I was born to Earl and Mary Louise (Crowell) Blevins in Dayton, Ohio, on May 11 of 1948. My parents, along with my older brother, Earl Jr., lived in Fairborn at the time.
My paternal grandparents are Alfred and Oma (Layne) Blevins who lived in West Virginia. My maternal grandparents are James Edward and Mary Elizabeth (Walters) Crowell. My grandfather died before my birth but my grandmother lived in the house we were also living in - with her.
My dad worked at AC Delco when I was born but enlisted in the Army not long after my younger brother, Larry, was born. My parents were divorced at around the same time and we stayed in Ohio.
Mom married Charles Durbin in 1953. He was in the Air Force and we transferred soon to Rapid City, South Dakota - Ellsworth Air Force Base. Charles Jr was born July 19, 1954 and died October 19, 1954. He was buried on my Grandma Mary E (Walters-Crowell) Merry's birthday (October 22). We got transferred to Livermore, California (Travis AFB) where my sister, Sally Jane Durbin, was born. A year later we transferred to San Antonio, Texas (Lackland AFB). Mom and Chuck divorced in 1957 and we moved back to Fairborn, Ohio.
My parents remarried when dad returned to the States from Panama, on January 18, 1958. We then transferred to Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania (Tobyhanna Army Depot). THREE days after moving to our apartment, Larry was running from a snake (while picking blackberries and blueberries) when he slipped on a piece of glass which nearly cut his foot entirely off. Earl Jr ran for help and the first house he knocked on was a doctor. They were able to reattach the foot and he made a full recovery from it. TWO days later I was hospitalized for observation but had to be rushed to surgery because my appendix ruptured. What a wonderful welcome to Pennsylvania. LOL
After Tobyhanna, we were transferred to Fort Huachuca, Arizone. We lived in a trailer for a month, then found a house for 4 months, then got temporary base housing before finally getting a house on base. We went to school in Tombstone which was a 45 minute (each way) commute to school. We would walk to the historic places close to the school for field trips (including boot hill and the OK Corral). My brother, John, was born in Ft Huachuca in 1960. We then transferred back to Ohio while dad was sent to Korea in 1961. When he returned we transferred to Lawton, Oklahoma (Fort Sill) where we were stationed the longest in dad's career. My youngest brother, David, was born at Ft Sill in 1965. Mom didn't see a doctor throughout the entire pregnancy until the day he was born and he was perfectly healthy.
My parents divorced again in 1965 after David was born and we moved back to Ohio. I left Lawton High School before being able to graduate and enrolled in Fairborn High School for my senior year. I graduated FHS and then went to work at DESC (Defense Electronics Supply Center) as a File Clerk. I worked for a year then enlisted in the Army (WAC - Womens Army Corps) in Aug 1967. I did Basic at Ft McClellan in Anniston, Alabama. Then I did AIT and the rest of my enlistment at Ft Sam Houston's Brooke Army Medical Center as a Medical Corpsman in Texas. When I got out I moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma, with mom and my younger siblings. We moved to Bremerton, Washington for a couple months then back to Lawton, Oklahoma. I worked at Southwestern Hospital and Comanche County Memorial Hospital until I met my future husband (now ex) and we decided to move closer to his family in Illinois.
I got married in 1971 after having moved to Streator, Illinois, a year earlier. My daughter, Shaun Marie Beals, was born in 1970 in Streator. My son, William Fredrick Beals II, was born in 1971 in Streator. We lived there until William was 2 weeks old when we moved to Bremerton, Washington. My daughter and son, Tracie Lyn Beals and Thomas Lee Beals were born in Bremerton in June 1973. Yes, they are twins.
This is just a short synopsis of my life up until my last children were born. More to come in the next post.
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