Meet Ralph Wellons

My maternal grandfather was Ralph Wellons. I have tried, but cannot find any record of a middle name. (My uncle was Ralph Robert, but he was never called Junior to my knowledge.) He was one of 10 kids of James H. Wellons and Florence Lane Wellons. He was born in Clarksville, Indiana, which is in Hamilton County on Highway 38 between Noblesville and Pendleton. It’s a little southwest of Lapel. He was born March 6, 1904 and died on April 15, 1994. He was a toolmaker at Delco-Remy in Anderson and appeared to work there most of his working life. His family moved to Anderson and he lived on the 2300 block of Locust Street and the 2300 block of the next street over, Forkner Street. The area is just south of Martin Luther King Boulevard, which was known as Pendleton Pike when I grew up. He had a 7th grade education. (I don’t believe that any of his brothers or sisters finished high school.)

My mom usually called him “Daddy”, and sometimes “Dad”. My dad called him Ralph. Pappaw Wellons was not someone to put on airs. In fact, he was extremely self-deprecating. He might make fun of me for using a word like “self-deprecating”!

I didn’t spend as much time with him as with my grandmother, but all of his grandchildren spent enough time with him to get to know him and appreciate him. He was not a person to worry or anger, but would probably be called “jovial” except that the word is way to fancy for him. He was proud of the fact that he came from nothing economically and loved to say that he was from Hazelwood. The area where he grew up eventually was a predominately African-American area and it wasn’t a ghetto, but saying you were from Hazelwood told the world that you didn’t come from money. And I never heard him say anything derogatory about African-Americans.

After he retired and a few years after my grandmothers passed, he moved from the only home I knew on East 8th Street to a single-wide mobile home park on the bypass in North Anderson. He didn’t need to downsize, but was just the kind of guy to not have a home that was more or fancier than he needed. He became a world traveler (before and after my grandmother passed) and enjoyed going out to dinner and theatrical shows, often in Indianapolis, for several years. He eventually died at age 90, from cancer.

He didn’t have a lot of hobbies. No fishing or hunting. Maybe a weekly bowling team for a few years.  He had a large garden, but I’m not sure that was as much hobby as a habit from the days when having a garden meant insuring against a lack of food and providing food more cheaply. He learned to play the organ as he neared retirement. He used to play catch with us after he came home from work, although I’m sure he was tired and ready sit and relax for awhile. He did not appear to have a history as a ballplayer and never mentioned playing on any kind of organized team in school or youth leagues. I don’t remember that he worked a lot of overtime, like my Dad and my brother Jay did during large parts of their careers at Delco-Remy.

Besides being a good saver and having the bent toward thriftiness that was common among those who survived two world wars and the Great Depression, he sought and followed investing advice from my dad and it paid off, insuring that he had more money than he needed until he died.

He married Bessie Ethel Wyant. He probably knew her because his older sister Pansy married my grandmother’s brother Paul Wyant. They both have connections to the Hamilton County area, and specifically the Clarksville area. I never heard a story of how my grandparents met.