She was always referred to as, “Bertha Bryan” by Dad[1] and George[2]. She was the only child of their Aunt Mary Murphy Bryan and George W. Bryan. Mr. Bryan was “older,” “educated” and had a grocery store in Franklin (Indiana). They lived in a modest frame house that Mary inherited from her father;[3] I believe it is still standing (1970s).
Mr. Bryan fancied himself a writer and produced a book that he had printed at his own expense. There’s a copy some place (donated to the Shelby County Library). I found it unreadable and nonsensical. I heard Dad and George talk about Bertha coming to family get togethers elaborately dressed and with long curls. They said they were only allowed to look at her; she never played. Bertha was considered too delicate to attend school, but tutors came to her home. Her lessons included voice and piano. She ultimately attended Franklin College – driving there in a buggy. They remembered see her go by – reading a book. (Class of 1902, M.B.)
She married Mr. W. K. Whitlow who had children older than she. I do not know his business, but it took him to Los Angeles where they moved. She continued her musical lessons and once auditioned for a Chautauqua troupe. She said she was accepted along with a later-to-become-famous musical star whose name I cannot remember (Irene Dunn). She said she had more talent and might have become equally rich and famous, but…. Mr. Whitlow was agreeable to her going on tour. Said he could not travel with her, but would meet her at intervals. She said she was afraid her other relatives might not approve – that in those days women on the stage were considered loose and not nice. So she did not do it, all this she told me when Weldon[4] and I visited in 1960.
Mr. Whitlow left Bertha property including an apartment house in Los Angeles. When Van[5], Snow[6] and George made their western tour in 1924, she gave them an apartment to live in while they were there. Bertha was no business woman – given to generous, impulsive acts and impractical enthusiasms. She once invested heavily in a health food store that failed – for example – because the people starting it were so nice and needed help. One time she started east, by train, with a small trunk. A doctor on the train had a suitcase she admired, so they traded. The trunk held more than the suitcase would accommodate, so she gave the excess to other passengers.
She, as far back as I can remember, made trips back to visit her cousins, her paternal relatives in Cincinnati and us. Usually we would get a card from Cincinnati saying she would arrive by a certain train and Dad would meet her. Once she started east, met a lady on the train who was en route to Europe and joined her; we did get a visit after her return.
Bertha always insisted she be allowed to wash the dishes because that was the only “useful thing I know how to do.” She washed them very nicely and the kitchen looked lovely when she was through, however she put things away in the most illogical places and finding them after her departure was always a challenge. Once I was allowed to help her with the dishes and splashed her – she shed her wet skirt and had a dress underneath. Said she learned such tricky dressing from the lady she went to Europe with. It was a good way to allow for changing temperatures and less to carry.
She usually was bubbling over with her latest enthusiasm. Once she arrived with a brief case and typewriter and was writing a play. It had an esoteric theme which I don’t remember. She let me read her script – it was mostly stage directions and probably was never finished. There was something about “such a nice young man” who was “helping” her. Once she had been doing exercises and got into bed by doing s flip flop over the foot board, a startling performance.
Always she wanted to visit Molly Terry[7] and Ted Evans at Gwynneville. This seems to have been a sort of lord of the manor responsibility; Dad always took her, but said they didn’t want to see her. Molly had been her mother’s hired girl and Ted Evans her grandfather’s[8] protégé.
As time went on and her resources dwindled, she did the most sensible thing to her credit. She entered a retirement home for $3000; on our 1960 visit she said how lucky she was. She lived there for more than 20 years. She organized and sang in a choir, played the organ in the chapel, gave lessons on the piano, spent time answering the office phone, etc.
The day before her peaceful death, she had played for church services. She is one of the pleasantest memories I have – her optimism, vivacity, enthusiasm; whatever came along she enjoyed and she never bemoaned things that didn’t.
From California Death Records: Born 7 April 1874; Died 10 February 1961 in Los Angeles
Not listed in the SSN death index
Information from 1920 Federal Census: Her father was born in Kentucky; her mother Indiana
Franklin Colege Alumni Register for 1910: Class of 1902 with an M.B. degree; the 1912 Register shows her as a homemaker in Los Angeles; the 1918 Register shows her residing in Oklahoma City and provides the initials of her husband's name, W. K.
[1] John Thomas Murphy (1844-1906)
[2] George Murphy (1880-1947
[3] Samuel Anderson Murphy (1813-1880) and Sophia Emaline Vaughn (1821-1891)
[4] Weldon P. Kemper (1914-1992)
[5] Van Pelt Murphy (1895-1976) and [6}Snow Frost Murphy (1894and1978);George, supra
[7] Mrs. Henry Terry
[8] Thomas Vaughn (1790-1859)
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