Born the 27th of January 1900- Died the 3rd of August 1987

Gene was the first born of Mary Elizabeth Prunty-Caulfield and John Eugene Caulfield. His father, John, was a bookkeeper for the Prunty Seed Company in Saint Louis Missouri. Gene was two when a sister Elizabeth Marie was born. Gene and ‘Bess' never really had the opportunity to know their mother when she died shortly after ‘Bess' was born. John and his two babies joined Grandma Julia Caulfield and the Hogans and their brood in "Kerrey Patch". "Kerrey Patch" was an Irish ghetto on the near north side of Saint Louis where one and all went to Saint Bridget's Catholic Church. When Gene reached nine and Bess six, their father John died of consumption (a catch-all name for several lung problems of that era, actually Tuberculosis).

Matt Hogan was a strapping man who had little sympathy for little boys' shenanigans, while his wife, Kate (John's sister) had the proverbial patience of Job. Matt and Kate's brood amounted to five children when Matt died in 1910. Grandma Caulfield found herself with her daughter and seven grandchildren as her responsibility. She was up to the challenge. The boys over ten went to work to earn their keep. Gene sold the Star-Times and the Post-Dispatch at 4th and Broadway at a half-penny a copy, six nights a week.

His dollar and a quarter pay went into the family kitty; he got a quarter back "to waste".

One of his favorite recollections as a child was playing in a neighbor's attic when one of the boys pushed him off the flooring, onto the joists, where he stuck his foot through the lathe and plaster ceiling. Mr. Cody banished Gene from his "house forever" but as most Irish blusters go, that's about a week. One of the younger Cody sons became a priest, going off to Rome straight out of the seminary. He later did very well for himself, rising to Cardinal of the City of Chicago. When the then Monsignor returned from Rome, he stopped into Gene's Firehouse to visit and recall the mischief of their youth.

Gene proceeded from paperboy to runner to warehouseman, frequently losing jobs because of "my big mouth", and "Let that be a lesson to you." The United States entered World War I in the spring of 1917, right after Gene's seventeenth birthday. Gene joined the army and was promptly sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, neglecting to get his grandmother's permission. Grandma was furious and told the Army to give back her grandson, and they complied. He claimed to be restless and disappeared again; this time it was the Navy. By the time Grandma found Gene, he had celebrated his eighteenth birthday and she couldn't get him out this time. The Navy made him an Engineman (shoveling coal into the boiler) and took him to France. He always " bragged" about his war pictures, standing on the steps of a museum in Paris, and sitting in front of a tent at Fort Sill.

RIGHTEOUS CITIZENRY enacted the Volstead Act (Prohibition) during the war. The "dough-boys" (WWI-GI's) returned to a "dry" country; everybody was dry and looking for a beer." If you can't buy it you better be able to make it" became the motto. Gene and the other returning "dough-boys" from "Kerrey Patch" boys experimented with "homebrew." He joined a soccer club and met his life-long friend, Lonnie Robbins. Baseball was another passion he pursued; in baseball, he loved to catch and "don the tools of ignorance."(catcher's mask, chest projector and shin guards)

Jobs were pretty scarce with all the boys returning from "the Big War."

Gene had matured during his stint in the Army-Navy experience, was almost six foot tall and 180 pounds. He landed a job moving pianos, bragging about his strength and prowess for years to come. He cut a rather dashing figure with his coal-black hair with a narrow streak of grey on his right forehead. He never mentioned but one woman in his life, a certain Florence Lorette he had met in 1924. She was a Protestant, but she was to become his "Dolly." He wooed, pursued, and won her in April of 1925.

The balance of this tale will be as Mr. & Mrs. Eugene Joseph Caulfield.

Florence Vietta Lorette  was born the 31st of December 1905 at Braymer, MO, died the 1st of September 1986 in Saint Louis, MO.

Florence was the fourth child of Nora and John Lorette, born in the small farming community of Braymer, Mo.. Her siblings were Mary, Agnes, and Clarence. John and Nora worked a small farm on the outskirts of Braymer.

Fifteen months after she was born, Florence's father, John, died of consumption, leaving her mother, Nora, with four children.

Being widowed in March1907 with four children under ten years of age was a completely different experience than it would be today. There was no social safety net; Social Security was still thirty years in the future. Nora had been born in 1879 and was only twenty-six when she was widowed. Families provided what little security that was to be had in this era. Nora's in-laws, 'Alex' and 'Josie' Lorett, sent their 19 year old son, Lineaus, to Braymer to assist Nora and her brood. Lineaus prepared his Uncle's crypt, planted and then harvested the 1907 crops and proceeded to marry Nora. Lineaus and Nora's marriage was short-lived but fruitful. On the 4th of January 1909, Nora gave birth to Leona Lorette. For that brief interval Florence's 1st cousin was her step-father. In later years, Florence and Leona would joke about their multiple relationships.

Nora's younger two girls, Florence and Leona, were first dispersed to Chillecothe, Missouri to live with their grandmother, then down to Yale, Oklahoma with an Aunt 'Josie' and Uncle' Alex'. Nora's eldest daughter, Mary, was now sixteen. As a sixteen year old is wont to do, she decided to get married. Her new husband, Frank Bennett, proved to be a ne'er-do-well, convincing Mary to sue for her share of the family's farm. Frank fathered Mary's two children, drank heavily and disappeared. Nora's farm was gone and the meager proceeds had been spent, so she decided to move to Saint Louis to find work. Nora took her second daughter, Agnes, with her to Saint Louis where, Agnes followed Mary's example and married. Agnes' new husband Robert Carroll proved to be a "keeper" despite his Irish-Catholic ancestry. Nora was perturbed at the alliance. Her new son-in-law was a butcher and had served in the Army in the just completed "War to End All Wars".

Florence was almost thirteen when Nora brought her to Saint Louis. Nora worked as a cook and housekeeper at a Washington University Fraternity House.

She was able to afford a small set of rooms where Florence stayed with her.

Florence attended school where she discovered her life's passion, sewing and fashion. The War was just over and prosperity an obscure concept. Florence went to work at fifteen. Feminism was an idea Nora was never able to grasp.

Florence's first job was probably her favorite; she dipped chocolates at the "Busy Bee". The "Busy Bee" was a medium quality restaurant and candy shop.

Florence had a life-long addiction to good chocolate. Her job enabled a generous caloric intake, resulting in what her future husband coined the phrase "she was lush". By 1924, she was eighteen and a comely figure of a girl, quite bright and talkative for herself. Then she met "him." "Him" was Eugene Joseph Caulfield. He cut a rather dashing figure, almost six foot tall 180 pounds with an athletic build. He was a moving man, baseball catcher, soccer fullback and all around pretty good catch, as she told us much later. To my grandmother's consternation, my father was also another of those Irish-Catholics she had told her daughters to avoid.

Florence and Gene hit it off and planned to marry. They finally saved enough money by the spring of 1925 to set up housekeeping. Taking a streetcar to Waterloo, Illinois, they were married by a Justice of the Peace on the 18th of April 1925. After taking instructions in Catholicism and her conversion, my mother married my father at Saint Mathews Church the 4th of November 1925.

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Last updated:  Thursday, May 17, 2007