A Baker’s Dozen

Week 12: #52 Ancestors – 12

By Eilene Lyon

The year 1961 was tragic for my grandmother, Reatha (Gusso) Halse. She lost her husband, her mother, and her father-in-law. Then I, her first granddaughter, screamed in under the wire on December 31.

How’s that for timing? A little grace note at the end of a thunderous tympanic roll call to the grave. Okay, perhaps that’s a tad melodramatic. At any rate, I never got to meet my grandfather, Everett Halse, or his parents, Guy and Mabel.

The photo above has an even dozen people. It shows Guy Halse (my great-grandfather) and family in 1952. The one person missing is the mother of the eleven others in the picture: Mabel Pearl (Cutting) Halse. Guy and Mabel were actually second cousins, which narrows the family tree a little when you go back a few generations.

Guy is seated right of center. To our left of Guy are Howard and Hazel. On the right is Inez. Back row (L to R): Doris, Alvin, Everett, Charlotte, Evelyn, Amy, Myron, and Lloyd.

Mabel and Guy spent most of their lives in South Dakota, but after many of their children had moved to Oregon, they took up residence at least part of the time in Trout Lake. Guy and Mabel were visiting their daughter, Hazel, in Hermiston when Mabel took ill and died on April 26, 1946.

Eight of her eleven children, with spouses and children, attended the funeral in Trout Lake. Her body was then returned to Dexter Township in South Dakota for burial.

The photo below is the entire “baker’s dozen” assembled in 1923. Back row (L to R): Everett, Amy, Lloyd, Howard, Myron, and Hazel.  Front row: Evelyn, Guy, Alvin, Doris, Mabel (Cutting), Charlotte, and Inez.