She was a college graduate herself, and she made sure that she had enough money saved to provide the 1st year of college for each of the 9 kids during some horrible years in our economy. Furthermore, she raised her brood so that the older ones helped out the younger ones with $$$ for the other 3 years of school. The oldest son graduated from Annapolis (free education). All of them, as soon as they were employed, contributed to the education of their younger brothers and sisters, as they were able.
When the family moved from Long Beach to Chowchilla (to the farm) around 1918, my grandfather drove the truck with some of thhheir kids, and Grandma drove a big old Model A touring car with the rest. For those unfamiliar with the road from LB to the Central Valley in the years 1918, you had to go over Grapevine, which is a SINGLE LANE, twisty mountain road to get from LA to Bakersfield. Grandma used to tell me about the scariest part when you had to BACK DOWN the mountain if you met an oncoming car. That was the rule, the car going up had to back down to allow the car going down to pass. This in a day when most women didn't even drive! My grandmother was a remarkable woman.
I remember the year she died. I was 16 and I went to visit her in the hospital. I was "dressed up" in heels and a dress that showed off my figure. She squinted at me and then took my hand and said, "Never let a man know where he stands with you. I wore Mr. -----'s ring for 10 years and never once promised to marry him! I made him come get me when it was time to marry." At her funeral I found out that was true. My grandfather was 10 years older than she. She graduated from college and took a job on an Indian Reservation in Oklahoma as the music teacher. Mr. _____ showed up and asked her to marry him, and she agreed. They were married on the Choctaw Reservation and worked their way to CA building churches on contract for congregations that hired them. My older aunts and uncles were each born in a different western state as they worked their way west where they settled. My grandfather had a costruction and cabinet making business in Long Beach that was destroyed by fire. The insurance money prompted their move to the Central Valley to try farming. They'd only been farming about 20 years when my grandfather died. She kept the farm operating with her youngest son for another 17 years after her husband died. They don't make them like that any more.
No, they don’t. My grandmother ran her dairy farm well into her 70’s, milking the cows and bottling the milk twice a day... she had very little outside help and sublet the fields to other ranchers to grow wheat and corn, they paid her rent for the use.... I think she was probably the single biggest person I looked up to and it was because of her work ethic.