Irene Myers

Irene T. Anderson was born in Montrose, South Dakota on April 28th 1918 to William J. and Catherine E. (Sullivan) Anderson. She had three older sisters, Dorthy, Evelyn, and Eleanor. Dorthy married Almond Weber, who had 11 children together. Evelyn married Art Garrity and they had 10 children. After his death Evelyn married Bill Rausch who had 10 children by a previous marriage they had no children together. Eleanor married Bert Hunsley . Irene had one brother named Joe Anderson who married Evelyn Cable ( who in turn married Ambrose Dolan after Joe's death). Irene also had three younger sisters ; Vivian, Rosalie and Sister Vangie. Vivian married Gus and had 8 children. She also had a baby sister June who died at 8 months. All her sisters and her brother are now deceased.

Stanley Q. Myers was born on June 2nd, 1920 in Leadville, Colorado to Wildman and Cleo Myers. At that time his father was a miner in the Yak mine in Leadville. Stanley had two brothers, Donald (who was killed in a car accident on November 10th,1965) Married to Meryl passed away, Arlo married to Olive, both passed away; and two sisters, Elveta married to Ralph Hunsley after his death married Gordon Watkins and Betty married to Charlies Schneeman & after his death married Eric Lundeen all are gone now.

The Andersons lived and farmed several farms in central South Dakota near Agar, Onida, Blunt and Harrold. When Irene was old enough to go to school she attended what was known as "Country Schools" where one teacher taught all grades from the first through the eighth grades. When Irene was ready for High School, due to the depression, she went to a different High School each year, depending on where she could find room and board in return for work. She graduated from Blunt High School in 1936 as Valedictorian of her class.

While at home Irene always helped with farm chores including herding cattle and milking cows. The only machines in these days were ten fingers and a lot of wrist action. One of her most dreaded job was picking potato bugs off the potato vines (neither did they have endangered species activists to tell us how we could kill bugs), so they dropped the bugs into a jar of kerosene. After High School she worked for a time under the National Recovery Act, better known as the N.R .A. She taught the kindergarten age children in Harrold and one of her pupils was Paul Zoller who is now married to one of Irene's nieces, Mary Catherine (Weber) Zoller.

One summer she worked as a maid in the South Dakota governor’s mansion where her duties consisted of caring for the governor’s children, cooking for the family and doing the laundry. All this for $5.00 per week but she did get Thursday afternoons off. After leaving the mansion she went to work as a live in maid for a Doctor and his wife. They had three small boys. White shirts were the specialty in that household. Besides the regular work; there were always twelve to fourteen to be washed and ironed each week since Doctors always wore white shirts on and off duty in those days. In1939 Irene came to Denver to be with her sister, Eleanor and brother-in-law Bert Hunsley. When their first baby (Lilla May) was born. She stayed in Denver doing house work for various people for twenty cents an hour. Bert’s brother Ralph Hunsley was married to Stanley's sister Elveta and on February 9th 1941, Elveta told Stanley We are going out to celebrate Ralph's birthday and I want you to take Irene.” Being a dutiful little brother he said 0 K. and that is when they started going "steady" as they called it in those days.

Stanley and Irene were married on July 4th 1941 in St Philomena’s Church in Denver. Irene’s sister, Vivian (Anderson) Bauer and Stanley’s friend Cecil Woods were their attendants. All weddings have to have a glitch in them and theirs was no exception. Everyone got to the Church on time but no one remembered to bring the license. Stanley and Cecil hurriedly took off across town to get it, only to discover Bert and Eleanor's house was locked. They improvised by going through the bathroom window to rescue said license. About the time those waiting at the Church figured Stanley and Cecil should be getting back. They heard police sirens nearby and everyone was sure the groom and his best man were in trouble, but fortunately the police were after someone else. Things went along smoothly after that.

Stanley and Irene moved into an apartment at 1565 Clarkson St. in Denver.

On April 8th 1942, their daughter Pamela Rae Marie was born. They were then asked to move to the top floor of the building they were in because at that time land lords were allowed to refuse to rent to people with children. Since they would be the only ones on that floor and promised to be very quiet they were allowed to stay. On October 10th 1942 Stanley enlisted in the United States Navy.

During Stanley’s time in the service, Irene and Pam moved in with Graham (Uncle Doc) and Dorothy (Aunt Dot) Cook at 1260 Carr Street in Lakewood. Aunt Dot took care of Pam while Irene went to work at the Remington Arms Plant, an ammunition factory. They had to work shifts which were changed once a month. When the Cooks decided to sell their home and move to Mississippi; Grandma Anderson came from South Dakota to stay with Irene and Pam. After Bert was drafted, Eleanor Hunsley purchased a house at 1919 west 35th Avenue in Denver and Irene, Pam and Grandma Anderson moved in with them. After the war was over Irene went to work for Safeway Stores Inc. She spent nine years with them working in three different stores.

While Stanley was working for Armored Motors and Irene was working for Safeway they bought a home at 4519 Meade Street in Denver where we lived for three years. They sold the house on Meade Street and bought a new home at 3621 Krameria St. where they lived for another three years. At this time Irene left Safeway and went to work for Piggly Wiggly at 29th and Fairfax which was much closer to home, and no night work. Due to the fact that there was no close bus service there, Irene studied the book and took lessons from our next door neighbor (Bill Jan) and finally got a driver’s license. Stanley returned the favor by teaching Bill's wife, Doris how to drive. This all because the four all agreed that husbands should never try to teach their wives how to drive a car. Doris, even thou having been taught by a policeman how to drive, flunked her first driving test on account of she cut the corner too close and run up over the curb into the parkway. Another week of instructions by Policeman Stanley on how to make right hand turns without using the parkway and she too had her license. They sold again and purchased the home at 1565 Ivy where they lived for 35 years. Their next home after retirement was 610 S. Clinton, Denver.

Piggly Wiggly went out of business and Irene was out of a job but she couldn't stand all the spare time so she applied for a Cashier’s job in the traffic division of the City and County of Denver. She remained there for 16 years and then when Stanley retired in 1976 from the Police De8artment after 26 years of service, she retired. They loved traveling, bowling, golfing & fishing.

After retirement they purchased a 1952 Spartan trailer home from brother-in-law Bert who then lived in South Dakota. They gutted the trailer at the Hunsley farm and then moved it to the Rausch Heifer/Ranch near Hoven, South Dakota where Stanley and brother- in-law, Bill Rausch, re- plumbed and re-wired and re -floored it. They towed it back to Denver where we re carpeted and refurnished it. That same year they moved it to the Mesa Campground near Gunnison, Colorado.

For ten summers they lived in the trailer enjoying fishing, golfing and sightseeing. In 1987 they sold the Spartan and began living in the summer in a condo owned by Pam and Joe Dixon. Here they had lots more room and lots more conveniences. They summered for another 20 or so years in Gunnison until dad's heart attack.

Over the years they were blessed with two Granddaughters Kathaleen,(Jim) and Angela (Larry). Three grandsons, Allen (Jenni), Dale and David (Diana). Seven great –grandchildren. Oscar (David's) married Cami Macon, Caitlin ( Angela's), Shae (Kathaleen's) married Jay Mannella, Sam , Max ( Allen's), Corrin and Duke ( Angie's). Three Great-Great grandchild Chloey and Kinsley (Shae & Jay's) and Ira (Oscar & Cami's)