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

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...

Doris Ann Laurent

Doris Ann Laurent of Troy married Robert William Wills of Cohoes on 25 April 1948. They honeymooned in New York City. The bride to be was given a shower by her future sister in law Dorothy Wills Mylott.

Left to right: Doris's mother Ann Dugan Laurent, ?, Doris Laurent,
Ann Wills Benoit, Dorothy Wills Mylott

SISTERHOOD: Etta and Dottie Mae, A Remembrance of Cousin Anne

Muriel Etta Wills and Dorothy Mae Wills were sisters. "Dottie Mae" older, by 15 months was born in 1916.  Muriel Etta, called "Etta", born in 1917.  Etta and her husband, Arthur St Hilaire, are pictured here on the Orchard, Cohoes on their wedding day. Dottie Mae and her husband Arthur Homer Mylott are pictured here in Green Island on their wedding day.

By all accounts, these two sisters grew up emotionally entwined and were often thought to be twins by others. They shared clothes and shoes, school and girlfriends.  They grew up proud and poor - but always  together.  The death of their sister Elizabeth (January 9th, 1937) profoundly affected them as well as the deaths of their mother and father all within fourteen months during the Great Depression.

Then as adults, they married...Etta to Art St Hilaire and Dottie to Art Mylott.  In the beginning of their marriages, Etta and Art  had beautiful children. Dottie and Art had none so they became very fond of their niece and nephew, Ann and Arthur III.  Then something happened, exactly what and when it was we will never know because both sisters were pretty vague when retelling her version of the story.  Whatever it was caused Dottie and Etta to stop speaking to one another and having any interaction with each other and with spouses, children for ten years with one exception.  Dottie Mae and Arthur attended Etta 's daughter's wedding.

From the left: Dorothy, little brother Larry, Etta

First Communion at St Joseph's, Cohoes

Etta and Dorothy

from the left: Dorothy, Etta, and Joan Cranney

With Lilacs in Spring
Dorothy on right, Etta on the left, Unknown in middle

Dressing Up for Fun
Dorothy on the left, Etta on right

Celena Beauvais, on the left, holding her grandson, Arthur III
Etta holding her daughter Anne

Anne St. Hilaire

 It all changed after Etta's daughter Anne, now married, was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. After Ann became paralyzed and could no longer use stairs, it was decided to move into a house in Green Island where both Etta and Art could live and care for Ann while Bill, Anne's husband, went to work.  There was never a wheelchair in the house; Anne could not walk at all and had to be carried everywhere she went usually by Bill.  During the daytime, Anne would sit in a chair by the front window in the company of her mother and the frequent visitors who stopped by the house on the main street on their way to the market or bank across the street.  There was always a neighbor or cousin sharing time and Anne was never alone while Bill was at work.  Etta always started to prepare supper in the afternoon, starting with peeling potatoes.   She served dinner to her husband Art, son Charles, daughter Anne and son-in-law Bill and anyone else who was there at supper time. After dinner Bill would carry Anne up the stairs to their flat above.

Bill, on his wedding day

Bill and Anne on their wedding day

Rallying together to care for Anne was a natural thing for the family to do so it brought the sisters, Dottie and Etta, back together.  They forgot, or choose not to remember, whatever painful events tore their sisterhood apart.  Throughout the remainder of their lives Etta, the homemaker, and Dottie Mae, the "wheeler dealer" business woman, remained close and united.  Unfortunately for Anne, her brain cancer raged on but she was able to complete one of her dreams. Although she was a paraplegic and fighting off cancer, she completed a healthy pregnancy with a healthy living child one year before she died at the age of 27.  Etta and Dottie's friendship never wavered nor waned ever again.