Karina on Video

There’s plenty to write about now that Christmas is upon (past) us, but I wanted to post links to a couple of videos. In a recent email, Bev Medling wrote, “For your Christmas enjoyment, Karina’s Choir made the news, you have to listen to the commercials first but hang in there and you will see our girl perform.”

So, check out http://www.keyetv.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=16433 and  http://www.keyetv.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=16434.

Marjorie

Saturday we learned that Marjorie passed away during the night. This news was received with great sadness, but it was also occasion to reflect on a special and remarkable person. Marjorie was a woman who, possibly more than any I’ve known, could not have been faulted for a nihilistic view of life, from the hardships and tragedies it dealt her. But, that was not Marjorie, not at all. She was always buoyant, animated, even exuberant. I can’t recall her complaining about anything; I can recall her enthusiasm about family, golf, cards, everything. She could talk about anything; the breadth of her knowledge and scope of her conversationalism often left me hard pressed to keep up.

I don’t think anybody could intimidate her; yet she was unpretentious and unassuming. She could cut through any kind of hodge podge and make a point with succinct and incontrovertible insight; yet she was empathetic and open minded. I think above all else she valued and treasured family. In this regard, I feel like I let her down. She would never say so, of course; if somebody sought forgiveness she would insist there was nothing to forgive. So, let me add magnanimous to the list of qualities that made her so special. As so often happens at the loss of a loved one, I wish I had spent more time with her, in person or even just by phone. Any time spent with Marjorie was time well spent. I miss her already; a lot.

You can click on the “thumbnail” images to see larger pictures.

Georgina Chappell

I received an email from our cousin Adrian Sheppard, who visited the UK last year. While there, he located a document about the history of the Hillesley Baptist Church, with the following entry:

Hillesley Baptist Church 1730-1980, by Kathleen CHAPPELL Page 18. “Three members, Frank Cooper, George Davis and Jesse Chappell, emigrated to America in 1906. George Davis later returned from Missouri, bringing an American wife. Frank Cooper trained for the ministry, achieved his doctorate and was for many years a Baptist minister in Decatur and in Princeton, Illinois. Jesse Chappell also became a Baptist minister but did not keep in contact with this Church, so no details of his ministry are known.”

Adrian was also kind enough to provide a certificate of birth for Jesse’s sister, Georgina. The following links will bring up either a jpg image or pdf file. Note the absence of identification of the father, as was the case with Jesse’s certificate. It indicates the father’s occupation as “domestic servant”, however, this may actually have referred to Charlotte rather than the father. I’ve noticed, however, that the certificate gives Georgina’s date of birth as Jan. 1, 1807, obviously an error. The upper portion of the certificate recites that it’s an 1861 birth which is consistent with information we already had. Note, also, that her birth name is given as Georgina Rose, rather than Sarah. One of Jesse’s brothers, Charles, had children whom he named “Jesse” and “Rose”, apparently naming them after his brother and sister.