Esther Chenoweth was born in 1902, youngest child of Francis Otis Chenoweth and Lucy Sara Miller. Esther lost her mother, either of tuberculosis or pneumonia, before her first birthday. She spent much of the next 10 years being raised by a number of relatives including uncles, grandparents, and her father.
As she told the story herself, she was about 12 years old and attending John J. Ingalls school in Kansas City, Kansas when she met her future husband, John Rock, Jr., who was 13 at the time, when he helped her up after she had fallen on an icy sidewalk. They married in 1919, but he died in 1925; their third child was born some four months later. From 1921 until 1988, she lived in the Armourdale district of Kansas City, Kansas.
Esther raised her sons alone through most of the Depression. She remarried in 1932, but divorced her second husband in 1938, taking back her first married name. Her son Richard remembered that she rented part of her home to another family that was even less well off than hers, and when she and her sons received Christmas gifts from relatives, she shared them with the renters, giving an important lesson about charity to her sons. After Pearl Harbor, Esther's boys joined the Navy and Marines and she went to work at a defense plant.
She worked at the Sunshine Biscuit Company as well as the Wilson Packing Company, retiring in 1967. She became a Christian Scientist during her teen years, and remained so for the rest of her life. She died in 1991.
As she told the story herself, she was about 12 years old and attending John J. Ingalls school in Kansas City, Kansas when she met her future husband, John Rock, Jr., who was 13 at the time, when he helped her up after she had fallen on an icy sidewalk. They married in 1919, but he died in 1925; their third child was born some four months later. From 1921 until 1988, she lived in the Armourdale district of Kansas City, Kansas.
Esther raised her sons alone through most of the Depression. She remarried in 1932, but divorced her second husband in 1938, taking back her first married name. Her son Richard remembered that she rented part of her home to another family that was even less well off than hers, and when she and her sons received Christmas gifts from relatives, she shared them with the renters, giving an important lesson about charity to her sons. After Pearl Harbor, Esther's boys joined the Navy and Marines and she went to work at a defense plant.
She worked at the Sunshine Biscuit Company as well as the Wilson Packing Company, retiring in 1967. She became a Christian Scientist during her teen years, and remained so for the rest of her life. She died in 1991.
Esther Chenoweth was born in 1902, youngest child of Francis Otis Chenoweth and Lucy Sara Miller. Esther lost her mother, either of tuberculosis or pneumonia, before her first birthday. She spent much of the next 10 years being raised by a number of relatives including uncles, grandparents, and her father.
As she told the story herself, she was about 12 years old and attending John J. Ingalls school in Kansas City, Kansas when she met her future husband, John Rock, Jr., who was 13 at the time, when he helped her up after she had fallen on an icy sidewalk. They married in 1919, but he died in 1925; their third child was born some four months later. From 1921 until 1988, she lived in the Armourdale district of Kansas City, Kansas.
Esther raised her sons alone through most of the Depression. She remarried in 1932, but divorced her second husband in 1938, taking back her first married name. Her son Richard remembered that she rented part of her home to another family that was even less well off than hers, and when she and her sons received Christmas gifts from relatives, she shared them with the renters, giving an important lesson about charity to her sons. After Pearl Harbor, Esther's boys joined the Navy and Marines and she went to work at a defense plant.
She worked at the Sunshine Biscuit Company as well as the Wilson Packing Company, retiring in 1967. She became a Christian Scientist during her teen years, and remained so for the rest of her life. She died in 1991.
As she told the story herself, she was about 12 years old and attending John J. Ingalls school in Kansas City, Kansas when she met her future husband, John Rock, Jr., who was 13 at the time, when he helped her up after she had fallen on an icy sidewalk. They married in 1919, but he died in 1925; their third child was born some four months later. From 1921 until 1988, she lived in the Armourdale district of Kansas City, Kansas.
Esther raised her sons alone through most of the Depression. She remarried in 1932, but divorced her second husband in 1938, taking back her first married name. Her son Richard remembered that she rented part of her home to another family that was even less well off than hers, and when she and her sons received Christmas gifts from relatives, she shared them with the renters, giving an important lesson about charity to her sons. After Pearl Harbor, Esther's boys joined the Navy and Marines and she went to work at a defense plant.
She worked at the Sunshine Biscuit Company as well as the Wilson Packing Company, retiring in 1967. She became a Christian Scientist during her teen years, and remained so for the rest of her life. She died in 1991.
