Edithe Alois Beutler, my maternal grandmother, was the light of my life. She was more than a grandmother, because she became a surrogate mother after my parents separated and my father took sole custody of my four-year-old sister, Maryanna Bernice Harned, and two-year-old me.

Note: Even though I refer to her as “Edithe” in this piece, nobody ever called her that. It was always “Lovey.” I never ever called her grandmother or grandma. She would have shuddered if I did. It was always “Lovey,” even to us grandkids. However, for the sake of this website, I will continue using “Edithe.”

Edithe has a fascinating history, which I wrote about in detail in my 2018 book, Unsung But Not Forgotten; Family Personalities With Surnames Bassett, Beutler, Bogdon, Charles, Green, Harned, Lane, Morgan, Phelps, Phipps. Edithe had anything but a normal life.

She was born in Sacramento, California, where her birth mother died when she was only eight months old. She was then adopted by an older couple living in Oakland, California. She married a professional magician, Albert Edward Bogdon, had two children with him, but divorced him within five years due to nonsupport and desertion. Her daughter is my mother, who became the actress Sally Phipps, and her son is my uncle, Lane Beutler, who took his stepfather’s last name. During this time, she was able to find work as a commercial colorist of black and white photographs, and she became quite successful. She later married Albert Sprague Beutler, a fellow artist, and moved her family to Hollywood, California, where she found coloring work at a major movie studio. After obtaining another divorce 12 years later, she accepted a job from Eastman Kodak Company to teach photo coloring in Honolulu, Hawaii. She ended up making Honolulu her permanent home and periodically invited her son and daughter and their families to live near her. During her years in Honolulu, she owned several homes and managed three of her own Eastman Kodak stores. For 20 years, during her retirement, she worked evenings in a gift shop where carved native wood products were sold. She died at age 88 and was buried in Orange County, California, near her son Lane, who cared for her during her final years.

Taking up Edithe on one of her invitations, our Harned family moved to Hawaii. My parents met in New York City in early 1941 and then eloped to Mexico. After war with Japan was declared during World War II, in December 1941, my parents moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where my father, Alfred Marion Harned, had family nearby. During the war years, he worked in a bullet factory, while my mother gave birth to my sister and me. When the war ended, Edithe’s invitation came. We arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, in November 1945, on the Matson Line steamship, S.S. Monterey, which was still operating as a postwar troop carrier. Edithe had already purchased a bungalow house for us only a few blocks from famous Waikiki Beach.

Within six months, my parents developed serious relationship problems, due to my mother’s deteriorating emotional condition. They chose to separate, with my father retaining sole custody of us children. After living apart for six years, my mother left Hawaii and, except for a short time in Denver, returned to New York City. We children kept up with her through correspondence until we reunited with her as adults.

Needless to say, this new domestic situation was extremely difficult for my father. On top of having to work full-time, he now had to be both father and mother to two very young children. Fortunately, my father was a kind, gentle, loving man who did the best he could.  Putting us in day care while he was at work turned out to be a great help. 

Edithe, my mother’s mother, came to the rescue valiantly. As I said previously, she became my surrogate mother. Although she managed her own Kodak gift shop, she had employees who gave her some freedom throughout the day. Both her store and her house were in Waikiki, the tourist resort area of Honolulu. I remember the store very well. It was on the corner of Lewers Street and Kalakaua Boulevard and was called Color Art Shop. In addition to providing Kodak film processing, she also sold her own black and white photographs which she hand-colored with oil paints. In the store, she also proudly displayed large photographs of my sister Maryanna and me riding our tricycles.