Kendall and I moved to an apartment on Flagler Avenue right down from the little elementary school that we both attended so many years earlier. It was so much fun and we were just having a great time working and being newly married. I’ll never forget this story about our old landlord that lived down below us. We had to share a bathroom of all things with a lady and her son. One morning we were getting ready for work and I sat down on the bed and it just fell apart. When we got home from work that day, the landlord said, “What were y’all doing up there? You sure were making a lot of racket”, but he was just teasing us and went up and fixed the bed. Kendall had saved some money from the service and we found out we could buy a little house for $400 down with a GI loan. That is when we moved to Arlington and that was our first little house at 5522 Floral Bluff Road. We had the most wonderful neighbors in the back of us named JR and Lorraine Morgan. When we got to know each other real well, they would tease us about taking naps on our sofa on the back screen porch or counting our bonds. We had bonds that we were saving up. Our children, Kendall Monroe, II (Mike) on February 26, 1952, and on February 22, 1954, Elizabeth Ann (Betsy) when we lived in Arlington. I started working at the sheet metal shop off Old St. Augustine Road as Bo Beckwith’s secretary. There was a couple that Kendall and I knew, he was an architect and she worked with me at the sheet metal shop. We would spend time together and go to the mountains together. I joined the women’s club and I was in a dance routine and these affairs would go on. I don’t know how I had the nerve to do that, but it was a lot of fun.
Kendall got an offer for a job at Hugh Supply making more money, so we moved to Orlando. We first lived in a big mansion of a house (the Haan place) on Church Street for $60 a month. The kids had their own playroom, we walked over to Lake Eola Park with Mike and Betsy dragging her little duck toy. I was involved in the Women’s Club and performed a dance routine on the stage at Bob Carr Auditorium. Then we moved to the Gable’s garage apartment in the back and that’s where I met their daughter and son in law Barry and Adriana Walker. Lovely people, just like our family. They had two boys and we had a son and daughter. We would play cards at each other’s houses and have a wonderful time. I got pregnant with Charlie and we decided we better look for us a house. We bought this gorgeous piece of property, put up a swing and were going to build us a house. This was during Truman’s time and the interest rates were climbing, so we couldn’t afford to build a house. While Kendall was working for Hugh Supply, he met many different people who came in to buy supplies. Kendall mentioned we were looking for a house and a man named Carter said this builder had a new house that he couldn’t sell. Kendall went to talk to the builder and asked if he would take our property as a down payment for the house on Needles Drive. There was a negotiation and we needed a few couple thousand dollars extra to get into the house.I think our payment was $67 a month. We moved To 3809 Needles Drive around May and lived there for 21 years. The Carters lived on the corner from us. Mama and Daddy came down for a visit and Mama and I did some cooking. When it was time for them to leave on Sunday afternoon, Mama asked Kendall to go for a ride to take her to the store which was unusual. While they were gone, Daddy was laying on the sofa and I was kind of tired myself since I was pregnant with Charlie. Daddy said, “Rosie, I’m a sick man” and I said “Daddy, you aren’t sick” and he said, “oh yes I am Rosie”. I just passed it off since Daddy never complained in his life. When they were driving off, I asked Kendall what he and Mama talked about. Kendall said, “your dad has lung cancer”. In October 17,1958, Charles Edward was born but with a little crease in his lip. We didn’t get that done right away since we needed him to gain more weight. At Thanksgiving we went up to Jacksonville since Mama wanted a big gang there. Mr. and Mrs. Brandt down the street came, and all the family was there for this last Thanksgiving we knew we were going to have with our Dad. I was ironing one day, and I got a call from Kendall “hun, you better get packed up. We’ve got to go”. Alma called Kendall at work and said that Daddy had just been put in the hospital and he’s passed away. On December 18, we packed up the kids, clothes and everything and were siting in the car with the kids in the back. Kendall started the car and asked me “Rosie, is there anything you can think of that we need?” and I said “no” and here I was holding this bottle and exclaimed “Oh Charlie!”. We had forgotten him since he was sleeping there in the bed. That kind of eased the tensions a little bit, but we made it to Mama’s. We ended up having Christmas at Mama’s house because they were by themselves. It was just a sad, sad, sad time.
About two years later, James Christopher (Chris) was born on December 22, 1960. When I brought him home it was Christmas Day and they wrapped him in a white blanket with a big red bow. Betsy started crying saying, “Mom, you told me you were gonna bring me a little sister”. She was totally unhappy, but it turned out that she just adored him. Then Mark Stewart was born in April 3, 1963, and life went on. Kendall went into sales with Keithwood for about three years making real good money, but it was not a good fit, so he was out of a job for about three months. During that time I worked as a Teachers assistant at a near by Elementary school. He finally found the job that turned his life around at Eljer Plumbingware, and he helped put this company on the Florida map. He called on Architects and Engineers that recommended Eljer products. More about this in another paragraph.
Luck would have it my precious brother Richard was stationed out at the McCoy Air Force Base. He would get lonesome and come out and visit us. One time he comes in with about three sacks of dirty clothes asking, “Rosie, do you think you can wash these up?” and I said, “Yes Richard, but did you collect these from all the guys in your barracks?” because there were just too many clothes for that. But you know Richard, I loved him so much I did it. Another time he and a bunch of guys went out to Rock Springs and they were swimming and starving. We had just finished dinner, and I was putting away the leftover pot of chili in the freezer. On their way back, they stopped by and I pulled the chili out and heated it up and those guys gobbled it up. Nothing was left, but I didn’t mind it at all because there again that was just my little brother Richard. What a happy time that was because he was just the biggest pleasure in the world. I asked Richard to babysit for us one time when I had a baby and he had to change a yucky diaper which he couldn’t stand. He would babysit, but he didn’t want to do anything with that. I had a lot of fun with Richard.
We used to visit the Parkin’s at Lake Broward in Pomona Park and had many memories up there. One time I said, “Kendall, I either want to build a pool, buy a place at the beach or at the lake” and Kendall said, “Rosie, I’m not dealing with any pool” because he knew he would be the one to take care of it. He suggested we go see Mrs. Parkin and she told us about the Strickland’s place being for sale. We couldn’t afford the house, but they said they would sell the property with the chinchilla cabin on it. They were raising chinchillas for furs – I don’t know who buys chinchilla furs. We decided we could afford that, so we got a little loan and bought our place. We put a white slab out in front of the cabin and Chris and a couple of friends had to strip the whole inside of that place because it was full of chinchilla hair all over the place. We got the cabin all cleaned up and we also had our camper that we used to go camping with the kids. After a while, Mrs. Parkin didn’t mind and said we could leave the camper in the back as long as it didn’t show. No campers were allowed on this property, it had to be a block home or something. Knowing we were real good friends, she allowed us to keep the camper down there. We had a lot of parties and so many wonderful times at the lake. We’d have to pack everything in the little cabin and then pull it all out when we would come since we had a canoe, lawn mowers and everything else. The cabin didn’t even have a bathroom, but it had a toilet and the makings of a shower. That was one of the first things Charlie did was fix us up a shower, because he has to have his shower.
We sold our house on Needles Drive and had already picked us out a lot and picked out what we wanted in the house and had the house built. When we signed the people to move into Needles Drive, that was our down payment for the house on Heatherbrite Circle, So here we were signing this one and in about three hours later we signed the other house. So we were homeless for about three hours just standing in the street not knowing what to do. No, crazy I’m just putting on. We moved to our house on Heatherbrite Circle out in Apopka, but in Wekiva near the golf course. It was a beautiful place out there. Kendall and I would take bicycle rides and Mark was still in school at Apopka High. Met lots of friends, played football one year and in the band playing drums at school functions.
I decided to retire, Kendall in the meantime was still working at Eljer Plumbingware. He and Lloyd Brown decided to start the ASPE (American Society of Plumbing Engineers) and got very involved with that association meeting once a month. He was calling on architects and engineers selling Eljer products at the time, so he was very involved with them and getting them involved in this association. He’s gotten many awards for starting that association for bringing people together. Kendall was presented with an award on January 20, 1984 for his inspiring efforts being instrumental in the founding of the Central Florida chapter of the American Society of Plumbing Engineers. Kendall was also Vice President and was given another award for continued dedication of extraordinary efforts as Vice President membership from 1983-1989. Even when we were living at the lake in 2000, we were invited down to Orlando for a presentation for Kendall because they were setting up a scholarship program for Valencia Community College under ASPE and Kendall’s name was on that for being the person that started giving a scholarship for engineering or architectural students. The award reads, in recognition of your contribution as the chapters first VP membership from 1983-1988 and your commitment to the profession of plumbing engineering as well as your continuing support for education. The Central Florida Chapter of the American Society of Plumbing Engineers sponsors the Kendall M. Kalapp scholarship endowment at Valencia Community College May 23, 2000. I’m very proud as he worked very hard for this.
Kendall worked for Eljer Plumbingware for many years and decided to retire. I wanted to take a bucket list trip to Greece, but it was during the time the airports were being bombed and it just wasn’t safe to go to Greece at that time. We decided to take the Cadillac of bus tours over to California in April through all the winery’s. Kendall and I traveled to Germany, rented a car and took back roads all over the gorgeous countryside. We stayed in guest houses and met the most interesting people. We were in Berlin during the International Beer Festival, visited Neuschwanstein Castle, Lindenhof Palace, and even stayed in two different castles. One castle we stayed in was Altenburg Castle located in Bamberg where Kendall was stationed during his service in the Army (1945-1947). When Kendall was stationed there, he could see the castle off in the distance. Another castle we stayed in was Liebenstein Castle (not sure) located on the Rhine River which had a lock system to let water in and out. We enjoyed our breakfast overlooking the river. I used to say, “We went up the Rhine and down the Mozell” just to be funny since we toured all over Germany. I didn’t know you had to pay to use the restroom and one time a lady gave me money to get in and I told her I’d go find my husband to repay her and she said, “this pee is on me”. I just thought that was so kind and welcoming. When we were leaving to return home, we met a young girl at the airport who happened to be from Apopka and lived on the road that went down to where we lived. How coincidental is that?
We sold our beautiful home off Heatherbrite Circle and moved into one of our condos out in Lake Mary. Hughes Supply wanted Kendall to start another project, which he worked on for a few years and then he decided to retire again. In 1990, we got our lake house plans from a company up in Georgia. They constructed most of the house in Georgia and shipped it down to the lake to assemble. We lived at the lake very happily, traveling and making new friends. We met some neighbors from down the dirt road by the name of Harriet and Jack Ashley. Jack and Kendall became good buddies and Harriet and I were also. We talked about playing golf and decided to take lessons at Live Oak Golf Course.The four of us would have breakfast and then go play golf somewhere. We had a great time, playing cards at each of our homes, golfing, and at a Georgia course won a Seniors tournament, we were the only Seniors playing so that was “easy”. We also traveled in our campers to Texas, South Dakota, they wanted to travel East so we departed company and traveled to North Dakota (researching Mama D), Montana (researching Uncle Van), and Minnesota. It was toward the end of September and they start closing the parks at that time of year since it gets so cold. I looked up in the telephone book some DeChaine’s, called around and ended up talking to a daughter of one of the ladies that married a DeChaine. She wanted us to come out to visit right then, but I suggested waiting until the following day. We went to their home the following day which was located on a lake and their home was built out of the wood from their property. Had a lovely brunch with them and come to find out, she mentioned several names of people she received letters from here in Florida. She had been corresponding with Dottie James who at the time was trying to write the history of Grandma Baxter and so forth. When we got back to the park, there was no electricity, no hot water, there was no nothing! They had closed the park, but we stayed there that night and had to take ice cold showers. The next day we headed back to Florida.
Kendall and I visited Germany again, for Thanksgiving , but this time to visit our son Mark who was stationed in Bamburg. We met this wonderful couple that I’m still friends with named Walter and Deann Seals. While there we traveled to Czechoslovakia to Carlova Varie, a neat little city where we spent the night at the Dr. Mayor’s home. In November of 1993, Kendall and I visited Germany for the last time to be with Mark after the birth of his beautiful daughter Karah Alisabeth since she was due to have heart surgery. Mark, I don’t mean to bring this up but this is part of our history because as I know it’s not easy for you. You just have to be there for them and thank God we were there with them. They really treated Mark very well and gathered together afterwards. A soldier (just a young kid) came up to me, shook my hand and asked if I was Mark’s mom. He thanked me for raising such a wonderful man and told me Mark has helped him so much over there in Germany and of course that just boiled me over. Of all the things, when we arrived home, Betsy and Mama were at the airport to meet us. That was the most beautiful site to see – my Mama and my precious daughter there, so we went back to the house and had Thanksgiving dinner together. Like Kendall and I said as we left, we said goodbye to Germany because we knew we’d never go back. It was a beautiful trip and then we had the funeral for our precious little granddaughter back in Orlando, Florida.
For our 50th wedding anniversary, we took a trip to Israel and toured the area where Christ walked, visited his tomb, drank wine from the wooden cup and it was one of the most beautiful trips that we could have ever taken. Kendall thoroughly enjoyed this trip because he was very much into the bible. I would love to make a trip like that again because I know the bible a little more now and it would be more interesting to me. It happened to be Mother’s Day when we traveled to Israel. We arrived at one hotel getting settled and all of a sudden, we get a rap on the door and there was this bouquet of flowers about 4 feet tall from Charlie Kalapp. What a thrill for Charlie to send me those beautiful flowers. We got remarried at the 2000 James Family Reunion with Ronnie and Peggy at our side once again. In October, we continued to celebrate by taking a cruise to Mexico with Peggy and Bill Cannon. It was a wonderful year to do so many things for our 50th wedding anniversary.
After all of our travels, Kendall and I joined the Lake Broward Association which helps keep the lake clean and protected. Kendall, Jack and a few other men used to test the lake water quality and other conservation tasks. Kendall also joined the Lake Broward Old Farts Fishing Group of about 5-6 men that got together and had a great time. We were also very involved in the Republican Club, I was very involved with my church and Kendall went to church with me. I was involved with the Dunn’s Creek State Park as volunteer CSO and I volunteered with Hospice. We would host the James Family Summit Meetings in our home which were always very exciting. That is a story within itself, year after year hosting them here at the lake and loving every minute of it!
The day after Christmas in 2001, a very bad thing happened, our house caught fire in the fireplace. Guru Amar, our granddaughter was visiting and was such a big help getting as much out of the house as possible. Kendall had a hard time following orders from the Sheriff’s office as he was on the roof with the hose.before the fire trucks arrived. One of the first to come to help us was brother Richard with a check. He said “Rosie, this is to help y’all out” – this is my brother. I told him “I’ll hold the check if I need it, if not I’ll give it back to you.” Then he said “Rosie, y’all are gonna need a place to stay. I want you to know you can have our A-Frame until y’all get the house built back.” Neighbors came and brought us things to wear as it was freezing cold and the wind blowing off the lake did not help.The whole family pitched in – Richard, Warren, Ron & Carol, and Gene & Prissy were remarkable with cleaning this place out with their tractor and storing all of our furniture in their barn. We lived down at Richard and Carolyn’s place on the lake, which made it easy to come down and check on our house. A friend of Charlie’s named Clay rebuilt our house. The October before our house was finished, Kendall discovered that he had bladder cancer and that was the biggest blow of all. Kendall has been healthy all his life and I really do believe the stress of the house, building up our future and all of a sudden it was gone, and here we were aged. All he could think about was – Rosie we’re gonna get this place built, I want you back in our house – so that’s what we did. It took a little bit longer than we thought, but Richard said, “Rosie, don’t worry about the time you have to stay down there.” Ronnie and Carol could not have been better help buying all of the different things that were destroyed in the fire. When the house was being completed, Suzy, Phillip, and someone else bought supplies and went over to Gene and Prissy’s barn to clean up all the furniture that survived the fire from being in that barn for a year and a half. By the time we moved in, all of the furniture was just perfect. Betty and Harry helped in the bedroom leaving a bottle of wine with glasses, and Billie was in the kitchen getting it all ready to move back in which was perfectly done. We had our annual James Family Summit Meeting at Mama’s that year and the whole family presented us with a check to help pay for anything we needed, which I was beyond thinking. It bothered me very much, but they all said this is what your family thinks of you. I used the money to buy furniture for the family room. I thank everyone dearly for that.
We moved back into the house in February (Kendall’s operation was in January). Who to drive up, but Chris from Illinois and it was the best thing that his dad could have at that moment. Kendall had to have another operation and he was not well. We kept having company stop by to visit. We took Kendall back to Orlando, so he could be with his regular doctor. They put him on blood transfusions / dialysis and on Saturday, he said “I’m through.” On Sunday, he said “Rosie, I just want to see the kids.” I called everybody, and Charlie brought the kids, Betsy brought her kids and Brad Roberts came and sat with us all day long. By the way, while Kendall was in the hospital, Brad and Kim Roberts had a baby Emma Grace born on my birthday in September. I went over and held that baby which is still my precious little person that I try to keep in contact with. Kendall said, “I’m tired and I want to go home.”, so Sunday morning the doctor that did the surgery was notified and came over to the hospital right after church. He shook Kendall’s hand and said, “I think you’re making a wise move,” We were all three in tears because he had tried so hard to make this right for Kendall, but it was just too far gone. The next day, Deva and I checked KK out of the hospital. In the meantime, Betsy came to the lake and had Hospice set up everything since Kendall wanted to lay in the bed and look out over the lake. After we came home, it seems like Mama, Peggy & Bill, Billie, Ronnie & Carol, and all my kids were here. On a Tuesday the Lake Broward Old Farts Fishing Club (LBOFFC) came over to say goodbye to their buddy. On Thursday, the nurse came by to check on Kendall and while she was inside taking care of Kendall, Charlie was outside cleaning her SUV. The nurse (who I know from volunteering with Hospice) was so thrilled and I just love her. She was particularly loving and caring for Kendall. That Friday night, Charlie was sitting in there with his dad (the #1 person in his life) and he said, “Dad you know it’s my birthday, but if you feel like going it would be an honor for me if you did.” Everybody gathered out on the porch and sang Amazing Grace which is one of Kendall’s favorite songs and then everyone went off to bed. Close to 2 o’clock in the morning on Saturday, I heard Kendall’s breathing rattling, so I woke up all of the kids and called Ronnie because I knew he would want to be there with his brother. We gathered around holding Kendall and he took his last breath at 2:04 am, so he waited until the 18th to pass away. The next day I had so many people around here. Deva Kaur said to Deva Singh, “you promised your dad when they moved back in that you’d get this yard fixed up.” All of the kids were out there working in the yard on Saturday after dad passed away on Friday. Even little Amarissa was out pulling weeds, she didn’t know it, but she was pulling up my flowers too. I didn’t care because she was just working. Everybody was so busy and you would have never known someone passed away that morning. It was just wonderful having family here. Peggy & Bill and Billie would come here everyday from Fernandina. After the funeral, we had a wonderful gathering here at the lake. Everybody came, my family, my neighbors, Helen Morgan my dear friend, Mark with his two comrades from the Army who presented me with the flag, and Ronnie who made a toast to Kendall. I’ve missed Kendall terribly.
We have a home here that I’ve enjoyed for many, many years. I’d rather have Kendall here with me, but you can’t always have what you want. I’ve had the kids visit me and I’ve enjoyed every visit they’ve been here. I’ve got my dog Rusty by my side keeping me company. My life down here has been made so much more fun spending time with my precious niece Jennye, her two boys and all of their friends. Sometimes I just pull into the driveway, stop the car and think “there’s not many people that have what I’ve got… after all that we’ve been through… to have this beautiful home on Lake Broward that I can live in and enjoy.”
Kendall and I have always been so proud having such wonderful kiddos.
Deva started his career with a push mower years ago and now has his own very successful and profitable company with his very helpful wife. Deva Kaur, is to the point of retiring to their beautiful home in New Mexico. We are fortunate to have two grandchildren Siri Amrit, Guru Amar and 2 great grandchildren, Gobin Singh and Bahadur, .
Betsy has successfully gained her “college degree” working for United Medical with a boss, Don Dizney who saw the potential with this smart, intelligent and dedicated “assistant” for 38 years, retiring on September 21, 2018. Also being a great and loving mother to two of our grand kids, Sean, Katherine (Katie) and now one great darling great Granddaughter, Myles Kendall and another Great Grandson Thomas Kervin who arrived on October 15, 2018.
Charlie, as our Mama D says, just like Daddy Red, has a career in sales and is doing very well with a devoted wife, Lori by his side including an “adopted” grandson Sebastian, Grandson Justin, his daughter, Morgan Rose, granddaughter Lindsay (husband William) with their little children, great Grandsons, Noah & Evan, and great granddaughter, Aubrey.
Chris, our Dr. Clouseau works for State Farm Co.and is happy chasing all the bad guys, trying to get by with frauding the company. He and his precious Faye produced two beautiful granddaughters Amarissa, and Briana.Chris also served our USA Navy with learning and riding in a submarine. Great memories for him, but sometimes worried his dad and I.
Mark finally found his niche in life by joining the USA Army serving in Iran, Germany, Desert Storm, Ir etc. His career is now an ROTC teacher and instructor at a high school in Florida. He presented us with 4. Deceased granddaughter, Karah Alissabeth, grandson Ethan who serves in the reserves, granddaughter, Alayne, and grandson Liam.
God bless you, Rosie. This is so awesome!!! I never knew how successful Kendall was in the plumbing business. I’m so proud of him. I’m so glad that ya’ll got to travel as much as you did.
Love to ALL!
Thanks again to Jennye for this, and for all the POSTS!!!! You are INCREDIBLE!!!!
3x4dx3
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get
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