Writings and Thoughts: Dorothy Louise Blankenship Aldridge Green

My mother, Dorothy Louise Blankenship Aldridge Green on June 16, 1912 in White Church, KS to George Washington and Alma Sophia (Brotherson) Blankenship. She died at 102 years old on November 26, 2014. Her mother died when mom was 6 years old. My one year old mom in 1913 with her older sisters

When she was 14, her stepmother and father forced her to leave home and make it on her own. She ultimately lived with another family until she married my father. She had 8 children, and had a very difficult life.

Here is Dorothy Aldridge with her two older sisters in 1980.
Dorothy Aldridge-middle, with Lucille (to our left) and Nellie (to our right)

After her death, we found numerous journals, papers, photographs, and other interesting items of which we had been totally unaware for all of these years. I only wish I could have asked her about much of what she had written.

We discovered that during all of her adult life, over decades, Dorothy Aldridge wrote original poetry and narration of her feelings and experiences. She was very artistic and had been transcribing her cursive drafts (which are what we found) onto fine calligraphy paper.
Before Dorothy Aldridge died, she told me that she had an entire book of calligraphy, but it had been stolen. In her last two years of life, for a part of that time, a nursing service had been coming to her home, where she lived alone, and she said she had shown one of these people her bound book of calligraphy. Some weeks later, when she looked everywhere, she could not find it. She was convinced that it had been stolen. After she died, we could not find it either. Fortunately, a few pages of her calligraphy was among my stored items, and much of her draft originals written in cursive, had survived. Most of these journals and single sheets have been distributed to various of her children. I have only a few originals plus digital copies of a other pages.

Here are the few calligraphy pages I have.

This was a final piece on thin translucent vellum

Here is a practice example of her work.

Dorothy Aldridge practice page.

I have read journals that have been given to one of her daughters, and I have read some of the papers which my brother has. I made digital copies of some papers which I found to be most interesting and surprising.
Some of her poems and writings raise interesting questions. I do know that before she married my dad, she was torn between her feelings for him and for another man who was always a close family friend. It happens that his name is Bill, like mine. But she married my dad, Richard Aldridge, in 1930.

Richard Aldridge And Dorothy Aldridge Day of Marriage, February 12, 1930

Her marriage certificate shows that she was married in August 1930. Here is her explanation for that discrepancy. My older brother was born on December 12, 1930, so August would not have been looked upon as a desirable date.

For all of my life living with my mom and dad, Bill Allen was a fixture. He was obviously the closest friend both of them had. Many years later, when I was a foreman on a bridge of the Kansas Turnpike, Bill Allen came to work for me as an Ironworker. Sadly, within a few days, when he had earned enough to buy alcohol, he quit. I never saw him again, and I have no idea when or where he died. Here is a photo of Bill Allen, my dad, and me in the window of the car. These would be sometime in the late 30's to early 40's.

Bill Allen (left), my Dad Richard Aldridge, and me in window late 1939 or Early 1940

Bill Allen (left) and Richard Aldridge (right)

This was my father, Richard F. Aldridge, Sr., in 1945 after being drafted into the army.

This is my father and my mother, Dorothy Aldridge, a month or so before he died in 1978.

So lets look at some of mom's writings. This is my favorite. When I first read it, and other writings, I thought she must have copied from published work. However, I have done extensive searches and can find nothing like this that has been published; I found the same for her other writings. It is original.

This one was written shortly after my father died.

I am certain this was not referring to my father. And I must only wonder who it was and when was it written. I would love to have talked to mom about it.

And who again? Certainly not my dad.

Again, Who? When? Where?

And here, at the end of this paper, is an example of mom's calligraphy.

Who? When?

This needlework she did many years ago. I photographed it in this window of the room where she died a few minutes later. Wherever she lived, this was always hanging on a wall. She was not its author, but she lived it.

And here is Dorothy Louise Blankenship Aldridge Green on her 102nd birthday.

You can learn more about Dorothy by reading these Blogs, and listening to her voice describing some of the events of her life, like when her mother died in the pandemic of 1918-1919, and our experiences during the Great Depresssion.