Arnold and Newlin: September 10–14, 1961

A letter from Newlin in Florida to Arnie at the Hotel Michelangelo in Rome, September 10, 1961:

Newlin took Allan, Joel and Andrew to her mother's in Crawfordville, but did not cross paths with her sisters Sheryl or Eloise or their families there; the Uhrigs lived next door to Arnie and Newlin; the Greers lived across the street, opposite to the Uhrigs

A postcard from Arnie in Rome to Newlin in Gainesville, September 11, 1961:

the Forum in Rome, circa 1961

It is odd that Arnie uses the German Rom, instead of Italian Roma;
the reception was probably in the Baths of Diocletian, now part of the Museo Nazionale Romano

A half envelope and a whole letter from Arnie to Newlin, September 14, 1961:

The Musei Capitolini (Capitoline Museums) is a single museum containing
a group of art and archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome

next post  Arnold and Newlin: Geneva, September 1961

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Arnold and Newlin: Spring and Easter 1961

Some photographs from Florida in the spring of 1961. The first set are from 3448 NW 11th Avenue, Arnie and Newlin's new house in Gainesville; the second set from Nursie Ashmore's house in Crawfordville at Easter.

In the first five Gainesville pictures, the family is in the living room. The next two are in the front yard of the house, where one can see the car port. Car ports were perhaps more common in Florida at that time. The numerous pine trees provided shade in the summer, keeping the air conditioning bill lower. Later they were a nuisance as they frequently lost branches in any wind or storm.

Andrew, six months old

Andrew, Allan (back of head) and Joel, spring 1961

Newlin, Andrew, Joel, and Allan, Gainesville, spring 1961

Joel, Newlin, Andrew, and Allan, spring 1961

Newlin, Andrew, Joel, and Allan, spring 1961

Joel with Ruffy

Joel, Andrew and Allan with their dog Ruffy, spring 1961

Allan, Andrew, Newlin, and Joel Nevis, spring 1961

It looks like Newlin is wearing a birthday hat in the photo above, but I can think of no one's birthday in the spring, so perhaps this picture is from Mother's Day, May 14.

Easter (April 2) was spent at Newlin's mother's house in Crawfordville. She had a large grape trellis for her scuppernong grapes in the back. Allan and Joel did not like the grapes' pungent flavor but they did throw the fruit at each other in play. Newlin's brother Ludlow and his family (wife Clarisse, son Randan and daughter Jerri) joined them.

Allan, Joel, Arnie, and Andrew, Crawfordville, Easter 1961

Allan and Joel, Easter 1951

Andrew, Newlin, Joel, Arnie, and Allan, Easter 1961

Clarisse, Randan, Ludlow, and Jerri Ashmore, Easter 1961

Allan, Easter 1961

Allan and Joel, Easter

In the front of the house of the photo above, one can make out a semicircular flower bed where Nursie grew her favorite flower zinnias. On this trip, though, we had picked some azaleas from Arnie and Newlin's yard in Gainesville and discovered on the way that the flowers concealed several bees who emerged in the car. We had to open the window and chase them out. One bee managed to make the three hour drive and escape from the flowers inside Nursie's home.

Nursie, Newlin, and Eric in Crawfordville, Florida, 1961

Joel and Nursie, Crawfordville, 1961

Allan, Arnie, Joel Nevis, Nursie, Newlin, and Andrew, Easter 1961

In this last photo the three generations (Nursie Ashmore, daughter Newlin Ashmore Nevis and son-in-law Arnold Nevis, and grandsons Allan, Joel and Andrew Nevis) stand in front of Nursie's house in Crawfordville. It is a typical Florida house, built up off the ground to keep critters out and in most cases with a crawl space to allow air to circulate underneath and cool the structure. The style is dubbed a cracker house — a cracker is a native of Florida — and features a covered porch and fireplace, among other things.

Arnie managed to insult his brother-in-law Ludlow when he found out that Ludlow was born on the fourth of July, humorously calling him a cracker in reference to a firecracker set off on Independence Day; cracker is also used as a term for poor rural whites in Georgia and Florida, perhaps a notch below a redneck, so the joke did not go over well.

After Nursie got cancer, Ludlow and Newlin's brother Enwood took her into his house in Tallahassee with Newlin and her three sisters tending to Nursie's care. As appreciation, all the Ashmore siblings donated their shares of the house from Nursie's inheritance to Enwood. Enwood later rented the house to sister Sheryl's son-in-law Charles Barwick and he converted it into a restaurant (named Shay's for his youngest son). It burned down after a few years, about a decade after Nursie's death in 1963.

next post  Arnold and Newlin: June 1961 WEN

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Arnold and Newlin: 1958 Eddie falls ill

In 1958 Arnie and Newlin learn that Eddie has acute leukemia. They had just signed to buy a house in the San Fernando Valley, but managed to get out of it so they could rent an apartment adjacent to the UCLA campus — for a shorter commute by bicycle for Arnie and for the convenience of being closer to the hospital for Eddie.

Eddie's ID from UCLA Medical Center, 1958

Nursie is writing on the Wakulla County tax assessor's stationery so she crosses the title out.
(She had been tax assessor after her husband died; he had also been tax assessor for Wakulla County.)

Here are a few of the last photos of Eddie's life:

Allan with a very thin Eddie, summer 1958, Los Angeles, California

Eddie playing in the back yard of their Westwood apartment, summer 1958 (developed in November 1959)

Eddie and Newlin in the yard of their Westwood (Los Angeles), California, apartment

Here is a get well card from Newlin's nieces and nephews Julia, Robert, Susan, David, and Jane:

This letter is from Newlin's cousin Helen Durrance. (We always called her Aunt Helen). 

The Durrance clan, with Sallie Durrance and three of her four daughters, their spouses and grandchildren, Florida;
Helen on the ladder in the back

Sallie Durrance and her four daughters, with Helen in the very back, Florida, 1952;
the other three daughters are Bertie, Copie and Devota 

The Durrance family at Alligator Point, Florida, 1956. Due to beach erosion, the house had to be moved back at least two times

Helen's nephew Wilburn Lamar "Sporty" Hartsfield, 1957

Two of the Durrance sisters (one is Helen) with Floreine (Newlin's sister), November 20, 1955

Newlin mentioned that Eddie was in an experimental program at UCLA for testing leukemia treatments, and he was lucky to be in it; families were desperate to seek out such experiments for their dying children. She once said that Eddie got two of the four drugs that would within two years have prolonged his life into young adulthood.

Also in that UCLA leukemia treatment program was Richard Skelton, the son of comedian Red Skelton. He was four years older than Eddie, and Arnie and Newlin observed Richard's progress closely, as Eddie's ups and downs with treatment would shadow those of Richard. Richard died in May 1958.

hematology report for Eddie, UCLA

Eddie died on September 7, 1958 at the UCLA Medical Center. Newlin reminisced that in those days one could open the windows in the hospital, and at the very moment Eddie passed away a gentle breeze blew through the room. They allowed themselves some time alone with their deceased son before calling in the hospital staff. 

He was subsequently buried in a vault in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale next to his Aunt Dolly. Several decades later, after Arnie died and Newlin had purchased plots in Tallahassee, Eddie was disinterred from Glendale and reinterred in Florida, making room in Forest Lawn for his Aunt Laura to be buried there in 1992 next to Dolly.

September 16, 1958, certificate of death copy at the Division of Vital Statistics, Department of Health, Los Angeles

Eddie's 1958 certificate of death lists September 7 for his death, acute leukemia for the cause, and September 9 for his burial

Over a year later, Arnie and Newlin make a $500 donation to Cal Tech in Eddie's name, presumably with money from an insurance policy.

For the rest of their lives Newlin and Arnie donated to leukemia charity work and to charities such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation: Newlin always remembered that Eddie had wanted his parents to buy a new car, which they would do only a bit later in 1960.

next post  Arnold and Newlin: 1959

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