I have learned so much about him. His mother remarried and he was raised in Los Angeles. I have copies of his draft card from WW1 and WW2. I couldn’t find him for a while in his late teens. He was in college somewhere but I haven’t figured that out where yet. He came back to LA and married his first wife. There were 2 after that. That was a surprise but it was California.
I am not sure why I have been so fascinated by this ancestor. Maybe because he lost his father when he was only 2 years old. Maybe because his mother was able to move on as a widow in 1900 when women had limited opportunities and there weren’t even food stamps in those days.
So he was raised with a strong mother figure, and probably respected women. Served in two wars, when he probably could have gotten out of the 2nd, so patriotic. Married 3 times, so ... hard to tell. Bad choices? Had an ideal that they didn’t meet? Just simple tragedies?
My father’s mother married 3 times. Father’s father at least 4. I hope they did better and were happier each time.
Strong women could do a lot for themselves. And especially out west, there were a lot of role models of strong women. Grandmother was the first newspaper publisher in Colorado. She divorced grandfather, and took a job in state government. Yours seems to be that same strong type. And tragic that he lost his father so soon. What do you bet she had a large garden, something you don’t find so often now?