Fresh Start

What is 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks?  Genealogist Amy Crow Johnson has offered the idea of doing 52 posts about ancestors in the 52 weeks of 2020.  For more information:  https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/  Here is my first installment.  

Challenge #1: FRESH START

For this one, I’ll go back to one of Newt Turpin’s younger daughters, Leta Arvilia Turpin.  I’ve posted items about her previously.  After leaving her quiet Rock County home for life in Omaha, Nebraska, Leta seemed to live on the wild side.  After multiple run-ins with the law, Leta left for her FRESH START in California.

Leta was born in 1888 in Mariaville, Rock County, Nebraska.  By 1905 Leta had moved to Omaha and lived with her husband Bert Douglas.  Leta ran a dance academy and her events were occasionally mentioned in the social pages of the Omaha Bee.   She held charity card parties, a Temple Israel Sisterhood dance, and more.

Leta and Bert had a child between 1905 and 1910 according to the 1910 census. That child died and there are no family stories telling us what happened. 

In April 1910, John Alfreds was a lodger in the building where Leta and Bert lived. In September that same year, Leta married John O. Alfreds, age 24, in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  This relationship must have been tumultuous and only lasted about seven years.  When Leta’s sister Susan died in March 1917, Leta was listed in the obituary as Lettie Alfred, living in Omaha.  By July, Leta had filed for divorce from John claiming non-support and extreme cruelty.  The divorce was granted in August. 

Apparently, John found someone new and was anxious to remarry.  It must have upset Leta because she began to make the news with frequency within months.  Leta was in court in February 1918 accused of throwing hot coffee on Agatha Zimmerman who Leta discovered keeping company with her divorced husband John at the Metropolitan dance hall one evening.  The incident was reported in the January 25th Omaha World Herald.  Leta surrendered to police but the case was dropped when Zimmerman repeatedly failed to appear in court and did not pursue the charges.   

When Leta’s mother died in January 1926, Leta was using her maiden name and living in Los Angeles as Lettie Arvelle Turpin according to the obituary.  However she still had ties to Nebraska.  In 1928 she was in trouble again in Omaha.  The World Herald reported that a Mr. Myre and a Mr. Marfisi got into a scuffle over Leta at a pool hall.  Gunshots were fired and, in the end, Leta and Mr. Marfisi were booked on charges of disorderly conduct. 

Regardless, Leta ended up in California and got the fresh start she sought. The 1930 census listed her as widowed and working as a dancing teacher.  On February 20 1940 she was a resident of Los Angeles, listed as Leta A. Turpin, the inventor in U.S. Pat. No. 2,190,895 for Body Developing and Correcting Apparatus (see the February 25, 2012 post in this blog).

Leta Turpin, about 1940

In obituaries for brothers William and James in December 1941 and June 1943 Leta was listed as Lettie Turpin of Los Angeles.   In 1946 her address was 1142 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA.

Letters from her companion, William H. Meverden say that he had to commit Leta to a hospital as she evidently suffered from dementia in the last years of her life.  Leta died 4 February 1963 in Los Angeles.