Miller Family History, 9th Generation (Forbes & Shaw)

Raymond Leland Forbes (1892-1964)

118274211. Raymond Leland Forbes was born on July 25, 1892, in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, California. He married Cora Etta Taber about May 5, 1913, in San Francisco, San Francisco County, and had five children, but two twin daughters died young:

Raymond and Cora received their marriage license on May 5, 1913, in San Francisco. At the time they were both living in Los Angeles.^{[Mar 1913]} Seven months later son Robert was born in Los Angeles.

The Forbes family remained in Los Angeles through at least 1917 when they lived at 616 Loomis and Raymond worked as a mechanic on Winston Street. Raymond's draft registration recorded that he was short with a slender build, brown eyes, brown hair.^{[Draft 1917]}

The family resettled in Fresno, Fresno County, and bought a home at 60 Hawes Avenue valued at $4,750 by 1930. There Raymond worked as a truck driver in the building trade. Nephew Eddie McCormack (relationship uncertain), age 11, lived with the family in 1930.^{[Cen 1930]}

By 1940 the family bought a $6,000 home at 5134 Nevada Avenue in the eastern outskirts of town. Raymond continued to work as a truck driver and son Robert worked as a welder for the U.S. Navy. Two high school aged wards, Violet Brenner and Jewel Lewis, lived with the family, as did lodger John Hood, also a high school student.^{[Cen 1940]}

The Forbes family remained at 5134 Nevada Avenue through at least 1950 when Raymond worked as a construction foreman for electic utiliies. Son Robert worked as a waiter in a cafe. Similar to 1940, the family had taken in two young lodgers, Joelene Davis and Barbara Cole, both 5 years old.^{[Cen 1950]}

Raymond Leeland Forbes died on April 23, 1964, in San Luis Obispo County, at the age of 71 years. He was buried at Cayucos-Morro Bay District Cemetery.^[Grave]

Cora Etta (Taber) Forbes died a year after Raymond on April 29, 1965, in Sanger, Fresno County, at the age of 72 years. She was buried with Raymond at Cayucos-Morro Bay District Cemetery.^{[Obit 1965, Grave]}

Herbert Dennis Shaw (~1905-1942)

118274213. Herbert Dennis Shaw was born in 1904 or 1905, probably in Fresno, Fresno County, California. Herbert grew up in Fresno^{[Cen 1910, 1920]} and enlisted in the U.S. Navy by 1930, when he was stationed at the U.S. Navy Destroyer Base in San Diego.^{[Cen 1930]} Herbert appears to have married twice, first to a woman named Esther, and afterward to Dorothy Keener, a native of Waitsburg, Walla Walla County, Washington.

Herbert and Esther lived at 926 South 31st Street in San Diego where Herbert worked as a carpenter ^{[City 1932]} (presumably a reference to his Navy rate as Carpenter's Mate (CM)).

Herbert married Dorothy by 1938 when they lived at 1457 Cedar Avenue in Long Beach, Los Angeles County.^{[City 1938]} They moved about three miles east to 1032 Belmont Avenue by 1940. There Dorothy worked as an office manager at a bakery. A widow named Lottie Miller (no relation) lodged with them. The 1940 census also revealed that Dorothy had lived in Long Beach since before 1935 and that in 1935 Herbert lived with the "U.S. Navy.”^{[Cen 1940]}

U.S.S. Houston (CA-30)

Navy muster rolls from the U.S.S. Houston (CA-30) record that Herbert became a Carpenter's Mate 1st Class (CM1C) by 1939 and had first been received aboard the Houston on June 14, 1934.^{[USN 1939, WWII]} The Houston was a Northampton-class light cruiser (CL-30) that was redesignated as a heavy cruiser (CA-30) because of her 8-inch main guns. Before America's entrance into World War II the Houston served as the flagship of the Asiatic Fleet in the Philippines (1931); took President Franklin Roosevelt on two cruises (1934 and 1938); was in San Francisco to celebrate the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge (1937); and, after an overhaul, served as the flagship for the Hawaiian Detachment at Pearl Harbor (1939), and again the Asiatic Fleet in the Philippines (1940).

During the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Houston was at Panay Island in the Philippines and departed for Darwin, Australia. It later joined the Allied naval force at Surabaya on the island of Java, Indonesia. The Houston engaged Japanese invasion forces three times in defense of Java and Timor in February 1942. The Houston and Australian cruiser HMAS Perth (D29) attempted to resupply at Tanjong Priok (Jakarta) on 28 February but found little fuel and no ammunition there. They set out that evening for the Sundra Strait on the way to Tjilatjap (Cilacap) on the southern coast of Java, but a few hours later the two cruisers stumbled into a large Japanese naval invasion force that surrounded them. The two Allied cruisers dodged torpedoes, returned fire, and scored hits on the Japanese, but the Perth was sunk at 00:25 on March 1st and the Houston followed at 00:40. CM1C Shaw went down with the Houston. Only 368 of the Houston's crew of 1,061 survived the sinking but they were captured by the Japanese and imprisoned. 77 of the survivors died in captivity.

Dorothy lived at 249 Yosemite Avenue in Fresno in 1941^{[City 1941]} and after Herbert's death at 1312 East 8th Street in Oakland, Alameda County.^[WWII]

Dorothy finally moved to 324 Northwest 10th Avenue in Milton-Freewater, Umatilla County, Oregon, in her later years.^{[Dth 1966]} She was buried in her hometown, along with her parents and most of her siblings, at Waitsburg Cemetery.^[Grave]

Dorothy (Keenan) Shaw died of bronchopneumonia at Eastern Oregon Hospital and Training Center in Pendleton, Umatilla County, on March 20, 1966.^{[Dth 1966]}

Dorris Ann (Shaw Barr) Quinn (1908-2004)

118274214. Dorris Ann Shaw was born on May 2, 1908, in San Francisco, California. She marrried Clarence Dewey Barr, a veteran of World War I, around January 1932. She was 23 years old and he was about 34 years old. They had one son:

Dorris worked as a graduate nurse at the General Hospital of Fresno County, east of downtown Fresno, in 1930.^{[Cen 1930]}

Dorris and Clarence wed around Janaury 1932.^{[Obit 1963]} He was nearly 10 years her senior and had served in the U.S. Navy Reserve Force (USNRF) as a Seaman 2nd Class during World War I.^{[Grave, Obit 1963]} After their marriage, they lived at 1304 North Fruit Avenue in Fresno, by 1940, along with Clarence's younger brother, Steven E. Barr. Clarence worked as an attendant at the Fresno Zoo and brother Steven read meters for the public utility.^{[Cen 1940]}

The Barrs moved 3 miles east to 3837 Olive Avenue by 1950. Dorris worked as a registered nurse in a doctor's office and Clarence worked as a carpenter for a building contractor.^{[Cen 1950]}

Clarence also worked as a carpenter for the Fresno City Unified School District and by 1963, he and Dorris resettled at 4423 East Simpson Avenue.^{[Obit 1963]}

Clarence Dewey Barr died of leukemia on January 6, 1963, at the age of 64 years. He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Fresno on Wednesday, January 9.^[Grave]

Dorris remarried three months later to Edward Estes Quinn, a native of Texas, on April 22, 1963, in Fresno County.^{[Mar 1963]} They soon after moved 45 miles northeast to North Fork, Madera County, where they lived at the time of Dorris's brother Raymond's death.

Dorris and Edward divorced after 10 years of marriage in December 1973, in Fresno County.^{[Div 1973]}

Dorris Ann (Shaw Quinn) Barr died on August 31, 2004 in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, at the age of 96 years. She was buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, Orange County, California.^[Grave]