Family Stories: The Shearer Sisters

Before the Pointer Sisters...

There were the Shearer sisters.

That's right. The Shearer sisters. On the bottom right-hand corner is Julia Ann Shearer who married Jordan Williams. And they were Pearl's grandparents. [I wonder what she called Julia Ann. Mee-Maw? Nana? Grandma? Grandmother? Personally, I think she looks like a Mee-Maw. Plus, it's fun to say.]

Anywho, the sister in the top left-hand corner is Mary Shearer [Yeah. I know. Another Mary. *sigh*], and she married John C. Belcher, Jr. And together they raised little Harve Pointer [who became a handsome Harve later on]. I guess it's not really a mystery how Harve and Pearl met. I wonder if it was love at first sight? I don't mean to be greedy, but a diary would be nice. Or perhaps some letters. Or something. [A genea-girl can dream.]

So the Shearer sisters lived near each other in Iowa, and were so gracious to sit down for this portrait. A couple of days after the Pointer family reunion, Great-Aunt Dorothy showed me this photo and asked me if I knew who they were. Right off the top of my head, I couldn't tell her, but I took a picture of it with my digital camera. Turned out, though, Great-Uncle Donald had a copy of the photo. And it was identified. [Oh, how I love Great-Uncle Donald.]

These Shearer sisters look so serious in this photo. I wonder, though, if they would've started dancing to Sisters Sledge's We Are Family. I like to think that they would've. Maybe in the kitchen while making bread. And pies. [Which reminds me. Great-Aunt Dorothy makes a mean cherry pie. My favorite.] I can just see them shaking what God gave them. Can't you?

Oh, by the way, there were some Pointer sisters in the family. Remember Harve and Pearl's boys [one of which is Great-Uncle Donald]? Yeah, well, before they had the boys, they had 2 girls. Goodness, Pearl sure had her hands full. But I'll talk about them later.