Alpha May Eaton

     

Alpha May Eaton was born, 12 July 1911, at 3:00 PM, in Wellsville, Ohio, USA. She was born in the house at corner of Center Street and Main.^1,2 She was the daughter of Alpheus Aaron Eaton and Lucy May Hunter.

Maribel Morgan, Frieda M. Morgan, Maurice Wilmer Morgan, Alice Etta Morgan and Alpha May Eaton were listed as children in the household of Lou Eaton on the 1920 US Census, at Harper Street, in Clarksburg, Harrison, West Virginia, USA.³

In 1921, Lucy (84), with Alpha (33), moved to Morgantown, West Virginia. They remained there only 2 or 3 months. The other children remained in Clarksburg. Lucy worked as a cook, at a boarding-house owned by one of the coal mining companies. This was at a time of labor unrest. The miners were on strike there. The Miners Union was headed by the firebrand, John L. Lewis. The union had threatened to blow up the house. This was because the mine was providing the house to the strike-breakers.

During this time of separation the three girls, Maribel (338), Frieda (339) and Etta (341), lived in an apartment on Main Street, near Parson-Souders Department Store, in Clarksburg. Maribel was working at Clarksburg Wholesale Company, Frieda was in training to become a Registered Nurse and Etta was still in Washington Irving High School.

After Lucy came back from Morgantown, about 1922, all the girls lived with her, on Chapel Street, behind the Methodist Church. Across the street lived the family of the future Senator Claude Pepper of Florida. Etta had typhoid fever while here. They moved to the house next door. Then to School Street, for 4-5 years. Freida died there, after being bed-ridden for two years, in 1924.

They next moved to 614 West Pike Street, still in Clarksburg, where Lucy rented out rooms. During this time Alpha worked at the Clarksburg Dairy, where she worked a total of nine years. Both Etta and Alpha later married routemen who also worked at the dairy.

Alpha lived at 614 West Pike Street and attended Washington Irving High School. She later worked at the Clarksburg Dairy. It is here that she meets her first husband, Robert Sutton. He was a routeman for the dairy. She would tell of the horses that knew the routes, almost better than the drivers. The horse would stop at each house, without direction from the driver. After all deliveries, the horse would return to the dairy, practically at a gallop.

At the dairy, her boss was James Wesley Law, who I am named after. Mr. Law was the President of the Clarksburg Rotary Club. He was also the treasurer of the First Methodist Church. She worked at the dairy for nine years. She also attended West Virginia Business College two hours a day.

Alpha May Eaton and Maribel Morgan were listed as children in the household of Lou Eaton on the 1930 US Census, at 614 West Pike Street, in Clarksburg, Harrison, West Virginia, USA. She was also listed as a bookkeeper at a dairy.²

Alpha May Eaton married Robert Andrew Sutton July 1930, in Clarksburg, Harrison, West Virginia, USA. The marriage took place in the home of Rev. Slater, pastor of the Methodist Church in Clarksburg.

The attached photo taken of my mother, Alpha Eaton and her sister, Maribel Morgan, taken about 1933.

Alpha was divorced from Robert Andrew Sutton 15 May 1937 in Clarksburg, Harrison, West Virginia, USA.⁴

She moved to Detroit, Michigan to try to make a better living. Here she met my father. I remember a story he told me. "They were both at a Halloween party. The party was hosted by mutual friends. At midnight my mother said to him to remove his mask. To which he replied, that he was not wearing a mask; and she fainted". He borrowed a book from her, and kept forgetting to return it. Thus prolonging the budding romance.

Alpha May Eaton married Ernest Cheyne 3 July 1937, at Metropolitan Methodist Church, in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA.⁵

The attached photo taken of my mother, Alpha Cheyne and me, taken late 1938, in Detroit.

Multi family photo taken at Grafton Dam, West Virginia, USA, about 1940.

After Ernest's death, she worked at Albert Mathias and Company, on West Jackson and later on 21st Avenue. Mathias was a wholesaler of furniture, appliances and Columbia Records. She was the Columbia distributor for the Phoenix area. I can remember helping sorting records for delivery and keeping inventories. Later, after I got my driver licence, I would make deliveries. She met her third husband, Garrett Roberts at Mathias, where he also was employed.

The attached sidewalk photo taken of my mother, left, her sisters, Maribel, center, and Etta, taken about 1949, in Phoenix.

Alpha Cheyne married Garrett William Roberts 29 June 1959, in accordance with the procedures of the Methodist Church, at First Methodist Church, in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. The service was officiated by Rev. Charles Kimball. Kimball was the long time minister at the Central Methodist Church in Phoenix, there she had been a member since 1943.⁶

In the mid 1970s Albert Mathias closed it's Phoenix location. Alpha started her own business known as Alpha's Interiors which she operated for several years.

Alpha Cheyne Roberts died 5 December 2001 at Phoenix Baptist Hospital in Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona, USA. Her obituary which appeared in the Arizona Republic, Sunday, December 17, 2001 read: Alpha "Happy" Cheyne Roberts was born the fifth child of Lucy Mae Hunter Eaton. Her father was Alpheus Aaron Eaton a steel worker in Wellsville. Ohio, 12 July 1911. Her siblings were Maribel Vorrhis, Frieda Morgan, Maurice Wilmer Morgan and Alice Etta O'Grady, all deceased. Her older sisters gave her the nickname, Happy, which is the name her friends called her until her death, 5 December 2001. She also outlived her three husbands, Robert Andrew Sutton, Ernest Cheyne and Garrett William Roberts.
World War II brought her young family to Phoenix in 1943. They lived on the outskirts of town at Central Avenue and Thomas Road. She joined the Central Methodist Church and has been a loyal member for 58 years. She was employed by Albert Mathias and Company, a wholesale furniture distributor for many years.
Happy had two sons, Robert A. Sutton, a retired Mechanical Engineer, in San Diego and James W. Cheyne, a lighting control representative, in Phoenix. They provided her with six grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.
She was an avid traveler, having visited all 50 states and over 90 countries. She did not allow her age to keep her from her passion of traveling; she visited her church's mission in Kenya at 85 and, at 88, strode the Great Wall of China. Her last trip was a cruise with her niece, Mary Stouffer of Oregon City, Oregon, just six months ago from Europe to Greenland, Iceland and Maritime Provinces. The highlight of the trip, for her, was swimming in the Blue Lagoon.
A memorial service is planned for 2 PM, January 30, 2002, at the Life Center, Beatitudes Campus of Care, 1668 West Glendale Avenue. Donations to the Arizona Heart Institute Foundation or the Beatitudes Foundation are requested in lieu of flowers.