Sentimental Sunday: Louise Newsome Hubbard (1909 – 1975)

It’s Sentimental Sunday and this daily blogging prompt allows genealogy bloggers a chance to focus on a sentimental story or memory about an ancestor, or a wonderful family tradition. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and this month I also wear pink in honor of my paternal grandmother — Louise Newsome Hubbard!

Louise Newsome was born April 7, 1909 in Washington County, Texas to Henry Newsome and Olivia Moten.

As an only child, Louise was vivacious and full of energy. She was truly a smart woman.  And if she’d had a formal education, she would have been a force to reckon with! She was fondly called by family and friends throughout the Washington County countryside — “Baby Lou.” But those who knew her best, such as her children, called her  “Momma Lou!”

According to the 1940 census, she was living and working in Brenham, Washington County, Texas. So I’m not sure when she moved to Austin, Travis County, Texas, but that became the city she loved and called home!

Thinking the lump on her breast was an abscesses or boil, with the aid of her cousin (Lillian Bell Joyner), they applied some old home remedies on the lump and drew it to a head. When it finally burst, it drained blood and would not heal. When all else failed, she finally went to the doctor about her condition and learned that the lump was a cancerous tumor. Once her doctor learned that both of her sons (John Willie Taylor & Timothy Isaac Branford) and their families lived in Houston, he recommended that she transfer to M.D. Anderson Hospital where she would have a strong support system with her through the surgery and chemotherapy.

Louise Newsome Hubbard lived a full life 5+ years after her mastectomy and chemo. She died July 4, 1975 at 10:35 a.m. from carcinoma of the breasts at the Holy Cross Hospital, 2600 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX 78702 (you can learn more about her burial at FindAGrave).

If you have a Louise Newsome Hubbard from Washington County, Texas by way of Austin, Travis County, Texas, in your family tree, let me hear from you because . . .
I’m claiming kin!

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Wordless Wednesday: Ella Louise Chapple Marshall (1923 -1969)

Well, almost wordless . . .  October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and this month I wear pink in honor of my aunt — Ella Louise Chapple Marshall!

Ella Louise Chapple Marshall

Even though I was a young child when my Aunt Louise died (I was 9 years old), what I remember most about her was her joy and contagious laughter! She could truly light up a room and she had a sense of humor that literally kept people laughing. Family and friends felt at ease with her and genuinely loved being around her. She was a true gem!

Liv turns 3!

To help me celebrate my 3rd birthday, my beautiful aunt was right there! In this photo she’s holding on to my cousin Reginald Marshall. Standing next to her is (from l. to r.) Annie Ray Gilbert (friend), my cousin Ralph Marshall, mom who is helping me cut the cake, and Mary Gilbert (Annie Ray’s sister and friend).

I love this photo and will cherish it for as long as I live because it is the last photo of  my aunt that we have in our collection taken a few years  before she passed away, 2 April 1969, from breast cancer. You can read more about her burial at FindAGrave.

If you have my beloved aunt, Ella Louise (Chapple) Marshall, from Houston, Harris County, Texas (who also lived a few years in Pecos, Reeves County, Texas too) in your family research, let me hear from you because . . . I’m claiming kin!