Ancestors – It's All About Family

Ronald Dean Benson

The Early Years – Oklahoma

Ronald was born on February 17, 1932 in Muskogee, Oklahoma to Opal Deane Menser Benson and Cletus Benson. He was two years and a few months younger than Harold Benson, my husband Mark’s father. He had a significant influence on Mark so I thought he deserved his own story.

Ronald was born in the waning period of Opal and Cletus’s marriage. Prior to his birth, in 1930 Opal and Harold were living with her sister and family, and Cletus was living with his sister and family. At the time that Ronald was born, Cletus was 25 years old and an automobile mechanic and Opal was 24 years old and a housewife. It’s unknown how long the marriage lasted after that but in July of 1938, Opal married George Ray Shelton.

Ronald entered 1st grade as a Benson in 1938, and 2nd grade at a different school as a Shelton. His brother, Harold, was listed as a Shelton in one school article, but then went back to Benson.

Based on an Affidavit of Birth signed by Opal dated November 18, 1953, Ronald began using his step-father’s name in 1938. The affidavit was used as one of the documents for a Delayed Certificate of Birth with the state of Oklahoma in October of 1965.

The 1940 census shows George, Opal, and Harold living at 403 South Pennsylvania Street in Shawnee, but Ronald isn’t listed, but I’m sure he was living with them.

California

Two years later, Ronald was in 4th grade and the family was living in Vallejo California while George was working as a machinist for the Navy at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard according to the 1942 Vallejo directory.

*Harold and Ronald – ages unknown – 2 years apart*

Ronald attended sixth through tenth grade and graduated from Benjamin Franklin Junior High in Vallejo, California in 1948. His last two years of schooling, eleventh and twelfth were at Technical High school in Oakland, California.

During high school, Ronald was working 18 hours a week at a drive in restaurant at the soda fountain “making orders”. Opal managed the restaurant, and his sister-in-law, Wanda worked as a car-hop at the restaurant.

Military Life – Korean War

The Fold3 website had approximately 15 records that gave me snapshots of his service in the Korean War.

On November 30, 1950 a few months shy of his 19th birthday, Ronald enlisted in the Marine Corps and in January of 1951, was sent to San Diego as a trainee in the 1st Recruit Training Battalion for Boot Camp. At the time, the family was living at 1758 62nd Street in Berkeley California.

In April of 1951, he was with A Company, 4th Infantry Training Battalion, Training & Replacement Command at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside California. He was a Private First Class and was learning things like rifle and machine gun tactics, patrolling, land navigation, field special, entrenching and defensive positions, grenades and demolitions, and working as part of an infantry squad. the Marines were doing everything the could to prepare the soldiers for combat overseas as quickly as possible.

*US Marine Corps 3rd Marine Division* *– 1951*

In July of 1951, six month after his enlistment, he was on his way to Korea. He headed overseas as a Private First Class with Headquarters Company, 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, FMF (Fleet Marine Force). What’s that all mean? It means he was part of one the major combat divisions in Korea. The division had infantry regiments, artillery, tanks, engineers, and support units.

At the end of October 1951, he was assigned to Company D, 1st tank battalion, 1st Marine Division as a Private First Class. We know from family history already that he is was part of a tank crew and his MOS ID of 1811 confirms that. Records from January 1952 and April 1952 share the same information but in April his rank was E-3, or Lance Corporal.

In June of 1952 after one year overseas, he and 1919 other marines arrived at Fort Mason in San Francisco on June 18, 1953 aboard the USNS General William Weigel.

Following his return, special orders issued in late June and July, transferred him back to Camp Pendleton. He became part of C Company and the 3rd tank battalion of the 3rd Marine division. The 3rd marine division never fought in the Korean War but it was reactivated in January of 1952 to build combat readiness and training in new military tactics. The Marine Corps recognized him as a leader and teacher which is certainly the man we all knew!

He remained at Camp Pendleton as part of the 3rd Marine division until he was honorably discharged on November 11, 1953. His place of separation was the Marine Corps air station El Toro in Santa Ana, California. From there, he headed to a family home at 5616 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, California.

While in service, he was awarded three medals. A National Defense Service Medal which was awarded for honorable active service during the Korean War era. A Korean Service Medal with one bronze service star which means he served in the Korean theater and indicates participation in one designated campaign during the war. Since I don’t have an exact date of his arrival in Korea, that campaign might have been the UN Summer-Fall Offensive which ran from July 9 to November 27, 1951 or the Second Korean Winter which ran from November 28 to April 30, 1952. If any family history buffs know, or are interested in these campaigns or the Korean War, let me know! The third medal was A United Nations Service Medal which was awarded to person-involved who served under the United Nations Command in Korea.

After the War

Ronald was home for less than a year when he met and married Barbara Grove on July 21, 1954. She was an 18 year old divorced young woman with a one year old son. They would be married for sixty five years.

Ronald and Barbara settled first in Vallejo, California in the late 50s, before moving to Napa, California. Ronald was working for Western Electric Company, as an installer. They had their first daughter, Shawnee Dean in 1955 and their second daughter, Mahona Jo in 1962.

*Ronald, Harold, and Mark (Harold’s son) Apr. 1967*

Ron’s daughter Shawn remembered this motorcycle and said:
“He had that bike when I was about 5. He used to take me for a ride to get hot cocoa at a diner but made me ride in front of him. We got pulled over one time and the officer said I needed to ride on the back. Dad told the officer that he was concerned if I fell off, he wouldn’t know! That ended our dates. No helmets either.”

Ron was transferred to Vancouver, Washington in 1968 where the family was very happy. In 1974, he was transferred to Bossier City, just over the Red River from Shreveport in Louisiana. Shawn, already out of high school remained behind in Washington. After six months they realized this was not where they wanted to be and Ron was able to get a transferred back to Washington State. In our conversations, Mahona realized she spent 5th grade in three different elementary schools!

When they arrived back in Washington State, Ronald invested in a campground with Jerry Capps who also worked for Western Electric. Jerry bought the property and Ron helped finish building it. It was called Jerry’s American Heritage Campground located in Tumwater, Washington.

Ron continued worked for AT&T and helped run the campground before and after work and on the weekends. Barbara also helped there and started working at a doctor’s office nearby. The Capps family included Jerry, his wife Darlene, and children Mark, Linda, and Kevin. They had mobile homes brought on the campgrounds and the two families lived side by side.

Shawn was already on her own, but Mahona, who was 12 or 13 at the time had some great memories that she shared with me:
”When we moved to the campground I had a blast. It was like a camping vacation 24/7. All of us kids worked around the campground. We had a store and a pool. They even ordered some kind of soldier uniform for us to wear and paid me and Kevin to stand out on the main road and convince campers to come to our campground and stay (there was a KoA just down the road). We waved signs 😂. I’m pretty sure we were the first ones to ever wave signs on a road for advertisement.

That text conversation brought up some more memories:
One of my favorite jobs was driving or riding in an old truck and picking up the garbage bags that the campers would set out at the end of their campsite. I was 12/13 driving. I bet it was dad’s old truck. I also loved working in the store. On the weekends we did a hay ride for campers on a flat bed. Sounds pretty dumb now. We just drove people on the back.

We had a good laugh at the picture she sent of the similar uniform and I could picture a younger Mahona wearing it.

*Outfit similar to what Mahona wore trying to bring in customers to the campgrounds!*

Unfortunately, that only lasted two or so years. I don’t know whether only Ron and Barbara got out or if it closed down altogether. The property is still a campground and is known as American Heritage Campground.

Ronald continued with his job at AT&T and the family moved to property at 940 88th Avenue SW in Tumwater, Washington. They put their trailer on the property and lived there until a duplex was built in 1981. This was the home I remember from our visits to Washington through the years.

The Later Years

Ronald continued to work for AT&T and Barbara worked for a medical practice as a receptionist before heading to work at Providence St Peter’s Hospital in the Diagnostic Imaging Department.

In 1987 at the age of 55, Ron was offered a Cash Out for early retirement from AT&T. It provided a lump sum of money, a pension, health insurance for him and Barbara for the rest of their lives and free long distance phone calls. He gladly took it!

A few years after that, he became a fishing guide in Alaska. He would spend a few months a year there. He also had a fishing boat that he would take people out in Neah Bay and Westport in Washington. Just like his brother Harold, he loved to fish.

His daughters were in the Olympia area, both married, with children and lived in the town of Tumwater, a short drive from the Olympia home.

We traveled from California to visit for Thanksgiving in 1991. Our son, Cody, was about 18 months old and I think it was the first time both of us met Ronald and Barbara and the family. Cody had three new cousins! Opal lived next door in the other home of the duplex.

*Who did doesn’t love a wheelbarrow ride?*

For Thanksgiving of 1994, Ronald and Barbara, Shawn and her family, and Mahona and her family (one a newborn!), along with Harold and his wife Danielle, all piled into our small home in California for the holiday weekend. There were two campers in the driveway and every bedroom space was filled! Aunt Barbara took over the cooking and you can be sure I let her.

After we moved to Connecticut we traded visits with Uncle Ronald and Aunt Barbara visiting us and the three of us, visiting them and their family in Olympia, Washington.

A favorite visit was when we surprised him for his 80th birthday in February of 2012. Shawn and her family were visiting us in January and casually mentioned they were having a birthday party for him and we said, “we want to come!” We booked our flight and were there to surprise and celebrate 80 years of Ronald.

The years went by and time took its toll. Aunt Barbara began to suffer from dementia and Ronald tried to care for her himself, but he couldn’t do it, and she needed to be placed in a memory care facility. Unfortunately, Ronald had suffered from PTSD after the Korean War and his worry over his wife, brought on anxiety. After some time, trial and error, he sold his home and moved in with his daughter Shawn. His younger daughter Mahona and her family were right around the corner.

The last time we saw him was in February of 2019. Mark and I flew out for a visit and we had a wonderful time. Aunt Barbara joined us for dinner but she wasn’t sure of who we were. We met new family members of all ages.

*Nancy, Mark, Ronald on visit to State Capital*

On December 9th of 2019, we received the phone call we never wanted to hear. Uncle Ronald had passed away.

Aunt Barbara would continue to live for another six and a half years at a memory care facility before joining Uncle Ronald on June 9, 2025.

Uncle Ronald never lost that Okie from Muskogee persona. He was down to earth and quick witted. He took care of his mother living next door, his wife, his children, and his grandchildren and he still had time for his nephew and his family.

Wanda Lea Armstrong

As I explore my husband Mark’s side of the family, I’m beginning with his mother, Wanda Lea Armstrong.

Wanda was born September 19, 1931 in Meeker Oklahoma. Meeker was established in 1903 and is at the intersection of Highway 18 and US highway 62. But why does the federal census through the years say South Wichita township and not Meeker? The best I can figure out is the township is a 6 mile x 6 mile grid square of land established during the original land surveys of the Oklahoma Territory and the town of Meeker is within the northern portion of the grid square. So they lived within the township but not specifically Meeker, but the township shares the same zip code and relies on the town for mail delivery.

Wanda was the second born and second daughter of Joseph “Jack” Armstrong and Cleo Vergie Gallaway. her sister Willie Marie was fifteen months older. I have no pictures of Wanda or her sister when they were children but I have found the typical newspaper articles telling of family gatherings with the Armstrong family and friends. They had some nice bonding time together because the next sibling doesn’t arrive until 6-1/2 years later.

In April of 1937, Wanda’s brother Johnny was born. In 1943, another brother, Charles, was born. Finally in 1948, her sister Kathryn was born. What a span! Willie Marie got married in 1948 and Wanda was in her senior year of high school by the time their last sibling was born.

In my opinion, Wanda was a very pretty girl and I think her fellow students thought so too! An article from the Chandler News in 1946, says Wanda, as a Freshman, was crowned “Basketball Queen”. Four contestants were nominated by the pep squad and basketball team. Votes were a penny a piece. Wanda won and she was escorted to her throne and received her crown from the basketball captain Earl Welker.

*Wanda (sophomore) on left dark curly hair*

Wanda also played basketball and was a member and treasurer of the Future Homemakers of Oklahoma Club.

I don’t know when or where Wanda met her future husband, Cletus Harold Benson, Jr. but maybe she caught his eye at the diner where she worked.

Harold, as he was known, was born and raised in Shawnee, Oklahoma, a short 13 miles south of Meeker located in Pottawatomie County. Harold was the son of Opal Dean Menser and Cletus Harold Benson and his story will come at another time.

Wanda and Harold were married in February of 1949 when Wanda was a senior in high school and Harold was in the Air Force and stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

Once Wanda finished high school, she joined Harold in San Antonio Texas, about a 7-1/2 hour drive by today’s highways from Meeker. The newspaper documented one visit by Wanda in December of 1949.

After Harold’s discharge from the Air Force, they moved to Berkeley, California and were living with Harold’s mother Opal, his step-father George Shelton, and Harold’s brother Ronald who was 18. Wanda was also 18 and working as a car hop at a drive-in restaurant. According to the census, Opal was the manager and cashier, and Ronald worked at the soda fountain. George and Harold worked for a “steam railway company”, most likely Southern Pacific Railroad where George was a Machinist Inspector and Harold an Apprentice Pipefitter.

There seems to be a bit of travel between the two states because by September of 1950, Wanda and Harold were living in Meeker Oklahoma where their daughter, Linda Darlene was born in December. Then living in California in December of 1951, and back in Meeker in July of 1952.

*Visiting from California in December 1951. Mrs. Curtis is Harold’s aunt*

*Living again in Meeker in July of 1952*

There are no city directories later than 1935 for Shawnee, Oklahoma and none for Meeker, so I’ve continued to rely on newspaper articles. In a 1952 article for a bridal shower, Wanda was one of the hostesses of the event held in Meeker. The bride was employed by the Bank of Meeker and since Wanda worked for various banks in California when they moved there permanently, I’m going to guess she worked with the bride, Miss Wanda Bolt.

The newspaper trail runs cold, but first this newspaper article. Wanda, along with some friends and family members, laced up their sneakers and played a charity basketball game against the Sparks (Oklahoma) Ladies team with proceeds to be given to the Polio Foundation. This was a fun article to find!

There is a blank space of two years before their son, Mark Aaron (my husband), is born in Berkeley California in March of 1958 while they are living in Oakland.

In 1960, Wanda’s younger brother, Charles, 17 years old, moved out to California to live with them.

The family lived in Napa for about a year when Harold bought a Shell Service Station in January of 1961. Wanda got a job at the new Calistoga branch of the Bank of America in April of that year.

By November of 1961, Harold gave up the service station business and sold his “vendee, equipment, and stock-in-trade” to Shell Oil Company. His address in the Notice of Intended Sale I found is listed as 3115 Suter Street in Oakland California. Either by then, or shortly afterwards, Wanda filed for divorce.

By 1962, Linda was 11 years old and Mark was four years old. Wanda worked for Wells Fargo Bank and Mark remembers living in Oakland during this time period. It was while Wanda worked at the bank that she met Paul Reinhart a mechanic and partner at Big 3 Tire and Brake in Oakland. On the weekends, he raced his corvette with the Sports Car Club of America.

They began dating and one year after meeting, they were married in Reno, Nevada on February 9, 1963.

The new family moved to San Leandro when Mark began school. Wanda continued to work in banking and spent many years working for Ford Credit in Pleasanton.

The family continued to visit Oklahoma and now Iowa was included in the travels to visit with Paul’s parents.

*Mr. And Mrs. Reinhart visiting the family in California*

In 1972, Paul and Wanda purchased a small cabin in Twain Harte, a town in the foothills of the Sierras as a weekend getaway. They enjoyed their time there and purchased a larger home a few streets away. Paul and Mark could ride motorcycles through the woods right out of their garage and the canal carrying water for the Tuolumne Water district ran right above their home. It was a great place to walk. They moved there full time around 1993.

*Wanda and Paul at the Cabin in Twain Harte*

I met Wanda in 1987 when I moved to California to live with Mark. Imagine hearing that someone your son met on vacation was moving across the country to live with him! Luckily, we liked each other. We spent many weekends in Twain Harte rocking in the two chairs in her room, talking and watching television. She was a good grandmother to our son, hovering over him feeding him whatever he wanted. She enjoyed shopping and many weekends we would all “head down the hill” to wander through the department stores and the used book store.

She was diagnosed with cancer in March of 1996 and passed away in October of that year in Twain Harte at the age of 64. A memorial service was held for her in Meeker, Oklahoma on July 1, 1998 (28 years ago as I write this) and her ashes were interred with her parents at the New Salem Cemetery located just outside Meeker. The majority of Armstrong and Gallaway family members are buried there.

Just like my mother, she left us too early.

Shaking More Branches

I haven’t fully exhausted researching my side of the family tree, but I think it’s time to explore my husband’s lines. Those limbs take us back from present day Oklahoma, through middle America as land became available in Illinois, skipping back into Newport, and out colonial Virginia and North Carolina back over the ocean to where it all began in Scotland, Wales, and England. Much research has already been done, but it is new to me.

I wrote a little bit about his family here, as part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series in 2024. Now, I will be profiling specific ancestors, starting with his parents.

I’m excited to put their stories along with mine!

*Benson Family Crest – if God is for us, who could be against us*

I created a family tree a few years ago for Mark’s birthday and I had to break it up in four sections because of the number of ancestors!

The Caregiver

The Week 2 topic for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is “A Record That Adds Color”.

In 1912, my grandmother, Julianna Ingram Posluszny was 24 years old with a husband, a daughter Antoinette, born in January 1909, and a son, Conrad, born in November 1910.

*Julianna, Konrad and Antoinette (late 1909)*

Her cousin, Mary Kukulska Juszczak came to the United States with Julianna’s sister, Marianna in 1907. Mary’s daughter Mary was born in 1910. Sadly, some time in the same year, Mary’s husband died in a work accident at the sugar refinery. But the following year she met and married Michael Zupko.

It was in April of 1912 that Mary gave birth to a son Michael Zupko. The only record to be found is their headstone with the year, 1912.

Suddenly Julianna found herself as little Mary’s guardian. Her stepfather didn’t want to take care of her and asked my grandmother with a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a baby on the way to take her. How could she refuse? She now had 3 children under the age of 4.

Her son, Louis, was born in February of 1913. She and her husband, Konrad, hung in there as long as they could but in 1914 they realized they had to give Mary up for adoption.

Fortunately, Herman and Elizabeth Fauth, German Methodists who had recently lost a daughter, heard of Mary through their church and petitioned to adopt her. Mary never had to go to an orphanage.

The adoption was final in October of 1914. My grandparents would go on to have a daughter Julia in 1917, and my mother Elizabeth in 1922.

What a loving thing my grandmother did! Two children of her own and one on the way, and she takes in, I’m sure without hesitation, another 2 year old. She was always a very giving person but this information helped me see her in such a different light.

I wrote about this in January of 2020 when I was contacted by Mary’s granddaughter and 2 years later when “who died when” was determined by an ancestry relative.

Engram Family Part 3

We started off our story about my mother’s paternal grandparents and their family here, and continued their story to 1930 here, carried on with Theresa, Kathryn, and Louise here, and finished off with Elizabeth and Hannah here. There was an extra story about Elizabeth here.

Jacob Sr, my great grandfather, spent his entire adult life as a farmer in the Bronx, which sounds a little unreal knowing the present day Bronx. He originally settled in New York City where he was living when he and Katherine were married and when Theresa was born. From 1895 until his death he lived in Westchester, which was part of the Bronx, across the bay from Queens, Pelham Parkway between White Plains and Williamsbridge Road. Theresa, his oldest daughter, lived her married life on City Island so she was fairly close to him, and Jacob, my grandfather, lived with him after World War I, until 1930 when he began farming in Flushing Queens, across the bay from the Bronx.

By the 1940 census, he was living with his daughter Elizabeth, her husband Albert, and their two children. He was 79 and not working but I mentioned in Elizabeth’s story he was employed as a groundskeeper at Woodlawn Cemetery and mapped out it was about 10 minutes from their home. It’s very likely Jacob lived with Elizabeth and Albert because by this time Jacob Jr. was married. Since they had lived with Jacob Jr on the farm, he might have helped them in some way with their home in Yonkers so they would take in their father. Aunt Joanne said in an email:
“My father made sure his father was cared for throughout his life.”

Jacob was eighty-four years old when he died September 4, 1944. Whether that’s his real age is unknown because this death certificate say he was born in 1859 but census reports, and the ship manifest ages given equal 1862.

The stories I’ve been told tell me he wasn’t a very nice man. He was an alcoholic who was abusive to his wife and possibly his children.

My aunt Joanne shared in an email:
”though my Dad never spoke of his father being brutal…my cousin Addie shared a story of Dad being chased by his father with a pitchfork.”
Could that have been during the time she and her parents, Elizabeth and Albert, lived with Jacob Jr.?

In Kathryn’s letters to her niece Irene, Theresa’s daughter, she said:
”I have always felt cheated that we did not know more of my father’s background. I know because of his ‘problem’, he alienated members of his family. I remember the last time I saw my Aunt Juliana, my father insulted her and she left in tears and never came again. She was extremely attractive and had on a very stylish dress, which she made. She was a designer of clothing. I couldn’t take my eyes off that dress, it was beautiful. My mother used to tell us my father’s relatives told her my dad had a wonderful mother.”

Sadly, this is all the information I have on my great grandfather. I wish there was some happy information too. These pictures came from my 2nd cousin Brian. His mother was Irene, the daughter of Theresa and George Murphy.