Barbara Lee Ewy in 1944

Painting by Barbara Lee Ewy

My mother was known throughout her short life as "Bobbie." (Actually, her closest friends called her "Screwy.")

She was born at her aunt's house in Maywood, California, but lived almost her entire life in Taft. She played violin and painted. In her art, she was influenced by Thomas Hart Benton.

She graduated from Taft Union High School in 1944, and was attending Taft College when she met my father, who was a soldier at Gardner Field near Taft. She worked as a drafter for Schlumberger and for the USGS in Taft.

My parents married in 1945 while Dad was on leave. They lived in Hobbs, New Mexico -- where I was born. Later, while Dad was attending USC, we lived in Santa Maria and Huntington Park. While Dad worked at the Hayward Airport, we lived in Castro Valley -- where I started school. After Dad joined the Air Force, we lived in San Angelo and Lubbock, Texas.

We were in Lubbock when my mother and I both contracted polio, and my father contracted chicken pox. All three of us were hospitalized at the same time. Dad and I came home; "Bobbie" did not. She died in December 1951.