Aunt Jennie Cherry and Lorene Shopher

Born Jennie L. Garner, November 28, 1897, was married to William Cherry. She died March 1975. [My next quest is to find out what the L stood for.]

Okay, there's one in just about every family... that person you knew as Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, Pawpaw, Nanny.... or what have you. You love the person as a family member, they show up in different family portraits like Where's Waldo. You'd almost swear you saw them in a picture behind the President. Then you have a genealogist like me come snooping around and asking questions about how everyone fits in the family, but you got the one member that no one seemed to know how they fit, you just know they were always there as Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, Pawpaw, Nanny.... or what have you.

Aunt Jenny, Johnny Shopher, Lorene Shopher and Glen Shopher

Within the William Henry and Arizona Gertrude Shopher descendants, this person was "Aunt Jenny" to the Shopher kids. She made her way around the kids living and staying off and on with different relatives. She's even mentioned in a job application I have of mom's from 1962 as one of my babysitters. When I started mom's side of the family, one of the first things I wanted to know was "where does Aunt Jenny fit in?" No one was able to really answer that question, the answers all started out with, "I think she's....." or "She's probably...."

Michael Melton and Aunt Jennie

Well since her name popped up on the Shopher list a couple of times I thought .... for those who haven't figured it out by now..... I'll tell you where she fits in and how she came about living mostly with my Grandma Shopher and stayed alot with her family. I remember Aunt Jenny as always being old....well no wonder, bless her heart, she was born in 1897!

Aunt Jennie, Lorene Shopher holding Glen.

It begins with Grandma's [Lorene Christine Haddox-Shopher] line. Grandma's parents were James & Janie Haddox and her mother's parents were William & Pairlee Harmon. Now stay with me here......

After the death of William Harmon, Pairlee's first husband, she married Fred Garner. He already had children by a previous marriage: Grady, Serena, Edna, Jennie [ta dah], and Raymond. Fred and Pairlee had 3 children: Fred, Jr. , Bertie and Willie Belle.

So Janie Harmon Haddox and Jennie Garner Cherry were step-sisters. Though it turns out Aunt Jennie was never blood kin, I believe this is what made her family:

Johnny Shopher, Lorene Shopher, Aunt Jenny, Patsy Shopher Melton, Carol Melton [your's truly], Oliver Shopher, Glen Shopher, Charlie Shopher, J.P. Haddox

Janie Haddox was very ill and died when Grandma [Lorene] was about 13 years old. I believe Aunt Jennie was around and helped her with the kids, at the time they were Lorene [13], Maudie [11], and J.P. [7]. I further believe that it was a death bed moment between Janie and Jennie that the assurance was made that Jennie would look after her children for her. And she did........It just so happens that the 2 Haddox sisters married 2 Shopher brothers, which is why "Aunt Jennie" is known to all the Shopher kids.

I hope ya'll are taking notes....I'm going to quiz ya'll on this one day.....

My memories of Aunt Jennie besides her babysitting us when we were little is when she would teach me to sew.  She had an old black singer sewing machine and I would go over and spend the night and she helped me alot with my home-ec projects.  She said when she died I could have her sewing machine. After she died we had the sewing machine for awhile, until some of her people on the Brown side decided they wanted it. Her family took what they could from her all her life and the Shopher kids loved her as family.  This is probably why she lived most her life with Oliver and Lorene and going back and forth between their kids.   She'll always be "Aunt Jenny" to us.

Thank you for viewing!

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