Marie Beatrice LESPERANCE
The above photograph is of "Gagy" in the back row left, my mother
Ruth is to the back right, and Exelda YOUNG (my great grandmother) is sitting
holding me as an infant in summer of 1943 . This is the ancestral research
on my maternal grandmother. She turns 95 this year on Oct 28, 1996, so
it's about time.
Marie Beatrice LESPERANCE was born in Keeseville,
Clinton, NY on 28 Oct 1901, on West Pleasant Street to be exact. She was
the daughter of Joseph LESPERANCE and
Exelda (Exilda) YOUNG. She married Ernest McGEE on 28 Dec 1919 in Plattsburgh,
Clinton, NY at St. Peter's Catholic Church. He was born in 1887? in Peru,
Clinton, NY, the son of William I. McGEE and Josephine Seraphina? (Phia)
SIBLEY. Josephine was reported to be an Indian Princess?
Ernest died in June 1930? Keeseville, Clinton,
NY (suicide), so I never met either of my grandfathers. Ernie had a son
from a previous marriage named Kenneth who lived with my grandmother and
the 4 children they had together. My grandmother lived on the hill on Pleasant
Street for 28 yrs. She lived on Ausable St. after that. I was the first
grandchild and because I already had a "Granny" Bigelow, my maternal grandmother
became "Gagy", and everybody in our family has called her that ever since.
She is an amazing woman and I told her and all the relatives at her party
this year. I can remember her coming up to Chazy Lake in the 60's and 70's
, and how she worried about us young people with our water skiing and other
activities. She has always been young at heart though, doing things you
never figure for someone her age. I have always been proud to be her grandson,
when somebody mentioned they saw her in a bar in Keeseville drinking her
Genessee. She says she can only have one a week now, but up until a few
years ago she'd have more than that sitting on a barstool. (To be continued)
Children of Gagy and Ernie all born Keeseville, NY:
1. Herman Ernest McGEE, born 18 Oct 1920,
died 7 June 1970 in Plantsville, CT, married Joan WESTNOWSKI circa 1940.
No children.
2 . Ruth Loretta McGEE, My Mother, born
22 Feb 1922 , married Roger Lynn BIGELOW
on 27 April 1942. 4 children including me.
3 . Doris Antoinette McGEE, born Sep 1923?,
died 13 Nov 1967, married circa 1945, Warren BARBER, 2 children: Marsha
and Keith.
4 . Jean Exilda McGEE, born 9 Dec 1925, married
10 Jan 1948, to Carlton PERRY, 3 children: Kim, Carla, and Ricky.
This is Ernie circa 1930.
Rod Bigelow
Box 13 Chazy Lake
Dannemora, N.Y. 12929
rodbigelow@netzero.net 
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