Her Lindstrom ancestry is traceable back to a Peter Sunesson born c. 1765 at Mörlunda Parish, Kalmar Län county, Småland province, Sweden. I have been to this place and had amazing experiences of discovery and meeting previously unknown Swedish cousins. It was only days after this meeting in June 2002 that my first wife Anne died of a heart attack at the home of a new cousin in Sweden.
Frances Lindstrom was a graduate of the class of 1928. Her daughter Shirley Ruth Coad was born on Sept. 10, 1928, in Galesburg. Shirley’s father was Robert E. Coad. He was a man shrouded in mystery, as Mom had little to say about him. Incidentally, I have been able to track some of what happened to Robert Coad and his descendants in California. By 1930, Robert Coad was living with his mother and other kin in Galesburg.
Frances and Shirley lived with Frances’ parents until Frances married. The Lindstrom family lived on East Losey, East South Street (1930 census), and East Main. In 1930, the Lindstrom household consisted of Albert and Emma, Lawrence (Larry), Ruth, Edna, Frances Coad, and Shirley Coad (age 1). In 1931, Larry died. Ruth married Silas Winberg in 1933. Shirley started school at Weston School, through the 3rd grade.
Frances Lindstrom liked the song “Tea for Two”, and I have her teapot which plays that tune. She liked to dance, and went to the famed Arcade Roof Garden, “where the sky begins”, atop the Weinberg Arcade in Galesburg. Lawrence Welk and his Novelty Band played there in 1931. Big band music was played under the stars in good weather, and on the third floor otherwise.
My sister Shirley said that our mother Frances went to the dances with her sisters Ruth and Edna. Ruth was with Silas Winberg (they married in 1933), and Edna was dating Harry. Frances’ mother disapproved of a divorced woman going to dances. It may have been at such a dance that Frances Christine Lindstrom met Robert Pierce Muffley.
