This has always been one of my favorite photos, probably because of all the wonderful stories that come to mind when I see it.
This photo is of my second great-grandmother Loretta Alma Ward.
Loretta was born on September 15, 1878, in Stanton, Montcalm, Michigan to Francis M. Ward and Mary Elizabeth DeFord.
Loretta, or Rettie as she was called, lived a controversial life for her time. She was married three times. One marriage lasted less than six months.
One of her marriages was to Lawrence Clayton McKenzie. I wrote more about this interesting story in my post Alexander McKenzie and his Uncle... I mean Grandpa... I mean.... .
I think the main reason that this is one of my favorite photos is because of a story that was passed down to me by my cousin Claudette, one of Loretta's great grand nieces.
In the story, she references that her father, Lynes Hathaway Ward, went up to Michigan's upper peninsula to visit his aunt Loretta. She shares his memories.
You might be interested to know that my Dad went up to the UP a few times to visit his aunt "Rettie" and he said she wore a man's jacket and smoked a corncob pipe and would get up early and go fishing for panfish, bring them home, fix them up and serve them with cornmeal mush or oatmeal every morning for breakfast. He said she was a character (not in a bad way, just funny).
Claudette Filiputti
This little snippet of information adds so much more life and character to Loretta's story. When I look at it, the first thing I think is "That's Rettie, the woman who wore a man's jacket and smoked her corn cob pipe"
I can just imagine that Loretta "Rettie" didn't take any guff from anyone and was a woman who lived her own way, be damned what anyone else thought.
I hope that after reading this story, you may see the character of Loretta Alma Ward in this photo speak to you as well.
Rettie sounds like a pretty special woman who seemed very happy to do what she wanted to do!
I agree! I wish I could have met her. I’m sure hearing her stories in person would have been so much fun!
Now I want a panfish over cornmeal! Thanks for sharing.
Rettie was unique, and her story is endearing. What a great share! Thank you for sharing.
Love that, thanks for sharing! My mother says that her grandma also smoked a corn cob pipe and rocked in her rocking chair. She was also known to go down to the stream and fish but she usually just went to the A&P. Perhaps it was a midwest thing? My family is from Illinois.
Sound like she ‘does as she pleases’. Love it.
Would love sitting around the breakfast table listening to her stories. Thanks for sharing!
Great photo and story! My mom’s great-aunt George (Georgeanna) smoked a corn cob pipe. She worked on their farm in Maryland with a couple of her brothers and was known to enjoy her whiskey too. I wish we had a picture of her.
Reminds me of my great grandmother Tillie, chasing bears from her one-room log cabin in the U.P. Pan fried fish is one of the joys of having a place on the Great Lakes. Since Stanton isn’t in the U.P., I’m guessing your uncle Lynes visited his aunt at her summer place. Here on the east coast people talk of going to their summer place “down the shore” but if you live in southern Michigan or adjacent states, one still goes “up north”. Since Great Grandma Tillie’s log cabin, our family has upgraded to my grandparents’ 4 room board cabin which eventually even got indoor plumbing (when I was a kid–I remember the before times) and finally my parents built our current large rambling vacation home.
My grandmothers great grandmother was named Rettie. I don’t know much about her other than my Nana told me that she was blind, a strong woman, once snatched a snake right out of the bassinet belonging to the baby she was babysitting (blind!) was adopted by white Americans but was possibly of Native American decent and…. she whittled her own corncob pipes… do you, do you think this could be the same woman?