Laura Anna (Wylie) Oldham, 1915-2008
LAURA ANNA (WYLIE) OLDHAM was
born on 29 September 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to parents Russell
Grant Wylie and Mary Beatrice (Hawkins) Wylie,[1]
and died on 14 July 2008 of Non-Hodgkins lymphoma (a disease that she had
suffered through twice in her lifetime) in the same hospital as her husband,
still having been living at their home in Primos, Delaware County,
Pennsylvania, prior to her death.[2] She and William were married on 3 October
1936 at the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church just after her 21st
birthday, while their license was approved on 24 September 1936.[3] They had been married for over 58 years, and
she lived another 14 years on her own after he passed away.
Laura was baptized on 9 January 1916
at Church of the Holy Comforter, an Episcopal church, in Upper Darby, Delaware
County, Pennsylvania.[4] Laura grew up in Philadelphia and the
surrounding western suburbs, starting out on Upland Street in Philadelphia
where she lived with her parents,[5]
and then moving out to Beech Avenue in Aldan, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, as
their family grew to include two younger brothers and a younger sister. As the oldest, Laura’s “bossiness” was
ingrained early in her life. She
graduated from Upper Darby High School, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, in 1933.[6]
When the stock market crashed in
1929, Laura was only 14 years old. She
said she “was walking with friends in the neighborhood when she recalls her
parents driving by and telling her that the stock market crashed and banks were
closed. People were out in the streets
screaming and crying, and there was chaos everywhere. Her father had just received his paycheck on
Friday, and whatever cash he had kept out for the family for the week was all
they had.” They ended up losing their
home, and had to move to a rented location until they got back on their
feet. Fortunately, her father was a good
salesman, and landed a job during the Depression when so many others couldn’t.[7]
Laura was active in her community,
enjoying parties as much as service. In
1934, she attended a house-warming party with her future husband and his
parents, as well as various other future family members, at the home of the
Roes in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.[8] In 1946, the local newspaper reported that
she and her sister and brother-in-law, along with their daughters, were in
Ocean City, New Jersey for a vacation.[9] And in 1968, it was announced that she was a
Board Member of the Primos-Secane Fire Co. No. 5 Ladies’ Auxiliary,[10]
of which she was an active member for many years. This organization supported the firefighters
in fund-raising and providing hot coffee and donuts during long fires; her
oldest daughter was also an active member.
Her husband and son-in-law were both volunteer firefighters at the time.
When Laura’s husband William was
drafted to serve in WWII, she “took a job at Beck's drugstore in Clifton
[Heights, Pennsylvania]…We kids did get to visit her at work and get chocolate
cokes at the fountain in the store.”[11] Chocolate cokes are a mixture of Coca-Cola
and chocolate syrup – every kid’s dream treat!
When her children were grown, she took a job in the x-ray department of
Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital, where she was the outpatient receptionist, typing up
all the necessary paperwork for patients that needed some type of x-ray
done. She worked alongside her
sister-in-law (who was secretary to the head of the x-ray department), her
husband (who developed films in the darkroom), and her granddaughter (this
author - who was a patient escort and x-ray technician helper on the weekends
in high school).
Laura was a loving, wonderful
grandmother, who would give you the “shirt off her back” – and often literally
gave her grandchildren whatever they wanted!
If you commented about something in her house, or a piece of jewelry she
was wearing, her normal response was “Do you want it? Here, I’ll give it to you.” But I also know that if you weren’t family,
she was tough and wouldn’t take any sass.
All Thanksgiving dinners were held
at Laura’s house, even after her wonderful Bill passed – she hosted her last
Thanksgiving dinner in 2007 when she was 92 years old, and already starting to
have some impacts from the cancer.
Thanksgiving was a process! It
started several days in advance, with setting up the dining room table, as well
as an extra table to accommodate all the guests – usually 20 to 25 people. The table was set, the dishes and glasses put
out, and centerpieces laid prior to the big day. Usually her youngest daughter Eileen helped
with all the setup – Eileen couldn’t cook, so that was her contribution to the
day. Others would bring side dishes and
desserts to supplement the meal, but the turkey and stuffing were always made
by Grandmom. A typical menu started out
with cheese & cracker plates, with the main meal including: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy,
peas, corn, sweet potatoes (layered in butter, brown sugar and marshmallows),
rolls, V8 juice (I skipped this), pumpkin pie, apple pie, coconut cream pie,
and ice cream. Needless to say, no one
walked away hungry! Clean-up was a
whirlwind of activity – all the women got involved in bringing dishes to the
kitchen, washing dishes, loading the dishwasher, drying dishes, putting away
dishes, and setting the tables back to rights.
The last step was when Grandmom got out her ruler (yes, a ruler) and
measured the centerpiece to ensure it was exactly in the center of the dining
room table. She was a little bit
obsessive!
Later in her life, Laura got
ADDICTED to shopping with the television channel QVC. She watched constantly, knew all about the
hosts and their families, and had an opinion about all of them. She
ordered a lot of items – but also returned a lot. She ordered sneakers that she liked in her
“size 9” – but her feet were no longer a size 9 so the sneakers never fit. She also ordered cameras – although she loved
to take photos, she wasn’t very good at it, always cutting off the top of
people’s heads – and the cameras were also returned. She always wrote down her orders, and any
return information, in a small spiral-bound book. When she passed, SEVERAL of these books were
found in her belongings. She returned so
many things that QVC finally sent her a letter – showing a return rate of over
67%, and a warning that this couldn’t continue.
She was outraged! Laura swore
that she was never going to order from them again!! This lasted for a month or so, and then she
started up again.
Laura died on 14 July 2008 in
Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital, Darby, Pennsylvania; she had been hospitalized for
only a short time before she passed. She
is interred in the mausoleum at Fernwood Cemetery, Yeadon, Pennsylvania.[12]
[1]. Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Also, Holy Comforter Chapel of the St.
Peter's Church (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), "Records, 1904-1944,"
Baptisms, p. 24, Laura Anna Wylie, baptized 9 January 1916; image, Ancestry
(https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2451/images/40355_267215-00032
: viewed 25 Nov 2020), image 33.
[2]. Pennsylvania
Certificate of Death no. P 14616274 (2008), Laura W Oldham; Department of
Health, Division of Vital Records, New Castle.
Laura had been living at 715 Central Avenue, Primos, Delaware County,
Pennsylvania, prior to her death.
[3]. For marriage
date, see Delaware Co., Penna., certificate of marriage, file no. 82116,
William John Oldham Jr. and Laura Anna Wylie, 3 October 1936; Clerk of the
Orphan's Court, Media, Pennsylvania. For
license date, see Delaware Co., Penna., application for license to marry no.
82116, Wm. John Oldham Jr. and Laura Anna Wylie, 24 September 1936; Clerk of
the Orphan's Court, Media, Pennsylvania.
[5]. 1920 U.S.
census, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Philadelphia, ward 26,
enumeration district (ED) 0822, sheet 4B, dwelling 63, family 64, Alfred W
Hawkins; NARA microfilm T625, roll 1629.
[6]. Rhoda
Weitzenfeld, ed., The Oak: The Senior Record of the Upper Darby, Pa. High
School, 1933 (Philadelphia, Pa.: Aldine Printing Co., 1933), p. 121;
digital image, Classmates.com (https://www.classmates.com/siteui/yearbooks/4182844244 : viewed 26 February 2021).
[7]. Karen L.
Hartley, "Life History Paper," based on interview of Laura Anna
(Wylie) Oldham, 24 June 2004, supplied by author to Dawn Vanderwolf on 4 March
2021, p. 4.
[8]. Newspaper
article (no title), Delaware County Daily Times (Delaware County,
Pennsylvania), 24 October 1934, p. 5, col. 2; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/52952102/ : viewed 13
December 2020).
[9]. “Clifton
Heights,” Delaware County Daily Times (Delaware County, Pennsylvania),
24 August 1946, p. 4. col. 3; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/54081874/ : viewed 13 December 2020).
[10]. “Auxiliary
Installs New Officers,” Delaware County Daily Times (Delaware County,
Pennsylvania), 7 June 1968, p. 12, col. 8; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/23672224/ : viewed 13 December 2020).
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