50 Years in the Mercantile Business

Dear Family Trails readers, 

It must have been "an end of an era" when Grandfather Weaver decided to close the doors to 50 years of his life in the merchantile business. This newspaper article -most likely from the Daily Home- sums up C. S Weaver's work ethic and that of his children, "In the half century of opening, the store was never closed on a business day." 

His scrapbook is filled with letters from friends and merchants around the state expressing their feelings on hearing that C.S. Weaver and Sons would be closing. 

Here is a letter from Mrs. S. C. Oliver, 3211 Cliff Road, Birmingham, expressing her sadness of this news. 

I love Mrs. Oliver's expressions in her letter…"Those grand ole Talladega days,"and this ultimate compliment  she gives to Grandfather Weaver...
"You took the Bible for your rule and it was heaped up, pressed down, and running over."
Grandfather Weaver, thank you for your example.
Love,
Mariellan

Part 3 of the Stars and Stripes Article about Jean MacArthur

Dear Family Trails readers,

Here is the final section of the article about Mrs. Douglas MacArthur. I hope you enjoy it. I found it to be inspirational. In our family, we have a saying that we quote to one another when things are difficult: BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED. Mrs. Douglas MacArthur surely did bloom where she was planted—on the other side of the world during the over-whelming post-WWII challenges. From the details in this 3-part article (see the 2 previous posts of Family Trails), Jean MacArthur handled "where she was planted" with grace, dignity, compassion for the suffering, with hospitality, and a great deal of patience those many years separated from her home country.


Busy Hostess

Coupled with all that are her duties as wife and hostess for the Supreme Commander, few are the international figures passing through Tokyo who are not invited to the MacArthur's for luncheon or tea, or less frequently, dinner. 

And she crowds the task of being a supervisor, mother, hostess and party-goer into the hours when MacArthur is away from home; she is always with him when he is not a the office. 

In some seven years of active military life, since MacArthur was recalled to duty in 1941, Mrs. MacArthur has had only one vacation. This spring, Lt. Gen. Robert Eichelberger, commander of the Army of Occupation, took her on a five-day trip through the provinces of Japan.

Even that wasn't entirely a vacation for she brought her husband home a revealing insight, from the woman's angle, of conditions in outlying areas of Nippon.

Those closest to the MacArthur's have long regarded Jean as one of the general's most important sounding boards: a trusted confidante and partner well-schooled in the problems he faces and able to interpret his broad vision in to readily understandable terms. She still finds time to visit American hospitals as she did during the war. Her easy, gracious laugh makes her one of the most welcome of all visitors. 

Perfect Figure

At 48 years of age, her figure is perfect and there is no gray in her hair. Her speech is still the rapid, softly punched tones of a Tennesseean; her eyes sparkle with interest and enthusiasm. 

She likes simple clothes. At tea, when she usually entertains her own close friends in Tokyo, she wears a black dress with a string of pearls around her neck and her diamond wrist watch as the only accessories. The wrist watch was presented to her by MacArthur upon arrival in Australia, from Corregidor, five years ago. 

Her memory, almost as prodigious as her husband's, is a source of continual wonder to her friends. She knows where all of MacArthur's former senior officers are and what and how they are doing. She corresponds wit many of them.

Jean MacArthur is today the first lady of Japan and of the Pacific. Because she is as publicly shy and retiring as she is charming and gracious, her name has never been widely known. But those who have met her will never forget her; the great lady of one of the nation's greatest leaders. 

I am at a loss for how to close this week's edition of "Weaver Wednesday' after reflecting of this article, so I will just end with 

GOD BLESS AMERICA. 

Love,

Mariellan

Part 2 of The Stars and Stripes Article about Mrs. Douglas MacArthur

Wickipedia picture of Jean MacArthur

Family Trails readers, 

Last week we began a very long article about Mrs. Douglas MacArthur found in the scrapbook of Charles Sisson Weaver. The article was printed in Stars and Stripes Weekly Review on Sunday, November 16, 1947. Here is part 2 of that article: 

And officers who have served closely with MacArthur, who know the story of the rare partnership which is their marriage, are delighted that she long since made the decision to stay. 

Many of them honestly believe that Jean MacArthur is the reason Douglas MacArthur has carried the strain of war years and post-war occupation so well. As one general laughingly told me, Jean keeps us from him; he doesn't have to live, think, eat and work with his staff constantly bothering him. His mind can rest when he's at home and around his family; he's fresh when he comes back to the office. The time he has at home is his only real reason  for relaxation; Jean sees to it that he gets it."

Mrs. MacArthur does a good deal more that that. She supervises personally a household of 10 servants and many rooms. She does the bulk of the family shopping herself at Tokyo. She is constantly being invited to teas and clubs' openings and parades, most of which she finds time to attend-almost quietly and without fanfare.

She is engrossed in the task of raising her soon-to -be-ten son, Arthur. She takes motherly pride in his progress-which has been almost astonishing in the last two years. He's slimmed, grown taller and has a calm, friendly self-assurance which reflects qualities of both his mother and father. 

Her  personal mail is enormous and she, like MacArthur himself, reads it personally and answers most of it the same way. Her reading habits are prolific (she likes to keep well informed as MacArthur) and her tastes are catholic. 

She and her husband are amazingly well abreast of every development in every place in the world. Mrs. MacArthur admits she is more than slightly aghast at zooming prices in the United States.

I hope you all enjoyed this second part of this long article about Jean MacArthur and her life in post-war Japan with her husband, the general and their son. Next week we will read the final portion of the article. Much love and a happy "Weaver Wednesday" to you all.

Mariellan  

August means "Back to the Book"

Good "Weaver Wednesday" to all of you on the Family Trails.

So it's August…. where does the time go? The schools are getting ready to start and the children are getting "back to their books," so that is just what we will do here this month…get back to the book…The Scrapbook .

This is a fascinating article that Charles Sisson Weaver clipped and glued into his scrapbook of the late 1940's. It is from the Stars and Stripes Weekly Review, dated Sunday, November 16, 1947. Don't you just love the font used in this section…"LEE VAN ATTA'S Far East Vignettes?"

The photo is very blurry, but if I look very closely, it looks like a street scene in Japan with both Japanese and Americans on the street. 

Honestly, I have made several attempts to enlarge this photo and the article because I think you will all enjoy it. This is as large as this blog engine will allow. (That is why so many times in the past I have retyped articles and letters.) 

This article is about Mrs. Douglas MacArthur. I must retype it because it is very interesting. Why is it in my great-grandfather's scrapbook, you ask? My thought is this…. C. S. Weaver's granddaughter and her husband were stationed in Japan after World War II. Louis Armstrong served as a chaplain during this time, and there are a few articles and notes in this scrapbook that they sent to the Weavers while stationed overseas. 

This article is, among other things, very positive, very patriotic, and very informative, without all the tabloid innuendoes and scandals of much of today's media. 

So, here I go…retyping this long article. It is a bit long as you can see, so I thought it might be best to post it in 3 installments. Enjoy!

Love,

Mariellan

A visitor to Japan early this year described Mrs. Douglas MacArthur as the most gracious feminine envoy America has ever had abroad. 

The description is not only flattering but accurate. For (unreadable) Jean MacArthur is one of the most universally liked women in the world today; a lady of keen dignity and depth but one with a disarming sense of humor and penetrating, human understanding of human problems. 

Her slim figure is well known to almost everyone in Tokyo even as, during the war years, it was known to Australians, to Filipinos and to thousands of U.S. fighting troops in the Pacific. 

Perhaps the place she is least known , in fact, is her homeland. Jean MacArthur has not been in the United States since her marriage to the present Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers more than 10 years ago. 

She is anxious to return again: to see her family, to "do" the whole list of Broadway shows, to even visit a night club, to get the "feel" of home again. But when that will be she can't even guess. As with virtually everything else in her life, "It's up to the General."

Well, readers, I hate to keep you guessing, but this is a good place to stop. Come back next week to read more about Jean MacArthur and her life in the Far East. Until then, I think I will try to learn more about her.

See ya next week on our trail….

Love,

Mariellan