By Roger Eaton, grandson*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Most of us remember when we connected with a special person who later became our mate. It is unknown how Andy Lehr and Flora Rogers met. With a few facts we can piece together a likely scenario. The Rogers family relocated to Augusta, Kansas on February 7, 1918. Flora was seventeen and worked at Robson’s Department Store, in Augusta. Andy received his honorable discharge from the US Army 10 June 1919, following World War I and returned to his home in Augusta.
Andy lived with his aunt Lizzie, when his parents died of pneumonia.
News articles indicate that the Rogers family was active in the Baptist church. This likely caused some strain between Andy, a devout Catholic, and Flora’s family. A Catholic courting a protestant wasn’t a family dinner table bell ringer.
On March 1, 1920, Andy began his employment with the Skelly refinery, in El Dorado, Kansas. At that time there was a rail line between Winfield and Emporia with stops in Augusta and El Dorado. The train was a combination of engine and passenger compartment in the same car. The term “doodlebug” was coined to reference this model. Not every family owned an automobile and gasoline was 30 cents per gallon. That is the equivalent of $5.31 per gallon in 2023 inflation-adjusted dollars. Flora was able to take the doodlebug back and forth between her home, in Augusta, to visit Andy, in El Dorado from March until their wedding, on October 10, 1920. It is likely that Andy and Flora met in downtown Augusta, possibly at Robson’s Department Store.
Link to a recording of Till We Meet Again by Campbell and Burr
Below are some video clips of how a few of our relatives met their mates. Please add your stories in the reply/comment section.
Bill, son*, and Beverly (Church) Lehr
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Link to a recording of Wedding Bell Blues/Will You Marry Me Bill? by the 5th Dimension
Charlie and Ruth (Lehr), daughter*, Smith
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Nick and Judy (Lehr), daughter*, Badwey
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Jim, son*, and Elanor (Lacy) Lehr
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
I was attending Oklahoma University in 1952 when I met Eleanor at a dormitory mixer. She was taking her psychiatric training at the state hospital in Norman and residing in a dormitory on the OU campus. I spotted her wearing a red dress and introduced myself. We started dating and continued to do so when she returned to Oklahoma City to continue her training in nursing.
I had applied for the NROTC program and was accepted, but they assigned me to Kansas University. Dissatisfied with my major and the NROTC program, I left KU after one semester and applied for pilot training in the Air Force. I was accepted, but the waiting period for pilot training was six months and I wanted to get in and get my service obligation behind me. I could get into the observer training immediately, so I took that option and ended up in the electronic warfare officer school at Keesler AFB. I received my commission in May 1954, got a 3-day pass over Memorial Day weekend and flew to Wichita where Eleanor was living by that time with her parents. We were married on Saturday morning at the Church of the Magdalen in Wichita and left immediately after for our first home in Biloxi, MS. I guess we had our honeymoon in 1964 on the Cote de Axure.
Berl and Pat (Lehr) Evans, daughter*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Jim and Mary (Lehr), daughter*, Eaton
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
By Mary (Lehr) Eaton, 24 June 2013
Weeeeelll Jim came to El Dorado to jr. coll. The year I was in 9th grade. He worked in Phil McDonough’s grocery store on West Central (across the street from the old jr. high school). Frank came too. They were both in the jr. coll. play that year. Both boys worked the lunch hour at the tea room just down the street from the high school/jr. coll. building for their meals.
Mother got acquainted with Jim at the store and he fell for the twins. They were about 3 years old I guess. During that school year Mother invited Jim out for Sun. dinner several times. School year ended and the Eaton boys were gone back to Douglass (I guess).
Several years later the Japanese riddled our US base at Pearle Harbor. Mother came home with Jim’s overseas address (S. Pacific). So she wrote to him and he wrote back to Mom and family. So since we had his address and there “was a war on” I wrote to him. We exchanged a gob of the ever popular VMails until one day in 1944 Jim walked into my workplace (Meadow Gold Creamery) this was in October. Jim stayed in El Dorado for about a couple of weeks then he had to report to the coll. in Natchitoches, La. He was to enter preflight school at Northwestern Coll. We wrote often and every few letters Jim would say, “You must come down here. We need to be married. There are too many pretty girls in this school.”
Please add your stories in the reply/comment section.
Mark and Jacque (Haynes) Eaton
By Mark Eaton, grandson*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
I was about 8 years old working at dad’s Quick Way [grocery store]. Jacque would come into the store with her mom for weekly shopping. I remember carrying out her groceries and placing them at her feet in the back seat. I was a nobody to her but she was a SOMEBODY to me.
I ran into her again in 6th grade but no contact to speak of. Fast forward to 9th grade. I sat behind her in English class and put on my best flirting. NO success.
Fast forward to Junior year. Finally, she agreed to a date. After 50 + years together, we have had 100’s of dates. The only one that stands out to me was when I turned 16 and got my fist car. This was before bucket seats so the front seat was a long bench seat. When I went to pick up Jacque for our date, she got in her side of the car and immediately scooted over next to me. That was to be her permanent seat. I think I knew then that she would be next to me forever.
Jacque Haynes and Mark Eaton 1969
This a 1961 Chevrolet Impala similar to Mark’s first car.
Roger and Marcia (Hurlburt) Eaton
By Roger Eaton, grandson*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
For me, the magic moment occurred the day after a double date. I was dating a friend of Marcia Hurlburt. After a double date, I noticed that Marcia had left a comb in my parents’ car. When I returned the comb, we engaged in a lengthy discussion. That was the spark. At sixteen years old, I told a buddy at work that I had found the one that I would marry.
Even though she was dating one of my track teammates, I pursued her. She was two classes behind me, in school. I was a high school sophomore and she was in junior high. We survived the dramas of high school and were married six years after meeting.
My mother participated in several women’s social organizations in El Dorado. When my (twin) sister and I were young, she would take us to some of her meetings. Some of the ladies would have me sit with them and make small talk. We were a novelty and it gave our mother a break. One of my favorite ladies was Mrs. DeWitt. I didn’t know her name, then. For some reason we connected. She was my favorite. I was surprised when I learned that Marcia’s grandmother was Mrs. DeWitt. She collected newspaper articles of her friends and their families and had several of our family. These were articles that my mother didn’t even have! Even forty years later, Marcia finds newspaper articles on my family and me that her grandmother clipped.
Marcia Hurlburt and Roger Eaton 1974
Harrold and Janina (Pogorzelska) Lehr, nephew*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Excerpt from Ellinwood, Kansas newspaper article 1946
Polish War Bride and Ellinwood GI Groom Saw Both Ends of Conflict
When Mr. and Mrs. Harrold Lehr’s grandchildren demand to be told about World War II the will get a lot more comprehensive history than the descendants of most GIs. Mrs. Lehr, Polish war bride who returned to Ellinwood with her husband Saturday, saw the war from its beginning and saw it from the other side of the battle lines until the day Americans entered Berlin and liberated the forced labor detachment of which she was a part.
When Hitler invaded Poland Sept. 1, 1939 Mrs. Lehr, whose name then was Janina Pogorzelska, was 17 and was living with her father, mother and sister at the family home in Suwalki, Poland. In spite of heroic resistance by the Polish army, which had no weapons to oppose Hitler’s new blitz tactics, the country was engulfed quickly and Janina’s family was scattered. Janina was taken to Berlin with other Polish people and forced to work for the Germans. Her particular group was assigned to housework. In spite of hard work, poor food and the miserable conditions under which the forced labor groups worked Janina managed to survive until Berlin finally was liberated. She applied to the American Red Cross for a position and was accepted.
Harrold Lehr, in the meantime, had finished school here and was training in the army. He went to Europe as a member of an M. P. detachment two years ago last December and eventually stationed in Heidelberg with the 504th M. P. outfit. Janina, by that time had risen until she was a supervisor in Heidelberg and the Polish girl and the Kansas soldier met in Red Cross establishment in Germany. The two saw a lot of each other and finally became engaged, but by the time all of the technicalities could be worked out Master Sergeant Lehr was in Nuremburg, Germany. The couple was married there in September[1946].