(14) Georgia Wettig, daughter of Henry and Ella Patricia
(Holloran) Wettig, was born 24 May 1899 in Atlanta, Georgia. She
died 20 Oct 1988 in San Diego, San Diego County, California. Her
body was Cremated and the ashes scattered at sea as she had requested..
Aunt Georgia (14) was a beautiful young girl who stayed that way all her life! Both young and beautiful! She was 17 years old when her parents, Henry (8) and Ella Patricia (Holloran) Wettig (9) died within six months of each other in 1916. Harry (3), the oldest of the family, also lost his wife, Ida (60), that year and was left with the care of his two children, Ella Corrine(61) and Juanita Grace(62), as well as his young sister, Georgia.
The following, as told by Aunt Georgia to my wife Erin (2): "My father, Henry would have been very upset by the events of World War I. Henry was at least ten years older than my mother, Ella Patricia Holloran. We lived at 119 Plum Street, Atlanta, Georgia, for many years. We rented all of that time. We could have bought the house three times for the amount of rent we paid. All 7 children were born there. There was a cottonwood tree and also Cherry and Fig trees on the lot. We had a well which provided good, cool water."
She went on with the story, "Ella was Catholic. Harry and Willie (71) were both baptized in the Church. Neighbors were not very kind to Ella because of her beliefs. A young Priest would come by quite often to visit. Henry came home one day and threw the Priest out (verbally!). Henry played the harmonica and Ella sang in the evenings. They played games with the children there was one game called ear-ring in which they would take hold of ear lobes while they sat around the table and mother sang.
"The family would walk five blocks to see trains go by. Atlanta was a big rail center then." Aunt Georgia learned to play the piano when she was eight years old. Her father was a cabinetmaker and when she would go into his shop, he would pick her up and say in German "In all my life I have never seen such a beautiful maiden!"
Aunt Georgia saw Aunt Sophia (66) when Henry, died. She never saw any of the other relatives such as Aunts, Uncles or Grandparents or cousins.
In 1917 Aunt Georgia married Joseph Marion Strickland (344). They had a daughter, Marion (349), born January 16, 1918, in Atlanta. When Marian was 12 days old her father died. Georgia and Marian went with Harry and his two small daughters, Ella and Grace to Wilmington, NC, where Harry opened the Wilmington Stamp and Printing Company with two local men.
When Vina (Wolf) Marshall (4)
and Harry married, Georgia went back to Atlanta where she entered
Nurses training at the Atlanta Hospital. A sister-in-law (we don't
know whether this was Joseph Strickland's sister or the wife of
one of Georgia's brothers) who had worked at t
he hospital got her into the Nurses
Training program and took care of Marian. When Georgia graduated
she went to Detroit, Michigan, where her brothers , George (12)
and Theodore (11) were then living.
My (your editor) early memories of Aunt Georgia were of her visits from that far off place, Detroit, and the big box of chocolates she always brought for us. This was in the early 1930s. Aunt Georgia studied the Piano in Detroit and learned to play at a level which today would place her on the concert stage. She bought a Cable Piano, ca. 1930, created by the original Cable, before he added the "sons" to the business. It was a delight to hear her play in the late 1960's and into the 1970's. Her one desire for the piano was that it not fall into the hands of anyone who would not enjoy classical music. At the time that she was not able to continue playing, ca, 1985, she insisted that my wife, Erin, take the piano. We moved it from San Diego to Mesa, Arizona, and had it refinished. It is beautiful and now graces our living room. Its wonderful sound is heard occasionally when Erin plays Hymns or we have some friend in who can play the classical music Aunt Georgia loved so well.
I do not have any information on the second husband, a Mr. Coleman Hall (345), but I believe that this marriage lasted only a short time. Mr. Hall was Georgia's piano teacher
When I visited Aunt Georgia in 1943, as an Aviation Cadet at Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science (now Michigan State University), she introduced me to a Mr. Kudermann (346), who had just escaped from a German concentration camp in Austria. Mr. Kudermann was of a very successful Russian family until the demise of the Czar. He moved to Germany where he restructured his munitions manufacturing business. Then Hitler came into power in Germany, and Mr. Kudermann moved to Austria. He again was quite successful in chemical manufacturing until Hitler followed him into Austria. He was captured and placed in a concentration camp. His escape through Switzerland was successful and he emigrated to Detroit. Mr. Kudermann had developed a non-saccharine artificial sweetener which he called Trim. He took me to his shop, an old garage in a back alley near Aunt Georgia's apartment. He had constructed an immaculate kitchen facility there, and was in production of dietetic chocolate candy bars. I don't know the name of his formula, but it was the first non saccharine sweetener I ever heard of. Aunt Georgia and Mr. Kudermann were married Ca. 1944. He died shortly after. I never did find out what happened to his formula or his business.
Several years after Mr. Kudermann's death, Aunt Georgia married a Mr. DeTulio (347). They moved from Detroit to Pomona, California. They had a very nice, small house there. They were evidently very happy until Mr. DeTulio's death, a very short time after their move.
Aunt Georgia then moved to San Diego, where she met and married her fifth husband, Alfredo Gaspar (348), a Portuguese gentleman. Mr. Gaspar was a very talented and cultured person who encouraged Aunt Georgia in all her pursuits. They were extremely happy, and he was the only one of her five husbands that she talked about during the last years of her life when Erin and I were so close to her.
It would appear from this discourse that the life of Aunt Georgia consisted of only her marriages. Not so! She worked for thirty years as a Public Health Nurse in the City Department of Health in Detroit. She was an accomplished pianist, although I never heard of her performing at any function of for any group. In later life at the Nursing Home in San Diego she would occasionally play for a Birthday Celebration or at a special occasion for the residents. By this time her vision had deteriorated and since she had never learned to play without music, she could only do an O' Sole Mio or a few light hearted pieces. Not really her kind of music but I enjoyed singing with her accompaniment..
Aunt Georgia was also an artist. She produced many paintings of the San Diego area while Alfredo watched. We distributed her paintings throughout the family when it was necessary for her to give up her beautiful little home in San Diego. We still have one painting of roses in a beautiful vase (we have the vase sitting next to the painting) and a painting of the desert east of San Diego. She really enjoyed the desert scene. She remembered that Alfredo had found that particular spot and drove her out on several days to capture the same light as she painted.
Aunt Georgia continued her interest in Nursing after moving to San Diego, Following Mr. Gaspar's death in the early 1960's, she worked for a short time in one of the Hospitals there. She found more reward, however, in volunteering her Nursing skills in Tiajuana, Mexico, just across the border. She learned to speak a fluent Spanish (Mexico style).
Aunt Georgia was one of a kind. She was very independent and yet appreciative of attention and help. She was a perfectionist in her performance and yet tolerant of the ineptitude of others. I only wish I could have known her through a longer period of my life.
