Leona Agnes Girten
1912 - 1986 (74 years)
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Name Leona Agnes Girten [1, 2] Birth 23 Mar 1912 Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas 
[1, 2] Baptism 31 Mar 1912 Sponsors Benedict J. Girten & Mary Girten at St. Thomas Church, Armour [1, 2] Gender Female Death 18 Apr 1986 St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri [1, 2] Patriarch & Matriarch 
James Valentine Austin Girten, b. Abt 1838, Kentuckyd. 23 Nov 1890, Union County, Kentucky (Age 52 years) (Grandfather) 
Mary Emily Shanks, b. 27 Feb 1825, Washington County, Kentuckyd. 16 Aug 1892, Union County, Kentucky (Age 67 years) (Great Grandmother) Person ID I2879 1665 GOUGH/GOFF (US-MD-STM/US-VA-LOU) I-Y6902-A Last Modified 20 Oct 2023
Father William Virgil Girten, b. 16 Dec 1868, Union County, Kentucky d. 24 Dec 1934, Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas (Age 66 years) Mother Elizabeth Ann "Bettie" Gough, b. 11 Apr 1877, Uniontown, Union County, Kentucky d. 1976, Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas (Age 98 years) Marriage 11 Feb 1899 St. Agnes Church, Union Town, Kentucky [1, 2, 3] Family ID F1657 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Lloyd Warner Hawver, b. 2 Jan 1911, Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas d. 25 Aug 1985, Shawnee Mission Hospital in Merriam, Kansasl (Age 74 years)
Marriage 5 Jun 1935 St. Thomas, Armourdale, Kansas City, KS. [1, 2] Children 1. William Lloyd Hawver 2. Judith Ann Hawver, b. 14 Aug 1939, Providence Hospital, Kansas City, Kansas d. 13 Jun 1975, St. Francis Hospital, Tulsa, Oklahoma (Age 35 years)Family ID F1642 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 20 Oct 2023
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Notes - [george benjamin gough.FTW]
Leona Agnes Girten, born 23 March, 1912 in Kansas City, Kansas, baptized at St. Thomas Catholic Church, 31 March, 1921, Sponsors Benedict J. Girten and Mary Girten, Armourdale, and went to grade school there. Source: Registrar of Vital Statistics of the State of Kansas, district 105-A, page 196 of Birth Record book B under Index Number 482) Graduated from St. Aloysius Academy, Kansas City, Missouri, after which she became a hairdresser, but stayed home after Bill and Judy were born.
Leona attended St. Thomas Grade School, Armourdale, KCK, and then St Aloysious High School at 12th and Prospect, Kansas City, Missouri. She rode a streetcare to school, a distance of about six miles or more, back and forth every day. I (Bill Hawver) asked her sister Mary why she attended school so far away. Mary said that their dad, William Virgil Girten, was quite particular about the kind of school she went to and insisted that she attend a Catholic Girls School. .
Married to Lloyd W. Hawver, also of Armourdale, 1001 Miami,and who lived about four blocks away, she was a meticulous person in both care for herself, her dress, and her home. Her handwriting (samples are in her file) was ornate, clear, and beautiful. The following letter was written to me after her death by Aletha Marshall, a childhood friend who was in her wedding:
Wednesday, June 25th, 1986
"Dear Corky,
Bud and I thank you for your thoughtfulness in sending a copy
of our wedding picture and also for arranging for your uncle to
make a copy of the original that you have.
Last Friday we went to Mary and Leo's apartment to get the picture.
His work is wonderful. We are very pleased to have it. My how we
have all changed.
Corky, your mother was always a beautiful, petite person. I never
saw her when she wasn't perfectly turned out. She was a delight
to be around and was always planning some interesting event.
Your father I met much later, but they always were much in love.
Sincerely,
Aletha Marshall /signature/
Mom and dad, Judy and I, lived in Terre Haute, Indiana from about 1940 to 1947. I remember a specific address at 2631 South 7th St. where we lived most of the time in Terre Haute, but we also lived further to the west and across the street, to the southwest, lst house on a corner, from Voorhees Park for a short while when we first moved to Terre Haute.
In about 1947 we moved back to Kansas City and lived with Grandma Girten at 1118 Argentine Boulevard until the great flood of July 13th 1951.
Leona's sister, Mary, says that Vivian Girten Fergusen and Delmar Fergusen were living with Grandma Elizabeth Girten. They had saved enough to buy a house so they did so and moved. Since there was no one living with Grandma Elizabeth Girten, Mary then called Leona and Lloyd in Terre Haute and suggested that they come back to Kansas City to live with and help support Grandma Girten. Mom, Leona Girten Hawver, had never been very happy living in Terre Haute, and Dad wanted to come home also, so they came back.
Until about a year before the flood, we used a two hole outhouse in the garage behind the house. Mom and dad saved and saved and finally had a full bathroom built inside the house. It could hardly have been six months after that when the flood hit on Friday, July 13th, 1951. We hardly had time to get used to an inside toilet.
Immediately after the flood we lived in an attic of a relatives across the street from Northwest Junior High School, then returned, after dad and I dug and shovelled out mud and debris, to 1118 Argentine Blvd, lived there for a few months until the government put trailers in for flood victems on Steele Road in Argentine (about the current site of Harmon High School). Around 1952, Mom and dad bought a house at 3910 Washington Avenue, KCK, right behind Mt. Calvary Cemetary where she and dad are buried. They can almost see the house from their graves. The house on Washington was the first they had owned and was made possible by a program of the federal government for flood victims - no down payment, low monthly payments for 30 years.
I remember how proud they both were when they paid off the house in 1982. The house probably was not larger than 900 square feet, a small living room, kitchen right behind, two small bedrooms, a bath, and a one car, unpaved attached garage. I slept on a folding bed on the dirt floor of the garage for several years, perhaps as late as leaving for college or the Air Force, not sure. By the time I was discharged from the Air Force, the garage had been paved.
There are many events and stories to tell about growing up in Armourdale, the flood, the after effects, and the effect on mom and dad. I've often thought that the flood was a negative experience and quite stessful on dad; was perhaps a significant turning point in his life.
Leona Girten died at St. Joseph's Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri on April 18, 1986. Immediate cause of death was Respitory Failure as a consequence of a Cerebral Infarction (stroke) and Carcenoma of the Colon. She had been operated on a few days before for the colon cancer, seemed to be alright for about 24 hours after the operation, but had a massive stroke and died about 24 hours later. I ( Bill Hawver) sat with her after the stroke for several hours; she was comatose all of that time and died peacefully and without pain.
She was buried with her husband, Lloyd W. Hawver at in the northwest part of Mt. Calvary Cemetary, 38th and State Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas, in Section 8, Lot 3 Sp 8.
Leona A. Girten Hawver divorced her husband, Lloyd Hawver, on January 29, 1985 under extremely sad circumstances. Lloyd Hawver, in the worst stages of Alzheimers disease, had to be put in a full care nursing home. In order to receive any financial help from the state, Leona had to have absolutely no financial resources which would have meant that the small amount of money she had been able to save for her own retirement support had to be spent for her husband, Lloyd Hawver. The other option was for Lloyd to have no support from his spouse or to have no spouse. Thus, Leona, divorced Lloyd, so that he could receive financial aid, Medicaid, from the state and avoided having her small savings depleted. Lloyd Hawver was comatose and in a fetal position during the last twelve months of his life. He died in his sleep at Shawnee Mission Hospital. (Source: District Court of Wyandotte County, Kansas Civil Department; filed January 29, 1985, John Bukaty, attorney for the petitioner.)
The divorce was revoked after dad's death.
Kansas law changed in the next few years so that the spouse of one suffering from Altzheimers did not have to be penniless for the patient to receive state support.
[Girten, Charles, 1819.FTW]
Leona Agnes Girten, born 23 March, 1912 in Kansas City, Kansas, baptized at St. Thomas Catholic Church, 31 March, 1921, Sponsors Benedict J. Girten and Mary Girten, Armourdale, and went to grade school there. Source: Registrar of Vital Statistics of the State of Kansas, district 105-A, page 196 of Birth Record book B under Index Number 482) Graduated from St. Aloysius Academy, Kansas City, Missouri, after which she became a hairdresser, but stayed home after Bill and Judy were born.
Leona attended St. Thomas Grade School, Armourdale, KCK, and then St Aloysious High School at 12th and Prospect, Kansas City, Missouri. She rode a streetcar to school, a distance of about six miles or more, back and forth every day. I (Bill Hawver) asked her sister Mary why she attended school so far away. Mary said that their dad, William Virgil Girten, was quite particular about the kind of school she went to and insisted that she attend a Catholic Girls School. .
Married to Lloyd W. Hawver, also of Armourdale, 1001 Miami,and who lived about four blocks away, she was a meticulous person in both care for herself, her dress, and her home. Her handwriting (samples are in her file) was ornate, clear, and beautiful. The following letter was written to me after her death by Aletha Marshall, a childhood friend who was in her wedding:
- [george benjamin gough.FTW]
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