| Name |
Thelma Geraldine Maybee |
| Birth |
6 Aug 1906 |
Rosebush, Isabella County, Michigan  [1] |
| Gender |
Female |
| Census |
Apr 1910 |
Kern County, California [2] |
- Herbert Maybee, Head, M, W, 32, M1, 6, Canada, Canada, Canada, foreman, owns home
Nona Maybee, Wife, F, W, 27, M1, 6, 3 children born and living, Dehota, Canada, Canada
Minard Maybee, Son, M, W, 5, S, Michigan, Canada, Dehota, none
Thelma Maybee, Daughter, F, W, 3, S, Michigan, Canada, Dehota, none
Ronird Maybee, Son, M, W, 18 months, S, Michigan, Canada, Dehota, none
|
| Census |
Jan 1920 |
213 Oak Street, Mount Pleasant, Isabella County, Michigan [3] |
- Thelma Maybee, Lodger, F, W, 13, Michigan, Michigan, Minnesota, in school; with the Fred Doane family
|
| Anecdote |
- My mother, Thelma Gertrude Maybee, was the rock that held us together. Without her fortitude, our family would have dissolved rapidly.
Thelma was born in Rosebush, Michigan, the second child and only daughter of Herbert Maybee and Nina Henrietta Chapman. They had three children, Minard, Thelma , and Ronald.
Thelma was delivered by Dr Benjamin Franklin Patterson Johnston, a cousin who deliver all of the babies in that area for some forty years. He always called Thelma his "Blue Ribbon Baby" because she was the only dark haired baby he had delivered in that bunch of blondes. Her dark hair came from the Maybee side which has some Indian blood scattered in the lineage.
The three children had a rough upbringing. Nina Maybee was quite ill with Tuberculosis and it was felt that the damp climate of Central Michigan was not helping her so they moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma near a family friend named Billy Boyd. Herbert went to work in the oil fields, which was about the only work available in that area but things slowed down. They felt that the drier climate of Bakersfield, California would be better for Nina so they moved to that area. Thelma remembers that Herbert built them a tent home to live in and they lived on the project, the name given for the oil fields. Nina's health did not improve and she died on July 25, 1911. They shipped the body to Mt. Pleasant, Michigan for burial and also moved the children back to Michigan.
Herbert then left the children with their aunts and returned to California. Thelma 's Aunt Mary and Uncle Fred was going to adopt her. She said,"Uncle Fred was an old Bastard and you had to watch out for him or he would try to get you behind a plant or something and try to rape you."They were talking about putting Ronald in an orphanage and Grandma Chapman took Minard. Thelma 's Aunt Amelia (Thelma always called her Aunt Millie even later when most of the family called her Íkie) did not want to separate Thelma and Ronald so she talked to her husband Pearl Doane and got him to agree to take them.
They lived in Mt. Pleasant and attended the Training School at Michigan State Normal (now called Central Michigan) which was a training school for teachers and most of their teachers were students working towards their Teaching Certificate. Thelma could remember some of the teaching critics, as the supervising teachers were called, from her first few years there.
Pearl and Amelia Doane stayed in Michigan for a few years but Amelia's daughter by her first marriage to Will Graham, Bernice Graham, had a lung disease, called Impaia, that was not getting better in Michigan so they opted to move to Oklahoma where the weather was drier. This meant that Amelia had to move to Oklahoma with her young son, Robert, her sick daughter, Bernice, her other daughter Mildred, her niece, Thelma; and her nephew, Ronald. They moved to Oklahoma in 1920. Pearl stayed in Oklahoma for a while but he got lonesome for his mother and Michigan so he returned to Michigan, leaving Aunt Millie in Bartlesville, Oklahoma with no man to help raise five growing children and no means of support. Bernice's health continued to get worse and someone recommended that they move to New Mexico where the air was much drier along with the higher altitude. So in 1921, Aunt Millie moved the four younger children to Albuquerque, New Mexico and took a job as a seamstress for one of the Jewish Department stores. It was here that she later got her nickname "Ikie" as she would wave her hands while she was talking. She rented a house on the East side of town and eventually was able to put the down payment on the house at 902 W. Roma Avenue and operate it as a boarding house.
At the end of her Junior year at Albuquerque High School, Ikie told Thelma she would not be able to finish her next year. Thelma thought the world had come to an end since she couldn't finish her high school education. She took a job as an operator with the phone company.
Thomas Flanagan moving to Arizona and marrying her was one of the best things that happened to Thelma as it got her out from under the pressure, of being the orphan girl that had to wait on the family.
|
| Note |
- Maybee Society Member Number 152
|
| Reference Number |
152 |
| Residence |
1955 |
4200 Edith, Albuquerque, New Mexico [5] |
- Tom L Flanagan (Thelma G) Builder h 4200 Edith
|
| Death |
5 Jan 2004 |
Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico [6] |
| Burial |
Sunset Memorial Park, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico [7] |
| Person ID |
I152 |
Maybee Society |
| Last Modified |
7 Apr 2024 |
| Family |
Thomas Lee Flanagan, b. 12 Jan 1902, 7 miles west of, Hico, Hamilton County, Texas d. 7 Jun 1987, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico (Age 85 years) |
| Marriage |
22 Oct 1925 |
Las Lunas, Valencia County, New Mexico [1] |
| Children |
| | 1. Willis Eugene Flanagan, b. 8 Dec 1926, Globe, Gila County, Arizona d. 22 Oct 1999, Globe, Gila County, Arizona (Age 72 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| + | 2. Margaret Geraldine Flanagan, b. 14 Dec 1928, Globe, Gila County, Arizona d. 7 Dec 2011, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico (Age 82 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 3. Living |
|
| Family ID |
F648 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
7 Apr 2024 |
1906 - 2004 (97 years)
