Captiva Island

August 2009...a trip to Florida took me also to Captiva Island with my friend, Tina. We took a boat
out to an Island that was beyond my imagination in this area. I never suspected the beauty and the
old Inn and the unique Island houses. The day flew by as we wandered along the pink path from one end of the Island to the other. Lunching at the Inn was a treat followed by a Brandi Alexander at the private club. The day was perfection as we slowly made our way home on the boat, followed by a couple dolphins that were performing for our delight.

NGAG

It is my pleasure this year to be the president of the North Georgia
Artist Guild. It is so stimulating to be around such interesting and talented individuals. The coming months will be filled with artful endeavors that I am looking forward to with some excitement.

Information about the Guild is available at our website .

Merry Christmas 2009

 

Merry Christmas

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, MAY GOD BLESS YOU WITH ABUNDANCE.

 

Daisy in My Garden 2009
Watercolor Artist Rita Sander

Canine Companions for Independence

Canine Companions for Independence...May 2007 Graduating Class
My granddaughter was given "Celo" as her companion. The two week training class was filled with fun, laughter, hard work and sharing. All of us left this experience, with graditude and admiration for the staff and the incredible work they do at the center. I made this quilt to hang in the dormitory great room of the
center as a thank you gift from our family. Celo is very much a part of our family now and my granddaughter shares her space and love with Celo, as well as her laughter and joy.

Ricketts List of Names

List of Individuals

The Hiker

Yes, we are a family of hikers. Where we came from walking, running or hiking was a way of life and necessity. There are so many stories, too many...its hard to stay focused on just one.

My dad, Russell Heiderman, grew up on a farm next to Lothery Creek in Ripley County, Indiana. (Ok, that is probably not spelled correctly, however, I will change the spelling as soon as I find out the correct one.)
He said the Creek was a way of travel for him from very early childhood. He walked it, he fished it, he hunted it and he ice skated to school on it in the winter time. Russell said he escaped to the creek as any youngster did in the summertime to find quick relief from the summer's hot sun and hummidity. Being a lad growing up on a farm didn't leave much time for that, but providing fish for the table was always kindly looked upon.

Dad knew that walking was not only pleasurable but healthy. So, it wasn't unusual for him to walk at least two miles daily even the day before he fell to Heaven...that's another story.

Russell & Vaina Lee Heiderman 1954

Russell, my dad, once said to me, "Your mom is my buddy, my wife, my friend...as well as my life."

They entered into their life together at the age of 17.
Through all the hard times, as well as the good, we five girls never heard them quarrel. Later in our lives, we laughed when we all recalled the same thing
...sometimes things would become very quiet and Mom would look around towards Dad and calmly and without changing her expression, "Russell, June is coming." (It was upon this remembrance that we all came to realize that was Mom's way of telling Dad to straighten up his act before June arrived and we all took off to Grandparents house for a summer vacation.) Dad would grunt and walk out to the barn, "to take care of the animals".

Many many times when we would walk into a room where they were talking, Dad would be sitting close to Mom and looking straight into her face softly talking about who knows what. They never looked up or moved or loss focus of each other at those times and we would all silently acknowledge their 'moment' and walk away without interruption.

This, then, is what 40 years together looks like. Wow!

Ricketts Family Tree

Ethel E. Ricketts b. 1894 - d. 1966, was my father's mother. She was married 1913 to Clifford H. Heiderman for fifty-three years. They had two sons; Russell b. 1914 and Roy b. 1920. Ethel was a twin to sister, Edith Ricketts. She was a quiet and shy woman and never had her photo taken except once to my knowledge. That photo has been misplaced, I hope not permanently. She was born, married, died (cause: uterine cancer) and is buried in Ripley County, Indiana.

Happy New Year...2009

I, like many others, am waiting with high hopes and anticipation for the Obama Inaugeration. This economy has effected our family, our two sons have jobs to look for in the new year. We are very optimistic though, because our family has known worse times.

My father and mother had many stories to tell of the depression years and I lived through the war years with them. Some of my earliest memories are of the radio addresses by our Presidents in those years. Also, the newsreels at the movies were bigger than life and very impressive.

After almost two decades of hardship for many, the 'dream time' in America began. We had survived those years and were making a new life. I feel like I was one of the lucky ones to have been in my 'prime' years during the best of times. I was born to an amazing mother and father, and had been raised in old fashion ways with old fashion morals and they have served me well.

Yes, we look forward to 2009, because we can, we will prevail.

Family Tree

The Cole Family - Family Tree for Cole, Seymour, Palmer, Tucker, MILAM, Turner and 84 other surnames.

Quilters in our Family 2008

Those women in our family who were quilters are too numerous to mention by names. I sat at the feet of my grandmother, Tracie Cole, as she and her friends quilted on their projects. Vaina Lee Cole Heiderman, my mother, also, spent much of her time quilting the much used quilts that covered each of our beds. Most of our family quilts (and I am proud to own four generations of quilts), were made as 'utility' quilts. They were meant to be used and meant to be laundered....and they were!

When it came time for me to take up the stitching arts, I was about seven. My stitches were big and crooked, but they improved with time and by the time I was ten, I was doing embroidery on tea towels and crocheting on table cloths and hankies. I was making doll clothes by that time and had learned to knit from a german lady at the local five and dime store.

My grandmother, Tracie, started teaching me to quilt in 1955, while I was living with her and granddad. Those lessons served me well, because I was ready and had some memory of quilting when I began in earnest to quilt in 1993. Starting out with lap size quilts and progressing to large ones, designer hangings and embellished quilts to wear and hang.

Quilting has progressed these days to unlimited imagination in design and fabric. Quilting is still useful in a utility fashion, however, quite unique and beautiful in fashion wearable.

The watercolor painting I did this year, 2008, to commemorate my love of quilting is shown above (it should be on the horizontal, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet).

Vaina Lee Cole

Vaina Lee Cole is my mother. She had thick black hair, dark brown eyes, and skin so soft and smooth with a blush of tan. As an adult, Vania Lee was 5'4" and weighed 130 lbs. after having her five daughters. She inherited her hour-glass figure from her mother and her black hair & eyes from her father.

Vaina Lee was born in Topeka, Shawnee, Kansas July 25, 1914. The only natural child of Alvin Porter Cole and Tracie Elizabeth Seymour. They lived on a farm and her father worked for Mel Kelsey. Her parents later adopted a 3 day old baby boy named Meryl Wayne, who drowned at the age of eleven.

The Cole family moved east to Osgood, Ripley, Indiana, in 1921. Vaina Lee went to school at Osgood, graduating from Osgood School at age 16, the tenth grade. The graduation was held at the County Fair Grounds and the Class of 1930 photo shows her back row, left of center. The photo was taken in front of the fairground stadium.

Vaina Lee's best friend was Mildred (later married to Bob Eadler). She and Mildred had a lifetime of memories they shared over the next 70 years. She and Mildred were together the day Vaina Lee met her soon to be husband, Russell Heiderman, born May 26, 1914, in Versailles, Indiana. Russell is the first son of Clifford H. Heiderman and Ethel Ricketts.

Vaina Lee and Russell were both 16 years old the night of the well remembered dance. Russell says it was love at first sight. He said she was little, pretty and had the blackest eyes. He ask her to dance. It was while they were dancing that Russell was bumped and fell forward into Vaina Lee, banging his teeth hard enough into her forehead to break the skin. Vaina Lee always said she could still see the scar (I couldn't though). Russell spent the rest of the evening apologizing and falling in love.

At the age of 17 years, Vaina Lee Cole and Russell Heiderman were married January 30, 1931, by a minister in Versailles. An annoucement was carried in the Osgood Journal. They drove to Topeka, Kansas for their honeymoon. Russell was two months older than Vaina Lee and always told her that he was boss for two out of twelve months every year. That seem to suit them both.

There are two stories that were told to us as we grew older about that honeymoon. I will relate them to the best of my ability.

The first story:
When Russell ask Vaina Lee to marry him, he promised he'd take her to Topeka for their honeymoon, because it was her dream to return to the place of her youngest memories.
We were told that Vaina Lee had "relatives" there and she wanted to share this exciting time of her life with them. It would seem that the "relatives" were American Indian. I know they stayed with the "relatives" and there was a celebration of the marriage...( There was, also, a story they told that Russell was disowned by his mother, because he had married a "half-breed". I didn't ask enough questions at the time, so I have not been able to find out the truth of this claim.)

The second story:
It was in February when Russell and Vaina Lee set forth on the journey home to Indiana. Russell said it was a very difficult and hazardous to drive. He saw a very large mound, which he assumed was a snow drift. He pulled the car into the leeward side of the drift, hoping to find a safe harbor from the storm. Night fell upon them, they bundled up in the back seat with everything they could use around them to keep themselves warm. Russell said he'd never known such cold. He spent the night holding Vaina Lee and trying to keep her warm. When daylight came, Russell said the blizzard had blown over, leaving the car almost entirely buried. He dugged a way out and told Vaina Lee to stay there in the car and try to stay warm, while he investigated the situation to find the best way out. ... As Russell plowed through the deep snow, rounding the huge mound, the sun light fell upon the front of a small church. He hurried back to inform Vaina Lee of what he had found and to tell her to stay there until he checked it out. Once he had managed to enter the church, he found a small wood burning stove and a stack of firewood laid out beside it. Russell hurriedly built a fire and went to get his bride to bring her into the warmth of this safe haven. ... They were there about an hour or so, when suddenly there were loud footsteps on the steps of the church. A gentleman, who farmed the land on which the church was built, entered and introduced himself. He indicated that he'd seen the smoke coming from the chimney and came to investigate. He said he was glad that they'd been able to survive the blizzard. He took them back to his farm, fed them and saw them on their way the next day. ... Russell said the was sure that there was an almighty power watching over them and continued to the rest of their days.



of Vaina Lee Cole will be added hopefully soon.

Still Learning

I've learned a lot in my lifetime. I guess the feeling of despair comes from the knowledge that there will probably be no one who will come after me that will ever care about all the information I have gathered in the last four years of genealogy research. And then there's the family albums and photographs, fifty years of collecting and where will it end up? I'm not a president or a queen or an actress of fame or any one who has done something as important as inventing penicillin. But, I feel that some of us must keep the records of what has happened and who has passed through our lives.

Because each person has a story to tell about themselves and their lives, this blog will be dedicated to writing down as many of the stories as I can that have been told by the people in my family tree. I will try to keep the facts as close to truth as I have been told by my parents and grandparents, family and distant relations.

To begin, I want to thank everyone who has shared so graciously of their information, research and postings. If at any time you notice an error I have made, I will be grateful for your imput and corrections.

Genealogy has become a passion, almost an obsession at times. I have even let it flow over into my watercolors. Actually, it has given my paintings a new point of interest and excitement.
When I become more adapt at the computer and blogging, I will add pictures, paintings and photos of my genealogy quilts.

I hope you will find this blog of interest and perhaps for one or two persons it might even lead them to research their own decendency.

A New Year 2008

A new year begins in two more days. The possibilities are endless. To continue in my pursuits of genealogy, watercolor painting & quilting as I travel to yet unknown places in my endeavor to follow my quest for knowledge. Taking each day as a gift given to me to fill and not squander. I meet the new year 2008 with gladness and welcome.