Annette Estrada and Alfred A. Estrada: Their Stories

By Richard Estrada

This book contains the individual biographies of Annette Estrada and Alfred A. Estrada. They were typical of Americans who had successful lives in the twentieth century. Although they weren’t celebrities or famous, their lives were interesting and dramatic nevertheless. The two stories are independent and can be read separately but of course there is a strong overlap between the two as Annette and Al where married for 23 years. The Annette Biography was written first and the Al Estrada biography has less detail about their marriage and a different view of the automobile accident that took Annette’s life. The second part of this book, Al Estrada’s story, covers a much longer period as he lived almost twice as long as she did.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Estrada
• Release date: May 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301316168

Richard Estrada

Richard Estrada, a retired engineer/manager in a high tech company, is the author of several books on family histories spanning the twentieth century . These books describe the dramatic events in the lives of typical Americans during this time period. His email is [e-mail]

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The Biographies of Annette and

Al Estrada

By Richard Estrada, their younger son

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Richard Estrada

Table of Contents

Preface to Electronic Edition

Chapter 1 Introduction to Annette Estrada’s Biography

Chapter 2 Annette’s Early Life

Chapter 3 The Learns move to Atlantic City

Chapter 4 Annette meets and marries Al Estrada

Chapter 5 Annette moves to Philadelphia and has Children

Chapter 6 Annette and Al in World War II

Chapter 7 Annette’s life in the second half of the 1940s.

Chapter 8 Annette and Al move to Drexel Hill and into the upper middle class.

Chapter 9 1959 and the Auto Accident

Chapter 10 What does it all mean? What ‘s the measure of a person’s life?

Chapter 11 Appendix - People in Annette’s Life

Chapter 12 Introduction to Alfred A. Estrada’s Biography

Chapter 13 Al’s Early Life

Chapter 14 Al’s Young Adulthood

Chapter 15 Al begins work at Albright and Friel and meets Annette.

Chapter 16 Al Estrada in World War II

Chapter 17 Al Estrada after the War

Chapter 18 Al Estrada in the 1950s

Chapter 19 Annette and Al’s accident and Al’s recovery.

Chapter 20 Al Estrada Courts and Marries Mildred Beahan

Chapter 21Al Estrada Buys, Runs and Sells Albright and Friel

Chapter 22 Al Estrada retires in 1970.

Chapter 23 Al’s Old Age and Death

Chapter 24 Reflections on Al’s Life

Chapter 25Appendix - People in Al’s Life

Preface to Electronic Edition

This Book contains the individual Biographies of Annette Estrada and Alfred A. Estrada. The two stories are independent and can be read separately but of course there is a strong overlap between the two as Annette and Al where married for 23 years. The Annette Biography was written first and the Al Estrada biography has less detail about their marriage and a different view of the automobile accident that took Annette’s life. The second part of this book, Al Estrada’s story, covers a much longer period as he lived almost twice as long as she did.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Annette Estrada’s Biography

With the exception of an occasional celebrity, very little is known about our individual ancestors three, four, or five generations past. Until the beginning of the 20th century we didn’t even know what they looked like. Only rich families could afford to paint portraits of their members. In the early and mid 20th century, photographs were taken of middle class people. Even so, the context and narratives of the people in the photographs were lost when they and their immediate descendents died. Videos have helped us to see individuals in motion but this still doesn’t provide any real story about the people in them.

This is a biography of Annette Learn Estrada who lived from 1911 to 1959. She was not an exceptional person in any public way but she was very important to her immediate family. Here we are trying to keep the story of her life alive. The story may be of interest only to her descendents. She, I believe, brought forward loving ways that she learned from her mother and passed on to her children. From there these ways may have been passed from one generation to the next. This story is also about a typical American family moving from the middle class to the upper middle class during the heart of the 20th century. It may be of interest of people at much later periods on how people actually lived in what will eventually be thought of as primitive times.

Fifty years after her untimely death in 1959, this is being written by her younger son, who is now an old guy himself. Thus the reader should know that all these memories are at least 50 years old. A few pictures and newspaper accounts are the only physical artifacts available in putting together this story. An Appendix is provided containing information about people in Annette’s life. The reader may have to refer to this appendix often.

Chapter 2 Annette’s Early Life

Annette Learn was born on December 3, 1911 in Freeland Pa. At the time of Annette’s birth, her mother Mary Learn and her father Charlie Learn were young, just under 21 years old. They had been married only a year. Mary came from a large Roman Catholic family and had at least six brothers and sisters. Mary was in the middle of the birth order. Although Mary’s maiden name was McLaughlin, Mary’s mother’s maiden name was Miller which was German. Mary was the product of the waves of German and Irish immigration throughout the 19th century. She was quite proud that her Irish grandfather who served in the Union army during the Civil War.

The Learn family referred to themselves as Pennsylvania Dutch. Not to be confused with any stereotypes, the term Pennsylvania Dutch refers to German immigrants who came to many areas of Pennsylvania prior to the American Revolution. Most were oppressed religious minorities that William Penn had welcomed, even recruited. It is possible that the Learns originated in Alsace-Lorraine and were caught in French-German or Catholic Protestant conflicts of the time. According to the family legend the Learns were almost wiped out during an Indian raid near Stroudsburg PA. The Learns were Tories, Americans who supported the British during the revolution. Accordingly, local authorities had refused to assist the family. Since Indian raids had become somewhat rare by that time, one has to wonder who actually did the raiding.

Charlie’s family were strict non-drinking Protestants. At one time Charlie was the sexton at the local Reformed Church. Mary and Charlie had a mixed marriage. At that time a marriage between a Catholic and a protestant was unusual, even scandalous. After high school, Charlie apprenticed as a barber. When he and Mary married, he had is own barber shop and was thought of as a guy with potential. By all accounts theirs was a happy marriage. As time went on, their children realized that Mary had the brains and the strong character. Ironically, it would be Charlie who would have a drinking problem in his later years. As was common in Irish families Mary took the pledge and refused to drink alcohol. Many in her family, including some of her brothers, had the curse of alcoholism.

Picture 1: Annette as a Baby

As can be seen in Picture 1, Annette was a beautiful child. In March of 1913 Mary and Charlie had Charlotte, followed by Frances in 1915 and Paul in 1917. Paul was the baby of the family and of course was the parents’ favorite. However, the girls pampered him too and never begrudged him his role in the family. Picture 2 shows the four children with Annette at the top and Charlotte, Frances and Paul at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock.

Freeland was (and is) a modest town in Northeast Pennsylvania near Hazelton, in the middle of the anthracite hard coal region. Coal mining was the economic basis of the town. The locals proudly referred to themselves as coal crackers. The Learns were never poor and always had enough to live on by the standards of the time. They were much better off than the newly arrived immigrants that made up the miner class. Mary and Charlie started selling candy and similar items at the front of the barber shop.

Picture 2: Annette and her siblings Charlotte, Frances and Paul

During their childhood the three girls had to sleep in the same bed which they didn’t think was unusual for the time. Unfortunately, Frances still wet the bed. A story that Annette and Charlotte would tell into their adulthood was that Frances would wake up in the middle of the night in the wet and then push Charlotte into the wet spot as Annette was too big to push. Charlotte was always Annette’s closest sibling and vice versa. During their early childhood Annette was always the big