Page 11 - Gary's Book - Final Copy 7.9.2017_Active

• Betty Elizabeth was born on November 18, 1944, and now lives in Peoria,
Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix.

Both of my parents had difficult childhoods. Dad died on March 19, 1950, at the
age of 46 due to a pulmonary embolism. He was related to the Frank Dalton family

known as The Dalton Gang or The Dalton Brothers; his mother was Ida Lee
Dalton. They were good friends with the James (as in Jesse James and Frank
James) and Younger families. They were all mean villains. (Look them up and
learn about them.) Not accepting the law and doing as you please was a family
culture.

Mom, at 5’4” tall, was very frail and weighed only about 95 pounds. She was very
easy going and mild-mannered. Although she always found something to smile
about, she suffered from much inner turmoil. Her father committed suicide by

holding a shotgun under his chin and blowing his brains out in the bathroom when
she was a small child. She often painfully talked about it, so it must have really
bothered her. Mom’s mother later placed her and her brother, who was only 10
years old at the time, in a Methodist home for children in Clayton, Missouri. When
she turned eight, she went to live in Cripple Creek, Colorado, with her Aunt Clara,

who became like a mother to her and a grandmother to us. She was a house servant
for Mr. Wassenberger, a furniture store owner and wealthy Jewish businessman
who lived in the upscaled suburb of St. Louis called University City, which was
about 15 to 20 miles away. Aunt Clara spent much time at our house doing the
cooking, cleaning and laundry since Mom, being a hypochondriac, always suffered
from little ailments. I enjoyed being with Aunt Clara and helping her.

On February 25, 1948, Dad decided for some reason to draft a paper telling his

family biography. Some of the highlights are:

• His father was English and his mother was Irish.
• His father’s last name was Wilson, and his mother’s was Dalton.

• He really did not know his father except through what his uncles, aunts, and
grandparents told him. Supposedly, he was a tall, handsome dare devil and a
big-time gambler.

• Dad was just a small infant, when one night during a poker game, his dad
killed an Indian and fled. He was never seen or heard from again.

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