July 9th is the birthday of two of my great grandmothers.
On my father’s side, Margaret Evelyn Thompson Myers Hounihan, mother of Dad’s mom, was born 9 July 1903 in Roodhouse, Illinois and on my mother’s side, the mother of my maternal grandmother, Bessie Hendricks Radcliff, was also born on July 9th but seven years earlier in 1896. Bessie was born in Richmond Kentucky.
While they share a birthday, their lives were very different.
Bessie was the first child of 11 for her parents, Ed and Nancy Hendricks who raised her in rural Kentucky, on a farm.
Margaret was the only child of Maude and William Thompson. William left Maude when Margaret was just a child and she was raised in cities like Roodhouse, Eureka and Peoria in part by a single mother, and then a stepfather and with a half sister.
Bessie married Elmer Radcliff in 1915 at the age of 19. Margaret married Ray Myers when she was just 14 years old in 1918.
William left Margaret after 3 children and less than 10 years of marriage when she was about 25 years old. Bessie died in 1935 at the age of 38 after giving birth to her 12th child in twenty years. Bessie’s marriage to Elmer was marked by poverty and violence. Margaret raised her three children on her own until remarrying in 1939 at the age of 36. She worked in the laundry at the Peoria hospital as a “mangler” until she could no longer physically do that work.
Margaret lived next to my grandmother, her daughter Clema, and her grandchildren for over twenty years until her death in 1971 at the age of 68. Bessie’s children were raised by a myriad of family members, her youngest never knowing her at all. We have only one photo of Bessie from her entire life.
While my two great grandmothers had very different lives, they were both strong women who faced their struggles head on, raising their children to do the same.
Two others in Bessie’s family shared her birthday on July 9th. Bessie’s oldest son, Chuck was born on her 20th birthday in 1916. Her 2nd to youngest brother, Briggie was born on her 16th birthday. Her sister Lizzie missed her 13th birthday by just 5 days, being born on the 4th of July 1910.
