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Frank and Anna (Jackson) Ruff standing in front of the castor bean tree that grew like a weed at the front door of our Arizona house. Taken in 1945 when the Jackson family came together for my great grandmother Eva's funeral. I was too young to remember this funeral. But several years later, it would be Frank Ruff's death in Phoenix that brought the family together again. I don't remember the funeral but the open casket with Frank's dead body was a shock to my young eyes.
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Mom's father Oscar with his older brother Walter and his younger sister Anna, standing in front of their mother Eva's home in Phoenix, Arizona in the early 1940's when they were all in their early to mid 50's.
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Marion, Anna's then husband, and Jeff, Eva's third husband join Oscar and Anna for a photo. This must be a different day from the photo above since both Anna and Oscar are wearing different clothing.
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My great Aunt Anna (Jackson) Burch Ruff was born in Alabama in 1887 a year after her brother Oscar. She was the fourth of six children. She is an Aunt I remember from my youngest years. Always welcoming when we went to visit her in Phoenix which was once or twice a year when we were young. And it was her husband Marion Frank Ruff that I saw dead in his open casket. As I got older, I do not remember seeing her, and I am surprised to learn from this photo the date of her death was 1975; she was 88 then and I was 32. That was the year I moved from San Francisco to teach photography at Cornell University. Interesting how family members can loose touch with each other.
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Here is a surprise. Who are these women? I have no idea. I recognize the third woman from the left as my materal grandmother Margaret.
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My Great Aunt Anna at the age of 52 with her four grown children and two of her grandchildren.
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Great Aunt Bertha visits Phoenix from her home in Oxnard, California. She has orchards of avocados in California, but here she admires the oranges of Arizona on the farm of her sister, my Great Aunt Anna and her husband Frank Ruff. On the far right is the half-sister of Lafayette Jackson, my maternal great grandfather.
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World travelers: Uncle Jack (mom's brother)in his naval uniform, his wife Rhoda wearing a fur coat, and her daughter Holly, looking so sophisticated. Excited to have compnay: my sister Peggy on the left and me on the right.
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