Jo Pattillo 1885-1958 My Grandaunt on My Father's Side

Jo Pattillo on her wedding day

Note: This post was written jointly with Jo's granddaughter Laine Lawrence, my second cousin.

Jo Pattillo began her life as a miraculous exception – she survived. Her mother Carrie Brooks Stover Pattillo had given birth at least three times before.   Three children had died and are buried in the Handley Cemetery in Tarrant County, Texas.   Jo would always say the reason that she had such an abbreviated name was because her mother had already given birth to seven children that had died before Jo was born on February 22, 1885.  Since her parents, James and Carrie Pattillo, didn’t expect her to live either they weren’t incline to waste a whole name so they just gave her the name Jo with no middle name.   It seems most likely that they named her for Carrie’s mother, Joanna Gaines Stover.  Jo died on February 23, 1958, one day after her 73^rd birthday. She grew up, got married twice, moved to California, had children and grandchildren – just the way it’s supposed to happen. Within three years of her birth she and her family, including her baby sister Mary Pattillo, moved from Texas to California where her father started a concrete contracting business.

After the move to California, her brothers Lewis and Elmer and twin sisters Ruby and Maude were born. When the 1900 census was taken Jo was 15 years old and living with her parents and siblings at 212 Jefferson Street in Los Angles. She was attending school in Los Angeles.   On the 1910 census, Jo was living with her parents and her five siblings on West 37^th Avenue in Los Angeles. She and her sister Mary were both working as exchange operators for the telephone company.

Jo and her sister Mary as toddlers

The following year, Jo married Carl Mixer Frink on June 1, 1911.  They honeymooned twenty-two miles away on Santa Catalina, Island.    Jo was 26 and Carl was 29.  Carl was the son of Charles E. Frink and Louisa Young.  He was born in Iowa and had lived in St. Paul, Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois.   As early as 1905 he had participated in and won medals for motorcycle cross-country endurance races.  When Carl moved to California, about 1909, he became a proprietor of the Frink and Bryant  Motorcycle Dealership in Los Angeles and was the Pacific Coast agent for Wagner Motorcycles.    Carl had asthma and as it became worse he sought employment working on the oil drilling rigs off the coast of Long Beach.  He worked for Puente Oil Company in San Pedro in Los Angeles County until his death.

Jo with her first  husband Carl Frink who died during the
flue pandemic of 1918.

Jo and Carl were living at 210 West 51^st Street in 1916 when they registered to vote. Both identified themselves as “Progressives” – just one example of Jo being non-conventional. While this was not terribly uncommon at that time, it certainly was less routine than identifying themselves as either Democrat or Republican.

Jo and Carl had three daughters – Elma Mae born in 1912, Jeannette Louise in 2014, and Ruth Corrine in 2018.  Elma was born at the Clara Barton Hospital in Los Angeles.  Elma was named for Carl’s sister, Elma Mae.  Jeanette’s middle name was for his mother, Louise(a).

Early in 1916, when Jo was 30, her mother Carrie died from diabetes and pulmonary tuberculosis after a long illness. Carrie was cremated and her ashes are buried in Los Angeles.

Jo's daughter Elma and granddaughter Laine

Jo’s husband Carl died on October 27, 1918, less than a month before the war ended.   He died as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic that ultimately claimed 675,000 Americans and infected approximately one-third of the world’s population.  Twenty to fifty million people worldwide died.  Jo was widowed at the age of 33 with three daughters aged 6 and younger to raise. Laine Lawrence, Jo’s granddaughter recalls her mother Elma talking about Jo and how hard times were after Carl died. She told Laine, “Jo supported her family by making pies and selling them.  She kept the money she earned in a cookie jar on a shelf”.   Elma once climbed on the counter and stole a nickel from the jar.  She knew how hard her mother worked for her money and she carried that shame with her for the rest of life.  The other thing she was ashamed of was the first Christmas after her father’s death she asked for a porcelain doll, but Jo could only afford to get her a bisque doll.  Elma was so disappointed she threw it into the fireplace shattering it into many pieces.  Jo was so sweet that she would never get mad at her girls and never even said a word about the money or doll to Elma.” Elma told Laine, “The only thing she wanted of Jo’s after Jo died was that cookie jar so she would never forget about the bad thing she had done.”  

L-R Bessie's daughter, Bessie Boutain, Maude Pattillo, unknown,
Jo Pattillo, Joanna, and Anna Pattillo

In 1920, Jo was living at 558 West 40^th Street in Los Angeles (San Pedro) with her three young daughters aged 7, 5 and 15 months. She was unemployed when the census was taken. It was about this time when Jo did an unconventional thing – she converted to the Christian Science religion. The primary tenant of the religion is that sickness is an illusion that can be corrected by prayer alone. From what I know of our Pattillo ancestors religion was not a strong factor in their lives. Jo’s mother Carrie was a descendant of Daniel Stover who was actively involved with the Baptist Church. Daniel was her great grandfather though – a distant relative. Her grandfather William Stover was a Trustee of the Baptist Church but I don’t know anything about her parent’s religious beliefs. With her family background and the fact that her first husband died from influenza, it seems particularly significant that Jo chose to practice this non-traditional religion. She adopted the faith during a time when the religion was growing in acceptance, so she must have been influenced by what she read and heard at the time. Her sister Mary also adopted the religion. Laine recalls that her grandmother had a photograph of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science church, in a chest that held the family photos.  Laine said, “I just thought she was another family member.” Jo raised all of her children as a Christian Scientist but none of them continued to practice that religion as they matured.

L-R Maude Pattillo, Unkown man, Jo Pattillo, probably Mary
Pattillo, and an unknown woman and man.

When Jo was 36 she married for a second time to Carl Joseph Miller.  They met when Jo was taking Baby Corrine “Corky” for a walk.  Carl supposedly was attracted to them by Corky's abundance of blond curls.   Carl was born in Missouri on April 14, 1890, so he was five years younger than Jo – one more unusual thing about Jo Pattillo to have married a younger man in a time when that was rarely done. I found Carl’s mother’s name Minnie on the 1900 and 1910 censuses but no father. He had three brothers. An older brother Charles was 16 in 1900, and two younger brothers, Harry and Leo. When they were married Carl was working as a police officer.

Jo's daughter Corrine with those curls
that attracted Carl Miller

By April of 1930, Jo and Carl were living at 4688 Inyo Street in Fresno. Today, that address has been redeveloped into what looks like townhouses. Their monthly rent, according to the census, was $25. Jo’s father and siblings had moved to Fresno in 1918 and James was still there in 1925 so apparently, Jo and her new husband moved there to join the rest of her family. Carl was working as a glazier for a glass company. All five of their children were listed in the household on the 1930 census, however, Elma was attending a boarding school in Oakland that year. They did not yet own a radio, according to the census.

Jo and Carl had two children. Patsy Irene Miller was born in 1922 when Jo was 37 and a son, James “Jim” Carl Miller in 1924 when Jo was 39 which was rather old to be giving birth – just one more example of Jo’s non-conventional life.  Jo was 40 when her brother Elmer died and 41 when her father James died.

In about 1930 Jo and Carl moved their family to Brentwood, Contra Costa County, California.   Al of their children with the exception of Elma graduated Liberty Union High School in Brentwood.  The 1940 census had Jo and Carl living in a rural area of Byron.  Patsy was 17 and Jim 15.  They were renting their home and paying rent of $16 per month. Carl was working as a clerk for the government earning $422 that year. Jo was not working outside the home.   However, there were times during those years when she would provide her services as a midwife or provide private nursing care.  It is unclear how she reconciled her passion for giving health care with her religious beliefs.

Standing L-R Corrine, Ed & Lottie Pattillo, Carl Miller, Jim
Front row L-R Elmer Gauger, Al Smith, Elma holding Karen
Jo (middle), Patsy Miller, Jeanne holding Sue

  

Carl and Jo lived in at least two houses in Concord, California in the 1940’s and 1950’s, the first was on Concord Boulevard. and the second on Walnut Road.  For the last eight to ten years of her life Jo was disabled with diabetes and was in need of daily assistance.  Most of the time she would be cared for in her home by Carl, Elma or Jeannette who made almost daily drives from Brentwood to Concord to cook and clean.  Other times, by rotation, she would stay with each of her children.  When her Christian Science belief’s kicked in, she would stop taking her insulin and end up in the hospital in a very grave condition.  Doctors were surprised that she would survive these episodes.

Towards the end of Jo’s life she probably had Alzheimer’s and as the disease progressed she was admitted to the Contra Costa County Hospital.  In the 1950’s there were no skilled nursing facilities for placement for seniors who did not have the resources for private care.  In the last few weeks of her life, she was moved to the Stockton State Hospital where she died. By then Carl had moved in with their son and his family at their home at 1382 Rosal Lane in Concord. 

1382 Rosal Lane home in Concord

Jo and her second husband Carl are buried in San Bruno at the Golden Gate National Cemetery for veterans. They are in section U, plot No. 2885.

Unknown, Jo and daughter Elma

Jo with her daughter Corrine (Corky) and
 two grandsons Mike and Tim (baby).

Elma, Evelyn and Jeaneatte

L-R Jeanette, Jo, Corky, and Elma

558 40th Street in San Pedro where Jo was living with
her 3 daughters in 1920

James William Pattillo with his two oldest daughters
Mary and Jo