Arthur Cameron Keeney and Richard Newman Powers, Close And Distant Cousins

The first image is my lineage to Jonathan Tracy through my father's paternal side.  The second illustrates Arthur Cameron Keeney's relationship to Jonathan Tracy, also through his paternal side.  Arthur Cameron Keeney and my father are much more closely related through their Cameron mothers, Johanna and Beatrice.  Arthur's mother, Johanna (Cameron) Keeney was Beatrice's aunt.  Beatrice's father, Donald Cameron, and Arthur's mother, Johanna, were siblings.

Jonathan Tracy/Mary Griswold

Mary Tracy/Benjamin Parish

Jonathan Tracy/Mary Griswold

Christopher Tracy/Lydia Parish (Lydia and Benjamin are siblings)

Remembering Laura's Journey

Laura Ellen Powers was born on March 18, 1962.  It was a brisk and windy day, perfect for flying a kite, which is what I was doing when she was brought home from the hospital.

5325 Worcester Drive, Swartz Creek, Michigan
Me, not flying a kite

The Powers family moved to an old farmhouse in Davison, Michigan, about 1966.  We had outgrown the little house in Swartz Creek, so that was sold and we rented from Dad's employer, the IMA.  We had lots of elbow room since ours was the only house on the east side of the road.

Dad In Dining Room
House On Baxter Road
Davison, Michigan

See Baxter Road  On This Map

Laura was a handful and needed specialized care, so she was eventually moved to the institution pictured below, which was about 10 miles from the house, when she was a pre-teen.

*Source (Michigan Home and Training School in Lapeer)

*My sister, Laura Ellen Powers, lived there from about 1974...until she was moved to a facility in Mt. Pleasant when the Lapeer Home closing was imminent.  

Google Maps

Laura lived in a group home in Shepherd, Michigan (near Mt. Pleasant) until her death on 18 June 2004.  A tree was planted in her memory there.

Today would have been Laura's 55th birthday.

Some Arenac County Probate Files (Index)

Cameron, Ella  Folio 114

Cameron, Richard  Folio 88* 

Cameron, Charlotte  681 - Calendar

 Cameron, John A. 372  Calendar

 Cameron, John  351

Cameron, Peter  365  File 830  Calendar 255

Cameron, Hugh     #___?**

Cameron, Jesse  2191? - 559

Cameron, Frances  2264

*Realized as I was composing this blog that even though I have copies of Richard Cameron's probate file from Arenac County, Michigan (see link above), I'm not sure that Folio 88 is the correct number because I don't have the file/folio number written down...Geez... . [Believe it's the only file for Richard Cameron, but will have to verify it]

From the website of Cameron descendant Sandy Nye:

** viii. Ewen (Hugh) CAMERON was born on 19 Jun 1860. He died on 23 Feb 1929. Was a batchelor, died of acute indigestion. Probate records included distribution of oil well rights to family members

Note:  My grandmother [Beatrice (Cameron) Powers; her father Donald was Ewen's brother] was an heir; when she died her portion of Ewen (Hugh) Cameron's estate was inherited by me and my siblings (Dad pre-deceased his mother by a couple of months, so what would have been his share passed to us).  The shares are basically worthless in terms of money, but the documentation determining Ewen (Hugh) Cameron's heirs is valuable to a genealogist.

Who Was Born On May 17, 1929?

Richard N. Powers, the son of Beatrice Cameron and Ralph N. Powers, was born in Flint, Genesee County, Michigan, May 17, 1929.  He was my Dad and he would have been 83 years old today.  He died on Father's Day, June 16, 1974, at the age of 45.  Dad was known for his unflappable good humor.

A Flint Journal column written as a tribute, included the following excerpts:

Our world is composed of doers and takers. It's easy to figure where Dick Powers belonged. The Industrial Mutual Association has lost its Most Valuable Player and the Flint area has lost a guy who seemed to have his finger in all the pies. Having his finger in the pies was natural because he made some of 'em.


Dick returned to the Flint area as coach at old Utley High and later at Swartz Creek. Then came a return to college for an advanced degree and stint with the Michigan Department of Public Instruction. He joined the IMA in 1964 in what ranks as one of the best decisions in IMA history.


HIS JOB required mixing with Flint's elite and its sub-standard folk but he was the same Dick Powers with the Motts as with the Nots. However, I always felt that Dick was happiest when his sleeves were rolled up and he was working behind the scenes.

Dick Powers's short career in Flint resembled an iceberg. What showed on the surface was just a fraction of what he really accomplished. In that respect, his loss is Titanic.

Obituary of Anna Cameron

Flint Journal
May, 1941
RESIDENT 25 YEARS
DIES HERE SUDDENLY

Mrs. Anna Cameron, 74, of 754 East Dayton Street, died of a heart attack Tuesday night while sitting on the front porch of her home with her daughter, Mrs. Lawrence [sic] Carpenter. Funeral services will be held Sunday at 1 p.m. at Reigle funeral home. Burial will be in Grace Lawn with the Rev. O. H. Hood* officiating. A Flint resident for the last 25 years, she is survived by five daughters, Mrs. Lawrence [sic] Carpenter, Mrs. Warren Stout, Mrs. Ralph Powers and Mrs. George Bennett of Flint, and Mrs. Paul Schantz of Charlevoix; two sons, Archie Johnston of Canada and Donald of Flint.

Anna Cameron was my great-grandmother; Beatrice Powers (Mrs. Ralph Powers), was my grandmother.

*Rev. O.H. Hood's daughter, Alice, married Anna Cameron's grandson, William Cameron Powers, several years later.

FGS'S Genesee County Michigan Marriage Index

Some Cameron marriages in the Flint Genealogical Society's Genesee County [Michigan] Marriage Index can be found here: 

CAMERON, JESSE B.

B

POWERS, RALPH N.

G

V11

138

6909

03/29/1924

This is the listing for my grandparents.  This record is the only instance of Jesse ever being used as my grandmother Beatrice's first name (it's not on her birth certificate or her death certificate; nor was she ever called Jessie during her lifetime.  It's a mystery as to why this record named her as Jesse).

My Three Sons

Beatrice (Cameron) Powers with her 3 sons: Bill, Ralph, Dick. The street sign is W. 12th Street in Flint, Michigan. The youngest son, Richard (Dick) Powers, was my Dad (1929 - 1974).

Beatrice (Cameron) Powers Obituary

Beatrice (Cameron) Powers loved to get in the car (a General Motors car, of course) and travel. Maybe it was fitting that she died of a heart attack, in my mother's driveway, with the car running and veering into the drainage ditch. My Dad (Beatrice's son, Richard N. Powers) had died the previous June (1974) and Grandma never seemed to recover from the blow. Looking back, everyone thought she may have known that her time was near and that she was saying goodbye to her grandkids in Swartz Creek.

My Grandmother's obituary in the Flint [MI] Journal:

Beatrice (Cameron) Powers was the daughter of Donald & Anna (Cameron) Cameron. She was born in Sterling, Arenac County, Michigan, and died in Genesee County, Michigan.

Daughters of Beatrice (Cameron) Powers

A visit to my aunt prompted this blog; she's the older sister in the picture and recently celebrated her 78th birthday. The younger sister, Ellen Nancy, born in April of 1935, died on the 20th of December 1937, after lingering from an illness for several months. Both daughters of Ralph & Beatrice (CAMERON) Powers.



Ellen Nancy's death record from Flint, Genesee County, Michigan: