Recently, I was delighted to find a newspaper article from the March 25, 1924 edition of the Miami Herald. This article was a gift in so many ways, and I’m so glad the story was preserved.
The news story described a wedding on March 22, 1924, in which many of my family members participated. It was the marriage of Marion Asenith Lawrence to William Carl Shonk. I’m not familiar with those names; they must have been either friends of the family or part of the extended family. The wedding took place in Lake Worth, Florida, at the home of the bride’s mother, Cora Lawrence. Lake Worth is where my grandmother lived and where my mother was born before they moved to Miami.
My grandmother, Eunice Delphine LaSenius, 25 at the time, played the opening and closing wedding marches on the piano and sang two solos. That alone was amazing to me. I knew she played piano (in silent movie theaters, in a band, and in church), but I never knew she sang. The article shared the names of the pieces she sang and played in the wedding. At the opening, she sang “O Promise Me” and then played the Lohengrin Wedding March. At the close, she sang “I Love You Truly” and then played Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.
As if that weren’t enough of a treasure, the article had more discoveries waiting for me. One of the bridesmaids, dressed in pink, and the host of the bridal shower was my great aunt Orilla Fidelia Washburn. I never met Orilla, but through Ancestry research, I’ve learned we have a lot in common, including overseas travel for missions.
It amazed me to see that Orilla, who I never met, attended a wedding with my grandmother. They interacted with each other. Knew each other well. That might seem obvious, considering that two months after this wedding, on May 10, 1924, my grandmother would marry Orilla’s brother. But it brought a new kind of awareness for me. When I was a child, my grandmother never told me about that side of the family. Would my grandmother have imagined I would turn out to be so much like Orilla?
The article went on to say that my soon-to-be grandfather, Edgar Sinclair Washburn, and his parents were there—parents of whom I have portrait photos in my Ancestry tree but nothing more: Rev. Angelus Marulla Washburn and his wife Adaline R. (Carpenter) Washburn. And Edgar’s nephew, little Horace Arthur Forshay, four years old, rode his toy car at the bridal shower, pulling a box of gifts. I could picture this little boy, probably grinning from ear to ear, making his entrance at the bridal shower. Until now, that little boy had just been a name in my Ancestry family tree.
The best was yet to come. I was surprised to read in the article that the eight-year-old usher and ring bearer (carrying the rings in a rose) was my great uncle Ruehl Sherwin Randolph LaSenius. He was very involved in our family life during my growing-up years. So, I remember him as a witty, friendly, older man who was always very kind to me. To picture him as a little ring bearer and usher gave me a glimpse into his childhood.
This entire news story changed the people I knew from old to young. And the people I never met changed from names on a family tree into real people living their lives together.
I loved finding and reading that news story. I was so grateful for that gift of getting a glimpse into their lives. To see how they knew each other and interacted together. What a blessing.
Exploring Generations 