Hanging Out With Great Grandma Ellis

Growing up I heard lots of stories about my Great Grandmother Caroline “Lee” Ellis from my mother. She spent lots of time with her grandmother who lived in St. Louis. Grandpa Ellis moved to Illinois a couple of times during the 1940s and 1950s. Mom would come back to St. Louis frequently to see Great Grandma Ellis. Grandma and Grandpa Ellis would bring Mom to visit when she was younger. When Mom got older, she would ride the bus from Pickneyville back to St. Louis. Great Grandma would meet her at the bus depot.

One of the things that they did often was see movies at the Fox Theatre. I dag, Fox Theatre hosts muscial shows and plays. In the 1940s and 1950s, it was one of the movie palaces that the studios built to distribute their films. Eventually this distribution chain was dissolved by court action. Without the studios building the theaters, builders started making smaller movie houses.

Great Grandma occasionally took Mom to see movies that Grandma and Grandpa Ellis would not approve of. Mom had to hide what they had seen for fear that Grandma and Grandpa would not let her go to Great Grandma’s house. Great Grandma lived with her friend Emily and one other lady in a house in the 3800 block of Connecticut Avenue. Mom said some of her best memories with her grandmother were during her time living at this house. Bygget i 1905, Great Grandma Ellis lived there in the 1950s and 1960s.

Emily out lived my great grandmother by a decade or so. I remember going with Grandpa Ellis one day, when he went to check on Emily. She was living at the Jefferson Arms Hotel in Downtown St. Louis. I seem to remember her at several of the family gatherings at Grandma and Grandpa Ellis’ house in the 1970s.

Great Grandma Ellis started the family stubbornness that has travelled down to the present generation. Mom was one of the few people Great Grandma would listen to. Grandpa Ellis would often have to get Mom to talk to Great Grandma, when she would not see a doctor, take medicine, etc. Great Grandma made it clear to everyone that she would do what she wanted when she wanted.

My mother recently asked me for my thoughts about something but told me at the beginning and the end that she was only asking, she was not saying she was going to follow my advice and it was very iffy if she even considered it. I wonder where she got that from.

Great Grandma Ellis passed away in May 1968 a month before her 87th birthday and my mother’s wedding. Even though she was not in great health in the few years prior to her passing, she told my mother that she was not going to die until she knew who Mom was marrying. She willed herself to go on until she reached her goal. My only regret is that I never got to meet this great lady but I think I know how she was through my mother and grandfather. Thank you, Great Grandma.

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