Bl2 Anna Pope Bland

    was  the first of two daughters of Thomas Eugene Bland Bl3 and Matilda Prather Nicholas Ni3,
     
    Born: 26 June 1908 in Shelbyville, Kentucky
    On July 7, 1934, Eustace Granger Hester and Anna Pope Bland were married in Shelbyville, Ky.

    She was 5' 2" or 157.5 cm tall as was her sister Jane, while both their parents were 5' 6" tall = 168 cm. 
    She had dark brown hair and brown eyes.
    She had a tendency to gain weight but managed to keep a diet fairly well every 6 months or so and always got back to size.

    Children:

    1. He1-1 Thomas Eugene Hester, b. Oct. 23, 1937
    2. He1-2 William Griffth Hester,
    3. He1-3 George Nicholas Hester,
    4. He1-4 Jane Ann Hester,
    She died Feb. 15, 1970, in Saginaw, Michigan about 4 weeks after having an operation on a brain tumor, presumably caused by the radiation field from the electric power lines that passed over the house. An aunt and a cousin also developed brain tumors at young ages. So a genetic tendency to develop such tumors is possible. This would be supported by the very young death of the maternal grandfather, US Congressman Patrick Henry Pope, if it were due to a brain tumor, but a Pope genealogy originally published about 1900 and recently found on the Internet attributes the low number of survivng Popes in Kentucky at the end of the 19th century to marriages to consumptive wives without actually saying that his mother and the early Thruston family in general died of consumption. As the disease is contagious and was very common at the time is seems to be the more likely cause of the early deaths in this branch of the family than congenital brain cancer. Although the deaths of an aunt and a first cousin and now the granddaughter of a first cousin from brain cancer do speak for a congenital factor increasing the probability of such a development.

    Anna Pope Bland at 5 months
    Picture taken December 3, 1908

    Pope or Bland aunts an cousin left and center, Anna Pope Bland (or Levicy Jane Bland) 2nd from right Matilda Prather Bland nee Nicholas far right.
    Picture taken about 1921

    Anna Pope Bland about 1921

    Katherine Prather Nicholas and Anna Pope Bland, about 1921/2 Bland Ave. Shelbyville, Ky.

    Anna Pope Bland about 1921

    23 Apr 1922, Levicy Jane Bland right with a mandolin

    Levicy Jane Bland left, friends center, Anna Pope Bland right about 1925

    left Anna Pope Bland, friends center,right Levicy Jane Bland 1925

    Matilda Prather Nicholas and husband Dr. Thomas Eugene Bland
    and children, Anna Pope Bland and Levicy Jane Bland about 1919.
    On the right was the pump, and inside the housing you see was a chain with scoops on it to bring up the water from the cistern. Granddad had had the house built around the turn of century as one story house but had another storey added about the time he married. Until he became the hero of Shelbyville around this time by taking over the mayor's office and boxing a bond issue through the city council to improve the sewage system, there had been flash flooding causing almost annual diphtheria and typhoid epidemics that took a heavy toll of lives. Rainwater off a roof that was sterilized by the sun regularly was in danger of being contaminated by such floods. And grandma had to have her coffee made with calcium and chlorine free cistern water. So Tom and I got to crank the pump vigorously when we were visiting her.

    Taken about 1924

    Picture taken at her graduation from Science Hill about 1926
    June 1925/6

    After having attended a women's junior college near Atlanta Georgia together with two of her school friends for two years, Anna Pope Bland continued studies at the University of Kentucky in Lexington Ky. and graduated with a B.A. in education with majors in home economics and history in 1932. She met her husband, Eustace, during her first year in Lexington. The following year he started medical school at the University of Louisville, and  she taught school for two years before her marriage shortly after he finished medical school.


    About 1928 with women's emancipation in full swing and her piano playing had changed to the more popular songs of the roaring twenties.

    A very remote but multiple cousin at about the same age but 23 years later.

    In 1952 her son, William, passed a news stand and caught a a glimps of a picture out of the corner of his eye and turned to look at it more closely while asking himself, "Where did that old picture of Mom come from?" Well, it was not Mom although it had a strong resemblance to the her in the 8 mm movies of her taken about 14 years earlier, which her son had only seen many years before. It was not until he got into the genealogy of his grandmother that he understood, whence the resemblance came.


    Be2Levicy Jane Bland Anna Pope Bland about 1935

    Their very remote but multiple cousin again.
    Mom never remarked anything about a similarity and maybe never noticed it and did not know where her ancestors came from in the UK, nor had her uncle's wife, Evelyn Belle Thompson, been able to get back to where our 17th century immigrant ancestors came from exactly. But since 1970 I have found about a thousand lines of common descent and keep finding more.
    		This dates about 1939 after buying the "lumber baron mansion" at 2103 N. Michigan Ave.
    The oval table with Mom at the head and Aunt Jane to ther right of her came with the house, as It was actually round and about 6' in diameter and had four leaves that fit into it here as you see in the picture. It was made entirely out of massive mahogony about an inch and a half thick and worth a fortune. But it was too big for any "normal" room, so the Curtis family could not take it with them when they moved to California. Eventually it found a place in the basement party in Dad's office annex 1947/8 with linoleum stuck on top, but the leaves came with us to Warwick St. and were great to slide on. Dad did not have much appreciation for antiques, and of course, neither did we rough and tumble tumble kids.

    The other women around the table do not look familiar, but years later I may have seen many of them at Mom's monthly bridge club meetings.
    Anna Pope (Bland) Hester was and active member of the First Presbyterian Church and the Saginaw chapters of the Civitan Auxiliary and the Daughters of the American Revolution. In later years she baked bread for the church bazar, as her yeast bread was particularly aromatic it sold out quickly. So every year she doubled the number of loaves she baked, but to no avail as it still kept selling out quickly. For the Bazar in 1969 she baked 64 loaves reching the limit of what she could manage with her kitchen and refridgerator (the dough had to be leavened in the refridgerator for 24 hours to get the right taste and aroma).  Her work for the Civitan Auxiliary was equally selfless actively participating in many functions raising money at bazars to help the needy people of Saginaw. She had a young colored women named Betty who came to help with the house work who she liked talking to. But she scepticle of the possibility of the African Americans ever being able to raise themselves out of poverty. She quoted her mother's maid - an old woman at that time who before the Civil War had been maid to the master's daughter sleeping in the latter's room and otherwise well treated - who did not want to live in the part of Shelbyville where the negroes were living saying there were "good darkies and bad darkies" and she did not want to have anything to do with the bad ones.
    Well, in the mean time many negroes have nonetheless been able to raise their lot, if not enough yet.
     

    She was also the member of a women's bridgeclub of about 16 members that met continuously every two to four weeks for over fifteen years with practically no change of members to the memory of her son, William.

    Anna Pope Bland was by nature a Southern lady and very considerate of others, even tempered and quite diplomatic, even in the family, deferring many questions to her husband's decision. She was always willing to grant her children the wide freedom necessary for personal development but quick to stem any misbehavior going beyond the line. Never would she venture any opinion or any advice that might intrude in other's personal affairs, an attitude that a son or daughter only really learns to appreciate when confronted by a person of the opposite nature. 


    The Hester and Linville clan of saginaw
    Taken about 1950, from left to right above we see: Mary Etta Camobell, Sheila Campbell and Thomas Eugene Hester In the middle row Perry Linville, Margaret/Peggy Campbell, William Griffith Hester and Patricia Hester (Uncle Hazard's daughter) Below: Larry Linville, George Nicholas Hester, Howard Campbell, Sarah Linville, Lenwood Linville Jr. and Carol Ann Linville


    Anna Pope and Dr. Eustace Granger Hester in Hittville about 1936

    23 Oct 1937: its a boy, Thomas Eugene Hester.

    Anna Pope, Eustace, William and Thomas Hester in front of the Hester house in Hittville, Ky. 1943