Person:Elizabeth Cecil (20)

Personal History

Elizabeth Ann Cecil ("Libby") was born in 1928 in the small town of Sylvia in the middle of the Kansas wheat country. She was the first of four children raised by John and Marjorie Cecil in the peace and boredom of a declining small town, largely unaffected personally by the Depression and second world war. Libby and her sister Ginny, who was just a year and a half younger, were close friends with their cousins Jane and Nancy McElhinney, who lived nearby and were about the same age. Their Austin grandparents also lived nearby, and the families often spent time together.

An "A" student, Libby had always expected to go to college, and it was a welcome opportunity to leave Sylvia--first for Colorado Women's College in Denver, then Antioch College in Ohio. College was an enlightening experience, and although she had been raised as a good Methodist in a solidly Republican town, Libby joined the Unitarian Church and Democratic party as a young adult. While at Antioch, Libby met William David ("Dave") Kelts, one of the many war veterans on the GI bill that were then filling the schools to overflowing. After a year of dating, they were married.

Although they didn't know it, Libby and Dave were fifth cousins, both descended from John Brown who lived in Pennsylvania from about 1725 to 1786.

Soon Dave had graduated and Libby had had her first child (and because of her pregnancy, never graduated). The next five years included several moves around Ohio and Kansas and a second daughter. Then in 1956 they packed nearly everything they owned into a trailer hitched to their old DeSoto (a few things were shipped by rail) and joined the migration to California. They bought a house in a newly-built suburb, with an “all-electric kitchen” considered so modern in those days, with the help of a government-sponsored veteran's loan.

Libby and Dave raised their family, eventually three daughters and one son, in Sacramento, California. Libby had worked as a preschool teacher in Ohio, but in California she became a full-time homemaker. Dave had a 26-year career with the State of California in various financial and management positions. In 1966, as their children grew older, they moved to a larger home in Carmichael. Dave and Libby were long-time traditional jazz fans, for many years attending monthly meetings of the local traditional jazz club as well as many concerts and jazz festivals.

Dave died suddenly in 1984, five years after their last child had left home, and Libby began living alone for the very first time in her life. She moved from their five-bedroom house into a condominium, where she became friends with her next-door neighbors. Her pastimes included reading and playing her large collection of traditional jazz records. She later moved into assisted living, and died in August of 2018 after a brief period of rapidly declining health. In accordance with her wishes, Elizabeth was cremated.

-- (mostly) pasted here from WikiTree 18 August 2022 (original work of Julie Kelts)

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 1930 United States Federal Census, in United States. Bureau of the Census. 15th census, 1930. Kansas, 1930 federal census: population schedules ; NARA microfilm publication T626. (Washington, District of Columbia: Bureau of the Census Micro-Film Laboratory, 199-?)
   Census Place: Sylvia, Reno, Kansas; Roll: 716; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0055; Image: 909.0; FHL microfilm: 2340451.

   Name: Elizabeth A Cecil, Birth Year: abt 1929, Gender: Female, Race: White, Age in 1930: 1, Birthplace: Kansas, Marital Status: Single, Relation to Head of House: Daughter, Home in 1930: Sylvia, Reno, Kansas, USA, Street Address: Talbot Street, Dwelling Number: 31; Family Number: 32; Attended School: No; Father's Birthplace: Kansas; Mother's Birthplace: Kansas (per Ancestry)

2. ↑ United States. 1930 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication T626).

   "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X77S-ZWC : accessed 29 July 2022), Elizabeth A Cecil in household of John J Cecil, Sylvia, Reno, Kansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 55, sheet 1B, line 96, family 32, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 716; FHL microfilm 2,340,451.
   -----
   
Street Address: Talbot Street,
Dwelling Number: 31;

Household Role Sex Age Birthplace
John J Cecil Head Male 34 Kansas
Marjorie Cecil Wife Female 22 Kansas
Elizabeth A Cecil Dau Female 1 Kansas
Virginia Cecil Dau Female 0 Kansas


3.   G3KW-Y5L, in FamilySearch Family Tree
   includes sources, last accessed Jul 2022.