Vintage Family Photos in Two Harbors & Lake Superior

     By Cordelia (Scott) Mendoza

     (Reprinted from Cottage Antiques blog)

     My mother, Eileen Rose Busby, passed away five years ago on April 6, so I have been reflective all week. I posted a tribute to her on Facebook and pulled out some of her old albums. I found some wonderful photos of my grandparents and great-grandparents. What a treasure. I am posting some of my Grandmother, Esther Rose, my mom's mother who I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with until her death in 1990 at the age of 89.

Here is a photo of her and her friends in 1920. Look at those babes:

 

                                                                                                . . . in the "Old swimming Hole"

Below, here is Grandma Rose at about 16 years old. I love the homes in the background.

This was at the end of the Arts and Crafts period, right before the Roaring '20s. Her outft completely fits the era.

Here's a great photo of what looks to be a general goods store in Two Harbors. Gram's off for some shopping, looks like to me. Date, circa 1918

Grandma and Grandpa were raised in Two Harbors, Minnesota. He was 12 years older and had gone away to war. He came home to Two Harbors. She always said "he was the most eligible boy in town". They fell in love, married and traveled across country to San Diego in 1922, the year my mom was born.

Frank & Esther, my grandparents. My grandfather was an avid swimmer and canoer and courted my grandmother around and on Lake Superior.

(Love the outfit!)

These photos are priceless.

Celebration of Eileen Rose Busby's Life

     On this day, April 6, five years ago, our mother passed away. It seems only fitting to celebrate her life through the words of those who knew and loved her. Here is an excerpt from a eulogy, spoken at her service, of letters written to her family:

From her cousin Herbert Holbeck: “We enjoyed our visits with her over the years. She was always so upbeat despite any difficulties, and she had the same honest directness as her mother.”

From a friend: “She was elegant and a lady.”

From a chintz collector: “I have one of her books. She was a respected and valued person in the chintz collecting community.”

From her friend and former neighbor Jo Cryder, who invited her to join her lunch group: “I'm heartbroken that Eileen has left us. She was such a glorious person. We had such good times going to lunch and getting together with friends at the First Friday Lunch Bunch. She was so full of life when I left her last September. 

“She worked such miracles with the house that was such a mess when she bought it. It's amazing how she turned the yard into a blooming garden. She just didn't let anything stop her once she decided to do something, whether it was remodeling a house, creating a garden, writing a book, teaching a class, or entertaining a houseful of family or friends. I was so proud to be included in her circle of friends. Eileen spoke often to me about you all and she was so proud of you. I felt I knew you even before I met you. It's hard to accept that such a wonderful woman is gone, and I miss her terribly even from way across the country. I'm grieving with you.”

From Shirley and Klaus Mendenhall, who visited her three days before she passed and who had just lost their father and father-in-law: “Your mother was truly the kindest, sweetest lady. I cherish the sympathy card she managed to send. The first thing she said to me on Sunday was how sorry she was about Daddy. It was just so typically her selfless attitude. We’re honored to have known her.”

And from Chip Mosher, a friend of mine who met her at a holiday gathering in Las Vegas: “One of the highlights of my rather quiet life was meeting your mother at the Thanksgiving soiree two years ago. The strength, integrity, wit and intelligence to her personality are etched indelibly in my mind. I truly hope when my time comes that she is one of the persons hanging around, waiting for and helping me to ‘cross over.’ That'd be a gas.”

Eileen's Five Children

Here's a photo, circa 1955, of Eileen's five children -- the Scott family -- twins Cathleen and Cordelia (left and far right), and Jon, Sally and Michael. Eileen sewed the twins' dresses, often making a matching one for herself out of the same material.

In between sewing, gardening and raising five children, she wrote short articles and mailed off a steady stream of query letters to Ladies' Home Journal and Reader's Digest, hoping to one day get published. It would be another two decades, after her children were grown and out of the house, that one of her articles would be picked up and published by Family Circle magazine around 1975. She made a photo copy of the check and framed it -- her first of many. She was proud.

Today, Michael writes textbooks on ornothology and the study of birds, Cordelia blogs (her site was given an award), and Cathy became a newspaper reporter but now writes full-time for Best Friends magazine and Web site while also writing true crime books.

Four Generations

Four generations: This is a photo that was taken when Cathy and Cordelia were babies. Their Grandmother, Esther Rose, great grandmother Alvina Holbeck, and Mother, Eileen. That's Cathy on the left and Cordelia on the right. Pretty amazing to have four generations.

Our Mom & Dad with his sister, our Aunt Thelma

This is a great picture, circa 1940, of our Aunt Thelma Corey, our Dad, Jim "Scotty" Scott, and our mom, Eileen. This had to be right after our parents got married, because Mother had not met our dad's sister until after they were married, when she followed him from Missouri to California. They lived in Lakewood, California, right after their marriage. Our Mom was just 18 years old and and our Dad was 29. He was pretty darned lucky to be hangin' out with these two lookers; he was in heaven when he was with them. Aren't they the cutest?

Eulogy – April 2005

Eulogy at Eileen Busby's memorial service, held at the Point Loma Community Church. Singing "Climb Every Mountain" from The Sound of Music, one of Mother's favorite movies, was Shelli Frances:


Solomon once wrote, "There is nothing better than, that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion."

Mother found her portions and rejoiced in her works. We were all so proud of her.

As children, she taught us to love the written word. She was especially fond of novels. Our hallway shelves were full of them, sandwiched between her own childhood editions of Aesop’s Fables, A Child’s Garden of Verses and Little Women.

As much as she loved reading and writing, she loved gardening more. When we were young, she grew vegetables. Later, she switched to flowers. In every garden she tended, she always included rose bushes. And bricks, including 6,000 she laid around our swimming pool in La Mesa. Her patio at her current house is an extension of her home, an outdoor room. The last weekend she spent in her home was two weeks ago. She looked out on her patio from her family room at her blossoming flowers and said, “I love my garden.” It brought her a sense of joy and peace.

She also loved to entertain. She would have enjoyed being here today with all of you.

She didn’t like talking about her illness. She valiantly, bravely and quietly pushed through it and lived two years longer than expected. Two years ago, she said she had too much to do and wasn’t ready to go. Sickness wasn’t who she was and she didn’t like dwelling on it. She taught her last antiques collecting class at Grossmont College last July. And she was looking forward to giving a workshop on April 30 in San Francisco at the 2005 Chintz Convention. Until three weeks ago, she was still using her treadmill and doing exercises, trying to get stronger. Up until her last three nights, she still asked that her Estee Lauder anti-wrinkle cream be put under her eyes. She was hopeful and did it her way.

We’ve received wonderful e-mails and cards from around the world from so many of her friends and family. Here is a sampling:

From her cousin Herbert Holbeck: “We enjoyed our visits with her over the years. She was always so upbeat despite any difficulties, and she had the same honest directness as her mother.”

From a friend: “She was elegant and a lady.”

From a chintz collector: “I have one of her books. She was a respected and valued person in the chintz collecting community.”

From her friend and former neighbor Jo Cryder, who invited her to join her lunch group: “I'm heartbroken that Eileen has left us. She was such a glorious person. We had such good times going to lunch and getting together with friends at the First Friday Lunch Bunch. She was so full of life when I left her last September.

“She worked such miracles with the house that was such a mess when she bought it. It's amazing how she turned the yard into a blooming garden. She just didn't let anything stop her once she decided to do something, whether it was remodeling a house, creating a garden, writing a book, teaching a class, or entertaining a houseful of family or friends. I was so proud to be included in her circle of friends. Eileen spoke often to me about you all and she was so proud of you. I felt I knew you even before I met you. It's hard to accept that such a wonderful woman is gone, and I miss her terribly even from way across the country. I'm grieving with you.”

From Shirley and Klaus Mendenhall, who visited her three days before she passed and who had just lost their father and father-in-law: “Your mother was truly the kindest, sweetest lady. I cherish the sympathy card she managed to send. The first thing she said to me on Sunday was how sorry she was about Daddy. It was just so typically her selfless attitude. We’re honored to have known her.”

And from Chip Mosher, a friend of mine who met her at a holiday gathering in Las Vegas: “One of the highlights of my rather quiet life was meeting your mother at the Thanksgiving soiree two years ago. The strength, integrity, wit and intelligence to her personality are etched indelibly in my mind. I truly hope when my time comes that she is one of the persons hanging around, waiting for and helping me to ‘cross over.’ That'd be a gas.”
--Cathy Scott

Happy days

By Cathy Scott

Eileen and Jim "Scotty" Scott, circa 1940. She was 18 and he was 29 when they married, after knowing each other just three months. They had five children in 7-1/2 years.

She was a housewife, nursery and Sunday school teacher, restaurant hostess, school administrative assistant, university graduate at age 62, college instructor, world traveler, freelance travel writer while based in Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, England, author of collectors books, antiques dealer and member of Mensa. He was a one-room schoolhouse teacher, a milkman for Golden Arrow Dairy, a pioneer in racquetball and gold, silver and bronze winner at Senior Olympics, an insurance salesman who received sales awards, and a real estate broker who penned his autobiography at age 85.

They divorced after 26 years of marriage. Eileen died at age 82; he died at 90. Even though our father had remarried Helen Scott, for more than 34 years, and our mother was married to Richard Busby, for more than 32 years, two weeks before she passed away and four years after our Father's death, we learned that Mother carried in her wallet a photo of her and our dad taken on one of their few vacations together, in Jamaica in the late 1950s. When our Father passed away, our Mother said, "I've had a loss too."