Friday’s Faces from the Past: McGinnis Family Portrait

Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis (1858 – 1940) Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) Francis Eugene McGinnis (1891 – 1961) John Charles McGinnis (1894 – 1944) Alice Gaffney (McGinnis) Schiavon (1895 – 1963) Some time during the late 1930s, the now-adult McGinnis children: Benita, Alice (my maternal grandmother), Gene, and John, gathered at the family home at 8336 Drexel … Continue reading "Friday’s Faces from the Past: McGinnis Family Portrait"

Not-So-Wordless Wednesday: It’s All Relative

Phillip Eugene “Bud” McCormick (1927 – 2004) Benita Jane “Janie” (McCormick) Olson  (1927 – 2011) Joan (Schiavon) Huesca (1928 – 1987) My great-aunt “Detty,” or Benita (McGinnis) McCormick, and her younger sister (my grandmother, Alice (McGinnis) Schiavon), lived several blocks apart on the South side of Chicago, both from each other and from their mother, Mary Jane (Gaffney) … Continue reading "Not-So-Wordless Wednesday: It’s All Relative"

Sentimental Sunday: Sunday Dinner

Making Memories Around the Table Left to right:  John Charles McGinnis Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis, Alice McGinnis, Thomas Eugene McGinnis, (John’s wife) Edith (Hoag) McGinnis, cousin  Eileen Kelly, and Benita McGinnis.  Photo taken at the McGinnis home, 8336 Drexel Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, sometime between 1914 and 1920.   Like many a family in the early twentieth century, my … Continue reading "Sentimental Sunday: Sunday Dinner"

The Day JFK Was Shot

I was a third grader at Saint Philip Neri Elementary Schoolin Chicago, Illinois, when the principal’s voice came over the public address system, announcing that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.  She asked all the classes to stop what they were doing and join in prayer for our president.  It was just … Continue reading "The Day JFK Was Shot"