LOUISE GIVENS

1893-1973

Parents

Husband

GEORGE CLYDE ROUSH

She married GEORGE CLYDE ROUSH on August 25, 1912, in Middleport, Ohio. They had five children in 15 years.

Louise and George’s honeymoon in Washinton, D.C. 1912

Children

BABY GIRL 1913-1913
ALBERTA MARIE ROUSH 1915-2007
GEORGE WILBUR Wilbur 1918-2005
BETTY LOUISE 1921-2010
WILLIAM DALLAS 1929-2016

Birth and Childhood

LOUISE GIVENS was born on January 12, 1893, in Buena Vista, Scioto County, Ohio to SARAH ANN DOOLEY, age 32, and ALLEN BERT GIVENS, age 26. Like most births at that time, the birth occurred at home. It was a very cold, winter day. Weighing only two pounds, Louise’s parents swaddled her and put her in a shoe box for her bed.

Louise’s birth record. This is from the West Virginia Archives. It shows that she was born in Ohio.

Throughout her childhood, Louise and her parents lived in West Virginia and Ohio. Louise went through two years of high school.

Engagement

Louise met GEORGE CLYDE ROUSH at the Meigs County Fair. Louise was walking up a hill at the fair when she stumbled and fell backward. George, who was walking behind her, caught her. She was enamored with him from that moment forward. Later they were engaged at the same spot. The following picure shows Louise fifty-two years later visiting that spot where all of the magic began .

Although George was living in Akron, he courted Louise in Middleport, Scioto County, Ohio.

Married

They married on August 25, 1912, in Middleport, Ohio. The marriage was performed by Rev. J. Talbert Keenan, a Methodist circuit minister.

Louise Givens and George Clyde Marriage License

Akron

After their marriage Louise moved to Akron, Ohio where George had found work as a laborer at Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. Unfortunately, the following year, 1913, George and Louise experienced the tragedy of their first child, a little girl, being stillborn. That same year, some of the rubber workers in Akron conducted an unsuccessful strike for benefits and higher wages. George left Firestone and became a clerk in his father-in-law’s grocery store. It is unknown if the strike led to George leaving the rubber industry.

When Louise was 26 years old and had two small children, Ohio voted to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. In addition, the legislature also passed a bill ensuring Ohio women's right to vote in the upcoming presidential election in November 1920. Although Louise then had the right to vote, no documents exist that provide proof of whether she did or not.

The Roaring Twenties

Louise was proud of getting her hair cut into a bob, even though many of her family thought it was scandalous. When the Charleston dance became the craze of the nation in the 1920s, and Louise began to dance it along with the rest of the country. She even danced it for her granddaughter during the late 1960s!

Press the arrow in the center of the picture below to view a YouTube video that shows people dancing the Charleston:

In the late 1920s the Klu Klux Klan in Summit County, Ohio was the largest in the United States.. At one point members of that organization controlled the police department, the board of education, and most of the larger businesses in the city. Immigrants, blacks, Catholics, and Jews were targets were their targets. The members of the KKK would burn large crosses in the front yards of people that they discriminated against. The burning of the crosses frightened Louise so much that she talked about it 50 years later.

Cross burnings were used to intimidate blacks, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews.

The Store

George soon stopped working for his father-in-law and opened his own grocery store.

Louise did all of the cooking, cleaning, and sewing at home, while she was helpful and supportive of the family’s grocery store and George’s various business ventures. As the children became old enough, they were taught to work in the store. Cookies, potatoes, sugar, flour and other products were delivered to the store in bulk and had to be measured as the customers purchased them. Louise worked right along with George in everything related to the store including taking care of all of the bookkeeping and banking.

Effects of the Great Depression

The Great Depression brought economic losses to George and Louise, but they soon recovered. Louise deposited the maximum amount of money that was federally insured in the Firestone Bank. She did all of their personal and store banking once a week. One day at the bank, a lady in a fur coat was standing in line in front of her. When it was her turn, Mr. Landon, the teller who always waited on her, told Louise that some people come into the bank in a fur coat and their $3 check would bounce, while another person in an old black coat with a hole in the front could cash a check for $150,000, and it would easily clear. Louise looked down at the old black coat she was wearing and noticed a hole in the front!

In addition, she hid money throughout the house. When her grandson, Robert Yerkey, was about 5 years old, he reached into a large vase beside of the fireplace and pulled out handfulls of $50 and $100 bills and stuffed them in his pocket. Later that day, his sister, Penny, took him to a corner store, and he generously offered to pay!

When she was in elementary school, Louise’s granddaughter, Patricia Yerkey, was given the job of getting the dining room table ready for big holiday meals. When Patricia took the tablecloth off of the table, the entire table surface was covered with $10 and $20 bills. Next she had to take the china out of the credenza. She had to make two piles: the plates in one stack and the money stored between the plates in another stack!

Due to the increase in neighborhood crime and the vast amounts of money in their home, George and Louise hired a security company to completely wire the house with a burgler alarm system. Not long after that, their grandson, Robert Yerkey, was visiting when he answered a knock at the door. A man pointing a gun at him pushed his way into the house and demanded money. Louise, upon hearing the commotion, rushed into the room and immediately went to set off the alarm. Bob gave the intruder his wallet and warned him that his grandmother had a heart condition and, if she had a heart attack and died, the intruder would be guilty of murder. Fortunately, the robber left. About 15 years later, Bob answered the door of his home in a different county and was handed his wallet!

The 1030s and 1940s

Between 1930 and 1940, George and Louise built a new home at 1031 Leroy Avenue, Akron, Ohio. It was only a short walk to the store.

George purchased United Cleaners, Inc. and Imperial Dry Cleaning Co., and gave Louise the title of Vice President.

Wars!

World War II brought shortages and rationing to Louise and George, but it also brought worry. Their son, George Wilbur (Bud) was a Second Lieutenant fighting in Europe. In letters home, Bud was not permitted to tell his location or give any other information that could help the enemy if the letters were intercepted. While moving into Germany he was crossing a stream in France when he suddenly stood up and shouted that he had been shot! He was sent to England by ship, and later said that it was a harrowing trip. In England he underwent surgery to remove shrapnel. After recuperating Bud was sent home.

The Korean War brought more stress for George and Louise when their son William Dallas (Bill) served in the U.S. Army. Bill brought gifts home when he returned to Akron.

Gifts Bill brought from Korea. From front, left to right: Patricia Louise Yerkey, George C. Roush II, Robert Yerkey, Margaret Russell Roush, Alberta Roush Yerkey. Back row: Penny Yerkey, Betty Roush, Louise Givens Roush

Don’t Cross Louise!

Louise was known to be a very confident person. She kept a tight rein while raising all four of her children, and did not tolerate any misbehavior or disrespect from anyone.

One day, when she did not approve of something that one of her sons did or said, she threw a can of food at him. The can went through the dining room window and hit the neighbor’s house. The neighbor ran out of the house to see what had happened.

Years later, Louise’s grandson, Robert earned her wrath, and she chased him around the house with a skillet. Thankfully, she could not catch him to clobber him. Decades later, Robert said that he was “more afraid of MawMaw than anyone else.”

As she aged, Louise suffered from arthritis causing her fingers, hands and feet to become disfigured, but Louise still maintained vigilance over what was happening at the store. She sat in her chair in the living room at “the house” with her hands on the heat register to relieve the pain in her hands while watching the front of the store.

Exceptional Skills

Louise enjoyed embroidery and crocheting. When she taught both of her daughters, Alberta and Betty, how to embroider, she always looked at the back of the fabric to make sure that their work was as neat as she expected. Many summer afternoons were spent doing needlework together on the front porch.

Although she was very talented at crocheting, she did not hold her crochet hook the way that her mother had taught her. One year she won a blue ribbon at the Medina County Fair for one of her afghans. She made many afghans tableclothes, and doilies for herself and others.

Everyone in her family knew what a wonderful cook that Louise was. She cooked both Southern and German dishes, but didn’t need a recipe book. The main meal was served at noon, and, because she never knew how many members of the family would be there, she made a lot of delicious food. When her son, George Wilbur (Bud) married Margaret (Peggy) Russell, Peggy did not know how to cook. Louise taught her how, and Peggy became an excellent cook.

One day, Mike Lobalzo, the best friend of Louise’s grandson, Bob Yerkey, picked Bob up at Louise’s house. Bob walked out to the car carrying a piece of sausage. Mike asked for a bite, and loved it so much that he refused to give the rest of it back. Bob had to go back into the house to get himself another piece. That was typical of everyone’s opinion of Louise’s cooking.

To maintain her weight, Louise would fill up on a large glass of buttermilk or water before the main meal. Another tactic she used was to serve either crushed saltines covered in milk or milk toast for supper. Milk toast was made by putting milk, sugar, and cinnamon or nutmeg on a piece of toast.

Every day except Sunday Louise baked either a pie or a cake. If the weather was nice she would put pies on the windowsill in the kitchen to cool. Her pie crusts, made with lard, were flaky and light. In the late 1960s, her granddaughter, Patricia Yerkey, asked Louise to teach her how to make pie crust. Louise used her hand to scoop some flour, cut some lard with a knife, added a little salt and some water, but she never used any measuring cups or spoons. Patricia never did learn to make Louise’s pie crust.

Final Years

Louise and George were excited to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary with their family.

Louise and George on the day of their fiftieth wedding anniversary

After they sold Roush’s Supermarket, George and Louise moved into a house that they bought across the street from Alberta in Randolph, Ohio.

On February 28, 1973, Louise was rushed to the hospital in Akron. While many doctors and nurses were attempting to save her life, one nurse was slipping the diamond ring that George had given her for their fiftieth anniversary off of her finger. After she died from a ruptured thoracic aortic aneurism, the family realized that the ring that Louise loved so much was missing. Bud went to the Akron Police Department and asked for assistance in recovering the ring. The police announced that every person who was present in the emergency room would be given a lie dectator test. The next morning, a nurse walked up and placed the ring on the detective’s desk. She told the detective that she had found it in the hospital bedding, but the detective arrested her. When the nurse went to trial, the judge gave her the maximum sentence permitted.

Louise’s ring that was stolen by a nurse

Louise was buried in Rose Hill Burial Park, Akron, Ohio.

Louise Givens Roush was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Akron, Ohio.