Aunt Sarah Elisabeth Wellons Pine

My grandfather’s youngest sibling was Sarah Elisabeth Wellons Pine. She was born in Anderson on November 29, 1916 and died in Anderson on May 30, 1996. The cause of death was pneumonia, related to COPD and she also had coronary artery disease and diabetes. She and her husband were buried in Pleasant Walk Cemetery.

She was married to Jasper Theodore Pine, who was born on January 28, 1912 and died on October 27, 1978 from pneumonia.

Her obituary was in the Indianapolis Star on May 31, 1996 on page 35. She was 79 years old.

In the 1940 census, we have:

Jasper T. Pine 28, a laborer at a meatpacking plant (Not Emge, but Hughes Curry Packing) making $1,044 per year
Sarah 24 a housewife
Robert L. 5 (OK, this is a third cousin named Robert!)
Morley H. 2
Beverly S. 1 month

Note: I have names for as many as 6 other children, from family trees posted by relatives on Ancestry. The only other name I can document is James Monroe Pine, from the license for his second marriage.

They lived in Ward 3, in Anderson in 1940. They are later listed as living on Fairview Street.

Jasper later became an armature winder at an auto parts manufacturer. His son, James M., was working at a meat packer at the time of his second marriage.

I remember after we met mom’s Aunt Sarah at my grandparents the mom explained that she felt sorry for her because she just kept having kids and would always be so poor as a result. This highlights the generational change between my grandparents generation and my parents generation, where having many children was replaced by a philosophy of having 5 or usually fewer kids. Maybe that was the impact of growing up in the depression era. It was really before modern contraceptives, so tubal ligation (the woman “having her tubes tied”) was the method used to limit the size of families. I think men didn’t step up to “having their tubes tied” until my generation. A much safer and less costly operation. Plus, we had the birth control pill!