A Day for Remembering, June 2, 2019

True love stories never have endings. 

~Richard Bach

Greetings to all of you from San Diego where the weather is mild and the living is easy! This weekend is a time to remember a number of significant events in our family history.

Paula Harris (right) with son Joe Paul and daughter Cindy

Paula Hicks Harris (1923-2018). Today, June 2, is the first anniversary of the death of Cindy's mom Paula Harris. In the last year, life has obviously been very different around our home here on Burgundy Street in the Allied Gardens Community of San Diego. This was Paula's home for 61 years until she passed away last year a few weeks short of her 95th birthday. She and husband Joe Harris bought this home in 1957 when they were a young couple with two children in Elementary School. No matter how many changes we make to this long time Harris family house, the loving, caring spirit of this wonderful couple will always be present. And for that we will ever be grateful. This first family picture shows Paula with her children Joe Paul and Cindy. It was taken back in the 1960s.

Happy 40th Anniversary to my brother Gary Shepard and his wife Cindy of Oak Harbor, Washington. They were married in a garden wedding on June 2, 1979 at our home in Los Alamitos, California. My wife Cindy and I and our 2 year old son Nathan were living in Los Alamitos at the time. Gary and his fiancé Cindy and some friends of theirs came from San Diego to our home in Orange County to be married. It was a pleasant day for the beautiful ceremony that got their married life started. It has been a great 40 years for them, most of which has been spent living in the San Diego area. For the last 16 years however they have lived in Oak Harbor, Washington, just a short drive from where our mother Maida Shepard lives in Anacortes, Washington. Best wishes to Gary and Cindy for many more happy years together!

3 Happy Couples: from top, 

William and Bura Shepard

Cindy and Gary Shepard

Desiree and Jeremy Ortiz

Remembering My Shepard Grandparents. This weekend is also a time to celebrate the anniversary of my late Grandparents William Shepard and Bura Davis Shepard who were married 104 years ago on June 2, 1915 in Beaver County, Oklahoma. My grandparents will always be remembered as the first family among us Shepards to live in Southern California when they moved from a tiny town in dusty Southeast Colorado to the bustling Navy town of San Diego in the fall of 1940. For 79 years now descendants of theirs have lived here in San Diego.

Remembering James Brooks Davis (1870-1928). My Grandparents William Shepard and Bura Davis were married on the birthday of Bura's father James Brooks Davis who was born June 2, 1870. What a special way for James to celebrate his 45th birthday, by witnessing the wedding of his oldest child, Bura, who was just an 18 year old teenager at the time. She was marrying the son of their Shepard neighbors who were fellow members of the South Flat Church of Christ in the dusty farming community of Beaver County, Oklahoma. It was the first wedding of the 7 children of James and Callie Davis and must have been a wonderful time of celebration for this close knit Davis family.

Speaking of James Brooks Davis, I have recently learned of some newly available information about the pre-Revolutionary War ancestors of James Brooks Davis' mother Malinda Wright Davis. In coming weeks I will share in this blog about James' 3X Great Grandmother Rachel Wells Wright. She was a rebel-rousing, East Coast Quaker preacher who made history in the Society of Friends in the 18th century. It is a compelling story that I look forward to sharing with you.

Happy 17th Anniversary Jeremy and Desiree. This weekend Jeremy and Desiree Ortiz are celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary. They were married June 1, 2002 here in San Diego. Jeremy is the son of my cousin Kim Boyd Clark, and the grandson of my aunt Thelma Shepard Boyd. Best wishes to Jeremy and Desiree and their family for a great anniversary!

This is a special weekend to remember these and other important events in the life of our larger family. It is a time to celebrate, to remember and to honor these folks who have meant so much to us for many years.
- - -
Steve Shepard