Day 14: Fearless Females: Ethel's Scrapbook

March 14 Prompt— Newsmakers? Did you have a female ancestor who made the news? Why? Was she famous or notorious? Did she appear in the social column?

My grandmother Ethel, was in the paper all the time, but not exactly as I portrayed her in this image I created with my Photo2Fun app by vukee.com. Ethel's picture was never on the front page, though she was truly a newsmaker! My grandmother was a reporter, during her years at Rice University (1936-1940). She joined the staff of the Thresher, the weekly student publication at Rice during her sophomore year and worked her way up to associate editor. She also worked as the Rice reporter for the Houston Press (a Scripps Howard paper) during her junior year and the Houston Chronicle during her senior year.

Upon graduation, Ethel finally made the headlines at the Chronicle as one of the youngest students to ever graduate from Rice.

"Ethel Bloomfield, Chronicle Rice correspondent who will receive the bachelor of arts degree Monday, is one of the youngest persons ever graduated from Rice Institue and is the youngest of this year's class.

The 18-year-old Houston girl has won high honors in her four years, including the Lady Geddis award freshman year for an essay concerning relations between England and the United States.

A member of the choral and dramatic clubs, she was on the honor roll in her freshman and junio years and served for two years as associate editor of the Rice Thresher. She also served as president of Menorah Society.

Miss Bloomfield who has been The Chronicle correspondent at the school for more than a year, majored in English and chemistry and for tow years has coached mathematics students. She is a graduate of Sam Houston High School where she topped her class of which she was the youngest, in scholastic honors."

In a chapter she wrote for a memoir writing class, Ethel mentioned her writing brief writing career:

"....I had taken the only two writing courses offered at Rice University, creative writing 101 and 102.... I wanted to study journalism, but Rice didn't offer a course in journalism in the 1930s. The Chronicle liked my work, and my pay averaged about $15 dollars a week, which was very high for that job at that time."

Ever since I discovered Ethel's memoir chapters, I've been looking for samples of her writing with little success. Last December, everything change. My mother, arrived at my home with a gift—a scrapbook she found hidden in a box. The fragile scrapbook belonged to her mother, Ethel, and contains close to THREE HUNDRED newspaper clippings dated 1939-1940! A true Treasure!

The Fearless Females series of blog post, spearheaded by +Lisa Alzo, and especially today's Newsmaker prompt, inspired me to start a new blog, dedicated to my grandmother Ethel. Today, I'm announcing the birth of Ethel's Scrapbook, A Young Reporter at Rice University (1939-1940). The blog will tell the story of the Rice Campus through Ethel's eyes. It will include articles from the scrapbook as well as Ethel's photo collection from the same time period.

I invite you to join me on an exceptional journey as I explore a new side of my grandmother. Come and discover life on a college campus more than seventy years ago, as told by an exceptional young woman!

Hats Off to the Top Fearless Female!

Fearless Females series celebrating Women's History Month celebration continues.

March 4th Prompt— Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one.

I have a few marriage records in my archives. One courageous grandmother, tops the list. As far as fearless females go, my grandmother Ethel embodied fearless. She may not have described herself that way, but I believe she was. She was also incredibly organized and carefully filed all her documents, having great foresight for this blog prompt!  Ethel was born Ethel Girlie Crane Bloomfield in Laconia, New Hampshire, on August 6th, 1921. At the age of twenty-one she married my grandfather Morris Bogdanow and became Ethel Bogdanow.

Ethel's Engagement Announcement
from one of the Houston Papers.
(Click to enlarge)

In her betrothal announcement portrait, my grandmother looked like a movie star.
The caption reads:

Mr and Mrs William Bloomfield announce the engagement of their daughter, Ethel, to Morris Bogdanow of Houston, son of Mr and Mrs. A Bogdanow of Jersey City, N.J. The wedding take place in early October. Miss Bloomfield was graduated at Rice Institute and her fiance was graduated from the University of Maryland where he received his B.A. degree, and from the law school of Columbia University. 

The wedding took place as promised on October 21, 1942. I recently posted their beautiful wedding picture as part of my Family Tree Wedding Timeline (see the Wedding Photo Challenge post).

 

Ethel Bloomfield and Morris Bogdanow Marriage License
Oct 21, 1942 Houston, Texas  (Click to enlarge)

Unfortunately their marriage lasted less than 13 years. Ethel divorced my grandmother Morris in 1955, At thirty three she became a single mother of four small children. Here is where I think the brave part begins. Divorce in the 1940 and 1950s, carried a much greater stigma than today. According to the University of Maryland graph below, the divorce rate has more than tripled since 1955. I'm pretty sure rates were even lower in the Jewish community back then.

(University of Maryland
Click to Enlarge)

Four years later, the older and more experienced Ethel—now known by her first husband's name, Ethel Bogdanow—decided to remarry. This second marriage announcement wasn't quite as optimistic as the first, perhaps foreboding of the eventual failure of this second marriage.

Marriage Annoucement
Ethel Bogdanow and Irvin Veedell

Mariage Certificate Ethel Bogdanow and Irvin Veedel
(Click to enlarge)

The marriage did not last long. As if divorce did not carry enough stigma in a small community, she soon found herself a double divorcee.

Throughout the years my grandmother struggled to support her family. She supplemented her irregular child-support payments with her work as a legal secretary. In 1964, she decided to go back to school. She received a law degree from the South Texas College of Law in 1967. She successfully obtained her degree in three years of night school while working full time and raising four children. Like I said: "Fearless."

A few years laters (November 19th, 1970), my grandmother—ever the hopeful romantic — decided to give the institution of marriage another more chance. This time the now Ethel Veedell, became,  became Mrs Fred Alzofon.

Marriage Certificate
Ethel Veedell and Fred Alzofon.
(Click to enlarge)

This marriage was quite short lived, and terminated like the previous two. Her records contained this third and final divorce proceedings from July 22nd, 1975. She kept the name Ethel Alzofon for the rest of her life.

Fred and Ethel Alzofon's divorce papers
(click to enlarge).

Growing up, I was the only kid whose grandmother had been divorced three times. It was a relief when she decided to abandon the idea of marriage and chose not follow Liz Taylor's footsteps. Today, I admire her courage for trying over and over again, as well as her ability to walk away from a bad situation. I may not know the stories of her wedding days, but she certainly left a large paper trail and a heck of a life story!


Visit earlier post in the series:

Women's History Month Day 1: Fearless Females: Favorite Female Ancestor & Genealogy Guru!
Women's History Month Day 2: Fearless Females: Third Great-Grandmother!
Women's History Month Day 3: Fearless Females: The Middle Name That Almost Was


To learn more about +Lisa Alzo's 31 inspirational writing prompts in celebration of Women's History Month visit her blog:  The Accidental Genealogist.