June 19, 2017 (Monday)
Today is June 19, 2017, anniversary of General Gordon Granger’s announcement in Galveston that the war had ended and the slaves were now free. (This was 2 1/2 years after signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln). This day has become known at “Juneteenth,” and is celebrated throughout the world.
Today is a special day in our family, too, because my twin sisters, Elva Mae and Melva Faye, were born on June 19, 1934. This is their 83rd birthday. Here they are at 81:
Melva Keil Elva Underwood
And here they were in the mid-1930’s (the two on the right) with their cousin, Dorothy Mae Fake (Later, Reynolds) who was born the same night, but on a different calendar day. On the left is yours truly. The picture was made at Herman Park, in Houston, at Easter.
From last year’s blog, a close-up of the twins:
Elva Mae and Melva Faye circa 1938
Our parents divorced and each of them remarried, giving us two brothers, Joe and Jimmy Heim, and two sisters, Mary Ellen Heim Sanders and Brenda Joyce Fake Jones. That makes seven siblings. Jimmy passed away at the age of 33.