JOHNNY & MAY-THEIR START (part 1)

    William John Laverty (1912-1953) and Doris May Smith (1913-2003) were high-school sweethearts from the start and with very different family backgrounds. Both were raised close to or around the small farm community of Laurel in south Marshall and north Jasper county, Iowa.
 
     Their story is Cinderella-like with less than a fairy tale ending. My dad, at 5'10," slender, jet-black hair and handsome-middle son of a prominent farmer. My mother, a little over 5' tall, a blonde beauty with piercing brown eyes-the youngest daughter of a restaurant/ pool hall keeper.

     Through the years after my dad passed away, my mom frequently would venture back to the Depression Days of the 1930's. It seemed odd that ones favorite time or most memorable would be during such a period. 

     After I was a little older the realization hit me. They were married in 1932, young, very much in love, and just starting out -together. To them it was an exciting time. These were the "good old days." Not even the country's worst depression, droughts, or worst winters would stand in their way. 

     My parents were married December 1, 1932, in Rock Island, Illinois. They went there because, it is believed, there was no waiting period like in Iowa. They were very much in love and ready to begin their new life together. 

     Despite the timing of their marriage being set smack-dab in the middle of this country's worst recession, circumstances unique to an agricultural economy aided living conditions. Farmers could raise their own food, sell their crops and livestock for cash to purchase other goods and services. My dad, starting out, was a farm tenant within a family farm operation that was financially stable.

After my parents were married, it is believed they lived for a time with his parents until they moved to a farm  to what the family referred to as the "90" which was just north and adjacent of the original homestead  then occupied by Pat and Tillie Laverty. From there, they then moved east in the same square mile to the 160 acres in the southeast quarter of section 2, range 81, Township 18, owned by Pat Laverty. 

     Doris Laverty Eddy, my sister, was born in 1935, while at the "90."  I was born in 1944, when they moved over to the "Big House" as was my younger sister, born in 1950, Deborah Laverty Arges. 

     to be continued.........