Today is my sister's birthday. Born April 26, 1960, Karla is 49 today.*
Karla is the fourth of 6 children, born after me, Gerald, and LeRoy, making her a "middle child." Like most middle children she's good with people, likes to keep the peace and make people laugh, and has a lot of patience. It's a good thing, because she and Brian have 10 children! (6 still live at home.)
*She lives in Mesa, AZ, where she helps operate their family roofing business, Custom Shingle and Shake. She also babysits the occasional child and totally dotes on her 4 grandchildren (so far).
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This is Karla at about 5 months old, held by our maternal grandmother, Alta Fern Haley. Karla was named for Grandma Haley: Karla Fern Butler.
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Karla was the kind of beautiful baby everyone cooed over adoringly. She was born with thick golden curls, curling dark lashes, and deep dimples. And not just in her cheeks, mind you, but also the coveted Butler dimples in the backs of her shoulders.
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If you've been following this blog very long, you already know I was a bald, fat, uncurly blonde-lashed, completely dimple-less baby.
Hold on there! I have more hair now, but I'm still roly-poly, completely dimple-less, and need an eyelash curler/mascara to make my lashes visible! Life is so unfair...*
Here's Karla on her 1st birthday, surrounded by several of our cousins.
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One of Karla's distinctions is that she is the only one of our parents' six children that Mom actually named. Our mother was apparently quite unimaginative when it came to coming up with ideas for names.
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When Mom couldn't come up with my name, Dad suggested naming me for his old girlfriend, Mary Frances Renning. (?!?!) Mom tacked on her middle name and I became Mary Jane.
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Dad chose Gerald Lynn's name (Lynn was Dad's oldest brother, who died of a congenital heart defect when he was 21). Mom was given LeRoy Thomas's name in a dream. Jefferey Alan was named after a TV show, The Files of Jefferey Jones, and actor Alan Ladd. And Darryl William, well, Mom was sure he was going to be a girl and was torn between naming him Kathleen or Sherrilyn. She had no boy name, so our Grandma Butler said she'd always liked the name Darryl. Mom added the middle name of her father, our grandpa Loyd William Haley.
The picture above is a favorite. Karla was 21 months old at Bass Lake, July 1961. I tease her that she developed her womanly figure at a very young age! *
LeRoy and I had a sweet deal, being the only daughter and son until Karla came along. But we weren't bitter. I swear we never tried to do away with her and bury the evidence!
*Karla was convinced that if she couldn't see you, then you couldn't see her. She just magically vanished from view!
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This is my proof that she occasionally did things she knew she shouldn't. So if she gives you her usual line about what an angelic child she was, hmmm. Just ask her why she was hiding in the corner in her underwear!
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We celebrated Karla's 3rd birthday a month early, along with LeRoy's actual 4th birthday in March 1963.
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At the time, Mom was pregnant with our final sibling and she was just a month away from her due date. She wanted to have all the birthdays taken care of and out of the way before she went into labor.
June 1964: Karla broke her arm when she was 4. I'll have to have her remind me how it happened. Either she was pushed off the T-bar laundry-line pole by LeRoy, or he was getting revenge for when she pushed him off the pole. I can't quite recall.
As a teenager almost 6 years older than Karla, I had little time for my tag-along sister, so she was stuck with all boys, who liked to make her laugh till she wet her pants or hide under her bed and giggle when she changed clothes. I'm amazed she doesn't have Post-Traumatic Stress!
As for Karla, she always tried to mother her rowdy brothers. July 1971, left to right: Karla (age 11), LeRoy (12), Jeff (9), and Darryl (8).
And here she is on her 9th birthday, April 1969.*
We've come a long way, little sister, from the days when you were the messy half of the bedroom and the annoyance who followed me everywhere, to today when you're my best friend and keeper of all my secrets.
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I hope your birthday is amazing. Enjoy it--just one more year until you join LeRoy and me in the Old Geezers Club! Love you!
2 comments:
You do such a good job with the family history on your blog. I just love reading it all and seeing the pictures. I do remember Karla as always being very cute and happy, except for just one time. She was sitting on the stand at church getting ready to give a talk in Sunday School I think it was. She was young....around 10 or 12, I can't remember exactly, maybe a little older. Anyway, I'm sitting there and noticing a green tint to her very blond hair. I don't know if I asked you about it later, or if you told me, but apparently she had been in the pool A LOT that summer and the chlorine did a color number on her hair! She was still very cute though... She's always been one of those people whose entire face lights up when she smiles. I love that you two are best friends.
I love it! Especially all the pictures. It's so fun to see a glimpse of what life was like when my mom and her siblings were younger!
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