Coulterville, Mariposa County, California by the 1880 census where Charles' family lived.

By the 1910 census the Converse family moved back to Hancock in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and lived with Mabel's mother for a while before returning to California and bringing Mabel's mother out to Modesto, in Stanislaus County.

Charles Albert Converse died on July 4, 1925, when he jack-knifed his Model-T truck near Greeley Hill and broke his neck. He was 51 years old.

Florence "Flossie" May CONVERSE^Δ (1892-1985)

12214. Florence "Flossie" May Converse^Δ was born Christmas Day, December 25, 1892 or 1893, in California. She married her second cousin, George Leonard Converse (Jr.)^Δ, around 1919 and had one daughter:

121C11.

Ardith E. ConverseΔ

22 May 1922

9 Feb 1977

(54)

George Leonard Converse, Jr. died on May 20, 1936, in Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, California, at the age of 41. He was interred on May 23 at the Citizens Cemetery (now known as the Modesto Cemetery Association) in Modesto.

After George's death, Flossie lived for a time with her brother Jack in Modesto.^{[Vote 1936]}

Flossie lived at least through 1944 in the outskirts of Modesto, not far from George's parents.^{[Vote 1944]}

Florence "Flossie" May Converse died on January 30, 1985, 48 years after George's death, in Tracy, San Joaquin County, California. She was 91 or 92 years old.

John "Jack" H. CONVERSE (1896-1958)

12215. John "Jack" H. Converse was born on December 21, 1896, in Iowa. He married Ruth G. (Bowersch), a native of Kansas, and moved with his mother, Belle E., to California where his son was born and lived at 113 Semple Street, Modesto, Stanislaus County by 1920. They lived next door to Jack's sister, Flossie May, and their mother.^{[Cen 1920, Vote 1920]} Jack and Ruth had at least one son:

122151.

William V. Converse

28 Apr 1919

19 May 1943

(24)

Jack worked as a railroad office ticket salesman in Modesto for Southern Pacific Railroad.^{[Cen 1920, Vote 1920, News 1927]}

Ruth G. (Bowersch) Converse died in the 1920s, in her late 20s or earlier 30s.^{[Cen 1930]}

In late 1922, perhaps after Ruth's death, Jack was noted living at 228 Melrose Avenue, six blocks northeast of Semple Street.^{[Vote 1922, 1924]}

Jack appears to have remarried by 1927 to Yola Landers, who had two young sons from a previous marriage: William and Albert Landers. A newpaper article states that they were living in San Francisco in 1927 and that Yola was formerly of Modesto. Her son William, age 7, was living in Long Beach and son Albert, age 6, was living with relatives on Scenic Drive near Modesto.^{[New 1927]}

Yola may have died or separated before 1930 as Jack, his son William, widowed mother, and a widowed aunt moved to Oakland, Alameda County, where they lived on 2309 Fourteeth Avenue. There Jack continued to work for the railroad.^{[Cen 1930, Vote 1930]}

A year or two later, Jack and his mother moved about nine blocks west to 342 East 15th Street by 1932.^{[Vote 1932]}

Jack's mother likely died in the 1930s. He later moved back into the Sacramento Valley and settled for a time in Oakdale, Stanislaus County, by 1934^{[Vote 1932]}, and again back to Modesto by 1936, where he again lived with his sister Flossie following the death of her husband earlier that year.^{[Vote 1936]}

Come 1938 and through 1940, Jack is found at the Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro, Alameda County, however, he is list as a ticket agent rather than an inmate or patient.^{[Vote 1938,1940]} He returned to Modesto by 1944.^{[Vote 1944]}

John "Jack" H. Converse died on October 16, 1958, in Tuolumne County, California. He was 61 years old.

Edith A. (MCKRAY) COE (1880-1965)

12221. Edith A. McKray was born in April 1880, probably in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. She married Robert Guy Coe and had one daughter:

122211.

Vera Coe

1903

1987

(84)

Robert Guy Coe died in 1962 at about the age of 85. He is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery near the Converse family farm east of Hancock, Pottawattamie County, Iowa.

Edith A. (McKray) Coe died in 1965 at about the age of 86. She is buried beside Guy at Oak Hill Cemetery and was later joined by their daughter Vera.

James William MCKRAY (1884-1965)

12222. James William McKray was born on November 29, 1884, probably in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. He eloped with Myrtle Bessie Sifford when she was only 16. He had one daughter with her and later married Minnie Bergman:

122221.

Geneva Esther McKray

13 Oct 1907

Nov 1985

(78)

James William McKray died in Iowa in August 1965 at the age of 80.

Minnie (Bergman) McKray died 12 years later in December 1977, likely in Hancock, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where she lived at the time. She was 79 years old.

Melvin Boyd MCKRAY^Δ (1895-1981)

12223. Melvin Boyd McKray^Δ was born on May 5, 1895, in Hancock, Pottawattamie County, Iowa. He married Esther P. Klopping, also an Iowa native born to German immigrants. They had two daughters:

122231.	Constance J. McKrayΔ	17 Nov 1919	15 Dec 1998	(79)
122232.	Jeanne E. McKray	10 Nov 1921	7 Sep 2003	(81)

Esther P. (Klopping) McKray died in 1969 at about the age of 73. She is buried at the Oak Hill Cemetery near the Converse family farm east of Hancock, Pottawattamie County, Iowa.

Melvin Boyd McKray died 12 years later in December 1981 at the age of 86. He is buried beside Esther at Oak Hill Cemetery. They were later joined by their daughters Connie and Jeanne, who are buried nearby.

Ernest Lloyd CONVERSE (1883-1953)

12231. Ernest Lloyd Converse was born on January 11, 1883, in Mariposa County, California^{[Dth 1953]}, where his mother and father were enumerated in the census three years earlier while living with his father's uncle, John Converse³. Ernest was the only son born to Charles Henry Converse and Alice Strong who separated during his early childhood. He returned with his father to Iowa where his father remarried. After the turn of the century his family returned to California and settled in Los Angeles County. Ernest married Maude Hubbard on July 24, 1907, in Spokane, Spokane County, Washington. They are not known to have had any children.

After their marriage, the Converses lived in Spokane, Spokane County, Washington by 1910^{[Cen 1910]}. By 1920, they returned to Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California where they lived at 1807C Sunset Boulevard^{[Cen 1920]}, 7214 Willoughby Avenue^{[Cen 1930]}, and lastly 1449 North Benton Way.^{[Cen 1940]} Ernest worked as a motorman on the Pacific Electric Railway. Maude's mother lived with them from at least 1910 and likely through her death in 1922. Afterward Maude's sister Julia (Hubbard) Hackett lived with the couple by 1930 through 1940.^{[Cen 1930, 1940]}

Ernest Lloyd Converse died of prostate cancer on December 20, 1953, at his home at 1449 North Benton Way. He was 70 years old. Ernest was buried on December 23 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, Los Angeles County.^{[Dth 1953, Grave]}

Maude (Hubbard) Converse died 17 months after Ernest on June 12, 1955, at their home at 1449 North Benton Way. She was 77 years old. Maude was buried on June 15 at Hollywood Forevery Cemetery.^{[Dth 1955, Grave]}

Lawrence Floyd CONVERSE, Sr.^Δ (1889-1914)

12232. Lawrence Floyd Converse, Sr.^Δ was born in Avoca, Pottawattamie County, Iowa in December 1889. He attended one year at Harvard Military School in Los Angeles, California. He made his way to Texas where he got tangled up in the 1910 Mexican Revolution. It was likely in Texas that Lawrence met and married Amelia Sara Spencer, a native of Utah born to parents from Canada and Poland. They had three children before his tragic death in 1914.

122321.	Lawrence Floyd Converse, Jr.Δ	17 Apr 1912	31 Mar 1979	(66)
122322.	John Charles Converse	21 Jun 1913	5 May 1973	(59)
122323.	Lorraine Converse	1915	--	--

Amelia had worked as a stenographer for a hardware store in El Paso, El Paso County, Texas, before she met Lawrence.^{[Cen 1910]}

Mexican Revolution

Across the boarder, Francisco I. Madero established the "Anti-Reelectionistas" and campaigned against President José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori. Madero was jailed, Díaz relected, and upon Madero's release called for the November 20, 1910, uprising that launched the Mexican Revolution.

In early 1911, while still in Los Angeles, Lawrence is believed to have been recruited by Madero's forces and departed for the border town of El Paso, Texas. The first week of February he received a commission as a captain in Madero's army, where he served as a cross-border courier, making three or four runs a week, and wearing his military school uniform.

On February 20, Lawrence and Edward M. Blatt went to the home of Melquisiades Perea, on the Rio Grande, located about five miles south of the Tornillo Station on the Santa Fe, Texas & Southern Railroad. It was there, while they were warming themselves by an outside fire, that Ramon Nunez, Leonardo Jiminez and Diogracio Archuleto captured them and handed them over to soldiers (led by Colonel Cuellar and General Navarro) waiting on the other side of the river. They were told that they had violated neutrality laws (which they undoubtedly had) and that they would be shot in the morning.

Their capture boiled into an international incident, as Lawrence and Blatt defended their innocence and claimed they were captured on American land. Since testimony from many witnesses at the Perea house, personal items of Converse and Blatt were found in their captors' possession, and evidence of their fire on the Perea property, Díaz was forced to release the prisoners. It also helped that Lawrence's father, Charles Henry Converse, had somehow been acquainted with Díaz himself (through the help of Harrison Gray Otis, of the Los Angeles Times), and was able to expedite his son's release. They walked out of prison on April 22 and were met by an overjoyed Flora Converse, who took the two boys back to America where a festival was held in El Paso in their honor. Blatt was invited to stay for the summer in Glendora with the Converses.

The following year, 1912, Lawrence's first son was born in California and a month later Lawrence's father was tragically killed in a train accident in Glendora.

That September, Lawrence was recalled to El Paso to testify before Senator Michael Hoke Smith, who concurrently was serving as both Senator and Governor of Georgia, in regard to his activities during the Mexican Revolution.

The following year Lawrence and his family left for Cuba where their second son was born in Havana in 1913.

Lawrence's Hollywood Fling and Tragic Death

In the spring of 1914, Lawrence fell in love with the young, intoxicatingly beautiful widow Barbara La Marr, just seven weeks shy of her 18th birthday. Barbara, born Reatha Watson, had changed her name following her earlier arrest for dancing in burlesque while under age—she had been dancing since as early as the age of 14! They wed on June 2, 1914, and the following morning Lawrence was arrested for bigamy. They had the marriage annulled a few days later.

Just a month after this episode, Lawrence Floyd Converse, Sr. died from a head injury in early July 1914 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. He was only 24 years old and left a pregnant wife and two toddlers. Lawrence, Sr. is buried at the Oakdale Memorial Park in Glendora, Los Angeles County, California as are his parents.

Barbara La Marr went on to wed three more times and became a screen writer and silent movie star—billed as "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World"—making 30 films between 1920 and her early death in 1926. She died in Altadena, California at the young age of 29. She is remembered with star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

After Lawrence's Death

Lawrence's widow Amelia moved in with her mother-in-law in Pasadena where she worked as a bookkeeper for a dry goods store.^{[Cen 1920]} and soon thereafter remarried to Ralph C. Payne. The Paynes moved to El Paso by 1930 where Amelia's parents had lived on Campbell Street. Her boys were enumerated twice that year, once with Amelia in El Paso and the other with their grandmother Flora back in Glendora.^{[Cen 1930]} The Paynes had one son:

-

Ralph Payne, Jr.

--

--

--

In May 1924, Amelia filed suit against (the Mexican government) for $25,000 each (roughly equivalent to $250,000 in 2007 dollars) on behalf of both her deceased husband Lawrence and his revolutionary companion Edward M. Blatt for their "false arrest, abduction, wrongful imprisonment, and cruel and inhuman treatment." The claim was disapproved citing that the 1912 US military commission investigation had found their "capture was one of the fates they challenged when they embarked in their Mexican insurgent enterprise."

Amelia (Spencer Converse) Payne died on November 19, 1959, in El Paso, El Paso County, Texas, at the age of 66. She is buried at the Fort Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso.

Hazel Augusta CONVERSE (1892-1981)

12233. Hazel Augusta Converse. was born in Iowa, likely in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, on August 13, 1892. She was a lawyer and lived for a time in Arizona but later moved to Arcadia in Los Angeles County, California.

Hazel Augusta Converse died on August 10, 1981, in California, just three days shy of her 89th birthday, and was buried at the Oakdale Memorial Park in Glendora, Los Angeles County, California.

Flora "Petie" S. (CONVERSE) HUSSONG^• (1899-1978)

12235. Flora "Petie" September Converse^• was born September 3, 1899, in Iowa, likely in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. She married a Hussong and died in August 1978, her last residence was listed as Sunland, Los Angeles County, California and her last social security benefit was noted as being in Phoenix, Arizona. She is buried at the Oakdale Memorial Park in Glendora, Los Angeles County, California.