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Basil Albert Welty |
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Mary Lou Disbrow |
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Basil
Albert Welty (Basil, Margaret)
was born on July 7, 1929 in Wisconsin, as stated on his death certificate
issued in Berrien County, Michigan. According to Bruce
Welty, at about age fifteen, Basil underwent surgery at the University of
Michigan hospital because a blood vessel was wrapped around one of his kidneys;
the operation was successful, but he was advised to abstain from any sort of
vigorous activities for several weeks. Not long
afterwards, his father was using dynamite to blast tree stumps out of the
ground, and Basil and his brothers observed from a hilltop, which was
considered a safe distance from the blast site. Alas, one of the charges
propelled a large rock directly toward Basil and his brothers, and because they
were forced to swiftly scramble away, Basil’s inner incisions ripped. He became
very ill due to peritonitis, which is an inflammation
of the peritoneum, the membrane that lines the abdominal cavity. He was
transported back to the hospital at the University of Michigan and was given a
dose of penicillin, which at that time was a novel drug which the hospital had
very recently acquired, and he had at least one additional surgery, probably to
irrigate and clean (called lavage) his abdominal cavity. After he had recovered
from this last surgery, Basil chose to leave school and find employment,
because he felt obligated to reimburse his father for the medical expenses.
Basil, the son of Basil F. and Maggie Elizabeth (Cook) Welty married Mary Lou Disbrow on Sunday, December 12, 1948
at 3:00pm at Full Gospel Assembly, east of Hartford, Michigan DI4, MI23. Reverend Guy Udell
officiated, and Mrs. Joseph Clair sang “I Love You
Truly” DI4. This
may have been one of the rare occasions that he went to a church, for his son,
Bruce, stated that Basil ceased attending church at approximately the age of
eighteen or nineteen, because “Dad was very interested in science and could not
reconcile Genesis to what science was telling him.” Basil was employed at
Friday Tractor Company as early as 1948 DI4. Despite vigorous scrubbing, this work caused his
fingernails to remain permanently blackened. Bruce Welty also stated that he
repaired television sets and radios as a side business, and his death
certificate recorded that he had been a truck mechanic who lived at 53399 60th Street
in Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan. Basil
A. Welty was enumerated in the 1950 US Census; his residence was within the
“Boare Addition” in Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan UN19. At this time, he was twenty years old
and was married to Mary Lou Welty, age nineteen, with whom he had an infant son
born in “Merch” (March), whose name was “Burcle” (this was a misspelled version
of “Bruce”) UN19. He
stated that his birthplace was Wisconsin UN19. In
1950, Basil worked forty hours per week as a “machine repairer” at Friday
Factory Company UN19.
Basil
was fascinated with biology and microscopic creatures, and he set up a
laboratory in the breezeway of his home. He purchased everything that was
required to study the world around him, including a dissection kit, a
microscope, and all the specific dyes which were necessary to view assorted
portions of plants and microbes on a slide. Included in his lab were volumes
about freshwater biology, in which he had written various notations. On the
inside of one book, Basil signed his name and wrote the date, April 12, 1977.
He then wrote in parentheses, “the day I paid the most income tax ever”, and as
it happens, he was a notary public for Van Buren County, for he decided to
notarize the inscription to make it official.
His
death certificate, provided by the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Berrien
County, stated that Basil Albert Welty died at age fifty-four at 7:34pm on
October 8, 1983 at Watervliet Community Hospital in Watervliet, Berrien County,
Michigan of cardiac dysrhythmia and cardiac arrest due to arteriosclerotic
cardiovascular disease. Both his death certificate and Bruce, his son, stated
that Basil’s body was donated to the University of Michigan School of Medicine.
Linda Fishel, his daughter-in-law, recalled that he had been diagnosed with
congestive heart failure, and because of this, she advised him to get a
prescription for antibiotics before undergoing extensive dental work, but
despite her recommendation, he did not, and he died a few
months after visiting the dentist. His obituary has been transcribed BA33:
Basil A. Welty, 54,
of 53399 60th St., Hartford, died Saturday evening, Oct. 8, at
Community Hospital, Watervliet, of an apparent heart attack. A memorial service
was held Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Calvin Funeral Home, Hartford. His body was
donated to the University of Michigan Medical School. Memorials may be made to
the American Lung Association of Michigan or the Scholarship Fund of Grace
Christian School, Watervliet. Mr. Welty was born July 7, 1929, in South Byron,
Wis. He was employed by Neil’s Automotive Service, Hartford. He was a member of
the Hartford Federal Church. Survivors include: a son, Bruce Welty of Benton
Harbor; two daughters – Mrs. Charles (Celesta) [sic]
Tuttle of Hartford, and Starla Welty at home; three grandchildren; three
brothers – David and Curtis, both of Hartford, and Vernon of Shelbyville, Ind.,
and a sister, Mrs. Elmer (Mildred) DeMay of Bradenton, Fla.
·
1930 US Census: lived in Byron, Fond du Lac County,
Wisconsin.
·
1950
US Census: lived in Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan.
Mary Lou Disbrow (Merwin, Dora) was born on March 24, 1931 in
Watervliet, Michigan, according to both Bruce Welty and her death certificate.
At almost two years of age, she had a surgical procedure to repair an infected
gland during the first week of February 1933, and in that same week, her family
moved from the “Jake Weber residence on Elm street to
the Allen addition” TH18. Just a little over a month later, at 4:00pm
on March 11, 1933, she fell into a “pail of scalding water” and was attended to by the same surgeon who operated on her gland,
Dr. G.W. Rice TH19. Her mother, Dora, had “just finished
washing” TH19, but this seems incongruous, as the water
was said to have been scalding. Assuming this account is factually correct, it
would have been near a boiling temperature as Dora was washing the clothes or
perhaps the floor, but even scalding water is too hot to mop with, and it is
certainly too hot to hand-wash clothes.
Mary Lou Welty was
enumerated in the 1950 US Census, in which she stated that her birthplace was
Michigan and that she was a housewife; at this time,
she was nineteen years old and cared for her infant son UN19. Mary Lou was the mother of Bruce Arthur
Welty, Celeste Welty, and an adopted daughter, Starla Welty. Gloria Celeste Welty was born on March 26, 1952
at 4:00pm in Hartford, Michigan WA34. She
was a veteran of the U.S. Army and was first married to Charles Tuttle, and
later married to John Holland. At age fifty-five, Celeste died of cervical
cancer in the morning of March 26, 2007 in Waterford, Oakland County, Michigan,
and she was buried at Ottawa Park Cemetery. Starla Rose Welty was born on September 16, 1960 WO1.
According
to her death certificate, Mary Lou died at 7:16pm on October 12, 1982 at her
home, Route 1, Box 380B, Hartford Township, Van Buren County, Michigan, and her
funeral services were held at Calvin Funeral Home in Hartford, Van Buren
County, Michigan. The immediate cause of her death was due to cardiorespiratory
arrest, but her underlying disease was pulmonary fibrosis, from which she suffered
for three years. Additionally, she had hypothyroidism. Mary Lou chose to donate
her body to the University of Michigan School of Medicine. A copy of her
obituary has been reproduced MR6:
Mrs. Mary Loy [sic]
Welty, 51, of Route 1, 60th Street, Hartford, died Tuesday, October 12th, at her home,
following a long illness. Memorial services were held Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at
Calvin Funeral Home, Hartford. Her body was donated to the University of
Michigan Medical School. Memorials may be made to the American Lung Association
of Michigan. Mrs. Welty was born March 24, 1931, in
Watervliet. She was a member of the Hartford Federated Church. Survivors
include: her husband, Basil; one son, Bruce of St. Joseph; two daughters – Mrs.
Charles (Celeste) Tuttle or [sic] Morganton, N.C., & Starla Welty at
home, three grandchildren; her father, Mervin [sic] Disbrow of Hartford;
two sisters – Mrs. Harold (Patty) Hunt of Union City, Mich., and Mrs. Richard
(Margaret) Burton of Galesburg; and one brother, Harold Disbrow of Washington.
·
1950
US Census: lived in Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan.