52 Ancestors Year 2 #29: Alma Agnes Hudson Quinn, "Aunt Alma"

     The theme this week is "Road Trip".  When I was a girl in the 50's my family went on at least two road trips to visit my Dad's Aunt Alma in her home in Fort Worth, Texas from our home in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was a lovely woman and made us feel at home.  I especially remember her showing my sister and I her collection of jewelry.  She gave me a bracelet which I still had and wore as a young woman.  It was Egyptian Revival, dark metal with semi precious stones on scarabs. It occurs to me that her jewelry may be one reason I became attracted to vintage jewelry years later.

     Alma Agnes Hudson was born on 28 Jul 1895 in Texarkana, Texas, daughter of Benjamin Melvin Hudson and Agnes Georgiana Cookson (see earlier blogs on them). She was the third of four daughters.  She seems to have been popular in High School as she was the Secretary of the Senior Class.  She graduated from Central High School in Fort Worth in 1913.  She then attended College at Chicago University.  I'm not sure if she graduated or what she studied there but she did become a highly skilled stenographer Secretary and worked for an Oil Company most of her life.  While her older sisters, Edna and Mabel, became teachers and her younger sister, Bessie, was a Minister's wife, Alma had a career as a stenographer.  In the 1920 Census she is living at home in Fort Worth and working as a steno for an automobile company.  In 1930 she is on her own in Houston, working for  an Oil company.  When I first knew her in the 50's she was still working for an Oil Company in Fort Worth.

     On 24 Jun 1931, she married Edward James Quinn, both age 36 at the time. They were married in Detroit, I believe because that is where her sister, Bessie lived.  They then lived in Chicago (per the 1940 Census they had been living in Chicago in 1935) before moving to Downer's Grove, DuPage, Illinois, a suburb 22 miles west of Chicago. It was here on 4 Mar 1935 that their daughter, Evelyn Hudson Quinn was born.  The 1940 Census gives his profession as Appraiser (in the 1930 Census he was a mechanic).  On his 1942 WW II Draft Registration Card he and family are again living in Chicago and he is working for the Lloyd Thomas Co., which is still a Real Estate Co. in Chicago. Edward was born in Brooklyn, his father was born in Glasgow, Scotland.

     Unfortunately, Edward died on 14 Aug 1948, when Evelyn was 13.  Alma moved back to Fort Worth and back into the family home with her father and sister, Edna.  She lived there the rest of her life.  Alma had a strong love of family and frequently visited by her nephews and niece and her sisters Mabel and Bessie.  She traveled to Duarte,

California in 1977 to be with Bessie at her 60th Wedding Anniversary.  Alma died on 21 Dec 1981, her sister, Bessie, joined her only a few months later on 12 May 1982.  She was a well loved daughter, sister, wife, mother and aunt!