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Louis
Oscar Rhoden
1890-1957 |
My grandfather was born in Peabody,
Marion County, Kansas on October 12,
1890. Evidence indicates that his
parents, Ernest and Florentinea, or Flora, were immigrants
from Germany. He had two brothers,
William and Arthur, and three sisters, Bertha, Anna, and Mary.
He moved to Wichita, Kansas in 1908. He
married Evelyn Pearl Smith in 1929 and had
three children: Louis Eugene, born in 1931;
Rose Mary, born in 1936; and Leonard Don
(see below), born in 1941.
Louis and his wife divorced in 1942.
He worked the last 35 years of his life
as a clerk for Rock Island Railroad and
died on June 4, 1957. He was a tall man
for his time, standing 6'2", with a
medium build, brown hair and blue eyes.
His wife was also tall (almost 6') and
his sons grew to 6'6" and 6'8".
According to my father, Louis was a
hard-working and meticulous man and
reputedly brewed his own beer. He died
only a month after his retirement, his
first pension check lying uncashed on a
dresser in his home.
Click here for more photos of
my grandfather.
My father was born in
Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas on
September 14, 1941. He married my mother,
Delores Dianne Malone, in 1962. He had
two children by this marriage: Leonard
Don, Jr. (see below), born in 1963 and
Dana Kristine, born in 1965.
He and my mother divorced in 1966. He
married Janice Penner in 1969 and had
five more children: Shaun Eric, born in 1970; Heather Elleen, born in 1973; Donice Marie, born in 1975; Derrick Eugene, born in 1981; and
Bryon Donovan, born in 1990.
He and his second wife divorced
in 1997.
My father is 6'6" tall and
weighs around 280 pounds.
Click here for more photos of
my father.
I was born
in Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas on
March 8, 1963. I may be the most
widely traveled of the Rhoden clan,
having visited 24 States and the District
of Columbia, five of the nations of
Europe, and living at various times in
Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Florida, our present home.
I've been married twice, but have no natural children of my
own. But my wife Libby and I raised
her daughter from a previous marriage, Jamie, and as far as
we're concerned, she is our
daughter, since I have been her Dad since
she was three. She is now a Freshman at the University of Florida studying to be a Nurse like her mother
Physically, I'm 6'3" and a fit 220 pounds.
Click here for more photos of
me.
My parents
divorced when I was three and I did not
know my father growing up. We had no
contact whatsoever until I moved to
Memphis in 1992. I was unpacking and came
across my genealogy materials and decided
to finally write my father a letter. I
obtained his address in Arkansas through
a former co-worker of mine in Wichita,
Chad Kallenbach, who knew my half-brother
Shaun from high school in Valley Center,
Kansas. My dad and I have been exchanging
letters and emails ever since.
My sister
Dana and I finally saw him for the first
time in 29 years in January 1995. My
sister and her family and me and my
family traveled to Bentonville, Arkansas
to meet him and the brothers and sisters
we had never seen. It was a happy
reunion. Everyone commented on how my
father and I looked so much alike.
I
have gotten my father's interest up on
researching our heritage and most of the
photos on this site are from his
collection. He also has a great deal of
information on my grandmother Evelyn's
family, with Smith, Hooven, and Rogers
being the surnames. There are quite a
number of relatives on that side of the
family: my grandmother had two brothers,
a sister, 27 cousins, and 16 nieces and
nephews on her mother's side alone. When
I have successfully traced my Rhoden line
back to Europe, I will begin my
grandmother's genealogy site.
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