Today would have been my Mom’s 94th birthday and I’ve been thinking a lot about her this week… So I thought I’d post some photos in remembrance of her.  Click on any photo to enlarge it.

My mother, Josephine Ann Daniels (7 Jan 1922 – 26 May 2003),  was born in Seattle, Washington, the first child of Esther Marie Donnelly Daniels (12 May 1897 – 21 Dec 1931) and Roland Michael Daniels (12 Mar 1895 –  29 Nov 1967).   I’ve never heard much about her early days – the photo at the left of Jo and her father is the earliest I’ve seen – is she holding a child’s golf club??  I’m not sure of the location of this photo, but could be in Bellingham or Sedro Wooley, Washington, perhaps.  The one below to the right shows Jo around age 5 with her younger sister Micheline Marie Daniels Percich (10 Dec 1925 – 19 Jun 2012).  My best guess is that they grew up in Bellingham, since Micheline ( “Aunt Mike” as we called her) was born there.  Jo and Mike’s mother died in December of 1931 (by suicide), leaving the young girls without a mother until their father Dan married Alvina Carolina Dietz (27 Sep 1910 – 29 Jan 2007) in September of 1933.  Jo spent her school days and two years of college in Bellingham, before moving to Taft, California, during World War II to work at an airbase there as a secretary.  It was then that she met a young Air Corps flight instructor, George Dargan Frierson, and they married in April of 1944.  Most of the photographs I have of my Mom are from high school days and later and I’ll post some of my favorites.  I’ll try to label them with whatever information I have, though some info is sketchy. Hope you enjoy these remembrances of Mom – we miss her a lot!

 

                   

I don’t have much information about the two photos above, but they both appear to be taken around the same time, mid to late 1930s.  The one on the left was taken at the cabin on Samish Island that the Daniels family frequently visited during this time – note the antlers and animal skins hanging on the outside wall!   Before Aunt Mike died, she told me a story about this photo, and if I remember correctly the woman on the far left in this picture was a friend of the family and the woman seated next to Aunt Mike was Inez Nelson Donnelly (5 Nov 1912 – Apr 1978), the wife of Jo and Mike’s uncle Hubert Patrick Donnelly (14 Jun 1909 – 28 Apr 1972). 

 

I think the clipping at the left is from the State newspaper in Columbia, SC, and it contains a lot of information about the young married couple.  The one with the photograph is from the Bellingham Herald and mixes up the groom’s name with the air base where he works!

 

Now some of Mom as a young married woman in California…

                                                                   

The final one below shows the young married couple on their first visit to South Carolina, probably in late 1944, with her new in-laws: my Dad’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Frierson, Senior (“Grannie” and “Papa” to me) and Dad’s brother and wife, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Frierson, Junior (Uncle Jack and Aunt Bev).  Notice the young boy on Grannie’s lap, my first cousin John L. Frierson III.

Now a couple more random, pre-children photos…  (left to right, top to bottom)  1. A HS yearbook photo?  2. A visit from Georgia Dargan Frierson  to the young couple (California?)  3.  What kind of car is this??  4.  Jo’s family in Bellingham, sister Micheline and her half-brothers (Jo and Aunt Mike called them “the boys”), Michael, Pat, and Larry Daniels.  5. Young couple in California, working in the yard.  6. Jo dressed for work in California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

            

 

In Josephine Daniels Frierson Part II, I’ll next post some of my favorite photos of Mom after her five children come along and their young family begins to grow…