Sue Kathryn Kennedy Alderete

Sue Kathryn Alderete, 79, of Killen, died Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013, at her residence. Visitation will be Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013, at Elkins East Chapel, 4-6 p.m. Funeral services will be Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013, at Cliff Haven Church of God of Prophecy in Sheffield at 2 p.m., with the Rev. Neal Wright and the Rev. Jim Williams officiating. Mrs. Alderete will lie in state at the church from 1-2 p.m. Burial will follow at Tri-Cities Memorial Gardens. Mrs. Alderete was an ordained minister and her love for her Lord and Savior shone throughout her life in her love for her family, her church, Cliff Haven Church of God of Prophecy, and her many friends. Mrs. Alderete was preceded in death by two grandsons, Chris White and Johnathan Alderete; son-in-law, William Alfred White Jr.; parents, William D. Kennedy and Lola Pearl Johnson; and siblings, Jewel Young, Gloria Cooper, William Kennedy, and James Kennedy. She is survived by her loving husband of 57 years, Donald Alderete; two daughters, Teresa Ann White and Belinda Alderete (Alfred); two sons, Avery Alderete (Kathy) and Stephen Alderete (Sonia); two sisters, Mirrel High and Geneva Gee; brother, Bobby Kennedy (Linda); seven grandchildren, Drew White, Alisun White, Sara Willis Thompson (Charles), Jacob Willis (Glenda), Adam Alderete (Keisha), Anestassia Alderete, and Nakwisi Alderete; three great-grandchildren, Ryan Thompson, Maci Thompson, and Ben White; and several nieces, nephews, and special friends. Pallbearers will be Jacob Willis, Adam Alderete, Drew White, Charles Thompson, Ryan Thompson, and Danny Gee. A special thanks to the nurses and staff of Helen Keller Hospital and the nurses of Amedysis Hospice.  Published in Florence Times Daily on Dec. 6, 2013.

This is one of the hardest posts I have done.  No matter what people say, there is a pain that cannot be explained when one loses their mother.  I truly know now what friends and family members that have lost their mother meant when they would tell me how much they missed their mother after they had died.  I thought I understood and would sympathize with them but I really didn’t know because I had never felt the pain they had felt in their own lives at the time of their loss.  I guess it goes back to the old saying of you never know what a person is going thru or has gone thru unless you have worn the shoes and walked the path they have.  I miss being able to call her.  I miss being able to hear her laugh.  I miss sharing stories and recipes with her.  I miss hearing her pray.  And most of all, I miss hearing her say with unconditional love, “I love you.”  Mother was the rock in our family, holding us all together, loving us, and most of all, not only was she Dad’s world but Dad was hers.  They totally valued their independence and was ready to fight for it if needed, but yet, totally dependent on each other.

As time goes by, I will be adding stories to this category as I hear them from family members and friends along with my memories as they come to mind of mother.  Memories are the only thing that keeps your loved one alive in your heart once they have passed, so take the time today and every day from here on out to let your parents and family members know how much you love and cherish them for one day God may call them home to be with Him just like he has with my mother.  Take the time to make memories.

Scratching the One Side of My Head That Has Hair

Yep, that’s right!!!!  I am scratching the one side of my head that has hair because the other side of my head???  Is totally bald from pulling it out over census and birth records that I cannot find!!!  Let me lay some groundwork for you….My grandfather’s name is Frank Estrada Alderete.  My grandmother’s name is Helen McGlothlin.  She was born in 1896 and he in 1897 possibly 1898.  My father was born 18 Feb 1934.  I can find my grandfather on the 1920 census in San Antonio, Bexar County, TX.  Supposedly he was born in Floresville, Wilson County, TX.  I have searched from 1932 all the way up thru 1940 and you will understand why in a few.  I have found no birth record whatsoever of my father in these records, BUT I did find the birth record of his half cousin he was born on his birthday when he was 6.  Now here’s the funny thing.   Supposedly my grandfather had a half-brother and his name was Aurelio Rodriguez.  The son he had on my father’s birthday was named Aurelio Alderete Jr.  with the mother’s name Francisca Herrera.  The weird thing is that when I looked at his birth record that was listed with the state of Texas, it has ***DO NOT ISSUE*** where the father’s name is and I know for a fact that he had other brothers and sisters. I also know he wasn’t stillborn that he died in his 40’s.   I have not checked their birth records yet to see if the same thing was listed or not on the father’s name with the siblings like Aurelio Jr’s,  but in time I will.  This Aurelio Jr was also born in Williamson County, TX.  I did find an Aurelio that was born in 1895 living with his brother on the 1900 census but my grandfather was not listed there from what I can tell.  My father is very sure that Aurelio was born after his father was which does not really match up with this Aurelio on the census.  Dad says that my grandfather’s mother died when my grandfather was approximately 2-3 years old.  His father remarried a Rodriguez and they had Aurelio and my grandfather was supposedly born like I said earlier either in 1897 or 1898.  and I want to say there were one or two more children from that union also but have no documented proof.  Also on this 1900 census record is the in-laws and a daughter listed on his brother.  The strange thing is the in-laws last name is Esterindo.  Mighty close to Estrada isn’t it?  Could over the years the names and ages etc. could have possibly gotten mixed up in passing down family history by word of mouth?  I cannot find a marriage record on my grandparents either.  I will be having to search at least for that between the years of 1920-1934.  Now here is something else to think about.  Isn’t it strange how close Wilson County and Williamson County sounds as you pronounce them?  Could it possibly have been Florence, Williamson County instead of Floresville, Wilson county for his birth in 1898? And then when he became a young man he went to San Antonio where he found work and a place to lodge, which was with his employer who owned a funeral home.

I talked with a friend of mine that runs a lot of documents for a company in the state of Texas.  She informed me tonight that I needed to run a trace on my grandfather’s middle name that was his mother’s maiden name.  She said it is very common for the Mexican men to take on their mother’s maiden name as their last name to honor her when they get married, even tho legally they still have their father’s surname.  That sometimes they would jump back and forth between the two names.  I do have a newspaper clipping where my father had the Alderete surname in 1948 where his coach had listed him as one of the returning football players for the high school team.  I have been told all of my life that we came from Italy to Texas but as I dig further and further into this I am beginning to wonder if we actually came from Mexico.  On top of this, I think my grandmother fell out of the sky and met my grandfather for I can’t even find a trace of her either.  So yeah, I have already gone half bald over this brick wall and I am now working on the other side of my head…..hey!!!  don’t fuss!!!  I gots to match it up…..i may walk lopsided with only half a head of hair!!!  Anyone willing to help me pull the rest of my hair out??? LOL

Mystery Monday~Helen McGlothlin-Texas

This week I have spent hours pouring over the Texas births from 1930-1935 putting all names that even remotely resembled my maiden name.  Then I turned around and started a search with my grandmother’s maiden name (surname only) as the mother on ancestry for those years in hopes of trying to find records on my father’s birth.  Dad said he was told that he was born in Bailey Hospital and that it was a private hospital in San Antonio, Texas.  The only place I can find my grandfather is on the 1920 census as a lodger.  I was able to locate a newspaper clipping of where my father was listed as one of the returning football players for Rolling Fork, Mississippi high school.  No records that I know of is on my grandmother and I would really like to find her and my grandfather both. The only name I have on her is Helen maybe Hellen McGlothlin born 22 Mar 1896 supposedly in or close to Comanche, Tx.  My grandfather is Frank Estrado(Estrada?) Alderete born in Floresville, Tx in 1897, possibly 1898.  Some time between 1920 and 1934 my grandparents married, gave birth to my father in 1934 and when he was 3 they moved to Issaquena County, Mississippi, where my grandfather became the manager of Homochitta Plantation.  His social security number will not come up in a search on the ssdi database even tho we have his ss card and it’s listed on his death certificate. How I would so love to solve this mystery.

Sunday Obituary~Rafel H Alderete

RAFEL H. ALDERETE

Funeral services for Rafel H. Alderete, 64, of Palacios, were held Dec. 24, 2005 at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church with Rev. Charles Dwomoh officiating. Interment was at Palacios Cemetery. Mr. Alderete was born Oct. 25, 1941 in Lansing, Michigan to the late Aurelio R. and Francesca Herrera Alderete. He died Dec. 23, 2005 at Citizen Memorial Hospital in Victoria, Tx. He was a resident of Palacios since 1951, a member of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church and was the maintenance man for the Luther Hotel in Palacios. He is survived by his wife, Anita Adame Alderete of Palacios; son and daughter-in-law Jessie and Josie Adame of Angleton, Tx.; sisters and brothers-in-law Lina and Paul Gamino of Lake Jackson, Tx., Lola and Edward Vallejo of Rosenberg, Tx., Eva Alderete and Rosemary Alderete, both of Palacios; and grandchildren Jessica and Gabriel Adame of Angleton, Tx. He was proceeded in death by his sister, Anita Alderete, and brothers Aurelio Alderete, Jr. and George Alderete. Pallbearers were Richard and Phillip Vallejo, Paul and Frank Alderete, and Paul and Andrew Gamino. Honorary pallbearers were Frankie and Stephen Alderete. Arrangements were with Palacios Funeral Home.

Rafel was the son of my father’s half uncle.   Dad remembers meeting his uncle and several of his cousins when he was a child and sadly has not kept in touch like many families of today’s time.  I was so hoping that I would be able to find his obituary but have not been able to as of yet.  This family surname has been my brick wall for many years and would love to find relatives.

Those Places Thursday~Mayersville, Issaquena County, Mississippi

My grandfather was a plantation manager in the late 1930’s and ’40’s in Mayersville, Issaquena County, Mississippi, after moving his family from San Antonio, Texas.  I am not sure how to spell it but was told it could be Humchetta….possibly even Homechetta Plantation.  In 1945, my father said their home burned to the ground and the owner let them live in the barn until they were able to rebuild a home for them on the plantation.  Helen McGlothlin Alderete, my grandmother hung sheets up to partition the area of the barn they were in for the different rooms….such as the kitchen, living room, bedrooms, etc.  How long they had to live in the barn I don’t know but I also know that people used to come from miles around just to buy the butter that my grandmother would churn and sell to make extra money.  Times were hard back then and every little bit of help went a long way.  I would love to know how to actually spell the plantation, where it is actually in Mayersville, whether or not the name has changed and who would possibly have the record books that could possibly contain information on my grandparents and where my father lived from the time he was three years old until he became a grown man and joined the Marines.  Maybe one day……….

Wordless Wednesday~Daddy’s Li’l Girl

 

My Dad and I

Family Recipe Friday – Enchilada Casserole and Cantaloupe pie???

I don’t know how my mother came up with this, but most of the time we had a new recipe to try at least once a week, sometimes more. It all depended on if she had time to look thru all of her cookbooks or not. We knew we were totally doomed if she happened to run across a new recipe book at the store and that book somehow would end up in our grocery bags mysteriously. We were not the typical family where the children had a dilemma of “not liking those yucky vegetables”. Our thing was, “”Uh Oh, it’s  “new recipe day…AGAIN! What have we gotta eat now?” When Dad came home from work, he never knew what to expect and we learned a long time ago to say how good it was even when we didn’t like it, to keep from hurting mama’s feelings and to not get that ‘You better not say a word!” look from Dad. She was always very proud of her accomplishments and it was hard to hurt her feelings and tell her we didn’t like what she had spent hours cooking. That is why I must tell about the cantaloupes. Mother had planted a garden this particular year and of course one of the crops was the infamous cantaloupes. Every time we turned around, someone was bringing in a ripe cantaloupe. There was so many cantaloupes piling up on the counter in the kitchen and she needed to do something with them to keep them from spoiling. What does she do? Pull out the dreaded cookbooks and spends hours looking for a recipe that she thought would be “scrumpi-delicious and totally irresistable to the eye and palate”. Cantaloupe pie!! Did I say cantaloupe pie? Of course, I did….one of the cookbooks she bought had that recipe in there!!! She proceeded to get her ingredients together and made several pies. They looked so pretty when they were pulled out of the oven and you could see Mama glowing with pride. Did I mention that looks can be deceiving? If that is one lesson you have never learned, pay heed to it now for future references, should anyone ever offer you a slice of cantaloupe pie! The first bite was just okay and by the time you were able to get the third bite down, you were looking for a place to spit it out. It didn’t matter who you were, if you were unlucky enough to come by the house, you were served…..Cantaloupe Pie! For once, we could not disguise the “Oh Lawdy!!! That stuff ain’t passin’ my lips!” look. Even to this day, she still laughs about how horrible those pies were and admits that was one of her “bloopers in cooking”!

Below is a recipe that she made famous at our family reunions. It was easy to make and served a lot of people and once family members tried it, it was expected of her to bring the dish. Hope you enjoy it because we sure do!

 Enchilada Casserole

3 lbs Ground Chuck

1 large onion chopped

3 sm cans tomato sauce

3 cans of mexican style corn, undrained

3 tsp marjoram

3 tsp cumin

3/4 tsp rosemary leaves, crushed

1 dozen corn tortillas

2 lbs (approximately) cheddar cheese, shredded

Brown the meat and drain. Chop one large onion cook it with the meat after draining the fat off. Cook until onion is tender. In a bowl, mix tomato sauce, mexican style corn, marjoram, cumin, and rosemary leaves. Pour half of the sauce mixture into the meat and onion mixture and simmer for 5 minutes. Line a very large casserole dish, or two 9×13 casserole dishes with corn tortillas. Pour and spread meat mixture evenly over the top of the tortillas. Layer with cheese, another layer of corn tortillas, rest of the sauce mix, and then top with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve with salad or chips and salsa.

Surname Saturday – Johnson

This post will be to remind myself that I am thankful my mother decided to marry my dad. When she was in a little shop looking for a dress to get married in, she overheard two little old ladies that ran the shop, yackin’ about someone they knew. One proceeded to say, “Yano? When a blonde headed and black headed person marries, their children will be red-headed.” My mother was horrified!! She’s blonde and my Dad has black hair(Well, he did until he turned grey.) She almost backed out of getting married! Why she didn’t want a red-headed child, I don’t know if I ever will find out, but I keep my grey hairs covered up with red hair dye just to remind her (not really lol) of that incident. She married and had 4 kids and none were red-headed except for hints of red in my hair before I decided to go a medium auburn. She was a Kennedy and her mother was a Johnson and that is the name I will talk about today – the Johnson surname.

After the Norman conquest of 1066, a lot of people started using the surname Johnson. Johnson means son of John and this name could possibly go all the way back to John the Baptist in the Bible. The Johnson clan became involved in a war with the Maxwells over land rights near the border of Scotland and Britain and soon British military disbanded both clans. The Johnsons were continually trying to protect and defend their lands, but as losses came here and there, they would have to move to another area and once again start over defending what they had obtained building strong fortresses wherever they were at. in hopes of it withstanding attacks

Mystery Monday – My grandfather who loved me but never met me

Today, I am going to dwell on my grandfather on my father’s side of my family.  Some of the info I will be sharing has been passed down to me via my father and mother, and other information is what I have been able to source out.  My grandfather was a very special man according to my mother.  She had the joy of knowing him and I only know of him thru my parents.  Frank Estrada Alderete was born in Floresville, Wilson County, Texas on 27 Jun 1897 according to his death certificate we were able to obtain from Arizona.  I have been able to find him on the 1920 census where he lodged with a family that owned a funeral home in San Antonio.  He was their chauffeer.  I have no marriage certificate nor birth certificate as of yet.  Some time between 1920 and 1934 he met my grandmother, Helen Mcglothlin.  I was told that she was born in Comanche County, Texas 22 Mar 1896.  They had my father, and again, we have no proof of my dad’s birth 18 Feb 1934.  When my parents needed to go to Italy for my brother’s wedding, Dad had to get a half cousin (now deceased) to verify that he was born in the United States in order to get his passport, and then later this was used for him to apply for his social security.  When my father was 3, they moved to Mississippi and after several moves, they settled down in Myersville, which is not far from Rolling Fork, Mississippi where my father graduated high school from.  My grandfather became the overseer of a plantation there in Myersville in the ’30’s and when Dad was about 12, their house burned.  Dad said all their important papers were burned up in that fire.  The owner let them move into the barn until they could get a house built for them.  Sheets and quilts were hung up to divide the different rooms off in the barn for their living quarters.  After Dad graduated from Rolling Fork High School, he enlisted in the army, served his time and then married my mother.  In 1957, my grandparents sold all of their belongings and caught a bus headed for Arizona and stopped to spend the night with my parents before going on.  Mother said that my Dad’s job was not the greatest at that time so he quit his job, and they packed the car up and moved to Arizona.  My grandfather petted and spoiled my mother horribly for she was then carrying me, his first grandchild.  He could not wait for the day when I would be placed in his arms but sad to say, just a few short weeks after moving to Glendale, my grandfather died of a massive heart attack on 18 Jan 1958.  I was born 15 May 1958, and from then until the fall of 1959, I had a grandmother who doted on me unmercifully, showering me with love, compensating for the love of the grandfather who never knew me but loved me.

So many questions, has come up concerning these two people in my life.  Why can I not find him on any other census?  And what about my grandmother?  I cannot find her either, nor, when their marriage took place.  On the death certificate of my grandfather, a social security number was put there that matched the social security card my father has on his Dad, but yet when I try to search out the databases for that number, nothing comes up.  So what gives?  What can I do to solve this mystery?

Grandmother! Grandfather!!….Where are you???

I have searched for many years looking for my grandmother and have often wondered why no one knows anything of her.  So, this makes me wonder….am I looking in the right place?  Apparently not!!! lol…..According to my father my grandmother was born in Comanche, TX in March of  1896.  She married my grandfather and they were married a long time before my father was born.  My father has been told that he was born in San Antonio TX but I have not been able to find any birth records in the Texas Birth Records nor in the January, February, and March newspapers that are available online.  Dad said they moved to Mississippi when he was 3 and after moving around in several places in Mississippi they settled down in Myersville, Mississippi, where Dad ended up playing football for the Rolling Fork High School.  At the age of 12. my father’s house burned and they lived for several months in the barn with sheets hanging up to divide the place into rooms.  My grandfather was the plantation manager and my grandmother was well-known in the community for her fresh butter that she would churn and sell.  When the house burned, all important papers were lost.  Thru the years my father served in the United States Marines in the Korean War.   I do have a copy of my grandfather’s death certificate from where he died in Arizona.  My grandfather never got to meet me, even tho he was so excited about me coming into this world for he had a fatal heart attack on January 18, 1958 and I was born in May of ’58.  My grandmother died when I was 18 months old from lung cancer and the short time that I was in her life, she doted on me and spoiled me rotten according to my mother.  So, below is the vital information that I have that is still yet to be proved by documentation. Dad says he thought he was born in a hospital called Baylor Hospital and was christened in a Catholic church in San Antonio, but which one???

Frank Estrada Alderete 

Birth:	27 JUN 1897 in Floresville, Wilson Co,Texas
Death:	18 JAN 1958 in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Az, USA

Helen McGlothlin

Birth:	23 MAR 1896 in TX
Death:	4 OCT 1959 in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Az, USA

Frank is listed on the 1920 census but have not been able to find him anywhere else. 

I would love to find birth certificates, marriage records, christening records……..anything!!!!

Where are these people???????