HELEN CAROLYN SETTLES Wife of Frank Monroe Stephens Mother of Mary Stephens Eaton Grandmother of Cathy Eaton Great-grandmother of Colin and Devon Murphy
BIRTH, CHILDHOOD, SIBLINGS Helen Carolyn Settles, born on September 13, 1894, in Hannibal, Missouri, had four younger sisters.
Rose Margaret Settles (June 14, 1898 to April 1, 1956). Rose married Woodson M. Boyle. Frances Odelia Settles (August 16, 1899). Odelia married William John Schneider. Agnes Veronica Settles (January 21, 1905). Agnes married Harold F. Dean. Eleanor Vincent Settles (June 1, 1910 to October 3, 1947). Eleanor married Clarence J. Jacobs.
Her father Emmett Vincent Settles (born Feb 20, 1871) married Odellia Trapp (b. on Dec 13, 1871) on October 4, 1893, and Helen was born a year later. Odelia Trapp came from Quincey, Illinois, where her father, Joseph Trapp, had been a tailor. Odelia’s parents emigrated from Germany, living in New Orleans before settling in Quincy. Emmetts’ father owned dry goods stores and became a judge and was a member of the state legislature.
Starting in 1903, the family lived at 225 N. Maple Street in Hannibal, Missouri. It was a “two-story red brick Second Empire house with a bellcast mansard roof with Victorian segmental arched dormers.” Emmett Vincent Settles had a career in the real estate and insurance, and possibly the lumber business. The family was Catholic.
MARRIAGE, ST. LOUIS, AND CHILDREN Helen married Frank Monroe Stephens (born on July 26, 1886) on January 16, 1915, in a Catholic church when she twenty and he was twenty-nine. She was the eldest child in her family, and he was the youngest child in his. Frank was born in Prescott, Arizona, lived on a cattle ranch, and moved to Los Angeles with his parents. The first in his family to attend college, he went to University of Berkeley and majored in electrical engineering. Frank declined a job offer at a brokerage firm from his close friend, Dean Witter, because he felt Dean would always be the boss, and Frank wanted more independence. When he didn’t get offered a job during college interviews, Frank went to the telephone company, and persuaded them to hire him. They moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where their first four children Helen, Catherine, Bob, and Mary were born. The family had two dogs: Tiger who was a mean Irish Terrier and Tommy, who was a sweet German Shepherd they had to get rid of because he killed the neighbor’s chickens. Frank came home with his first car, a model T, which he had paid $500 for. It took Helen quite a long time before she was brave enough to drive it. Helen had a miscarriage when they lived in St. Louis. In St. Louis they had open streetcars, which the kids boarded to ride to school. Their eldest child remembered her Grandfather Settles as being a nice-looking black-haired man. He suffered from tuberculosis, so he traveled west to get help with his TB but shortly after returned to Missouri where he died on December 24, 1924 when Helen was thirty. After he died, Grandmother Settles (nicknamed Mocca) visited her daughter’s family fairly regularly. The family went on a train trip to visit their Dad’s mother in California, probably Los Angeles. Family was always important to both Helen and Frank. Frank helped out his parents and sister as they aged.
CHILDREN
Helen Carolyn Stephens (December 4, 1915 to December 13, 2014) married Charles F. Wood and after his death married Morey Booth. They had three children: Frank, Chuck, and Lib.
Catherine Odelia Stephens (February 22, 1917 to October 2, 1964 to January 13, 2006) married Harvey Newton Barrett on December 1, 1945. They had three children: Newt, Elizabeth (Dibbie), and Susan.
Robert (Bob) Andrew Stephens (August 29, 1919) married Barbara Ryan on July 11, 1948. They had three children: Susan, Sharon, and Michael.
Mary Margaret Stephens (October 6, 1922 to December 15, 2003) married Cyrus Stephen Eaton, Jr. on July 11, 1942. They had four children: Cyrus, John, Cathy, and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Ann Stephens (December 19, 1927 to 1982). She married Austin J. Tobin, Jr on May 26, 1927. They had three children: Austin J. III, Farley, and John.
Susan Stephens (April 9, 1930 to 2018). She married John James Morely III. They had five children: Catherine, John James IV, Robert (Bob), Helen, and Mary.
CLEVELAND, OHIO, AND MORE CHILDREN Around 1923, they moved to Cleveland. They stayed in a hotel until they moved into a rental house on Kensington. Then they bought a house on Hyde Park, where the children roller skated down the hill. Helen had stillborn child after Mary, and then Elizabeth (Dibbie) and Susan joined the family. Frank always sent Helen roses on their children’s birthdays and took Helen out to dinner once a week, so they could have some private time away from the children. He hired live-in help to assist Helen with the house and children. At one point, they had a maid, laundress, and yard man. Nevertheless, Frank and Helen were very careful of their finances. Their daughter Helen remembers her parents as being loving and very thoughtful of each other. Mary said that her parents never quarreled. Helen felt her father was the dominant figure. She described her mother as being a homebody who didn’t enjoy activities outside the house. Mary felt her mother lacked self-confidence and that she never liked to hold the lime light. At one point in the middle of the night, robbers came in and stole Frank’s wallet with $300 cash in it. The thieves also took a wrapped prize Helen had won for playing bridge, a favorite family pastime.
FRANK’S CAREER AND FAMILY LIFE Due to Frank’s promotions in the telephone company, the family moved to Columbus, Ohio, during the depression and bought a home on 2086 Iuka Rd close to the university. Daughter Helen went to Indian Knowell School and then North High School; the other children attended Catholic Schools and were taught by nuns. During the depression, Helen remembered friends losing jobs and hearing about people jumping out of windows. Frank told his older children not to work at this time so they wouldn’t take jobs away from desperate people. Their home was a sanctuary. They ate dinner as a family and always had room for friends of their children to join them. Helen and Catherine went to Ohio State University. Helen remembered her mother as being very loving and supportive. During these years Catherine (Sis) had serious mental breakdowns, which traumatized the whole family. Each family member loved Sis and tried to support her. In 1964, Sis took too many pills and passed away, leaving her pain and her family behind.
WORLD WAR II During World War II, when they had returned to Shaker Heights, Ohio, and lived on Chesterton Road, the youngest three children, Mary, Dibbie, and Susan attended an old girls’ school called Hathaway Brown School, an easy walk. During a strike at the telephone company, Frank slept with a gun under his pillow. Frank was chairman of the Red Cross drive, and he was on the war labor board in Washington DC during WW II, where he spent much of his time. The children visited him and saw all the monuments. The older children were married or away at college. Frank enjoyed working on his Victory Garden, and Helen grew lovely flowers. Helen and Frank were close friends to the Ides and enjoyed playing bridge with them. Helen loved music and was an accomplished pianist. She was a skilled knitter and enjoyed playing golf.
FRANK STEPHEN’S FINAL YEARS AND DEATH Frank was promoted to president of Wisconsin Bell Telephone, and much to Helen’s chagrin, he bought a large house in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, without consulting her. The couple did a great deal of entertaining. He joined a club where they played Hearts. Daughter Helen felt her father was very happy in Wisconsin and at the peak of his career. In 1946, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer and knew he had a short time to live, he spent his time organizing their financial affairs to make it easier for his wife, Helen. He tried to stop smoking but never succeeded in quitting. At that time only Susan and Dibbie were living with them as the rest of the children were married. Frank Monroe Stephens died on October 26, 1946, in Milwaukee, leaving a hole in the hearts of his family. Her daughter, Mary, wrote that her mother played a stabilizing role in Frank’s life.
LIFE AS A WIDOW, FAMILY CONNECTIONS, AND GRANDCHILDREN After her husband died, Helen moved back to Ohio, and lived in an apartment on Kemper Road in Shaker Hts. At one point, a young man boarded with her to defray expenses. She visited her children and grandchildren scattered across the country. Helen blossomed and developed many interests and her independence. She joined a weaving group, purchased a large loom, and wove many tablemats, table runners and bags. She continued her love of gardening. She enjoyed knitting and needle pointing. She became quite adept at investing in the stock market and was an avid Cleveland Indians Fan. It was great fun for the grandchildren to spend the night with her, go to Higbees Department Store, buy a doll outfit, drink from a special glass mug, and play card games with her. She told her grandchildren to wake her if she snored. She often came out to Arrow Cottage where her daughter Mary lived with her family. Not liking to be in direct sun, Helen sat under an apple tree on a slope above the pool. She enjoyed drinking scotch, only having one drink at cocktail hour, which she replenished with floats.
Her daughter Mary that her mother’s “faith in God sustained her as long as I can remember; she always had a rosary nearby. She lived strictly according to God’s and the Church’s law.” Mary continued, “Quality was important to Mother: good fabric, fine gloves, and lovely shoes. She valued refinement in people even more.” Mary said her mother was not a reader. “Classical music, especially opera, filled her life. She treasured her grand piano, play often. She loved birds and flowers and my father.”
In 1963, all her children, their spouses, and here twenty-one grandchildren gathered for a family reunion for her 70th birthday. Her granddaughter Cathy remembers buying her a rubber miniature animal each year for her birthday, which she featured on a special shelf. She loved to make Angel Food Cake.
FINAL YEARS AND DEATH When she became ill, she lived with Helen and Moray Booth for a few years in Louisville, Kentucky, and when she returned to Ohio, moved to Hamlet Hills in Chagrin Falls, where she could live independently and had her own garden. She suffered from Chromes Disease. Later, she moved to their assistant living section.
After she died on March 7, 1977 in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, her funeral was held in Hannibal, Missouri with a Catholic Mass. The family visited her childhood home, which had been converted to a boarding house, and the Catholic Church she attended as a child, which was now a bowling alley.
Granny Stephens was greatly missed. All of her children, their spouses, and the grandchildren loved her dearly. She showered them with love and kindness. She was soft-spoken, supportive, and compassionate.