One Family Through Time

Interesting story here from what I can piece together. This is a family, Elton (the son), Mother Lorraine and Dad Basil, also called Rudy. Dad owned a shop in Huntington Beach, California called HB Electric. Each year they took a train tour of NY, Indiana, Rockies, etc. I bought over 1500 slides that chronicled all years between 1953 and 1968. I tried valiantly to find out more about this family, having seen so many slides, but to no avail. Elton evidently took over the shop in the late 60s. Dad Basil probably passed on around that time since his images stop around 1966. They were in a bowling league in Southern Cal and Lorraine was a member of the group of women prior to the Red Cross of today (they were very popular during WWI). The name escapes me at the moment. They also had a dog, Tiny. I really wonder if anyone would know of this family today... Elton apparently never married (at least he hadn't married by 1968 when he would have been in his 40s)... It's so weird how a collection of old slides will generate many unanswered questions.

UPDATE - Sept. 2007

Thanks to the Flickr member Carlyehold the mystery of who is this family and what happened to them has been solved.

Carlylehold was interested in the slide of Floriss Bowling Lanes and also the other bowling scans. While perusing the set, he became curious about the family. But, unlike my efforts to track them down, he delved into the census records. Here is what he found:

Meet the Beard Family:

Dad, Basil Beard, was born in Nov of 1904 in Butler County, Missouri and died November 14, 1965 in Orange, California.

Mother, Lorraine Bickel Beard, was born in May, 1910. She married Basil Beard in 1927. She had one child, Elton R. Beard. Lorraine died March 3, 2007 in Orange, California.

Son Elton R. Beard was born April 19, 1928 and died April 19, 1999 (birthdate and deathdate the same) of pneumonia. He married briefly after Basil died. He was divorced in 1970. He never remarried. In his final years, he worked as a maintenance worker at El Toro Marine base.

THANKS CARLYLEHOLD!

633 photos | 27,166 views

items are from 26 Dec 2008.