The River Running
"Immigrants: we get the job done" -- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
Lucia Doris Jones and Stanley Pitkin Christopher Jr
Stanley Pitkin Christopher Jr was born in Kansas City 07 Oct 1905, the son of Mary Frances Hearn and Stanley Pitkin Christopher.
Stanley Jr accompanied his mother on a trip to Europe in 1929. They arrived back in Quebec 18 Sep 1929 aboard the Duchess of Richmond out of Southampton. At the time of the 1930 US Census, Stanley was living with his parents at 4408 Warwick Boulevard and working as an office clerk for B C Christopher and Co, the grain brokerage company his grandfather had founded. He married Lucia Doris Jones 25 Dec 1931.
Lucia was the daughter of Alice Barse and Richard Bryson Jones born in Kansas City 11 Oct 1908. Her father was the chairman of the R B Jones Insurance Company. The family seems to have enjoyed travelling. Lucia, her parents and her older sister Barcia arrived in NYC on 11 May 1921 aboard the SS Vestris out of Rio de Janeiro, on 20 Sep 1924 aboard the SS Zeeland out of Cherbourg and on 27 Sep 1926 aboard the SS De Grasse out of Le Havre.
Fittingly, Lucia and Stanley celebrated their honeymoon with a trip. They arrived back in New Orleans 15 Jan 1932 aboard the SS Heredia, which had sailed from Havana three days before.
Lucia and Stanley had two children, Stanley Pitkin III born in 1934 and Alice Barse born in 1936. The children seem to have been left behind when Lucia and Stanley visited the Territory of Hawaii in 1938. They arrived in Honolulu 27 Oct 1938 aboard the SS Lustine out of San Francisco.
The Honolulu trip may have been an attempt at reconciliation. Lucia and Stanley divorced within the year. On 04 Sep 1939, Stanley married Irene Farlow in Topeka, Kansas. The news item published in the Kansas City Star 06 Sep 1939 describes Stanley as being "formerly connected with the B. C. Christopher & Co. grain firm" and Irene as "a clerk employed by the Midland Flour Milling Company" (in Kansas City). The couple were heading out west to live.
The marriage was short-lived. On 02 Jan 1940 Stanley suffered a brain aneurysm. He died in Los Angeles 16 Jan 1940. According to his death certificate, he had held a job doing distribution for a publishing company for six weeks. His mother Mary Frances is listed as the informant, suggesting that she traveled to LA to spend her son's last days with him. Stanley's remains were returned to Kansas City, where they were interred in the Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence with others of the Christopher family.
I don't know what happened to Irene. I have an address in Los Angeles from Stanley's death certificate, but Irene wasn't enumerated there in the 1940 US Census.
Lucia and the two children were enumerated in 1940 as living with Lucia's parents at 1045 West 56th Street in Kansas City. A story in the Kansas City Times
published 11 Jun 1954 gives Lucia's address as 634 West 39th Street Terrace. The occasion for the story was the graduation of the latest class from the Barstow School. The graduates included Alice Barse Christopher, who followed in the footsteps of her mother and her aunt, Barcia Jones Kitchen.Later that year, on 09 Nov 1954, Lucia married James Franklin Doyle. James died 01 Jul 1973 and Lucia, in October 1984.
Barbara Rahm, Judith Ann Fisher and Stanley Pitkin Christopher III
Stanley Pitkin III married Barbara Rahm 31 Aug 1957, while Stanley was still in law school at the University of Virginia. Barbara was the daughter of Barbara Forrester and Philip Fisher Rahm. She and her twin sister Phyllis were born in Kansas City 05 Dec 1937.
Barbara and Stanley had two children, Barbara Forrester born 21 Dec 1958 (Kansas City Star, 22 Dec 1958) and Philip Bryson born 23 Apr 1961 (Kansas City Star, 26 Apr 1961). They were divorced in December 1966 (Olathe KS News, 07 Dec 1966).
The Kansas City Star published 28 Jun 1967 included a notice that "Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Kral, jr. announce the marriage June 10 of their daughter, Mrs. Judith Fisher Sieber, to Mr. Stanley P. Christopher III, son of Mr. and Mrs. James F. Doyle. The couple is at home in Lawrence, Kas."
Judith Ann Fisher was born in Harrisburg, Pennsyvania, 10 Jun 1939, the daughter of Florence E Colestock and Ross Edward Fisher. Her parents divorced 30 Mar 1946. Florence married Charles Allen Kral Jr in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 03 Jul 1948.
I don't have any information about Judith's marriage to Mr Sieber. What's interesting about her 1967 marriage to Stanley is that it either didn't "take" properly the first time or they got divorced and then remarried. On 22 Nov 1979 Judith F Christopher of 9346 Bales Avenue in Kansas City and Stanley Christopher of 12417 Newton Court, Grandview, Jackson County, Missouri, were married in Jackson County.
Judith and Stanley had at least one child, a son named Edward born in 1971. At the time Judith's father Ross Edward Fisher died on 04 Dec 1987, they were living in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Stanley eventually became a federal court judge, but I don't know when. In May 2002, Judith and Stanley moved to Florida.
Judith died in Palm Beach Gardens on 13 May 2010.
Barbara married Donald Reid Marsh in Kansas City 22 May 1967. After Donald's death in January 2000, she married Marion Alfred Reno Jr., who died 16 Jun 2014.
Barbara and Stanley's daughter Barbara Forrester Christopher married Jonathan Marc Abrams of New York City in Jackson County, Missouri, 13 Jun 1981.
Alice Barse Christopher and Roy Wayne Bunn
According to the Kansas City Star published 25 May 1957, Alice Barse Christopher and Roy Wayne Bunn were married 01 Mar 1957 in the Church of Christ in New York City. Roy was born 11 Sep 1934 in rural Hunt County, Texas, the son of Juanita Jewel Hulsey and Ellis Barty Bunn. According the 1940 US Census, the family moved from Hunt County to Omaha, Nebraska, in the late 1930s. According to the obituary of Roy's sister Barty Jean Pinkham Courtney, they settled in Kansas City in 1940, presumably after April 1940.
After the wedding, Alice and Roy settled in Larchmont, New York, where at least the first two of their three children were born:
A news snippet in the Kansas City Star published 13 Aug 1967 reports that Alice, Roy and their three children were leaving for their new residence in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Roy died in Gwinnett County, Georgia, 20 Dec 1997.