Pictured above is a snapshot of Nadine and her brother Clark “Corky” Olsen.  Clark was not raised with Nadine.  In this picture they are in Emmet, Idaho.  The picture is dated 1938 on the back, making Corky about 5 and Nadine 10 years old.

When Corky was less that two years old he was sent to live with relatives, his aunt Nellie Pearl Girton and her second husband Jess Howard Chadwell; on their farm in Emmet, Idaho. Jess and Nellie married in 1933, the same year Corky was born.  Cecelia, Nadine and Corky’s mother, was unable to care for him, citing his health issues as the reason she passed him to her sister. She also divorced their father at about this time. Nadine remembers Celia dunking Corky in cold water to help his lungs before deciding she couldn’t care for him any longer.

Nadine visited her brother a few times, and remembers him being made to do lots of farm chores and being a little rebellious about it, she even talked him out of running away once.

Nellie’s daughter from her first marriage, Blanche Wilkerson, is who Grandma (Blanche) Nadine was named after, but Grandma Nadine had such poor memories of Blanche being a mean spirited person she refuses to answer to the name to this day.

All these tidbits were shared with me over this Christmas last by Grandma Nadine, hopefully I got them all right!