My dad's first wife, Constance Marie Stoep (Connie), was
born in Detroit, Michigan on December 19, 1925. What precious little we know of Connie's growing-up years we know from her photo album. Thankfully, she dutifully wrote everyone's name in white ink on the album's black pages. The clues provided there have sent me down numerous avenues of investigation, public records, the U.S. Census, Ancestry.com, city directories, etc., as I've tried to reconstruct her life and her family tree.
Unfortunately, after her death in 1952, we lost touch with Connie's mother's side of the family. Only now, as a result of this research, we have just connected with cousins of my half-siblings', whom we didn't even know existed!
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| note her name written on the cover |
Part 1
Connie was born to Oma Joyce (Borders) (1901-1979) and her husband Arne Channings Stoep (1898-1948). We don't know how they met, but by the time they married, Arne had left his native Minneapolis and moved to Indianapolis. Oma had been born in Jackson County in southern Indiana. They were wed on November 23, 1921 by Rev. Oren A. Cook in neighboring Lawrence County. They made their first home at 1023 Park Avenue in the Old Northside neighborhood of Indianapolis.
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| Oma & Arne Stoep |
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| Oma, Connie, Arne |
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Connie with Oma's sister,
Myrtle Marie Borders |
Apparently, Connie was a stylishly versatile child, successfully pulling off everything from the most formal of looks...
... to the ultimate in casual.
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| July 6, 1928 |
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| "My dollies" |
A Family on the Move
Her dad, Arne (pronounced "Arnie") worked as a manager for the Wormser Hat Shop in Detroit. He had started out as a salesman in their Indianapolis store in 1921 or 1922. But by 1923, he had been promoted to manager and transferred to Houston, Texas. The year 1924 brought with it another transfer, this time to Detroit, where they lived, probably until 1933. After a few years of moving around the country, it must have been nice to settle down.
In searching the city directories for the period, the Stoeps lived at four different addresses.
- 3742 Wabash Avenue (where Connie was born)
- 1610 Richton Avenue, Apartment R2
- 9661 Ward Avenue
- 8037 Woodward Avenue
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| Arne and a litter of kittens |
Detroit Friends
I so wish that we knew the story behind the following pictures. Jeanette and Tommy Franks. Don't they just sound like a Vaudeville act? Seriously. This sister/brother pair had a costume collection that must have been the envy of all Detroit. These pictures were all staged on the same block, in what looks like a neighborhood of apartment buildings. But taken on the same day? Different days? Halloween, perhaps? Shirley Temple Day? Or were they heading out on the Vaudeville circuit?
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| Jeanette Franks |
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| Jeanette Franks, Marion |
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| Jeanette & Tommy Franks |
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| Jeanette & Tommy Franks, Marion |
I searched for Jeanette and Tommy, but the closest I came was a Janet Frank, who graduated from Detroit Central High School in 1939. That would make her three years older than Connie. But I do think that the resemblance is pretty strong. What do you think?
Divorce
After almost twelve years, Oma and Arne divorced in 1933, when Connie was seven years old. Tellingly, the first picture of them at the beginning of this post is the only one that includes the both of them.
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| Oma |
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| Arne |
Following the divorce, Arne took Connie and moved back to his hometown of Minneapolis. It is there that Connie lived the remainder of her life. And it is there that the story will continue in Part 2.
