Dr. Edith Gene Becraft
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: 3 Jun 1916 - Rushville, Rush Co, IN
Christening:
Death: 20 Apr 2001 - Rushville, Rush Co, IN
Burial: in East Hill Cemetery, Rushville, Rush Co, IN
Cause of Death:
AFN :
Events
• Biography
Name: Abbott, Edithgene Becraftntbl Birth - Death: 1916- ntbl Accession Number: 2687ntbl Source Citation: Who's Who in the South and Southwest. 17th edition, 1980-1981. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1980.(WhoSSW 17) Who's Who in the South and Southwest. 18th edition, 1982-1983. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1982.(WhoSSW 18) Who's Who in the South and Southwest. 19th edition, 1984-1985. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1984.(WhoSSW 19)• Email
From: "Jim Becraft" <jbecrft@worldnet.att.net>• Email
Subject: Farewell To Gene:
Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 19:59:38 -0700
Gene Abbott's funeral is tomorrow, 5/5/2001 and I've been trying to write & remember some of my fondest moments.
Memories of Gene Abbott Adventures:
disclaimer <not needed> this is how & what I remember, some of which may be
inaccurate. However, I don't think any of what I am about to write will be
weighted upon accuracy but love.
I first heard of Gene when my Mom called me one night and told me of an
article written in the Rushville (IN) Republican on Gene [2/24/97]. About
how she had moved back to her small town roots after a highly successful
career as an educator at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. My mom mentioned
how the article mentioned she was the daughter of Frank & Pearl Becraft,
and my mom thought Gene might be related to us. I knew in a heartbeat that
she was related as Frank Becraft was my grandfather's (Harley) oldest
brother. I had recalled that Frank's name was mentioned in my grandfather's
obituary, and looked up my census sheets and found Edith Gene as the 3rd
child of Frank & Pearl Becraft. I called information and got Gene's phone
number, called her up and our journey began.
My census sheet was from the 1920 census, Rushville Township, Rush Co., IN
Becraft, Frank Head 40 y/o
Becraft, Pearl Wife 34 y/o
Becraft, Dorothy Daughter 14 y/o
Becraft, Frances E. Daughter 11 y/o
Becraft, Eidath Daughter 3 y/o
Becraft, John R. Son 9 mo.
Our first phone call must've lasted an hour and a half or two, and I
immediately loved this lady and her zest for life. The article had
chronicled her highly successful career, and yet even the article was
heavily sprinkled with Gene's own brand of humility, with the basic theme
of her success was "being at the right place at the right time". She loved
hearing of my fledgling journey into Becraft genealogy and spoke of her own
interest that was sparked at times by being contacted by other Becraft
researchers, mainly Ivory Goodrich, Lorraine Plotner, and Anna Foley.
(I can't recall if she had any contact with Mildred Becraft back then or
not).
I also found Gene to have been quite adventurous, very humorous, and
obviously very bright, educated, and eager to share information. She was
equally excited about some tidbits of information that I gave her, and we
continued forward with our new kinship that was to include a budding
friendship as we continued to exchange letters and phone calls over the
next few months. Gene's the one that had the article on the sale of
George Becraft's house in Mt. Airy, MD that I've copied and mailed around
the United States to others. We had a few disagreements as well, starting
with my great-grandfathers, Gene's grandfather's middle name. Gene was
sure it was Franklin and that's who her father was named after, but all
my data indicated his middle name to have been Henry. This was the first
time I experienced her humor in enjoying our "right to disagree", and
continue to move forward, both us anxious to prove our own point (which
we never did with a 100% validation to this day).
I was planning on returning to Indiana that summer and was in the early
stages of writing various Becraft's and trying to assemble a reunion
while I was there. Gene was excited about getting to meet me, and then
to meet the rest of my family, and what few other Becraft's that were
still around Rushville. I had also found out about a cemetery with some
pioneer Becraft's down around Greensburg, IN and Gene was quite anxious
to not only make that trip with me, but she insisted on doing the driving,
and again we found ourselves excited about all these plans for that summer
of 1997.
Footnote here, Gene was also described in the aforementioned newspaper
article as being the author of "R.I.P. By The Flatrock, History of the
East Hill Cemetery" and she shared an abundance of information on the
architect & designer of this cemetery in Rushville, and other cemeteries
the same person had done from Cincinnati to Indianapolis. She knew of a
lot of these little cemeteries around central to southern Indiana, and
it was quite a unique aspect to enjoy the wealth (& depth) of her
knowledge.
hmmm, trying to remember the stories that stick out, first one that comes
to mind was that Gene's growing up a Becraft was similar to my own in that
she only has intermittent memories of other Becraft's while growing up.
Her memories were of her dad's younger brother Albert and his family
visiting on occasion. She vaguely recalled my grandfather, Harley,
visiting their house, and something about him having diabetes, but nothing
much beyond that. She also had a few memories of her grandfather (William),
and his 2nd wife, Anna visiting and that she used to laugh at her grand-
fathers expression of "Oh Sugar" when he didn't like something, or was
frustrated with something. She had some childhood memories of taking
drives down around Napolean, IN and was planning on taking me down that way
when I came home that summer. In a letter she wrote me around Memorial
Day, 1997 she mentioned she hadn't been down that way since 1933 or 1934,
but felt she could find this particular fork in a road and her landmarks
that she was remembering was a ford over a little creek, and something to
do with an Indian rock, and said if she had found what she was looking there
would be a small house by the creek where all of her Dad's brothers were
born, and also where his mother died.
She mentions her grandmother being only 39 when she died, and had had seven
children by that time. Gene's father Frank was the oldest of the seven,
Harley was the youngest of those seven. I don't think Harley was even
2 years of age by the time his mother died, and I could never find Harley
being brought up with any of his Becraft siblings. I finally found him at
the age of seven living with his mother's sister & her husband in their
boarding house.
I remember Gene saying she had a vague memory as a child of some Becraft
dying locally and her mother baking up a dish of potatoes au gratin' and
sending her to deliver the dish to whoever's house it was that someone had
died. She wasn't sure if that was Harley or someone else. She did recall
that "they were as poor as church mice" and her mother creating this
potato dish to send over to the house. She also recalls as a small girl
being mad when she heard my Dad had a sister that was born who was named
Edith Imogene, and that was close to Gene's given name of Edith Gene, and
she remembers being mad that these other Becraft's stole her name and
gave it to this new baby girl.
I arrived back in Indiana in August, 1997 and we had two Becraft reunions
planned, the "big one" was scheduled to happen in Anderson, IN where my
great-grandfather William Becraft had lived for quite awhile until he
died there in 1943(?) at the age of 90, and there was the greatest number
of Becraft's from his second marriage still living in that area. We also
had a "mini-reunion" at my parent's house in Rushville, IN prior to the big
reunion in Anderson. The one held in Rushville were with those of us whose
history was from my great-grandfathers first wife (Priscilla Meyers)
children and their families. Basically there was Gene as the sole member
of Frank Becraft' family, and the rest were from Harley's family, mainly
my own family and some of our cousins came over from Connersville, IN,
members of Leslie Becraft (Tuck) family. The oldest members of that
gathering were; Gene (from Frank), my Dad Ralph (from Harley), his brother
Wayne (from Harley), and their sister Mary (from Harley), then my cousin
Leonard (from Leslie), and my brothers, sisters, kids, etc., probably
around 30-40 of us and we all had a blast.
In between the two reunions, my brother Bill & I had the pleasure of
spending an entire day driving between Rushville, Greensburg, Batesville,
and the area contained within searching for this old cemetery around
Greensburg that was supposed to hold some Becraft pioneer grave sites.
We managed to find some Becraft graves, but none of the real old ones we
were looking for, and headed out to search for the other, even older,
Becraft family grave sites still remaining on somebody's farm around
Greensburg, but we weren't able to find it either within the time we
had allowed to search and still try to see everything.
My brother Bill & I had a great time that day laughing and telling
stories with Gene. When we approached Batesville Gene asked if we
wouldn't mind having lunch with her at her favorite German restaurant,
and that was equally as enjoyable as the rest of the day had been.
When Gene recently went into the hospital my brother wrote me an e-mail
reminiscing about that day with her and having lunch at that German
restaurant. I had to laugh when I recalled with my brother how Gene
was driving us around that day, and as we were heading off a two lane
highway and had to turn left across oncoming traffic we had a red light
and Gene just kepton going through it and my brother and I were like
out of some comedy movie or cartoon pointing and making grunting,
babbling sounds, but fortunately there wasn't any oncoming traffic so
we didn't end up in any danger, but I'll never forget Gene asking
"what's wrong boys?" and seeming unconcerned when we pointed out that
she had just run the red light, so we laughed it off (nervously) ourselves
and continued on with our "special day".
I also recall (with some disdain) how I took my brother John over to meet
Gene, and while she was letting us in, even prior to introductions, Gene
says, "ahh, no introductions are necessary, this young man is as Becraft
handsome as my father was". My brother John already has one of those ear
to ear grins, but on this occasion I swear his lips met at the corners and
that grin went all the way around his <swollen> head, and then he replies
something to the effect of "yeah, well Jim told me you were very intelligent
too"....I should have just left those two alone in their mutual admiration
society, but I took my back seat with as much pride as I could muster and
weathered the rest of their hip-wader compliments.
A few days later we all headed up to Anderson, IN, and attended the "big
reunion" where we probably had 75 people or so show up from all across
the country. I think Janice Watson and her sister probably drove the
farthest to attend coming in from OK, Carol Albrecht coming in from IA,
I probably traveled the farthest, flying in from Seattle, Mildred & Stephen
Becraft and their son Dan drove over from OH, and I recall that Mildred,
Stephen, and Gene were the most senior Becraft members there that day.
Again, a great time was had by all and we all had that first step of getting
to know each other as people as well as relatives was vastly rewarding.
One of my favorite Gene memories of that day is captured on film. I had
two cameras with me that day, one was loaded with black and white film and
on that roll there is a picture of Gene standing with my Mom, after I took
their picture she mutters at me "I hate having my picture taken, none of
them ever come out good", and I replied, "well that's exactly what my mom
says all the time, too bad", and took another one to capture her expression.
My wife & I returned to Indiana once again around October 1998 once I
finished with a business trip to Chicago, and we held another small
(quickly arranged) reunion in Rushville.
We probably only had 25-30 folks make the drive to that one (I think the
farthest that came to that time was an aunt and a cousin who drove in from
South Carolina). Once again, we all really enjoyed our continuing
relationship of getting to know each other.
One of my last memories of Gene that I will be able to enjoy for the rest
of my life came through the mail X-mas 1999. My wife & I had a new Becraft
addition join our lives on August 29, 1999. A couple of weeks before X-mas
we received a package in the mail from Gene. It contained a cute little
"Baby's First X-mas" ornament, and a large hard back book of Children's
Poetry and she inscribed the inside cover to our son and signed her name
and dated it. She sents us the greatest card with words of encouragement
of the importance of reading to our new son as early (& often) as possible.
We'll all miss her presence in this world. She was truly a great lady & a
very special person. I know that whenever I manage to travel back to IN
and drive around looking for family roots that I will think of her often.
I'm kind of glad we never found the time for our trip to Ripley Co.,
the small town of Napolean, looking for the "Indian Rock" at the fork in
the road, and trying to find that little ford in the creek and the little
house by the creek where her father, and my grandfather were born.
I could attempt to do her a little bit of honor by trying to share a few
of these valued memories with everyone else.
Good-bye Gene. We love you, and we'll miss you & would like to say one
more time, "we thank you for your presence".
From: William1114@aol.com• Census, Federal, 1920 in Rush Co, IN
To: jbecrft@worldnet.att.net
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2001 1:15 AM
Subject: more memories of Gene Abbott
I am Jim Becraft's brother, son of Ralph and Donna of Rushville. I remember
when Jim first told me about the reunion I wasn't too thrilled to meet a
bunch of relatives for the first time. I had several reasons, my first and
most important was I am openly gay and have been for years. It has bothered
me for years that the "Becrafts" seem to have a family trait of being very
standoffish and untrusting of "any" outsiders. Once I arrived I felt my
suspicions were confirmed. Seemed I was the ONLY gay member of the whole damn
tree. I KNEW I would probably never see any of these people again at least
99% of them. I lived in Los Angeles for years which is known as the melting
pot. I LOVED meeting and making friends with people from all over the world.
Black,White,Gay, Straight, Japanese,Chinese, Hindu and on and on. When Jim
introduced me to Gene Abbott it was love at first site. OMG, this worldly
woman is my cousin????? within minutes I told her Im gay and it was like
telling her I was wearing a blue shirt.........SO????????? She and I had a
delightful cocktail hour conversation at her house once about people in
general and I knew I had a friend for life. I marveled at her knowledge about
several things including issues important to the gay and lesbian community.
One thing Ive tried to get across to others but to no avail is that life is
very short. To shut yourself out to new opportunities or away from people you
dont understand is only cheating yourself. We are all human and life is VERY
short even at 85yrs of age. God love you Gene, I will miss you terribly. your
dear cousin,Bill
Frank Becraft, age 40y; wife Pearl, age 34y; dau Dorthy, age 14y; dau Frances E, age 11y; dau Eidath, age 3y6m; son John R, age 9m.• Census, 1930 Census, 1930 in Rushville, Rush Co, IN
Edith J Becraft age 13 listed as daughter with father Frank W. age 50 and mother Pearl C age 44 and brother John R age 11 and sister Dorothy M age 24.
Parents
Father: Frank William Becraft
Mother: Pearl Casey
Spouses and Children
1. *Martin L. Abbott
Marriage: 1971
Status:
2. Frank Sparks
Children:
1. James M. Sparks
2. Patricia Sparks
3. J. Michael Sparks
Notes
Death Notes:
Obituary published in "The Rushville Republican", Thursday May 10, 2001.