Raymond Denham

DENHAM SILVERS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/19/2010 at 22:49:05

Woodbury County History 1984

Ray Denham
By Lois Harrison Denham

Raymond ‘Ray’ Denham, the fourth child of eight, born to James H Denham (February 11, 1877-February 28, 1972) and Ollive Silvers, arrived November 27, 1906, in Pulaski County, near Somerset, Kentucky. He was probably born in a log cabin.

His first membory is of getting his finger his with a hammer while his mother was cracking nuts for a cake.

His playmates were his brothers and sisters. They played with homemade sleds and wagons. He attended country one-room schools until he was thirteen. He quit school to take care of his mother, who got tuberculosis after she had the flu in 1918. She died in 1919. Raymond did the housework, the cooking, the washing and cared for his younger brothers and sisters. He held the Bible for his mother to read for herself, he read for her. Reading the Bible and talking about it with his mother Raymond came to know the Lord and was ‘born again’. Ray continued to help at home until October 1920 when his father married Pearl Brown. After that he went to work for neighbors or worked for his father until he was eighteen, when he went to Cincinnati, Ohio. There he worked at a Coffin Factory, Cincinnati Sash and Door, Formica Insulation Company and The Fly Screen Company. Off and on he worked in Cincinnati six years. In 1930 when there were no jobs, Ray tried to join the army and couldn’t get in so he started hitchhiking to Iowa. After sleeping on the median of a divided street in Columbia, Missouri he caught a ride to Des Moines, Iowa, planning to go to Ida Grove, but instead he drove to Minnesota with a man named Slim who picked him up. It turned out that Slim and his partners were hauling alcohol across Wisconsin and Minnesota to Iowa. Slim didn’t show up for a few days so Ray went to Mason City, got a train to Carroll, arrived Sunday morning, August 30, 1930. There he managed to get aboard an army train bringing boys back form camp and he finally arrived in Ida Grove, Iowa, where his uncle Milford ‘Hap’ Denham lived.

While working for his uncle he met Martha W Miller (November 2, 1912-April 30, 1945). They were married in 1931 at Elk Point, South Dakota. Ray and Martha lived in Ida County and Ray worked on farms until 1938 when they moved to Battle Creek, Iowa and Ray began working in Carpentry and masonry.

They had four children; there are fourteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are: Lillian Rae, born April 22, 1932, married Daryl M Wilson, April 17, 1955. Divorced 1972, four children: Steven Rae, born November 11, 1958; Susan Jo, born September 23, 1960, died January 15, 1961; Tracy Lynn, born October 26, 1961, married Matthew J Green, June 6, 1981, one child, John J ‘Jay’, born August 6 1982; Terry Lee, born October 26, 1961, married LaVerne Keeney, born June 16, 1979, two children, Aaron, born Septembe r23, 1980, and Megan, bron February 21, 1983.

James Henry, born May 15, 1933, married Susan Kay Wessel, October 21, 1961, two children, Marcy, born August 16, 1962; and Debra, born October 24, 1963.

Lois Yvonne, born October 11, 1937, married Lloyd A Segerstrom, July 30, 1961, four children: Lynn, born September 17, 1963; Lane, born March 5, 1965; Luann, born April 4, 1972; and Lorne, born August 5, 1973.

Alice Mae, born April 22, 1941, married Dwight T Masters, June 12, 1960, four children: Sherry, born March 16, 1961, married Tom Dockwieler, June 13, 1981; Vicki, born April 12, 1963, married Lowell Krieger, February 12, 1983; Scott, September 30, 1967; and Thomas, December 2, 1969.

After Martha died Ray continued to live in Battle Creek until the children wer grown.

In 1956, he met Lois Harrison Foster, born August 15, 1921, a widow, wwho was teaching at Kingsley, Iowa. After a nine-year courtship, Ray’s children all being married with homes of their own and Lois’ daughter, Virginia Fay Foster, having graduated from high school, Ray married Lois, who was now teaching in Sioux City Public Schools. They were married June 12, 1965, at Sioux City, Iowa.

Brothers and sisters of Raymond Denham are: Georgia, Oscar (deceased), Noel (deceased), Bersil, Hazel, Ted, and Dorothy.

Half brothers and sisters are: Howard, Beatrice, Roy (who died in infancy), James, Jr, Charles, Harold, Norma Jean, and Harry.