About Myers, Howard Jennings
Born June 7, 1899. Married Leota Tryon Aug 12, 1922. Died June 13, 1980. Son of Nathan Myers and Alice V Lett.
Howard was given by his father to John and Theodosia Cross to raise in Remus, Michigan. According to family legends, it was because Nathan owed the Crosses $50. After his mother died when he was young, all of his siblings were given to other families to raise.
As an adult, he moved to the Grand Rapids area and married Leota. They had 7 daughters, then later adopted daughter Alice`s son, James, when she died. He was a farmer. He was ambidextrous, had great carpenter skills and made china cabinets, a hat box for his wife, etc. I still own a dresser and coffee table he made. He raised chickens and `candled` his eggs by hand. He had an egg route that he sold eggs on. As a child, he used to fascinate me by taking a wire basket in each hand, full of eggs he`d washed, and swing them around to dry them. He`d do large circles with the baskets going over his head upside down and tell us it was magic that made them not fall out.
I remember my mother taking him and us to visit his brother, Ira, in the upper peninsula. They would entertain us with stories and music. It was so much fun to watch him on his harmonica and Uncle Irie on his guitar, spinning it in the air, and belting out songs. One of my favorite stories about him was when he and my grandmother went to the UP to visit Irie once. While in a restaurant, all their luggage was stolen. When they met up with Irie, and told him, Irie put the word out about what happened. It wasn`t long before my grandparents` items all showed up, left in plain sight along the road to be found.
Howard raised his family in a small house on Woodrow Rd, near GR. He was a religious man with a wonderful bass voice and loved to sing. I'll always remember listening to him singing hymns in church. We all still miss him.
His granddaughter, Barbara Slater Nelson
Posted by bneson
at 2:58 AM EDT
