Vernon gives Richard Bearden’s backstory

For several years in the mid to late 1950s my father Keith Black and my uncle Gary Black had a foster brother named Richard Bearden. You may remember him from the post I did on my family’s visit to the opening day of Disneyland in July 1955. Where he came from before joining our family and where he went to after leaving our family have been a mystery to me. My grandparents never spoke of Richard to me other than saying “oh, yeah, that was Richard Bearden” when I asked who the mystery boy in the photo was. Keith and Gary had little to say about Richard. The unanswered questions have bothered me ever since I learned about the existence of this foster uncle (?) of mine.

Who was Richard Bearden? Who was his birth family? How did he come to be a foster child in our family? What was he like? Where did he go? Why does no one talk about him?

I recently found a letter from Vernon Black to his mother and stepfather Catalina and Frank Black, dated February 13, 1955, that answers many of these questions. Vernon realized that his parents would have just the same sorts of questions I have had. Understandable questions, I think, when a new family member suddenly appears. For today’s post I’d like to share that letter with you.

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The Delamart “superette” (part 1)

000000T3x7068000V&DB (1)After my grandfather Vernon Black returned from France in World War II and was discharged on February 13, 1946, he got into the grocery business in Olympia, Washington.

He quickly went from working in a grocery store, to designing a grocery store, to building and owning a grocery store, to owning a small chain of grocery stores. According to Vernon’s son (my father Keith), Vernon’s desire to succeed in the grocery business was a large part of the reason he moved his family from Washington state to California, first to Santa Barbara, and then to Van Nuys.

In this post, I’ll share what I’ve learned so far about the origin of his unique Delamart chain of grocery stores. I’m just at the very beginning of my research on this topic, so I welcome any help you may be able to give. Please share any information you may have on the Delamarts in the comment section at the bottom of this post.

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