James Wesley Blacketer's Story Continues...

"He used to walk around in his underwear."

"Excuse me?"

"He used to walk around in his underwear in their house. Didn't matter who was around either. Boo never liked it at all. But he thought he was 'something'."

I'd imagine that my great grandmother, affectionately known and called 'Boo', thought it was highly improper and scandalous for her son-in-law {my grandfather}, James Wesley Blacketer, to walk around in his underwear. 

And I'd overheard when I was a child that my grandfather was a 'jerk' and I knew from my mom that he'd divorced the family -my Gran and all 8 children- because he really had been in love with my Gran, but wasn't too keen on being a father, or at least that was what my mom told me how she felt about it. And him.

Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas. © Copyright 2012 Caroline M. Pointer

And I also knew he'd been married before because I have a copy of his marriage certificate and his World War I draft registration card that shows he'd been married before. Couple that with the carefully guarded but often whispered rumors in the family about another family of his, and, well, the whole I-like-to-prance-around-in-my-underwear-while-at-home-but-not-alone tidbit about my grandfather, while not surprising, was, um, definitely shocking.

And, really, at the time I spoke with my aunt I was kind of in awe because I'd never met this aunt, or don't remember meeting her because there'd been a family feud in my mom's family when I was younger. So, while I knew her name and knew {by name only} which brother of my mom's she had married, I'd never really known her. And thanks to Facebook and a first cousin who found me there {son of a different aunt and uncle who'd been on the other side of the feud}, I met him in person and my aunt by telephone. And they were all too willing and extremely generous with their family stories, remembrances, rumors, and pictures of the family. {And I cannot thank them enough.}

That's right. Family pictures. Ones that included my grandfather...with his clothes on. {Thank goodness.}

"So, how did you learn about him walking around in his underwear?" {Not that  I doubted her. I mean, who can make this kinda stuff up? And who would want to?!?}

"I used to do Boo's hair at my house later on in her life and she used to tell me things. She never liked your grandfather." {Not hard to guess why.}

"...and your grandfather's niece got a hold of Gran many years ago. She had done the family's genealogy and tracked Gran down. And that's when Gran found out he had had another family."

{Whoa! Right?} My aunt went on to explain how this niece told my grandmother that while my grandfather, James Wesley, had been away from home in Missouri during World War I, he just never came back. They assumed he had died. And by 'they' I mean his mother, father, siblings, his first wife, and their 2 children. Of course, they never received confirmation of his death, but they never knew what had had happened to him. With some Ancestry.com searching, where I originally found the record of his marriage to his first wife, I had already known that his first wife went on to remarry. {So, that wasn't new news to me, but the niece contacting my Gran was.}

And my grandfather met my grandmother and married by 1919 in San Antonio. {I hope there's some kind of divorce to his first wife on record because otherwise, I can say buh-bye to my DAR - Daughters of the American Revolution - application with this bit of info. Although, the UEL - United Empire Loyalists - may still take me.} Anywho, lots of detailed offline researching is in order for my DAR and UEL membership quest.

And, like I mentioned previously, my cousin {who found me on Facebook} shared his family history notebook that he'd compiled with photos and documentation from my Gran's niece {obtained through my aunt} as well as from his own personal collection of photos of his side of the family taken over the years.

James Wesley Blacketer ca. 1920 probably taken in San Antonio, Texas.

James Wesley Blacketer probably taken in San Antonio, Texas.

My Gran {Mary Alice Velda Truitt} and my grandfather {James Wesley Blacketer}.

Now, remember, I never met my grandfather because he committed suicide in 1951. And the only image I've seen of him is a black and white photocopy of him from the backside of his passport application that I found on Ancestry.com.

So, to say that I was thankful and fascinated by my grandfather's images shared with me by my cousin is an understatement. {I mean, I actually had tears in my eyes in the middle of a crowded Starbucks where my cousin and I met and swapped stories and family information. That's right. My cousin lives nearby.}

My cousin later emailed me more photos that he had of the family that hadn't yet made his notebook including color images of my grandfather's passport with the original passport photo of which I'd only seen the photocopy version. {My grandfather needed said passport when he worked and lived in Tampico, Mexico right after he married my grandmother.}

And when I gaze at my grandfather's photos - after the emotion over the enormity of the situation lessens -  all I can think is, "He used to walk around the house in his underwear in front of everyone."

Well, that and the fact that I just found out that my grandfather appears on an arson investigation list in San Antonio less than a year before he committed suicide and those records are located in the City of San Antonio Archives which is open to the public. And that according to a recently found obituary of my grandfather's {different from the one that I had originally found}, there had been an inquest after his death to prove suicide and he'd been unable to work for the past 3 years due to his illness. {And I'll need to find out where those records are located.}

{And, whoa!?! What illness?!?}

And you know what all that means? Another fact-finding mission to San Antonio to investigate - this time - my other jerk of a grandfather who walked around in his underwear all the time and shocked and irritated his mother-in-law. {And I thought my Dad's dad, Big Paw Paw, was naughty. *snort*}

James Wesley, my grandfather, had been a deeply troubled man.

And he keeps me on my genealogy-family-history-storytellin' toes.

~Caroline
{Sources available upon request.}