Shirley and Her Family

 Eli and Sofia's son Eli had one daughter, Shirley. Sofia always kept a magazine picture of a little blonde girl posted on the wall of her kitchen. "That's Shirley," she said.  I never knew why she didn't post the other grandchildren, but Shirley's story may tell why. I met Shirley, her husband Jack Adams, and their two girls Marcia and Susan, when I was in high school 1962-1965. They came to Florence, Oregon, to visit, and our families did bond. I spoke to Shirley for the last time when Milly was hospitalized in Bend, OR, for hip replacement surgery, and Shirley called because she had not been able to be in touch. Here is Marcia's account, vouched for by Marcia's sister Susan:

Life has been one thing after another since you requested some information from me last year...here are some of the details you asked for...I sent an email to Ed Etelamaki at the suggestion of Sam.  Sam said Ed has compiled a quite detailed family history going back to Finland.  Susan and are quite excited about knowing what ever we can...here are 'vital statistics" and some family details I forwarded to Ed..

Shirley Mae Sampson, was born in Alameda, California on February 11,1929.  Eli Sampson was her father.  Her mother was Doris Curley.  From what we understand Doris and Eli may have been separated for a great deal of mom's early life, perhaps by choice and also because Eli was quarantined for TB.  She had some, but few memories of him.  The story our grandmother told was that Eli died of TB because he didn't take care of himself, but several years ago Mom's Uncle Vake told her that he died of complications after lung surgery, not from TB.  Eli and Doris were divorced when Eli died, which I believe was around the time Mom was 6 or 7; 1935-36.  Mom told of meeting her grandparents after her father died, and I'm not sure but I think the second time she saw them was when we traveled to Oregon in the early 60's.  Mom would have benefited so much if she could have been closer to her father's family.  She was an only child and I think  sometimes felt alone in that respect, certainly not always, but surely when she reflected later in life. . 

She grew up with a lot of responsibility, which I imagine was common for the time period, but her mother lived her own life, and as a business woman, she didn't have, nor did she devote much time to nurturing ...so Mom didn't have the benefit of a warm relationship with her mom, even as an adult.  Our Mom was a strong woman and determined to be a different kind of mom...she succeeded in setting an example of strength and was devoted to our father and to Susan and I, almost to a fault.  She was a very intelligent and, well-read.  She aspired to be a Home Economics teacher...but she fell in love with Jack Adams, a handsome young man, if not somewhat of a rascal, with a large family.  She admitted that she was attracted to the idea of having an extended family.

Shirley and Jack married on October 4, 1947, shortly after meeting on the beach in Clear Lake, California.  Dad's mother and step-father lived there and he was just out of the Navy.  Mom graduated from High School in Sacramento, California a year earlier, and had been working at her mother's restaurant in the same area of Clear Lake known as the Highlands. 

He knew her, as did everyone, as Shirley Longmire, and shouted her last name to get her attention that day on the beach, when he asked her on their first date.  Her mother had been in a long term relationship with man by the name of Ed Longmire from the time Mom was in grammar school until just after she married.  Our Mom always assumed Ed and her mother were married...but in truth, s they never were; again the times were an influence, so although Mom assumed his last name, apparently for appearance purposes, she was never legally anyone other than Shirley Sampson.  However, Longmire was the name she used until the time she married. Susan and I once encouraged her to take her name back...it's my feeling she was pretty shocked when she discovered this truth....but by that time I think she might have been rather numb to old issues.  There was a certain kind of detachment between Mom and her mother. Mom was a good daughter to her, and she would never have been otherwise...but she never got over trying to win the affection that just never came.  For that reason, as I mentioned before, it is so very sad that she never had the opportunity to know the Sampson's, and perhaps a family who might have filled that need....

My father Jack (no middle name) Adams, was born on June 11, 1925 in Tucumcari, New Mexico.  I (Marcia Lynn Adams-Landry) was born in Clear Lake, Calfiornia, April 2, 1949.  Dad reenlisted in the Navy shortly afterward.  We moved to Oxnard, California,  where my sister, Susan Kay Adams-Buckhart was born on April 6. 1952.  We moved to Key West, Florida in October of 1952, where Dad was stationed until he left the service for the second time, in 1954, and we moved to San Jose, California.  In 1978 our parents moved to Vacaville, Calfiornia.

Susan claims San Francisco, California as her home now.  She moved between San Jose, Seattle and Honolulu for a few years before settling there in the early 80's.  Susan  has one son, Cole Adams Buckhart, born April 11,1984 in Berkeley, California.  His father, Norman Cole Buckhart was born in July of 1940..I'm not sure of the day..and I believe he was born in Pleasanton or Walnut Creek, Califorina.

I left San Jose in the early 70's and moved to Hawaii after my husband Norm graduated from the University of California San Jose...we bounced back and forth between Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, and California, before ending up in Washington State in the early 90's.

My husband Norman Ronald Landry was born in Hartford, Connecticut September 11, 1947.  We have two sons, Mitchel Kamekona (which means Sampson in the Hawaiian language) Landry born January 6,1978 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Bryce Kealoha (which means 'the love' in the Hawaiian language) Landry, born May 27, 1981 in Napa, California.

Mitchel is married to Miranda May Byers, later adopted and assumed the name Miranda May Serrano, born July 26, 1978 in Enid, Oklahoma.  They have one son, Kyler Ke'aka (which means Jack, after his grandfather, in the Hawaiian language) Landry born March 9, 2009 in Silverdale, Washington.  Mitchel and Miranda currently live in Kingston, Washington and our youngest son Bryce, currently lives in  Bellingham, Washington.

We are excited to learn anything we can about our family heritage.  It seems a gift as well as a tribute to our Mom and her father.  Your research and information is a huge part of our family history, that up to this point is sketchy at best.