Leona remembered by her granddaughter, Lisa

1.) Leona was gifted with an artist's eye. She loved beauty and created it in every place she occupied. Her cooking was an intentional blend of color, texture, and taste, and her home was filled with sunlight, colored glass, and roses from her garden.

Sewing skills began with her first quilt at the age of five and continued through adulthood with needlepoint designs on pillows and chairs. She also painted and fired glassware. Color, space, nature, and light were important to her.

Even when there was no need to leave the house, one could find Leona in a dress, nylons, and pearls. Twice a month she had her hair done at J.C. Penny's beauty salon. She considered it an extravagance and justified it by labeling it her "cigarette" money. Her grandchildren never saw her in pants, although she wore shorts a few times at her lake cottage.

It is a rare thing to find a person who never complained or pressed with an opposing opinion. Leona preferred supportive roles, good-naturedly volunteering for Goodwill's book sales and driving her lady friends to their appointments. She practiced daily what she read in her Bible each morning.

Life was difficult growing up. Her father died when she was seventeen, and she was the eldest of three brothers and a sister. The brothers continued to run the family gas station and the girls helped their mother earn money by taking in laundry. As soon as she graduated from high school, Leona worked as a clerk in a downtown Flint department store. She did what she could to help the family.

Howard Foss Piper entered her life as a classmate at Flint Central High school and as a friend at Court Street United Methodist Church. After marrying, Howard worked for his father's realty company, and Leona quit her job to care for their home and Joan, their only child.

Howard's death in 1948, when Joan was fifteen, changed Leona's role to single-parent. With Howard's passing, her father-in-law, Mark Piper, had just lost the second of his four children. He helped both Leona and his other daughter-in-law become financially independent and remained influential in the lives of his grandchildren. His loving gift of stewardship allowed Leona to remain Joan's stability and not work outside the home.

Leona lived frugally but generously. She loved her family and supported the hopes and dreams of her grandchildren as they studied and worked in various places in the world. It might have been her own quiet wanderlust that inspired their travels, as she toured abroad a few times in the early 1960s, long before it became fashionable. Her trip to the "Holy Land" included the "Travels of Paul" were particularly meaningful to her and deepened her Christian faith.

In her later years, Leona moved from traditional worship to more charismatic. This was an era when female ministers were both suspect and ridiculed. Leona went where she felt God led. Hidden Springs Church, with a female pastor, Jean Tulip, became her source of strength and community. She drove nearly an hour to attend each Sunday. She had no problem accepting her own granddaughters' ordinations when the time came.

Leona was a woman who knew sorrow and joy and processed all through service. She is lovingly remembered as living her life free of contention and flowing with generosity and gratitude.

2.) The summers of my young childhood were spent at G'ma Leona's cottage on Lake Fenton. Our family cleaned and aired the place on Memorial Day then winterized it Labor Day. It was a routine punctuated by mildewed books, a party line phone, falls from the dock, potato salad, falls from the hammock, ants on the peonies, falls from the fruit trees, and laying half off the sea wall looking for minnows.

Summer storms on the lake created a place in my mind I still return to often. While I was scared witless of thunder and lightning, I ran to the seawall whenever I felt the wind pick up to bring in rain. Like a curtain of water, the rain would start on the west side of the lake and sweep towards our house. I loved the smell of an approaching storm. I loved the changing color and texture of the lake, but most of all, I loved the wind playing with my hair and clothing. When the rain reached the end of the dock though, I'd run for my life.

Days when the rain dispatched humidity were perfect for canning. The cottage's early 1900s kitchen had a sink, stove, and old refrigerator on one side and a few cupboards and counter on the other. It was single lane cooking space that worked well enough for adults until a wee Walden entered and tangled traffic. I'm amazed I can remember the kitchen for all the times I was removed from it.

G'ma Leona was the family canner. Her secret to strawberry preserves was choosing the smallest, firmest strawberries others might cull from their recipes. Those jars were always sealed with paraffin then parceled out during the year from her house in Flint.

Once while perusing an 1880s cookbook, I discovered watermelon pickles were used in fruitcake recipes. It made sense that pioneer families would have to use economic creativity for such winter cakes—especially in the North. Maybe that's why G'ma Leona also canned watermelon pickles each summer. The recipe she used at the cottage was the one her grandmother and mother used when she was growing up.

My siblings and I were enlisted to help the pickle-making process by tunneling through the sweet red while spitting seeds as we went. G'ma would then scoop up our rinds and whisk them off to the kitchen. Our eyes watered and sinuses cleared as boiling vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, and clove oil filled the air. Oy, but so worth it.

Most of my adult life I, too, have canned watermelon pickles. It is like a gratitude pilgrimage to visit the graves of the women of my formation. For me, burning my eyes and lungs by boiling that syrup is similar to participating in the Christian Eucharist, "Do this in remembrance of me." It's a sacrament.

MOTHER: Caroline Almira Crosby

FATHER: Alvin Garfield (Reasner) Mahan

(Alvin was adopted by Maria Gates Mahan

and Edwin Mahan.)

HUSBAND: Howard Foss Piper

m. 15 Oct 1927, Flint, Genesee, Michigan

(at her mother's home on Fenton Rd.)

DAUGHTER: Joan Lee Piper

FURTHER INFORMATION:

1. (Family of origin--family name transcribed incorrectly)

1920 United States Federal Census

Name: Leona Hahaie [Leona Mahan]

Age: 15

Birth Year: abt 1905

Birthplace: Michigan

Home in 1920: Flint Ward 4, Genesee, Michigan

Race: White

Gender: Female

Relation to Head of House: Daughter

Marital Status: Single

Father's Name: Alvin G Hahaie [Mahan]

Father's Birthplace: Michigan

Mother's name: Caroline Hahaie [Mahan]

Mother's Birthplace: Michigan

Able to Read: Yes

Able to Write: Yes

Household Members: Name Age

Alvin G Hahaie 39

[operator, gasoline filling station]

Caroline Hahaie 35

Leona Hahaie 15

Clare Hahaie 13 [newsboy, street]

Clark Hahaie 12 [errand boy, grocery]

Ralph Hahaie 7

Reva Hahaie 5 [Reina]

Morris Wahaffey 32 [boarder]

Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Flint Ward 4, Genesee, Michigan; Roll: T625_765; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 41; Image: 620. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

2. Genesee County, Michigan, Marriage Index, 1836-1934

Name: Leona E. Mahan

Gender: Female

Spouse Name: Howard F. Piper

Spouse Gender: Male

Marriage Date: 15 Oct 1927

Marriage Place: Genesee, Michigan, USA

Source Information: Ancestry.com. Web: Genesee County, Michigan, Marriage Index, 1836-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.