Althea Fuller Lane's Story

My Fuller family starts in Butler Co. Kentucky with John H. Fuller. No one , so far, knows where he was born. He married Sarah Burris (Burres) date unknown. They lived in Butler Co. at least from 1850, and probably for some time before that. Their children were born in Kentucky and Sarah and one daughter died there. John was a small farmer there.

John and Sarah had six sons and two daughters. There is no trace of what happened to some of the children after Sarah and one daughter (Orlenia) died. Also there is no trace of what happened to John. One source seems to think that the children were given away, maybe to other family members. But so far know one know this for sure. Two of the children William, buried in Butler Co. Ky. and Thomas buried in Logan Co. KY. One , George W. Fuller is buried in Trinidad, Colo. The whereabouts of the others may always remain a mystery. So far not even the grave site of Orlenia nor Sarah has been located.

Sources say that John remarried, but no one knows who or where. It has been said that he married a Mexican woman, but no one can prove this theory. Nor does anyone living know where John went to after 1860. That was the last year him and most of his family was listed in the Butler Co. Ky. census. I will never give up looking, however. Some day the mystery may be solved. But for now the story can only continue with the life of George W. Fuller.

George W. Fuller was the father of George Hessler Fuller. This is the line I am most interested in since he was my mother's father (Geo. H.) George W. Fuller moved to Colorado, date unknown, to survey land for the government. He met and married Palestine Mary Jane Allison in Colorado and they raised their family in El Moro, Colo.

Colorado records are harder to research because apparently there are not to many genealogists in colorful Colorado. From Colorado on, the Fuller family will be from known and current records. The only living grandchildren of George W. Fuller don't remember much about him or their grandmother, including my mother, Althea. Most of the data about his children will follow the George Hessler Fuller line. This is my direct line of the family.

George Hessler Fuller was born and raised in Elmoro, Colo.All three of his sisters remained in Trinidad, Colo until their deaths. George was inducted into the army Oct. 5, 1917 in Trinidad, Colorado, and was stationed at Camp Funston in Kansas. Camp Funston is now known as Ft. Riley. George was a Private Provost Guard (MP). George was honorable discharged on March 13, 1919 due to the death of his father, ( by reason of Par 20 SO) and the fact that is younger brother was also in the service. George was the oldest brother and had to go home to help his widowed mother.

George met and married Vella Fae Grubbs on June 15, 1922.George H. Fuller and his wife, Vella Fae Grubbs Fuller, raised their family mostly in Kansas.

Althea was born in Weston, Colo., but the small family moved to Syracuse, Kansas in 1929, when Althea was only 4 years old. Syracuse, Kansas was where Twilo and Reva were born. Althea still lives there (as of Jan. 2000). Althea is very close to her family. When her younger sister, Twilo, needed advise she would call Althea, even after she was grown and married with children of her own. Not only Althea's children, but her grandchildren rely on her advise. Of course, as a teenager, I didn't always think her advise was right, but now that I am grown I see that every thing she would advise me about was right. But you know how teens are. They just know everything about everything. At least I thought I did.

Althea met Oliver "Buck" Lane and they were married in Lakin, Kansas on Nov.2, 1941. Mom told me her and Dad eloped. They had sent a telegram telling grandpa and grandma, but they got back before the telegram arrived. I guess grandpa was about ready to kill dad until he found out they were married. The marriage license in hand was the only thing that saved dad's life. Mom was a week shy of 16 when they were married, plus she was her daddy's girl. So we can imagine how grandpa must have felt. Any way mom and dad spent almost 40 years together so it must have been the right thing to do.

Buck and Althea's first two children were born in Syracuse, Kansas (Ethel and Margaret). Then they moved to Liberal, Kansas. Their only son was born in Beaver, Oklahoma while they lived in Liberal. Their next two daughters were both born in Liberal, Kansas. After several years they moved to Johnson, Kansas (this is where Buck was born). Then they moved to Kendall, Kansas and later back to Syracuse. This is where they lived when Buck died on July 29, 1981. He is buried in the Syracuse Cemetery.

After they had moved to Syracuse and the three oldest children had married, Ethel their oldest daughter, was killed in a car/truck wreck. She was taking her little girls to a 4H meeting one night and ran into the back of a stalled truck. She is buried in the Kendall Cemetery.

Margaret, the second born still lives in Kendall, Kansas. Jim lives in Longmont, Colo., Cathy lives in Garden City, Kansas and Gayl lives in Liberal, Kansas.

The children and grandchildren of the above are scattered from Cortez, Colo. to western Kansas and on south to Corpus Christi, Texas. Althea and Buck had 5 children, 16 grandchildren and step-grandchildren, and 30 great grand children and step-great grand children. And they are expecting two more this year (2000).

The following pages give all of the descendants that I was able to acquire. My information came from many sources including family members and several very nice people over the Internet. Without their help I could not have found this much information. A special thanks to Connie D. Hurley and Tamara Kincaid who sent me a lot of my data on the earlier Fullers.

Reva Fuller Glenn and her husband, Bill, still live in Denver, Colo. At the time of this writing Twilo has gone on before us. She died on Dec. 18, 1999 in Ponca City, OK.. She rests in heaven with her two sons George Wesley and Jackie Dale.

Althea has always loved her family and friends and is always willing to help out any one in need, whether it is just a shoulder to lean on or money to pay a bill. She never speaks ill of anyone. She has many friends and family. She has always been there for her children no matter what. And I want her to know how very much she is loved by all of us.

I don't want to get into much of the Fuller-Lane story because my sister-in-law, Debra Blake Lane, is doing that end and is doing a very wonderful job of it. She already has an Internet Home Page on this. You can get to this website from My Favorite Web Sites.

At this writing there are more than 70 living descendants of George Hessler Fuller. Isn't it amazing how just two people can populate the earth? And what a wonderful man and woman who created this population explosion.

When Althea's mother fell and broke her hip in Nov. of 1978, her and dad moved in with grandma and took care of her until her death in Jan. 1979. It was just something she (Althea) did without giving it a second thought. Grandma never spent one day in a nursing home, which made her last days happy ones.

I can remember as a child we would travel from Liberal, Kansas to Syracuse, Kansas every other week-end to visit grandma and grandpa. Grandpa was usually out puttering around in his garage, working on lawn mowers. Grandma, when I was about 10-12 had a little diner on main street. I worked for her one summer. There was a man came in one day and told me he wanted a bowl of graveyard stew. I thought he was pulling my leg, but he said just tell your grandma she will know what I want. And to my amazement she sure did. It was just warmed up milk with toast in it. That was grandma, always doing whatever it took to please her customers. There was one time I overcharged a family $10.00. They were from out of town so there was no way to know who they were. I just figured grandma would give me the extra money, but was I ever wrong. She said let this be a lesson to be more careful next time. That was the end of it, she never got mad or anything. Grandpa was always a gentle man. I don't ever remember seeing him get mad over any thing. He was always trying to teach the grandson's how to work on small engines. I think my brother, Jim, and one of Reva's boys were the only ones who kept a love of that kind of work in their generation. Grandpa also taught two of his nephews the mechanic trade. They were Rex Jacobs (Aunt May's son) and Jack Kenion (Aunt Maud's son. Rex went on to become a Caterpillar mechanic who traveled all over the country working on engines. Jack had his own shop in Denver, Colorado. The only time I remember grandma getting mad was when Ethel and I dug a hole in her new grass, filled it up with water, stripped to our underpants and went swimming in it. She chased us with a switch, but she couldn't catch me. I don't remember what happened when I finally went to the house, but knowing grandma it wasn't much.

I miss having them around. I would have liked for my kids to have known them better, and for my grandchildren just to have known what wonderful people they both were. Their memory will remain with me always.

When I was growing up Ethel and I were so different that we never really got close until we were both grown and had kids of our own. Ethel would rather be outside pretending to be a horse and I would rather be looking at rock star magazines or be off flirting with the boys. But after we grew up and had children of our own we began to get to know each other. She was a very dear sister to me. I don't remember ever arguing with her after we were grown. But so many years we could have spent together were lost suddenly when she was killed in the wreck. I will always have her in my memory as the beautiful person she was.

My brother and other two sisters were so much younger than Ethel and I that I never got to know them until they were grown and had children of their own. It seems more and more families are not as close as families once were. But I do love my family very much. Now we are separated by miles. But when we do manage to get together I enjoy them all.

I used to think my brother was nothing but a pest, always wanting to hang around me, but now I know that was not the case. I was just a spoiled brat and he was a little doll. I love him very much and would never trade him in for a little girl now, though there was a time I told my mother that's is exactly what I wanted to do. Sorry brother about the sticker patch, too.

When Ethel and I were still at home we spent a lot of week-ends at Aunt Twilo and Uncle Ervin's farm. We had horses out there to ride, and lots of places to explore. We had one old horse named "Bob". We would all , about 5-6 of us, put old Bob under a tree and then jump down from the tree onto his back. He never seemed to mind. Jackie, Karolyn, Ethel and I spent a lot of time riding down to the bridge which was on Little Bear Creek. We would take along a "picnic lunch" and spend the whole day down there. I remember one time, though I don't know how, we managed to rope some owls. There were young and didn't fly to well I guess is how were able to rope them. Anyway Uncle Ervin was pretty mad at us about that.

Times change and kids grow up. Now we all have grandchildren, wel that is all but Gayl who is still a young mother, and they will soon be giving their parents the "headaches" we gave our parents. I have 23 grandchildren and three great grandchildren, Ethel has 5 and one on the way, Jim has 5, Cathy has 4 and has lost one, and the baby, Gayl, is still just a mother to young ones herself. Only the faces change, and of course the music and the way we all dressed, the rest stays about the same with children.

This just about ends my story for another generation. Now some one else will have to continue where I left off. But at least now the foundation is laid so it won't be as hard anymore. And believe me when you start going back and trying to find relatives that no one living knows, it's hard work. Without the help of my sister-in-law, Debbie, and two Internet friends, Connie Hurley and Tamara Kincaid, a lot of this infomation would have remained a mystery to me. You can get to Connie's and Tamara's websites from My Favorite Web Sites. But it has all worked out pretty good and I'm glad I was able to do this for my mother.

On April 5, 2000 Althea was diagnoised with small cell lung cancer. The cancer is also around her broncial tubes. Two week later we got the news that there is an aneurism in her left brain. I guess when it rains it pours. This has been a real trial for the family, to say the least. But like always, Althea is still being the backbone of the family. She is still "taking care" of her best friend, Rosie Munoz. Well of course, not "taking care of", but helping her out by giving her rides to the post office, grocery store and any place else that Rosie needs to go. She is also keeping the spirits of her family going. Later there will be another story about the life of Althea. One which will show her strengthand caring for others. But for now this is her story in a small nutshell. (Althea lost her battle with cancer on July 27, 2000.)

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