Aunt Gail: Biking, TV Watching, and Hunting?
Gail Jandy Livingstone: 1934-2011 (Maternal Aunt)
I was scrolling through old family photos to find images of
ancestors enjoying leisure-time activities, and ran across some fun photos of
my husband’s Aunt Gail. However, I found more than I was looking for as I
reviewed photos from Gail’s life. Along with images of leisure-time fun, I
discovered images of her first husband, someone I hadn’t even been aware of,
and had never recorded in the family tree.
Gail was my mother-in-law Laurel Jandy’s younger sister,
born to Ed and Lorene Smith Jandy on June 30, 1934. Laurel was nearly eight
years older than Gail. As a result, Gail grew up almost as an only child; since
Laurel was off to college and then married before Gail even entered high
school.
Among family photos were some charming ones of Gail enjoying
leisure time activities. The first photo shows her posing on her bicycle,
probably in front of the Jandy home in Detroit. Younger children are visible
riding tricycles behind her. She looks to be in her early teens, so the photo
was probably taken around 1949 when she was fifteen.
The next photo is a delightful one—five teens sprawled on a
living room floor, their smiling, intent faces lit up by the light of a television
(not visible in the photo). This was probably the first television the family
owned. Television sets became popular in the World War II era and many families
acquired their first sets. I believe Gail and Laurel are the two girls in the photo,
although I could be wrong. The left-most girl is definitely one of the Jandy
daughters. It looks more like Laurel, but the rest of the photos in the group
featured Gail, so I can’t be sure which sister is which. Watching television,
of course, became one of America’s favorite leisure time activities.
The third leisure time photo I found was an intriguing one.
It shows Gail posing with a young man and some dead animals. Both the man and
Gail are holding guns, so had been hunting. This seemed an unlikely pastime for
the Gail I knew, but perhaps the young man enjoyed the sport.
But who was the young man? I quickly discovered that he was Gail’s first husband, Joseph William Neff. The couple became engaged in 1954 and married in June 1955.
While I found the engagement notice, I have been
unable to find a marriage record or newspaper announcement of the wedding. I
did find wedding photos, including the one below.
Before discovering these photos, I had been unaware that
Gail had been married before her marriage to Phil Livingstone years later. Gail
and Joe’s marriage ended in divorce at some point. Gail was once again using
her maiden name by 1959, as this passenger arrival record from McGuire Air
Force Base shows, so the divorce likely occurred just a couple of years after
the marriage.
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So here I am, spending my leisure time updating my Ancestry
tree to include Joseph Neff. And all thanks to a 52 Ancestors prompt that sent
me rummaging through old family photos.
Sources:
Family photos.
Engagement Notice. Des Moines Register. Des Moines,
Iowa. December 19, 1954.
New Jersey, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists of
Airplanes, 1956-1969. A4112-Neward, 1957-1969. Ancestry.com.
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