Benita (McGinnis) McCormick – Page 4 – Many Branches, One Tree

Thankful Thursday: “The One”

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) Phillip C. McCormick (1892 – 1981) 93 years ago this week, my great-Aunt Detty – Benita McGinnis – mailed a rather flirtatious, if not somewhat mysterious, penny postcard to a certain Mr. P.C. McCormick: (Postmarked May 14, 1921) Mr. P.C. McCormick #112 W. Adams St. Chicago, Ill. Dear Egg, Just … Continue reading

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Awkward Family Photo

The Thomas and Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis Family What was going on in this picture? The best photos are sometimes the awkward ones, the ones that went slightly wrong and no one did what they were “supposed” to do. The time would have been about 1920 or so. Imagine the McGinnises, sitting comfortably at the … Continue reading

Workday Wednesday: Chief of the Censor Board of Chicago

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) Benita McGinnis, circa 1921. Chicago, Illinois. From Benita’s scrapbook. Benita (McGinnis) McCormick, my great-aunt Detty, was not afraid of a little controversy. In fact, she believed that if you did nothing else in your life, you should always stand up for your convictions, … Continue reading

Talented Tuesday: Doing Her Bit

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) As the Great War (later to be called World War I) broke out in Europe in 1914, barely a year after arriving home from her trip there, my great-aunt Detty (Benita McGinnis McCormick), like most women of the era, threw herself into a flurry … Continue reading

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

Friday’s Faces from the Past: The Man She Almost Married – Part Three

G Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) Edward Michael “Ned” Savage (1886 – 1915) Last of a three-part series Ag éirí na gréine agus a chuid ag dul síos, cuimhin linn duit. (At the rising of the sun and its going down, we remember … Continue reading

Mystery Monday: The Man She Almost Married – Part Two

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) Edward Michael Savage (1886 – 1915) Second in a three-part series Ned Savage plays in a haystack, Ireland 1913. The man and woman with him are unidentified. From Benita (McGinnis) McCormick’s scrapbook. As I began to search for what happened to Edward Michael … Continue reading

Sentimental Sunday: The Man She Almost Married – Part One

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) Edward Michael Savage (1886 – 1915) The life given us, by nature is short, but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal. … Continue reading

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Dear Uncle Pat

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) Benita McGinnis painted this watercolor rendering of her Irish uncle sometime during her visit with relatives in Ireland in 1913. Unfortunately, we may never know more about “Dear Uncle Pat,” as she titled the painting, except that he was 93 years old at … Continue reading

Travel Tuesday: Benita at the Gap of Dunloe

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) Just couldn’t resist sharing this picture, which was given to my maternal great-grandparents, Thomas and Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis, by their oldest daughter, Benita. I love it so much that I have hung a copy as the centerpiece of a family photo gallery wall in … Continue reading