Aunt Laverne knew a girl’s heart. At least she did mine. She brought me an exotic pretty doll from Puerto Rico when I was about ten. Mother wanted to put it away and save it for Christmas. I felt like having a crying fit but Aunt Laverne convinced her to let me have it without waiting several months for Christmas.
When I entered high school and wanted Mother to buy me dresses to attend proms and dances money was a problem. You can imagine my delight when a huge box arrived from California containing several like-new beautiful formals from my guardian angels, Aunt Laverne and her daughters, Recie and Lola (my wonderful older cousins).
Colleen “Laverne” Hanks was born the 4th of July in 1922 on her maternal grandparents’ dairy farm three miles south of Amarillo, Texas at 11:30 am. L V Cradit, DO, attended her birth and attested he did so on the birth certificate.
When born, Laverne had two older siblings, Earl and Fred. Her parents, Aubrey E Hanks and Mattie “Mae” Meador, were living with Mae’s parents. Her dad, Aubrey, worked as a dairyman.
Like her brother Fred, Laverne was unnamed at birth. Also like Fred, she was required to obtain proof that she was the unnamed child on her original birth certificate. Mae, Laverne’s mother, was living in Albuquerque when she signed a letter dated June 8, 1944 to certify the birth of Laverne. Mae had the letter notarized and sent to Laverne. Below are a copy of Laverne’s original birth certificate, Mae’s certification of Laverne’s birth, and another copy of the original birth certificate with an attachment indicating the certificate was filed with the State of Texas Vital Statistics Department. Apparently the birth certificate with the attached documentation was official. It’s interesting that a new document with Laverne’s name wasn’t made as was the case with Fred. Both were born in Texas.
At the 1930 census Laverne was living on a farm with her parents and paternal grandparents in Floydada, Texas. Besides older brothers, Earl and Fred, Laverne’s parents added four more siblings for Laverne while in Floydada: Helen, Grace, Glen, and Glenna. Laverne attended school but, due to being only seven, no entry was made on the census regarding her ability to read and write.
Laverne was Mother’s older sister and they were less than two years apart. While teens and living in Floydada, Laverne dated but Mother wasn’t yet interested in boys. Regardless, Mae, their mother, believed there was safety in numbers so she made Laverne take Mother along on her dates. Often Mother would sit on the door step and wait for Laverne to return so that they’d be together when they went inside the house.
One evening, however, they went out of town to go to a movie. A tire on the car blew out and Mother either fell out of the car or jumped out. She’s wasn’t sure which and I’ll write more about the accident when I write about Mother. Regardless of the fact that Mother was severely injured, Laverne and Mother were both in big trouble. Laverne’s date had been waiting for his father to get back from a trip so that he could have the car. As soon as his father returned he took the car without waiting for his father to unpack it from his trip.
Floydada was dry, meaning that liquor was not sold and it was against the law to have it. That didn’t keep some folks from drinking though. When someone went out of town to a place that wasn’t dry they bought liquor for their friends and neighbors. Laverne’s date’s father had done just that. The car trunk was full of liquor. When they had the accident the liquor bottles broke and the car smelled like a brewery. It was believed the kids had been drinking and they were the talk of the town. Mae was, needless to say, embarrassed. Even though Laverne or her date or Mother did not know there was liquor in the trunk, and the fact that they hadn’t been drinking, it was a scandal all the same.
The below picture of a young Laverne appears to have been taken in a photo booth.
Laverne’s parents had another son, Paul “Sonny” while living in Floydada. The older kids, including Laverne, were required to quit school to help out financially at home. Laverne earned $3 a week and was able to keep fifty cents for herself. She moved with her family from Floydada to Amarillo where her youngest sister Betty was born. The family moved to Albuquerque in the mid 1930s. Her youngest brother and last sibling, Billy, was born in New Mexico.
At the 1940 census Laverne was married, at age 17, to Homer Alton Sanders. They lived with his parents, Edd and Lola, at University Heights, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Homer had completed two years of high school and Laverne had completed one. Homer was a gas station attendant and had earned $420 the year prior to the census. The photo below of the young couple was probably taken around 1940.
A descendant chart for Laverne and Homer is below.
Below, Laverne and Homer alternated taking pictures with their toddler daughters, Recie and Lola. The photos were probably taken in 1943 or 44.
Homer was inducted into the Army during World War II on June 21, 1944 and received an honorable discharge on February 3, 1946. He separated from service at Fort Bliss, Texas. Homer’s rank was Private First Class. He was described as being 5’9″ tall, weighing 140 pounds, and having blue eyes and black hair. His permanent address for mailing purposes was 1783 West Indian School Road in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His civilian occupation was tire rebuilder. He was married and had three dependents. Homer wasn’t in battles or campaigns but received the Victory and Good Conduct Medals in the American and Asiatic Pacific Theaters (locations).
By 1948 Laverne and Homer had divorced as Homer remarried that year. In 1950 Laverne was married to Elmer Lavata Schwalbe. They were living in Carlsbad, New Mexico and Elmer worked at a refinery. The city directory showed their address as 1815 (215) Texas, Apartment 2. Elmer’s World War II draft card described him as fair complected with blonde hair and brown eyes. He was 5’9″ tall and weighed 138 pounds.
Uncle Billy remembered when Elmer was courting Laverne. Before they married and moved to Carlsbad Elmer worked in Albuquerque delivering sodas to businesses. Uncle Billy and Aunt Betty had great fun taking cases of empty bottles off of his work truck and then selling the empty bottles back to him.
By 1953 Laverne and Elmer had moved to Fontana, California, as indicated by Uncle Earl’s obituary. Two years later Laverne and Elmer had divorced and Laverne had married Roy Howard Clark.
Lavern and Roy were living at Henderson, Nevada in November of 1955 when Uncle Fred died in a tragic airplane crash at Mount Charleston, near Las Vegas, Nevada. Henderson was about 55 miles away from Mount Charleston.
Roy worked as an electrician for Fluor Corporation building oil refineries. He and Laverne moved often to new refinery locations. I’m not sure at what point they lived in Puerto Rico (from where Aunt Laverne brought me that doll) but I recall her saying Puerto Rico was beautiful but she hated living there because of the huge bugs.
When Lavern and Roy lived in San Bernadino, California, Uncle Billy was in the Air Force and stationed nearby. He laughed as he recalled loaning Recie, Laverne’s daughter and his niece, $20 so that she could take the bus back to Henderson to be near her boyfriend. Billy knew he was going to be in hot water with his sister, Recie’s mother. Recie stayed in Henderson and later married her boyfriend.
Photo of Laverne, below, as a beautiful mature woman.
Roy had retired and he and Laverne were living in Prescott, Arizona when he died in 1978. Laverne moved to New Mexico and then moved to Merced, California, in 1980, to be near her daughters, Recie and Lola.
The photo below of Mother and Aunt Laverne in the late 1980’s was taken at cousin Lola’s swimming pool at her home in Merced, California. A source of friendly rivalry between the two was that Laverne dated my dad before Mother married him. A few times, when angry, Mother chided Daddy that he should have married Laverne because they deserved each other. I always felt she made the comment in jest regarding Laverne because Mother was always excited when Laverne came to visit, obviously enjoyed her company and, in the last few years of Mother’s life, they talked long distance for hours late into the night.
Kids, grandkids, and great grandkids celebrated their granny’s 90th birthday in the photo below. Laverne was a 4th of July baby so her birthday was a firework celebration every year by cities and towns all over the country.
When Laverne died on March 10, 2014 she had four months to go before turning 92. She has the honor of living the longest compared to her siblings (only Aunt Betty remains to challenge her record), parents, and grandparents. It appears only her paternal great grandfather, Reverend Matthew Elbert Hanks, and her maternal 3rd great grandfather, Jonathan L Lipps, lived longer. Both lived to age 100.
Children of Laverne and Homer
Laverne and her first husband, Homer Sanders, had two daughters.
The oldest, Loreace “Recie” was born December 3, 1940 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She married Donald Hornyak in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1958. They had three children: Brenda, Tony, and John. Recie’s children have blended families and biology is irrelevant. They are a large happy inclusive family and love their family get togethers.
I asked Recie for early family memories and she emailed:
We (Lola and I) were raised kinda like gypsies. We moved so often that family memories are sparse. We did spend a lot of time with Grandma when we were little (before we moved to California). Grandpa Hanks came to visit us when we lived in San Bernardino, Ca. We took a Sunday drive and when we came to an orange grove, he let us pick an orange. Later, we came to an olive grove and he let us pick an olive and eat it. How could anything taste so nasty when they were so good in a can? Later, we went to Knotts Berry Farm and ate dinner – that’s when I fell in love with boysenberries. Glenna came to visit (also in San Bernardino) when Sandy was little. We had a big earthquake (I think it was centered in Tehachipi) on the San Andres fault. Glenna and Sandy left shortly thereafter. I think I remember Grandma wringing a chicken’s neck so she could fix it for dinner (maybe I was told that). It was dangerous to sit next to Grandpa at the table; he would stir his hot coffee (he drank it black) and then touch you with the hot spoon. He would take us for a Sunday drive when he was home. I remember a long drive to Jemez and the smell of the sulphur ponds.
Laverne’s and Homer’s youngest daughter, Lola Mae, was born September 8, 1942 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lola married Charles “Tom” Ball on August 30, 1962 in Gardena, California. They had two children: Charles “Charlie” and Lauren.
Lola graciously gave me permission to post memories that she had previously written and given to her children and grandchildren as a Christmas gift. The memory below she called, “Magnolia Avenue.”
Magnolia Avenue
We moved to Magnolia Avenue in San Bernardino, CA when I was in the third grade. Our rented house was very modest and located at the back of a very deep lot. In the front yard was a very tall eucalyptus tree and from it hung one of my favorite pastimes, a tire swing. The grass was an ongoing construction area for gophers.
Our neighborhood was filled with interesting and caring people. A childless, younger couple was our neighbor on one side. They often invited us into their home for some type of goodies. An elderly woman, who taught me to make paper flowers, lived on the other side. Across the street someone in the family played an organ and filled our block with music.
We played outside each day with the other neighborhood children. One of our friends owned a piano and their mother would allow us to bang away at it, uninhibited.
To the horror of today’s mothers, we went just about anywhere we wanted without seeking permission or informing anyone. We just had to be home when it became dark.
In groups of varying ages we played. On one occasion we all dug a clubhouse in a vacant field behind our house. It was four or five feet deep, covered by corrugated tin that was then covered with dirt for camouflage. Of course our parents had no idea this death trap existed. We used it often and loved it.
A new church was being constructed about two blocks from our house. We found delight in climbing to the unfinished second story and jumping onto a large sand pile below. We didn’t seem to need a lot of toys to keep us occupied. Thankfully, we didn’t require frequent medical treatment as a result of our imaginative, if not sometimes, dangerous adventures.
Ironically, years later as a young adult, I rented an apartment across the street from that very same church.
We began to attend a *“Babtist” Church. Attending required that we take a bus unescorted by any adult. There we acquired our first Bibles by memorizing the names of all the Old and New testaments. We were very proud! *(Spelling of Baptist as written in my Bible)
Recie’s and Lola’s dad, Homer Alton Sanders, died on February 9, 1991, at age 69.
Click here for Homer Alton Sanders’ “Find A Grave Memorial.”
Recie’s and Lola’s mother and my aunt, Laverne Hanks Clark, died on March 10, 2014, at age 91. Her obituary, published in the Merced Sun Star on March 19, 2014, follows.
Colleen Laverne [Hanks] Clark, born July 4, 1922, Amarillo TX, died March 10, 2014, in Merced where she lived for 34 years. “Granny”, as she was affectionately known by the family, was preceded in death by her parents Aubrey E. and Mattie Mae [Meador] Hanks and is survived by her daughters, Loreace “Recie” Hornyak and Lola Ball; 5 grandchildren; 12 great grandchildren; 3 great-great grandchildren and siblings Betty Coker and Billy Hanks. Services will be private.
In loving memory of Aunt Laverne Hanks Clark
Records located on Ancestry.com
1930 US Federal Census, Floydada, Floyd County, Texas, Precinct 1
1940 US Federal Census, University Heights, Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Precinct 17
Ancestry.com Families
California Death Index, 1940 – 1997
California Voter Registrations, 1900 – 1968
Cook County, Illinois, Birth Certificates Index, 1871 – 1922
New Mexico World War II Records
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903 – 1932
United States Obituary Collection
US City Directories, 1821 – 1989
US Department of Veteran Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850 – 2010
US Find A Grave Index, 1600s – current
US Public Records Index, Volume 1
US Public Records Index, Volume 2
US Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936 – 2007
US Social Security Death Index, 1935 – 2014
US World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938 – 1946
US World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940 – 1947
Other Sources
Billy Lawton Hanks’ interview recorded October 25, 2012.
Helen Hanks Warren Elliott’s “Life Span Interview,” recorded May 27, 1987.
Merced Sun Star
Permissions
Thanks to my Aunt Betty Hanks Coker, Uncle Billy Hanks (deceased), and cousins, Lola Sanders Ball and Recie Sanders Hornyak, for graciously sharing family photos and family memories.
Generations 