ashetlandpony (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ashetlandpony) wrote2021-09-12 09:17 am
ashetlandpony) wrote2021-09-12 09:17 am
Entry tags:
Scandal!
So, I recently subscribed to this online newspaper archive for my Covina history project, and discovered scandal in my family's past. Turns out my father was involved in a fairly messy (and publicized!) divorce.
Virginia Lucas and Ed Shannon, date and place unknown.
The way she's looking at him...
I knew my father had been married before my mom, but Dad rarely spoke of his ex, and practically nothing about the details of their relationship. I did know first-hand that Dad had a problem with betting/gambling, though. Mom almost broke up with him over some heavy losses at the craps tables in Vegas in the Sixties.
I also knew Dad liked horses, and liked to go to the races, but we didn't go very often. Three or four trips to Caliente when I was little, and that was about it.
However, as you can see in these newspaper articles from 1941, betting on horse races was apparently quite a big issue with his first wife! I can imagine Dad was furious over these write-ups. They do make the affair sound pretty salacious.
What I can't figure out are the accusations of wife beating. I think that's just outright divorce court slander, because my dad was the most even-tempered man I've ever known. I know for a fact he never laid a hand on Mom, because she would have left him on the spot. (She had already divorced one husband before him because of physical abuse, and she was not the kind of woman who would tolerate shit like that again in any way, shape or form.)
What really negates those claims, though, is that after the war, Virginia ended up remarrying Dad, and this time having a child with him. Dad had become quite wealthy as a defense contractor during WWII, and acquired even more wealth after it as an oil wildcatter, so I guess all that money caused Virginia to have a change of heart and conclude that Ed Shannon wasn't such a bad guy, after all. ;-)
And not only were horses apparently not a problem for her anymore, she even partnered with him in actually racing horses at Santa Anita! Dad bought himself a real thoroughbred filly who he called "Who Dat" – a picture of whom was hanging on the wall in my bedroom the whole time I was growing up. This isn't that picture, but I like this one because Who Dat looks like she's grinning at the camera and Dad looks a little miffed as she seems to be getting a little pushy at the moment.
Anyway, there was a sad end to Dad's brief fling in horse racing, when Who Dat fractured a leg while training one day, and had to be put down. The only times I ever saw my father cry was after his little brother died, and the times he spoke about what happened to Who Dat.
Things eventually went south with Dad's second marriage to Virginia, too, though this time, HE divorced HER over her drinking. They parted ways for good in 1950, and Dad married my mom in 1951.
So now I know the whole story behind what Dad meant when he once cryptically told me, "I had to give up horses to marry your mother." ;-)
Virginia Lucas and Ed Shannon, date and place unknown.
The way she's looking at him...
I knew my father had been married before my mom, but Dad rarely spoke of his ex, and practically nothing about the details of their relationship. I did know first-hand that Dad had a problem with betting/gambling, though. Mom almost broke up with him over some heavy losses at the craps tables in Vegas in the Sixties.
I also knew Dad liked horses, and liked to go to the races, but we didn't go very often. Three or four trips to Caliente when I was little, and that was about it.
However, as you can see in these newspaper articles from 1941, betting on horse races was apparently quite a big issue with his first wife! I can imagine Dad was furious over these write-ups. They do make the affair sound pretty salacious.
What I can't figure out are the accusations of wife beating. I think that's just outright divorce court slander, because my dad was the most even-tempered man I've ever known. I know for a fact he never laid a hand on Mom, because she would have left him on the spot. (She had already divorced one husband before him because of physical abuse, and she was not the kind of woman who would tolerate shit like that again in any way, shape or form.)
What really negates those claims, though, is that after the war, Virginia ended up remarrying Dad, and this time having a child with him. Dad had become quite wealthy as a defense contractor during WWII, and acquired even more wealth after it as an oil wildcatter, so I guess all that money caused Virginia to have a change of heart and conclude that Ed Shannon wasn't such a bad guy, after all. ;-)
And not only were horses apparently not a problem for her anymore, she even partnered with him in actually racing horses at Santa Anita! Dad bought himself a real thoroughbred filly who he called "Who Dat" – a picture of whom was hanging on the wall in my bedroom the whole time I was growing up. This isn't that picture, but I like this one because Who Dat looks like she's grinning at the camera and Dad looks a little miffed as she seems to be getting a little pushy at the moment.
Anyway, there was a sad end to Dad's brief fling in horse racing, when Who Dat fractured a leg while training one day, and had to be put down. The only times I ever saw my father cry was after his little brother died, and the times he spoke about what happened to Who Dat.
Things eventually went south with Dad's second marriage to Virginia, too, though this time, HE divorced HER over her drinking. They parted ways for good in 1950, and Dad married my mom in 1951.
So now I know the whole story behind what Dad meant when he once cryptically told me, "I had to give up horses to marry your mother." ;-)