New Step-Father & A New Home---Betty's father, Tom Geiger, had died of brain cancer in 1940, when he was only 35 years old. On June 2nd 1943, Betty's mother Emma married Horace Allen, Jr., a long time friend of Emma and Tom's. Betty and her sister Anne knew him well. He loved the girls dearly and they were very close to him. After the marriage to Horace, Emma moved with the girls out of her mother's home on Westport Road. The Gilter cousins, Bob and Bill, continued to live with their grandmother Nanine Fairleigh so that they could attend high school at Anchorage High. But, Emma, Horace, Betty and Anne moved to a small two bedroom home in the Crescent Hill neighborhood, an area much closer to downtown Louisville.
Link to Street View of the house on Maple Crest Ct.
New High School---Because of the move, Betty and Anne were given the choice of continuing to attend Anchorage High, although the distance would make that harder, or they could attend Atherton School For Girls, much closer to their new home. My mother always told me that their mother let them make the choice and they chose Atherton. So, Betty spent her Senior year (1943/1944) at Atherton.
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| Atherton School For Girls- Morton Avenue, Louisville, KY |
The Jewelry Store---Even before the death of her husband, because he was too ill to work himself, Emma had worked at the Geiger Jewelry Store on 4th street in downtown Louisville. The store was owned by Tom's father and a business partner Nolte Ament. Both Tom and his younger brother Albert worked with their father in this family business. After Tom's death Emma continued to work at the store to support herself and the girls. Even after her marriage to Horace Allen, a stockbroker, she worked at the jewelry store to support the girls, not wanting Horace to pay for their expenses. Betty and Anne also worked at the jewelry store sometimes.
Horace's WWII Service---When Horace married Emma in June of 1943, he was stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia. The simple marriage actually took place at Ft. Banning and on the same day Horace graduated from Officers Candidate School. He had enlisted in 1942, at the age of 40, old for an enlistee, but wanting to do his part I suppose. He probably only served until the end of the war. I don't know how much he was able to be home during the time of his service.
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| Emma & Horace on their wedding day. |
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The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) · Wed, Jun 9, 1943
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