Her first name is Emma, after her father's mother, a formidable woman who ran her farm and her family with an iron hand.  Of course the original Emma was poor and therefore thrifty.  Aunt Laverne was famous for her thrift.  "They didn't name me Emma for nothing!" she would say, laughing.  My grandfather chose the name Laverne from the newspaper.

Laverne was Cleve and Daisy Johnson's second daughter and fourth child.  She grew up in Macon, Georgia, attending public schools there.  She attended Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville.  Laverne has always been characterized as being practical, hardworking and sensible.  She also became the Johnson family's prime example of frugality.  Furthermore her lack of covetousness made a big impression on me.  She came by all of these attributes the hard way --by needing them and then rising to the occasion.  Also significant is that Laverne was the first working mother in our Johnson family.

One story of Laverne's childhood is part of the family history.  When she was 10 years old, Laverne saved babysitting money and used it to buy Christmas gifts for every member of her family.  It was during hard times, so no one else in the family was able to do likewise.  All were touched by Laverne's sweet generosity.

Laverne made an unlikely choice of Bill Donovan as husband.  It was World War II.  Bill was stationed at Warner Robins Air Force Base for training before being sent to fight.  He met Aunt Laverne, and they quickly fell in love.  Even Uncle Cleveland was alarmed by how passionately Bill and Laverne kissed --Cleve felt somewhat responsible for Laverne because she was assigned to work with him in the Perry store, and he and his wife Mary double dated with them to chaperone.  Bill and Laverne had a home wedding in her parents' home.

On the surface, Bill seemed like he would probably be a good husband.  His mother was well educated, had a college degree which was unusual at that time, and was Director of Social Services in the Donovan's home county in Ohio.  The fact that he was a Yankee caused my grandfather to dislike him.  Laverne did not marry with her father's blessing.  Even so, when Bill returned home after the war, he was given a job in Johnson's Stores, our family business.  But he was an outsider.  My grandfather would not allow him to price merchandise nor to know the shorthand symbols indicating how much the mark-up was.  Granddaddy and Uncle Bill did not get along to the point that eventually Bill Donovan moved his family to Ohio, but not before Aunt Laverne had had Anne and Billy.  Billy and I were almost the same age and spent a great deal of time together our first two years.  When anyone would ask me how old I was, I'd always reply, "I'm two with Billy."  It was a sad day when they left.

My family made one visit to Ohio to see them during my childhood.  I was so young that I don't remember much about it except playing in a wonderful tree house out in their yard and admiring how they had a lake at the end of their block, Lake St. Mary's.  I did not really get to see Anne and Billy to know them until they came to Middle Georgia for a week when I was 16, and then they took me back with them to Ohio and I flew home.

Laverne's hard times had already begun.  Bill had been 100% committed to the ideal of unionizing workers.  Because he was a union organizer, he got fired from the factory where he worked and was effectively blackballed so that he had an extremely hard time finding work anywhere else.  He was unemployed for a year.  Aunt Laverne went to work  in a Goodyear factory.  She was frank but brief about not liking her bone wearying hard job, and she took early retirement as soon as she possibly could.  The worst of all was that Uncle Bill became alcoholic.  When he drank, he would go into unreasonable terrible rages and would fight.  When he sobered up, he cried and was very remorseful.  It became a pattern.  He finally got a job with the Ohio Highway Department on a road crew that painted lines down the middle of highways.  He continues to have problems with staying sober.  He also became extremely obese.

When the Donovans traveled to Georgia for their trip in 1963, it was after a near break-up of that marriage.  Uncle Bill had gone on a drunken rampage.  Somehow Bill had managed to produce an outstanding, accomplished scholarly son who absolutely loved gardening and plants; but rather than appreciate Billy, Uncle Bill was offended by him, berating him to be more "manly".  Drunk, Bill attacked and tried to kill Billy, chasing Billy so that Billy had to run outside and down the street and spend a sad frightened night hiding in the bushes near Lake St. Mary.  Aunt Laverne got picked up and thrown by Bill, resulting in her hip getting badly bruised.  Still enraged, Bill went outside and smashed the windshield on the family car.  After this, Laverne told Bill that she would leave him if he kept drinking.  He was, as usual, very remorseful.

It is a tribute to my Cousin Billy that he has been a wonderful son, caring for his parents in their decline, letting then live in his home for months at a time.  He was marked by his father's mistreatment but largely rose above it.

When I saw the Donovan's lake cottage in 1963, it was quite modest, more like a weekend camp out type cottage than a home.  There were all sorts of plumbing problems, also present in more recent visits.  Bill always drove an old wreck of a car.  Frugal was an understatement.  Bill had two old maid aunts living in a fine brick house downtown (--Anne called their house "the Aunthill".)  Laverne cared for these old aunts when they became feeble, and Bill and Laverne were willed their brick house.  Even so, Bill and Laverne chose to stay in their cottage at Lake St. Mary's.

During the 1963 visit I enjoyed becoming reacquainted with my cousins.  Anne loved dancing and taught me how.  Billy and I have much in common and enjoyed lengthy talks together.  I am so pleased to be kin to such interesting, nice people, ones I would choose as friends even if blood ties did not exist.

Bill and Laverne managed to grow old together.  Bill is very good-hearted when he is sober.  They've enjoyed close friendships with their neighbors.  Laverne and Bill purely loved Wig and Louise who lived in the house behind them, Wig and Louise have died.  When Aunt Laverne lost Louise, who was dear to her, it threw Laverne into a serious and prolonged depression, to the point that my cousin Anne had to get involved and seek treatment for her mother.  The doctor diagnosed Laverne as having bipolar affective disorder.  (My psychologist husband and I were left shaking our heads and saying, "Such a late onset, and it just doesn't fit the profile."  We wondered if it might be early senility.  Incidentally, we were right.)  Laverne did have pressured speech, talking too much, and she did begin using some profanity and calling Uncle Bill names, not like her at all.  She was a sincere and very active member, an elder, in a small nearby Presbyterian Church.

Presently both Bill and Laverne are functioning poorly but independently, in their own home.  Family members are concerned that telephone calls to them are a waste of time because Bill is brief and hangs up quickly, and poor Laverne doesn't make a lot of sense.

Update:  Laverne died in December, 2000.  Her last six months had very poor quality of life.  Bill wanted to stay in their own home though Laverne was no longer at that level of functioning.  The two sat in their living room all day (--it sounds like Jean Paul Satre's portrayal of Hell in "No Exit"), just going out midday to get fast food, which they would eat in their car.  Laverne was incontinent, both bladder and bowel.  Bil would bathe her several times each day.  When we visited their home in late December during a winter snow storm to attend the December 23 funeral, her chair was still in the living room and stunk badly.  Both Bill and Laverne developed problems with itching.  Bill finally sent for Anne to come help them because it was more than he could manage.  Anne and Jean came from France for a month. Anne took them to their doctor, who said they had scabies and lice.  Anne began itching and went to a dermatologist, who told her that it was dermatitis, that the general practitioner didn't know what he was talking about.  She cleaned their house and arranged for helpers to come in and clean twice a week.  She tried to arrange for "Meals on Wheels" but Bill refused it.  Then Laverne had a fall in the yard while getting into the car.  Bill and Jean could not get her up.  The Fire Department was called.  Laverne ended up being taken to the nearby hospital.  There she was found to be dehydrated and to have kidney infection.  She was treated with antibiotics, but did not recover well.  She was moved to the nursing home wing of the hospital.  Bill painfully, regretfully accepted this, admitting that her care was more than he could manage.  Shortly thereafter, Anne and Jean had to return home to France.  Laverne died within two weeks.

Bill has terrible mobility and is using a walker.  No one sees how he will be able to safely stay in his home alone, though that is his preference.  If he fell in the yard, he would freeze to death before anyone found him.  Bill agreed to spend a month with Billy in Florida after Anne and Jean had to fly back to France January 8.

Billy gave a wonderful eulogy of his mother's life at the funeral.  There were a number of flowers arrangements on stands.  The funeral was at the funeral home with a brief interment observance at graveside.  It was BITTER COLD!  The funeral came the day after Ohio had to close schools.  Advisories were announced about covering exposed skin when a person had to be outside, even just between building and car. It was -1 in St. Mary's, but the winds made it -35.  My father was trembling as we stood graveside --I was holding his hand.  Needless to say, I got him back to the car as quickly as possible.  Everyone then went to the First Presbyterian Church, where Laverne had been an elder, to have a lunch.  Bill says God is mad at him.  He was talking aloud at graveside, saying that someone ought to put a bullet in his head, that he was useless now, a burden.  It was heartbreaking.  Coming into this world and passing out of this world are painful and difficult.
 
Postscript:  what happened with Anne's and Billy's lives--

Anne married Jean Maiboroda, a Russian Frenchman who worked in the computer industry and was taking computer training in Ohio.  Anne had been a school teacher in Ohio and enjoyed sailing, owning her own sailboat.  She moved to Paris, France with her husband.  They have three children.  Anne is an outstanding cook, spending a great deal of time planning and preparing meals.  She also spent a lot of time helping her children with scouting.  She converted to Catholicism and is very well versed and enthusiastic about her church.  Several times she hand-made Christmas cards featuring the murals in her church, giving their history.  Though not employed outside her home, Anne has conducted tours and has used her bilingual skills well.  Jean has been a good husband to her and an exceptional, devoted father.  Their eldest child is a daughter, Chantal.  Chantal majored in organ at the Sorbonne and plays at a cathedral.  She was very influenced by the priest where she played the organ and went into a convent briefly, but changed her mind and came out.  Anne told us in a letter that Chantal developed "cloisterphobia".  Chantal re-enrolled in the Sorbonne, earning a master's degree in organ.  She is to be wed to another organist on August 4, 2001.  Marc, the only son, is Anne's second child (the same age as my Diana).  He is enrolled at the University of Brest studying engineering.  Therese, their youngest, should completed secondary school and is studying law.

Billy (or Bill nowadays) earned a doctorate in agronomy thanks to his great love of plants.  He lives in Palm Beach, Florida, teaches at a university and works in water management.  He has also been involved in the grant preserving the ecology of the Florida Everglades from pollution caused by large sugar cane farms.   He recently earned an additional Master's degree in (I think) Public Health Administration  His career has been successful.  His marriage has been somewhat challenging.  He is married to Sharon, who at the time of the wedding in the early 1970's, weighed about 300 pounds and still has severe obesity problems.  She is quite bright, has a master's degree (--I think her field is French).  She has a good job.  When they couldn't have children, Billy and Sharon adopted.  Their son Danny is in high school.  In grade school Danny had some hyperactivity, so Billy went with him to karate classes to help him learn discipline plus get healthy exercise.  Billy ended up taking karate, enjoying it very much, and has stayed with it.  Rachel is Billy and Sharon's daughter.  She is in late middle school.  She has serious asthma.  She is a talented juggler.  Billy seems to be the cook, housekeeper and primary parent.  He became disenchanted with Sharon when she kept going into work and leaving the children alone when Billy believed them to be too young and believed her to be irresponsible, with wrong priorities.  He got so sour on his marriage that he took a trip to Ohio and discussed his problems with his parents, saying he wanted a divorce.  Uncle Bill urged him to honor his vows.  He has.  However it looks like he may lose his wife soon to end stage renal failure.  Sharon has been hospitalized and on dialysis for the past few months.  Her diabetes is out of control, and she has had to have toes amputated.  The situation doesn't look good.