Two children of Charles Edwin and Ina Jessica (Slayton) Pearson lend a solemn, but warm feeling of togetherness and character to this issue's cover. The girl on the left, at the delightful age of three, is Lois LaVange Pearson (born 3 May 1905), and on the right is her older brother, six-year-old Charles Slayton Pearson (born 28 April 1902).
The impressive photo was taken in the parlor of the Pearson home in Fremont, Michigan in 1908.
Charles Slayton graduated from the University of Michigan, and he was superintendent of schools in Pigeon, Michigan before assuming a management position with the State of Michigan. He married Margaret Amanda Martin on 10 June 1922 in Detroit. They had two sons and one daughter. Margaret passed away in December 1950. Charles then married Margaret Hay on 22 June 1951 in Lansing, Michigan. He died 15 October 1993, age 91, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The second Margaret died in August 1996.
Lois LaVange graduated from the University of Michigan in 1928. She taught school in Muskegon, Michigan, before marrying Roy Delbert Graichen (b. 4 October 1906), August 1931 in Fremont, Michigan. They had two sons, Robert Roy (b.1936) and Edward John (b. 1941) Upon Roy’s death on 16 January 1951, LaVange continued to operate the family business - Graichens, a women’s specialty store in Frremont until her retirement in 1967.
She married Joel Lawrence Leete (b. 15 March 1901) on 13 December 1953 in Fremont, Michigan. He died 31 October 1975 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. LaVange passed away at age 92 on 8 June 1997 in Laguna Hills, California.
E. John Graichen, Santa Ana, California shared this picture of his mother and uncle. He comments that his mother often reminisced how she and her brother argued about which page of the book they would turn to for the picture. Apparently their mother made the selection as neither “L” for LaVange nor “C” for Charles is showing. A third child, Mary Elnore Pearson was born 30 May 1911. She died 29 September 1987 in Columbia, South Carolina.
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