December 5, 'Happy Birthday Uncle Al', Joseph Albert Rivet

 Al's 35th Birthday Party on December 5th, 1954, Green Island, NY

Dorothy Mae Wills 1916-1997

If alive today, Dorothy Mae Wills
 would be celebrating her 100th  birthday 

Composed on Mother's Day 2016

For as long as I can remember, my mother celebrated her birthday on June 15th.  When she was 65 years old, she tried to get a passport.  The documentation she found stated her birthday was June 7th. Being wise and fun loving, from then on she celebrated them both! 

She was born in Schulylerville, Saratoga County, New York where her father, who though himself a photographer, had a job in some capacity as lock tender on the Champlain Canal. She was the sixth of nine children.  Her parents did well when first married but even before the Great Depression came along, her parents and their family unraveled. Her father couldn't keep a job and was usually found at the corner tavern.  His alcoholism which would eventually kill him. Her mother suffered from chronic thyroid disease which eventually killed her.

Gradually the family fell into daily crisis mode. Dorothy went to work in a shirt factory when she was just 12 years old; her mother took in other people's laundry to put food on the table. Dorothy didn't finish high school, she may not have even finished 8th grade but she had ambition.  She obtained a GED diploma and a beautician's license issued from New York State.

She wasn't a natural beauty but she was beautiful.

One of nine living children, Dorothy was born between two sisters, Elizabeth and Etta.  She loved both and fought with both until one day, her Elizabeth died of a heart ailment a few days before her 24th birthday.  The year after her sister died, both her parent's would die.  In was the middle of the Great Depression and although she was only 19, she took over the care and welfare of her youngest brother, Bob Wills, who was just 12 years old.

Dorothy and Bobby

Bob joined the US Marine Corp and set off for the war in the Pacific. His carrier engaged immediate action on the seas and limped back to California.  When he went AWOL in the days before his 2nd  deployment and was arrested by military police, she sacrificed her marriage and job to take a week long train trip to El Paso, Texas to get and buy legal assistance for him.  

When she returned to upstate New York, Dorothy found her marriage on the rocks.  While her brother was serving time, she divorced her husband.  Meanwhile she expanded her hair salon and started small retailing on the side selling woman's lingerie, cosmetics and jewelry in Troy, NY.  She developed her professional name - "Dottie Mae" and was called so ever after.  Eventually, she married again and set up three retail business locations: Green Island, Cohoes and Mechanicsville, New York.

For all her ambition and drive to improve, her caring and her playfulness, there remains a large part of Dorothy Mae Wills that will always remain a mystery.   For for reasons I still cannot explain, 19 years after she died, it is still hard to write about her and to understand.

Marie Claire Yetto née Rivet: BIRTHDAY August 18th, 1918

My Aunt Claire, Cohoes and California legend, would be 95 years old in August 2013.  Recently came across some photos of my mother with Aunt Claire and another friend, Antoinette.  In the first two, taken sometime in the 1970s,  it looks like Aunt Claire was visiting from California and my mother was was purchasing a KODAK Instamatic camera - and putting the bill on her MasterCard.  These three women were all FrancoAmerican by birth.  Aunt Claire and Antoinette, first generation born in New York State, were both raised in French speaking households with parents born in Québec. My mother, Dorothy, was second generation, in New York; her maternal grandparents were born in Montérégie.

Antoinette, Claire, Dorothy

Antoinette, Dorothy, Claire

Dorothy, Santa, Claire

Margie, Jackie, Wayne and my mom

Cohoes, NY ....circa 1949 and a home movie.  My mother, married about four years and still childless, loved to pose with the children of her friends.  She manages to snuggle in, at the end of the clip, with her best friend's children for sweet little portraits of Margie, Jackie and Wayne.  Looks like it was Easter time. 

Picnic circa 1950

Here's a home movie of a family picnic with many of the same people in "Home Movie circa 1951" posted February 8th, 2012.

In the order they appear in the movie are:
"Little Jackie",
Art Mylott, behind "Little Jackie" dancing on the picnic table and swinging her around,
Dorothy Wills Mylott holding Little Jackie and later playing tennis,
Unidentified older couple, formerly thought to be Yettos
Baby W and his mother Claire holding him with "Little Jackie" on the side
Emile Rivet hugging Malvina Hamel his wife,
Walker Yetto lighting a cigarette,

Then there's a toast to the cameraman and for a brief moment at the very end, Al Rivet appears  wearing blue pants.

Home Movie circa 1951

Below is a home movie from Christmas 1951 with a few folks some Yetto, Rivet, Mylott family readers may recognize.  If you still cannot identify the adults after you watch the clip, you can get a little help figuring out the names of a few of the folks by scrolling down to the stills.

Here's the help identifying adults in the clip.................

Below is Marie Claire Rivet and her husband, Walker Yetto (Guertin)...

Next is Paul Emile Rivet

Below is Emile's son, Al Rivet

and next is Art Mylott

then Malvina Hamel, stepmother of Claire, Al and Ray Rivet and third wife of Emile Rivet

Dorothy Wills, wife of Arthur Mylott

I believe this gentleman may be Walker Yetto Sr

and finally Bill Bossidy and Lucy Messier

Dorothy and her Dogs

The Wills love their dogs....if there is any doubt just visit the blog called FiveSibes at Cousin's Blog about her Siberian Huskies.   In the next few posts I am going to try to highlight old photos of the Wills generation who have passed on with their dogs and a few other animals.

Dorothy Mae Wills (1916 -1997) 

Dogs Unknown

Cat Unknown

and a cat...