Loni Wurth

Grandma Loni growing up. (1920-1940)









June 14th is Flag Day!

One hundred years ago!

   On June 14, 1920, Grandma Loni was born was born in Hemsbach, Germany.
   That same year, American women gained the right to vote.
   And the first Catholic women's college was established in upstate NY.

   Since the 1920s, jazz has been recognized as a major form of musical expression, linked
by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage.

Immigration

THREE YEARS LATER in 1923 her family immigrated to the United States.

   In 1923, women in Germany did not have the right to vote. My memory of my Grandma Barbara Stackler is that she valued her American right to vote by secret ballot. She always voted and she never told who she voted for.

She lived in a patriarchal family where the men were vocal and often had political discussions and differences of opinion. They, too, were serious about voting.

Let's start by reading their story of immigration, "Coming to America"

My Grandma Barbara is the only one from her Stackler family who immigrated to the United States.

1894: Barbara Stackler

Growing Up

This picture probably dates between 16 and 19 years of age.
These links give us a little glimpse of Loni's growing up years.

1926: A new house.
1937: at sixteen in high school.
1939: 19 years old and in college.

More information from her diaries is available in the digital library that I maintain.


   Joe, the boy friend you read about in Loni's diary, played the saxophone. He and his buddies were welcome in Black bars, where they all enjoyed playing jazz together, when the rest of their society was very much racially segregated.

Read about Joe from 1916--1939

Marriage

By the summer of 1940, Joe and Loni had been dating seriously for well over a year.

In August, they began their life journey as a married couple.

In 1941, Joe and Loni welcomed their first child, a daughter.
They named her after both of her grandma's: Barbara Josephine.

Read more about Joe and Loni and their family in the story I like to call Ordinary People

The next generation

  In 1959, Barbara began her college life at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.