(Picture: Emma, Naomi, Armenia, and William Tolman)
(Excerpts from “William Odell Tolman: Patriarch, Genealogist, Teacher,” compiled by Loraine Tolman Pace, First Edition, 2009, page 2).
My sister, Naomi, records the following in her life story: “I recall very plainly when my brother Bill was born. What rejoicing! Mother had three girls already so we were plenty thrilled when we were told it was a boy. We really spoiled him too. I used to press his clothes when he was only eleven or twelve and take him off to dances, so proud to have a brother along.”
The early excitement may not have lasted for everyone. My sister, Armenia records, “We would cut paper dolls out of Montgomery Ward Catalogues. We especially liked the ones with pink dresses on. Our brother Bill would tear them and we would have to wait until the next catalogue came before we could cut more.”
In a letter dated June 8, 1958 from Armenia to me she said, “Something else you might want to know about yourself when you were little. You used to go to sleep almost anywhere you felt like it, under the bed, in a ditch, on the harrow, etc. I helped find you many times. Mother would think you were in a creek or lost or something.”
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