1939 Photos of John and Adele on Honeymoon in Avalon, Catalina

Adele, Viva and Dorothy

The morning after their Saturday marriage, John and Adele took Viva Hugus (Adele's mother) and Dorothy Armstrong (John's sister) to Union Station in Los Angeles.  Dorothy was heading back to Mills College in Oakland where she worked.  Viva was going home to Columbus, Ohio.

On Monday, Dec 18 They took the Red Line down to Wilmington; boarded the Great White Steamship; and headed for Avalon, Catalina.  The stayed there for one night returning to Los Angeles on Tuesday.

 

 St. Catherine Hotel, Descanso Beach, Catalina Is.

  

A 2-day Tour included round trip steamer transportation from Wilmington (Los Angeles Harbor), room 

with bath and four meals for the the cost of $11.41/person.

St. Catherine Hotel  

                     

Movie sets from Mutiny on the Bounty

Isthmus

The Great White Steamer looked the
same in 1974 when Jayme, Dan, Ella B
and I took the steamer over
except thee seats were fiberglass.

John and Adele said 'I DO'

       A few days ago I received a text message from Ellie, one of many nieces of mine, telling me that she had gone through all my blog entries looking for a picture of my parents wedding.  She wanted to show the photo to her husband as they prepared for her brothers wedding. (Ellie, you are correct I never wrote about their wedding.) 

     Adele Hugus and John B. Armstrong  had been students at North High School in Columbus, Ohio in the 1930s.  They had met because Adele's best friend was John's sister, Dorothy.  Sometime in early 1939, Adele told John she was moving to California.  She had been to California to visit cousins and loved the beach and hated the winters of Ohio.  She claimed it was the Ohio winters. But maybe she wanted John to make a decision about marriage.  In either case, when John finished his Master Degree in Chemistry  he hightailed it for California.  The were soon planning a wedding.

On December 16, 1939. they were married in The Wee Kirk o' the Heather, Glendale, California

Information about Wee Kirk - scroll 60% down or. use link on side

 
Video of Wee Kirk

Historical Photos  (9 of the 24 photos were taken around the time of John's and Adele's Wedding.

Color Photos on this page were taken by Jayme and David Armstrong in 2010

John and Adele Armstrong

Viva  Pickett Hugus, Beverly Briney, 
Adele Hugus, John Armstrong,  
Hugh McNeil, Dorothy Armstrong

Donhead St Mary Church and John G. Norris

     In the most recent posting I discussed the marriage record of James Norris and Eleanor Knype.  They were married in Donhead St Mary, Wiltshire, England in 1791.  Based upon baptismal records, they continued to live in Donhead St Mary Parish for about sixteen more years.   By my count Eleanor gave birth to twelve children between 1791 and 1807.  Several died in childhood but there are at least twelve records at Donhead St Mary.  Several more children were born in America.

   Wiltshire County is in the south-west England and Donhead St Mary is in the south-west portion of Wiltshire.   Donhead St Mary is about 30 miles north of Bournemouth and about 50 miles south-east of Bristol.

   Since so many family events occurred in this location, I needed to take a virtual trip.  Google Maps and a few internet searches found some needed information.  The church was started in the twelfth century and is still in use today.
   Another interesting connection is the name of my 3xGreat-Grandfather John Gilbert Norris.  His middle name (or middle initial) does not appear in the index of baptisms but appears on many subsequent documents.  The minister at Donhead St Mary around the time of John G Norris was Rev. Gilbert Jackson³.  John Norris was ordained many years later.

Donhead St Mary Church¹  Photo by Simon Burchell

Interior of Donhead St Mary¹ Photo by Simon Burchell

Interesting history of the area²

Link to current parish activities.

Additional Interior, Exterior and Stained Glass Pictures of Donhead St Mary

1. This file is licensed under Creative Commons  Attribution- Share Alike 3.0 Unported license Photo by Simon Burchell

2.   Jane Freeman and Janet H Stevenson, 'Parishes: Donhead St Mary,' in A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 13, South-West Wiltshire: Chalke and Dunworth Hundreds, ed. D A Crowley (London: Victoria County History, 1987), 138-155, accessed September 15, 2015, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol13/pp138-155
3.  "Assignment by Rev. Gilbert Jackson to Rev. William Lisle ..." 2015. 22 Sep. 2015 <http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/0ec324e2-e49e-49ba-a5b3-41fcefc5ed3f>