Laura Belle (Nelson) Garrett (1905 - 1987)

Born 2 Feb 1905 in Ames, Story, Iowa, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Charles Raymond Garrett — married 9 May 1928 (to before 1940) in Ames, Story, Iowa, United States

Died 15 Oct 1987 at age 82 in Blackwood, Camden, New Jersey, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Gary Christopher [send private message]

Biography

^[1]Laura Belle Nelson was born 2 February 1905 in Ames, Iowa, the daughter of George Nelson and Carrie Tesdahl. She was very intelligent and was able to skip one year of grade school. She worked as the secretary in the Principal’s office while she was attending high school. She was always reading books and got very good grades. She was the Valedictorian her senior year at Ames High School, graduating in 1921. She didn’t want to take typing, but her sister Florence insisted on her taking it to help with college expenses. When she graduated from high school, she got a job as secretary to the Dean of the Chemistry Dept. at Iowa State College, Professor Coover. He said she was the only secretary he had ever had that could spell those complicated chemistry words. She was his secretary for one year and worked part time for him while she attended four years of college. She also typed themes for graduate chemistry students for pay. She got engaged to Charles Garrett her senior year at ISC and graduated in June 1927, as did he. Laura worked after college before she got married. She went to Chicago where Verna and Florence were living with their families and got a position as Secretary for the World President of the American Theosophical Society in Wheaton, Illinois. She worked there one year, then went home to Ames and married Charles on 9 May 1928. Attendants at their wedding at the Ames Methodist Episcopal Church were Verna (Nelson) Funkhouser as Matron-of-Honor and Lillian as Bridesmaid. Charles had been a student in Engineering at ISC and belonged to both the Honorary Mechanical and the Electrical Engineering Fraternities. He was an engineer for General Electric in New Jersey; they lived in Haddenfield where they had a beautiful home. Laura was at home alone and started writing a sad book about Leslie Nelson and Providencia (Rodriguez) Nelson's life together. After working on it for a year she showed it to Charles and he said, “It seems rather amateurish.” She got upset and burned it. He did not know how much this meant to her and that she had worked herself into a very depressed state of mind while writing it. She went up to Camden, New Jersey, and took the ferryboat over to Philadelphia across the Delaware River. She jumped from the ferry into the river to drown herself but she was rescued. The story was on the movie news in the theater in Cedar Rapids and Charles’s folks, who lived there, saw it. Lillian was teaching school in Mingo, Iowa; she quit her job to go out to try to cheer Laura up. Laura put some iodine in wine she served and told Charles and Lillian she thought it would kill all three of them and they would go to heaven. The doctors diagnosed her with schizophrenia. Laura became completely withdrawn; she heard voices telling her what to do. She was placed in an institution in Blackwood, New Jersey. After a few years the Nelsons’ helped Charles have their marriage annulled. The family visited her often, but she never recovered. The librarian there said she continued to read books all the time until her death at age 82 on 15 October 1987. She was cremated and brought back for burial in the family plot in the Cambridge Cemetery. A private memorial service was held at the cemetery with Rev. Vern Panzer, Avanelle Waltmire’s husband, officiating

Sources

1. ↑ Nelson Family History, compiled and edited by Vernon W. Nelson in 2003, as related to him at various times by his father, Orville F. Nelson, his aunt, Lillian B. Nelson James, and with notes from his aunts Florence E. Nelson Waltmire and Verna E. Nelson Funkhouser.

• United States Census, 1910, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MG96-KJ7 : accessed 5 March 2020), Laura Nelson in household of George Nelson, Grant, Story, Iowa, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 187, sheet 1B, family 14, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 424; FHL microfilm 1,374,437.
• United States Census, 1920, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDM2-ZB1 : accessed 5 March 2020), Laura Nelson in household of G S Nelson, Ames Ward 1, Story, Iowa, United States; citing ED 206, sheet 12B, line 74, family 316, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 515; FHL microfilm 1,820,515.
• Iowa State Census, 1925, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKQ7-Z1Z4 : 16 March 2018), Laura B Nelson in household of Carrie T Nelson, Ames, Story, Iowa, United States; citing Ames, Story, Iowa, United States, Iowa State Historical Department, Des Moines; FHL microfilm 1,429,561.
• United States Census, 1930, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4DM-ZTN : accessed 5 March 2020), Laura B Garrett in household of Charles R Garrett, Haddonfield, Camden, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 127, sheet 3A, line 18, family 66, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1324; FHL microfilm 2,341,059.
• United States Social Security Death Index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JLLS-N6B : 19 May 2014), Laura B Garrett, 15 Oct 1987; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).