Ioletta Marie Weagley

January 23, 1914 – October 11, 2000

“Letty’s Legacy”

Ioletta was born on January 23, 1914, the last of six children to bless George Cleveland Weagley and Bessie Viola St. Clair-Weagley.

The Weagleys made their home in their native Greencastle, Pennsylvania community, a small crossroads town lying on the Cumberland Valley corridor, a mountain rimmed valley passage whose dust had felt the boots of confederate rebel troops as well as union soldiers during both the Antietam and Gettysburg campaign. On the southern tip of the corridor lay Hagerstown, Maryland another valley town six miles north of the Williamsport Potomac River crossing where forty years previously confederate General Robert E. Lee narrowly escaped ruin following his second and final northern campaign of the Civil War.

The Antietam and Gettysburg battlefields were to serve as boundary monuments of inexorable proportions not only for the development of the United States of America but also for marking the outer perimeters for Ioletta Marie Weagley, child pilgrim awash in the wake of life’s currents. War remnants, monuments upon which she would play, and battlefields upon which she would work and live her territorially defined nomadic existence, not only marking the frontiers of her existence but also symbolically representing the life of survival engagements she would live.

Sometimes being the youngest child requires one to bear the mantle of ignominy: hand-me-down clothes, repaired used toys, and faint left over parental attentions. Yet, sometimes siblings, if united, have talents for rising to the testing occasion and for supporting one another. Economic times in the valley were difficult at best and nearly impossible at worst. George Cleveland fed his family by working a tenant farm while learning the trade of blacksmith from an elder brother, a trade that would eventually redeem at least his personal future. The winds of fate raged tornadic upon the small limestone riddled farm and upon the industrious but weakened Weagley family.

When only three (3) years of age, Bessie Viola St. Clair, fair Irish mother of six no doubt fatigued by the six (6) consecutive childbirths, unexpectedly was called home at the hands of a ravenous flu virus that stormed the war ravaged valley pillaging, maiming and killing the inhabitants as had the mighty military troops of the great identity war. From that moment forward, “Letty’s” entire life was to be replete with the short straw syndrome of existence.

Bessie’s death set in motion events that would shuffle “Letty” from table to table, from shelter to shelter and from abuse to abuse thus forging within her young daughter a life philosophy that was no doubt outside the expectation yet equaling the worst fears of a devoted dying mother. The impoverished yet tranquil existence of farm life would explode and the members would be thrown asunder.

As a consequence of the surviving children being placed in local neighbor homes, Ioletta Marie Weagley was set upon a new course, unwittingly. Custom assumed, it is understandable that the dispersing placement transaction was perceived by the elder children to be a temporary necessity, one first assumed and then expected to be redeemed by the surviving parent when conditions merited. Only time would reveal the permanency and long-term consequence of the condition.

George Cleveland faced not only the normal trials of young adulthood and personal tragedy but also the social and economic conditions of the times. His move to Hagerstown without the children to pursue a blacksmith career lifted the child problems to a level that produced reaction shock ways for the next eighty years.

Childhood and fate put “Letty” in harms way. Although she did well in school, education, especially for females, was limited in intrinsic value, especially for an uninitiated transplant. Training for “Letty” was to be “on-the-job” as needed and as a servant’s position dictated. Personal value and support “kudos’” were proportioned as perceived merited by the donor or as justified by the anticipated need expectations of the presenter. They were not considered as inherently valuable to the personal growth of the recipient. “Letty” had drawn the short straw! It was a second class existence froth with negatives, all minus hurtles for “Letty” and there was no familial or social savior on the horizon. All the siblings had plates overflowing; the nuclear family had dissolved; and the extended family was awash. Times were harsh in the valley.

From her status as an unplanned interloper child in need of care, time, practice and patience would transform “Letty” into a provider of care, albeit one equipped with a frail yet capable emotional network that allowed for sensitive concern for others as a repayment for that which she had forfeited as a consequence of the acts of others. She had done nothing to merit the indentured status yet survival dictated that she be obliged to adapt, and adjust she did. From an indentured servant working for food and shelter to a fee-for-service live-in maid, she expanded her world. Ultimately, she managed a combination of both live-in caregiver and liberated free world hospital housekeeper attendant. Not a great leap in the eyes of some but to those who watched and learned, it was grand.

Wheels and a driver’s license expanded her world. A taste of freedom allowed her to visit the dismantled family. She established what were to become long-term relationships with the mates and with the children of her siblings. She began to travel short distances, always driven by her desire to connect with her loved ones. She befriended her young nephew and validated a relationship that would transcend time’s barriers. “Letty” conveniently moved her life forward, as best she could, in search of her nitch and in conformity with her ever-expanding value system.

As if touched by a higher power with an act of grace, Ioletta survived and prospered. Her consistent smile, ever piercing searching stare and ringing comfortable laugh of youth became trademarks for her life long struggle in identity. On a rickety hand-me-down quilting frame she created comforters for others; in kitchens owned by others, she prepared family feasts for others; and from her collectors self-acquired “stash,” she gave small token gifts to a select initiated few: a coin, a pin, a picture, each repeated act a gesture, an inverted call, a statement of her attention void offered from within her narrow field of existence.

“Letty” attended worship services within the communion constructions of those she served, temporarily adopting the respective trademark clothing styles and colors. Habits were formed, tastes confirmed and behaviors adopted once filtered through her expanding and intricate value filter. Sewing became an expressive art form as well as a means to earn a living or impress others. “Hog maw” (pig stomach stuffed with sausage) and sauerkraut became requested cultural delicacies to be admired and enjoyed when prepared at the hands of chef “Letty.” Consistently, when she received an honest kindness, she would give two in return, desiring only to acknowledge the bonding.

Marriage eluded “Letty.” She never produced a child. One can only speculate as to whether she ever loved and lost or ever loved and chose not to commit as a consequence of her own fragile existence, fearing some quirk of fate may inflict yet more pain upon an unsuspecting innocent. She lived and died, alone within predetermined parameters of her own choosing and within the limits of her inheritance. Except for a small few who eventually recognized her pain and tried to serve her, a feat accomplished against odds for she controlled and protected her field of reality tenaciously, she remained solitary to her death, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing, but always smiling.

Death visited Ioletta Marie Weagley on October 11, 2000, in the quiet early morning hours before daybreak. She was laid to rest at Rest Haven Cemetery in Hagerstown, Maryland, alongside her beloved older brother Woodrow Wilson Weagley, himself a usurped victim who preceded her in death by thirty-four years leaving a charge with his son that he attend “Letty.” The two siblings were a matched set of survivors who lived their lives on the short side of the justice scale with both contributing significantly to those who saw their pain.

It was from their inherited legacy fate that the transactions of their tomorrows began and from that gift was produced a measured style: make the best of what you have and when one does something nice for another know that it will come back doubled and compounded depending upon the eyes that see and the ears that hear.

“Letty’s” book of life closed. She had known little to nothing of rewards for service, of badges for achievement or of temporal tokens for valor. Still, she was victorious. Such was “Letty’s” lot.

These words are true and can be trusted for they are the words of one who watched as only a child can see; of one who received as only a family member can love; and of one who benefited as only a legacy recipient can understand.

The Rev. Dr. Ronald L. Weagley, AA, AB, M.Div., D.Min.

Witness Nephew

April 20, 2001