Clara Josephine Fromherz

      The oldest of the Fromherz clan, Mom was born on Dec. 9, 1911, in Corvallis, OR.  We don’t know if she was born deaf, but it was not discovered until she was 1 or 2 yrs. old.

     She entered Oregon State School for the Deaf (now known as Oregon School for the Deaf) at an older age since Grandma & Grandpa so wanted her to be normal & didn’t want to send her away for school.  In my travels as an interpreter, I have met a few people who went to school with Mom.  They tell me she was a very sweet person and taught many how to sew.  She also helped to supervise the younger children.  I don’t know how long she was actually there, but it wasn’t very long.  She went back to public school where the teacher had a big mustache that made it difficult for her to lip-read him.  She finally gave it up, never completing her education.  She was good at lip-reading & had just enough hearing to enjoy music & to be aided by a hearing aid. 

     Mom loved to sew & crochet.  She made all my clothes when I was little.  I didn’t appreciate her making them when I got old enough to care how I looked because she would always dress me very old fashioned.  My clothes were always to long or to big (for me to grow into).  So, that’s about when I learned to sew for myself.

     For some reason she never liked the name of Clara.  She was called Jody in her younger years and later went by Josephine.  Her favorite color was green, and I mean to the point that nearly everything she had was green.  She dressed me in it so much that one of my best friends recalled my wearing a lot of green when she first knew me.  A funny aside was when this friends mother passed away (that’s not the funny part) she wrote a poem about her growing up years.  In this poem, she wrote about when she got to know me.  She writes:

. . . There’s a new girl now

She’s quiet & shy, nothing much like me

Her hair is blonde and long with curls

And she dresses in odd shades of green…

     What was so funny is that what I was wearing to the funeral that day was a dark green suit.  We had a good laugh!  I met this friend when Mom decided to leave the Catholic Church.  This was not an easy decision for her to make since she had been raised a Catholic.  The problem was that she would go to Mass, but could not understand what was being said as in those days there were no interpreters.  Dad attended the Assemblies of God where a woman could sign & would interpret the services for dad & others.  For a long time mom would take me to Mass & then walk to Dads’ church to attend that service, eventually, only going to the Assemblies of God Church.

     Mom always loved Jesus & I remember her playing Children’s records with songs that included “Jesus Loves Me”, “Jesus Loves Even Me” and more.  I still have these records.

     Backing up in time---Mom was introduced to Dad by a deaf couple that lived in Lebanon.  The husband knew Dad from Idaho School for the Deaf.  He was not a Catholic, but the priest felt that because of their special circumstances, being deaf, it would be okay to be married and so they were on June 4, 1946, in Corvallis, OR.  Mom was 34 and dad was 39.  They lost 1 baby before having me on May 23, 1950.  I was named Jeanette Marie Reed, but Mom called me Jenny because she could say the name.  I was born by C-section & at the same time, she had to have a hysterectomy due to tumors in her uterus.  We both nearly died.  She wanted to have more children.  She never really understood why she had to have this done.  Everyone tried their best to explain it to her, but because of the communication barrier, she never came to understand.  In those days, the general philosophy was that the deaf should not learn sign language.  Their families were discouraged from learning it as well.  As a result, only basic communication happened, but not much of any depth or importance.  It was also common that anyone with any kind of disability not be allowed to have children.  Given that, she thought she could no longer have children because she was deaf & there was no convincing her otherwise.  She believed that until her dying day.  It caused her great emotional grief.  She couldn’t wait for me to give her grandchildren.  She would say to me, “Hurry up have baby must married first”.  She didn’t want me to wait as long as she did to marry & have kids.  I’m sorry she wasn’t there when I did marry at 27 & later had two children.  She would have enjoyed them.  I’m glad that at least dad was here & that the kids got to know him since he was living with us at the time they were born.

     Moms English seemed broken to those who read what she wrote.  She was very self-conscious of this & would not write very often.  What she was really writing was in American Sign Language which has since been proven to be a real language with it’s own syntax rules different from English.  Dad, on the other hand, wrote in pretty good English so he would do most of the letter or note writing.  The flip side was that he was not very good with his hands when it came to making or building things and mom was, so they really complimented each other with their strengths and weaknesses.

     Mom discovered she was diabetic sometime in her 50’s, but was never on insulin.  She was on pills & had to watch her diet.  I’m not sure how well she did at keeping it under control.  I don’t know if blood sugar testing was done in those days, but she didn’t test hers.

     She passed away very suddenly on June 30, 1972, of a massive heart attack.  It was a shock to us!  She was 61 yrs. old.  I was only 22 at the time.

     I’d like to end Moms story with a poem that Aunt Mary Gerding wrote the day mom died.  It sums it all up.   

Thomas Burt Reed

by Jenny (Reed) Jackson

     The oldest of the Reed family, dad was born on Oct. 21, 1906 in Palisades, CO and later moved to New Plymouth, Idaho.  They think he was born hearing & became totally deaf at the age of two by rheumatic fever which also left him with a heart murmur.

     He attended Idaho School for the Deaf in Gooding, Idaho where he graduated, I don’t know what year, but I would guess around 1924.  He was not allowed to sign & was supposed to learn to lip-read, but he failed at that.  It was common for kids to sign when the teachers weren’t looking so he learned to sign anyway.  I have also met some of his school mates in my travels and they tell me how quiet he was, but a leader and a hard worker.  He was a good role model to the younger students.  As with Moms family, his family was discouraged from learning to sign, which they regretted years later.  Whenever we would to visit on our vacations, he and his sister and mother would write pages upon pages of notes back and forth. 

     After graduation from high school, he went on to attend Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., the only liberal arts college for the deaf at that time.  I think he was there about 3 yrs., but then had to go back home as it was during the depression and his sisters wanted to go to college.  His parents couldn’t afford for all of them to be in college, and again, because of the common thinking of those days, probably thought it was more important for his “hearing” sisters to go than for him.  Dad was always a good sport and never seemed to resent the decision.  The education he got did him well in any case.  He had a good understanding & command of English.  He was an avid reader & loved to keep up on the news.  He would read the newspaper & then watch the news on TV, matching what he read in the paper with the pictures being shown on TV.  It was a wonderful day when closed captioning came to be, as he could read on the TV what was being said.  Then there was a signer on KGW morning news.  The world has opened up for the deaf with all kinds of new devices such as special telephones, baby cry lights, flashing doorbells, 2 way pagers, and much more.

     Dad was invited to visit an old school mate in Lebanon & was introduced to Mom.  I don’t know what year that was or how long they courted before marrying.  If anyone knows please tell me.

     After marrying, Dad got a job as a janitor at Lebanon High School; later it became the Junior High School.  He worked there until retiring in 1970 or 71.  The school gave him a big send off with a student assembly giving him a standing ovation.  I wished I could have been there, but I didn’t even know about it until after the fact.

     Dad had a rough year that last year at the school because he’d had a heart attack.  It became hard for him to climb all the stairs in the school.  He lost a lot of weight, which he really didn’t have to lose.  You’ll notice how thin he was in their 25^th anniversary picture.  He did recover and gained his weight back and did very well health wise right up until the day he died.

     Dad lived alone for several years after mom passed away.  He did pretty well for himself.  I lived in Portland, but would try to visit him as often as possible. 

     He was so happy when I finally got married!  A year later, he sold his house and moved in with us.  I felt better having him with us.  He loved his grandchildren & they loved him!  Garrick, my oldest, learned to sign with him and could sign his first 2 word sentence before he could even talk!  Kelly, on the other hand, would not sign.  She would point or get her wants across to him somehow, but would not sign.  She loved him dearly and called him “Grampee”.  Garrick has long since forgotten any sign language, but Kelly has taken 2 yrs. of it at Portland Community College.  I don’t know that she will ever do anything with it, but a least she has a better understanding of deafness, the language and the culture, and has an appreciation of what I do as an interpreter.

     The December before dad passed away, his 2 remaining sisters came to visit.  I was told later that after they left they commented that Dad looked the best they had ever seen him and that he would probably out live them.  That was not the case as he passed away on February 16,1989.  He went peacefully in his sleep sometime in the early morning hours at the age of 82.

     I hope I haven’t just rambled on, but have instead given you a snapshot into their lives.  In closing, I would like to say how grateful I am to have had them as my parents and the heritage they have given me in deafness and in deaf culture.  I’m happy to serve within the deaf community and to be there as an interpreter for those who need communication to take place.