Letha Victoria Fortney was born 7 Aug 1900 in Monongah, Marion County, West Virginia the first child of James Joshua Fortney and Rosanne Belle Bock. Her father was a coal miner, like most of his neighbors. It was a hard life, but the Fortneys owned a farm to supplement their father's income. They never knew want. Letha was named Leafy by her parents, but she hated the name and later changed it to Letha.
She can be found living with her parents in the 1910 Census in Lyon, Preston County, West Virginia as Leafy V. Fortney.
When she was just a teen, Letha went to work as a maid for a wealthy local family--the Campbells. There was a young son in the family, who was the same age as Letha--James J. Campbell. The son seduced her, and Letha being in a dependent state, may have held out hope that he would marry her and make her a wealthy woman. When Letha became pregnant, the Campbells learned of what was going on. They became incensed, fired her and threw her out of their home, refusing to acknowledge the child as their own grandbaby.
Letha tried to return to her parents, but they refused to take her in. It is difficult to understand in today’s world, where tolerance at all costs is the only acknowledged value, to understand why a parent would be so angry in such a situation. However, even modern day parents can have bitter disputes with wayward children, who dishonor them. Though we can wish that they had been kinder to their daughter when she was in such dire need of support, it is not our place to judge. Letha was sent to live with an aunt. At just sixteen years of age, Letha had become a single mother without any support from the father of her child or even her own parents.
Just two years after her daughter was born, Letha met and married James Travis Hyatt. It was shortly before the end of WWI, when the western world was despairing over the loss of so many young men in that terrible war. Letha must have felt lucky to have found a man of her own, who was willing to take her in and care for her and her child. They were married on 20 Aug 1918 in Shinnston, Harrison County, West Virginia. Over the course of the next seven years they had three girls--Esther, Opal and Allene--and one stillborn baby boy who was named after his father.
In 1920, they can be found living in Clay Township, Harrison County, West Virginia:
James worked as a driver at the local coal mine throughout these years, and their lifestyle was totally dependent on the coal company. They lived in the town owned by the company. They shopped at the store owned by the company. The coal for their stove upon which they cooked, and which heated their home during the cold seasons, came from the company. The power that lighted their home came from the company. The light was turned on by day, in time to wake the workmen and give them time to breakfast and get to work. The light went off at night when the company determined that all workmen should be in bed.
Coal mining is hard and dangerous work, and being so utterly dependent on the company must have taken a toll on the pride of the workmen. They formed a union to improve the lives of their families, to get the health insurance and job security that they so craved. The company, knowing that the men were utterly dependent on them, decided that they would starve the families out rather than give in to their demands.
The resulting strike must have been a terrible ordeal for Letha. She could not turn to her parents for help, since they felt that she had disgraced them, and she had nowhere else to turn when food and fuel ran out. Letha was desperate to feed her children, and begged her husband to look for another job. James refused to look for other work. He believed in the strike, and had hopes that it would end, leaving him in better condition than before.
We can imagine Letha's frustration when faced with hungry children on the one hand, and a stubborn husband on the other. The arguments quickly turned ugly, and James became violent. Letha stormed out of the house, and went to the police to have her husband arrested, claiming that he kept a still in his home and was bootlegging liquor. This was in the midst of the Prohibition years, and Letha undoubtedly relied on that as a more likely way to get James out of the house than an accusation of domestic violence.
Letha saw to it that her three youngest children were taken in by her parents, then she found a boarding house where she could stay with her eldest daughter and worked as a cook to earn their keep. She soon obtained a divorce, and continued working at the boarding house for several years.
Letha is living in a boarding house, with eldest daughter Ruth in the 1930 Census:
During those interim years, the three youngest children stayed with their father. He was abusive to them, and neglected them terribly. They became malnourished to the point that neighbors complained and county agents took them away from him. They ended up returning to live with Letha's parents, though Opal was so badly affected that she stayed in an orphanage for several months. There she could be supervised in a treatment for rickets that involved plenty of nourishing food and soaking in sunlight for periods of time every day.
There was really very little that a mother could do in those days to have control over her children. The law gave the father custody of his children automatically, and the mother had very few rights where her children were concerned. By this neglect, James lost his rights to custody of the children. This made it easier for Letha to be able to spend time with them, and eventually move out of state with them.
In the meantime, Letha met a man named Stanley Hoffman, who was in the Navy at the time. He was a friend and crew mate of Henry Chilton, who married Letha's eldest daughter, Ruth. Letha became very friendly with Stanley and eventually moved in with him, and lived with him for several years as his common law wife. In 1934 and 1935 Stanley was stationed in Maryland for about seven months and then in Virginia for another year, during this time Letha and her girls lived with him as a family. Letha's children took the name of Hoffman, so that even their school records are under this false name.
In 1935, Stanley and Henry were transferred to the base in Long Beach, California. Though Stanley wanted Letha and the girls to come with him, the fact that they were not legally married made it difficult for him to get any help from the military. He ended up leaving them behind to follow as best they could. Letha had very little money saved for the journey, but she was determined to make the move. Things had cooled down between she and Stanley by then, but Letha missed her daughter terribly and heard that there were lots of opportunities for her in California.
There were many hardships along the way. Letha herself never admitted to the difficulties, but hints from her daughters' tales, over the years, tell a story of a mother's sacrifice of skipped meals so that she could afford to feed her daughters. One very sad story is about a meal at a café where the waiter resented the fact that Letha contented herself with her bottomless cup of coffee while her daughters ate the cheapest breakfast on the menu. He showed his disdain for her poverty by stubbing out his cigarette in the bottom of her coffee cup before pouring in the coffee. When Letha got to the bottom of the cup, she found this insult in the dregs of her cup. She was sick all through the night from this.
In spite of their hardships, Letha showed her characteristic good spirits. Her daughters had many fond memories of their trip, including being awakened by their mother in the wee hours of the morning, after traveling through the night, so that they could witness the sunrise over the beautiful painted dessert. When they reached the border of California, Letha celebrated by buying the girls a bag of oranges, which were a rare treat for girls from the east coast in those days.
When they reached California, Letha and the girls moved into an apartment next to Ruth, and Letha went to work as a cook at a local diner to support her family, while Stanley was out at sea. Stanley still spent his leave with Letha, but she largely supported herself at this time. In 1940, when Letha applied for Social Security she applied under the name of Letha Fortney Hoffman. This application lists the names of her parents and her birth date and place. Though the Hoffman name may confuse the issue, it still makes it clear that Letha Fortney Hoffman is the same person as Leafy V. Fortney.
She appears in the 1940 Census in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California, living with Amos Stanley Hoffman and her youngest daughter, Allene, still at home:
It was at this time that the United States became involved in the war, and Stanley Hoffman and Henry Chilton were among the first to be sent to the battle zones. The war took a major toll on everyone. Stanley Hoffman was heard from less and less. Henry Chilton was injured in a battle that caused more mental than physical damage. He became so mentally disturbed, that at one point he attacked Ruth with a knife. He was admitted to a mental hospital, and Ruth obtained a divorce. She could not trust such a dangerous man in the home with her small children.
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| Letha & Wallace Edson |
Letha's girls pulled together to help care for the children while Ruth went to work full-time. As the years of war progressed, Letha felt that it was time to find another husband for Ruth. Living in Long Beach, they were within easy distance from the Naval base there. Letha took her single daughters to dances, and for visits to the base. On one such visit, they asked a young officer for a tour of one of the huge battleships. He was eager to please these lovely young ladies, and soon obtained permission.
During the tour, Letha kept trying to endear Ruth to this tall, kindly and handsome officer--Wallace Edson. He was an impressive man, seven feet tall with a deeply resonant yet mild voice. Letha thought that he would make a wonderful son-in-law, but for some reason Ruth was not interested in him. This did not bother Wallace, who was most impressed with Ruth’s mother. He enjoyed Letha’s warm interest and her delightful sense of humor. He learned where Letha worked, at a local diner as a cook, and went to eat there frequently in the coming months.
They fell in love, and were married early in the year 1941, traveling to Illinois for the wedding, since that was where the Edson’s had come from. Letha had finally met her match in intelligence, and kindness. He was the love of her life. Letha converted to Catholicism, through the influence of Wallace's family, and remained a devote Catholic throughout the rest of her life. These final years were filled with the contentment of a happy home, and the love of her husband, children and grandchildren. Her marriage with Wallace lasted for over forty years, until Letha’s death in 1982. Wallace never married again after her death.
Letha shares a stone with her beloved husband, Wallace Edson, where they are buried in the Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery in Tillamook, Oregon near his parents:
The record of her burial reads:
***
SURNAME EDSON
First Name Letha
Death Yr 1982
Death Date 9 /2 /1982
Birth Date 8 /7 /1908 [This year is wrong. She had given her husband false information about her age, since he was much younger than she was. She was 10 in the 1910 Census, which gives us a better estimate of when she was born.]
BirthYr 1908
BirthPlace
Spouse Name Wallace H EDSON
MaidenName FORTNEY
[No cemetery name given, but she was buried in Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery. Transcribed by TILLAMOOK COUNTY PIONEER MUSEUM]
California Death Index, 1940-1997
Name: Letha Victoria Edson [Letha Victoria Fortney]
Social Security #: 556221506
Sex: FEMALE
Birth Date: 7 Aug 1901
Birthplace: West Virginia
Death Date: 2 Sep 1982
Death Place: Santa Barbara
Mother's Maiden Name: Bellerock [This is unfortunately how the name appears, the clerk must have misheard/misunderstood the name--Roseanne Belle Bock.]
Father's Surname: Fortney
