Living

Living married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Living married Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

After graduating from Flint (Mich.) Central High School in 1930, Al went West looking for work. In a biography he prepared for his family he writes he "left Flint on a car-haul away loaded with Buicks for Kansas City. Hitching my way west, I came to Lawton, Oklahoma which at that time was about 9000 people." His wife MayBelle wrote that he lived with an Aunt and Uncle and worked at Montgomery Wards. The position he was given was reserved for students, so he enrolled in Cameron State Agricultural College the next day. He received an Associate in Science degree from Cameron in May, 1932.

He was a longtime employee of Dupont, working on and off depending on the economy, from 1927 through 1949. He later worked for Acme Paint, Williams Gun Shop, Knoblock's Hardware, and as a custodian at Mott Community College. After he retired in 1976, Al and MayBelle travelled, and spent each winter at The Tip O' Texas RV Resort in Pharr, Texas, returning home to Michigan each summer.

Alfred married MayBelle Mildred Beznoska on 5 Aug 1933 in La Porte County, Indiana. MayBelle (daughter of Louis Beznoska and Mildred Schere) was born on 25 Apr 1914 in Junction City, Comanche County, Oklahoma; died on 2 Apr 2007 in Houghton Lake, Roscommon County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In a biography she wrote for her children and grandchildren, MayBelle said that she started school in Nebraska, where they were temporarily living to help care for her ailing grandmother Schere. After she completed the fourth grade, they returned to Oklahoma and for her fifth and sixth grade year she and her sister walked to school in Junction City. She lived with "distant relatives Harry and Lilly" to help them care for their three year old daughter when she was seventh grade, while attending Cameron College. The next year she retured home and attended eighth grade in Walters. At the start of High School, she returned to Cameron College, where she was a boarding student for one year, until Geronimo opened a new High School. There were seven students in her 1931 graduating class: Harold Lee Walker, Edna Jo Watson, Golda Mae Northcutt, James Donald Stewart, Willie E. Walker, James Donivan Outenreath and MayBelle herself. MayBelle was class president, with James Donald Stewart serving as secretary.

From the time her mother lost her eye, MayBelle had to do all the families sewing, and she also worked side by side with her father on the farm, cuting wheat and oats with a horse drawn thrasher.


Obituary

MayBelle M. Hutchins, 93, Houghton Lake, died April 2, 2007, at West Branch Regional Medical Center. A memorial service at the family home is planned April 15. Burial will be in Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Flint. Mrs. Hutchins was born in Junction City, OK, April 25, 1914, to Louis and Mildred (Boulier) Beznoska. She married Alfred T. Hutchins in Indiana Aug. 5, 1933. Mrs. Hutchins was a custodian at Mott Community College and a florist for Anthony's, both in Flint. The couple moved to Houghton Lake from Flint in 1976. Mr. Hutchins died in 1992. Mrs. Hutchins was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. Besides her husband, she was preceded in death by her parents and in 1947 by a baby son. Mrs. Hutchins is survived by a daughter, Barbara and her husband Charles Sherbenaut of Houghton Lake; a son, Wayne B. Hutchins Sr. of Arizona; a sister, Mazella Thomason of Oklahoma; 11 grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; and eight great-great-grandchildren. Christler Funeral Home-Houghton Lake Chapel handled arrangements.

http://www.houghtonlakeresorter.com/news/2007-04-05/front_page/12288.html

Notes:

Married:
In the biography she prepared for her children and grandchildren, MayBelle writes that she and Al met when he was living with an Aunt and Uncle in Lawton. In 1932, she went on a blind date with Al's roomate, and her friend with Al. Before the evening was over, they "switched" dates, and continued to date over the next three months until his college graduation, when he returned to Flint, Michigan. They corresponded for the next 18 months, until Al found a job and asked her to come to Michigan. Her parents, who approved of him, sold a cow and bought her a bus ticket. The following weekend the young couple drove to Indiana and eloped in a ceremony officiated by Rev. Frohm, taking the train into Chicago the next day for the 1933 World's Fair. In Al's biography he called it a "fast wild ride and believe it or not we did not see the fair." When they returned to Flint, they were greeted with a Shiveree, and the newleyweds ended up at the corner beer garden treating friends to drinks until their money was exhausted. Two months after their weddding, Al was laid off. They moved in with his parents, where the lived for the next 12 years.