My Mom - Edith Elnora Barrett Golden

I am proud to say that my mom was a tremendous influence in my life. I inherited her love of reading and I pray that I inherited her Christian walk. No one lived out their Christian faith more beautifully than my mom.

She was born in Oakdale, Louisiana, between Lake Charles and Alexandria on 1 April 1923 – our family’s ‘April Fool’ [again, for the record, she went to heaven on 12 July, 2002]. My mom had rickets as a child – due to a vitamin D or calcium deficiency. The doctor wanted to break her legs to straighten them, but my grandparents chose to bind them. It clearly worked, because my mom had great legs.

Edith Barrett in the late 1920s.

My mom and her sister Helen Faye Barrett Thomas lived with their parents in and around Beaumont for most of her childhood and adolescence. There is not much family history from this period. I know they lived in Amelia for a time and near Tyrrell Park for a time.

Mom finished Beaumont High School when she was 16. She had been advanced one year because she was so bright and there were only 11 grades at that point.

This may be her high school senior photo,

This is another photo that may be from about the time she graduated.

This photo was taken in Alice Keith Park. The two women on the left are unknown to me. My grandmother, Nora Barrett, is seated in the center, my mom in the long fur coat (I remember that coat) is standing behind Nora and mom’s sister Helen is on the right.

These street photos seemed to have been popular in the mid-40’s. I wonder how the photographers made money.

This is a blowup of mom from the photo on the right. An attractive 30-something with a fetching smile.

Between her graduation from high school and when she left Beaumont to follow daddy in the Air Corps I am pretty sure she worked various jobs in Beaumont. One place that I think she and Helen worked was Kress and Company a 5 and dime store. We always called it Kressees - go figure. A 5 and dime store is just about like a Dollar General today only the prices in each reflected in the names.