Growing Up in the Midwest (Pre 1965)
Norma Gay Markley Dawdy was born in Champaign, Illinois on October 30, 1947 to Gayman and Marge Markley and moved soon after to Carthage, Illinois where Mom and Dad opened a Tastee Freeze Ice Cream Store. Norma and her two sisters, Nancy and Jean, spent several years watching Mom and Dad work long hours at the store across from their house.
In 1954 the Markley Family packed up and headed for a farm on Highway 11, just West of Janesville, Wisconsin where the three girls were raised. The farm was pretty well rundown when the Markley family arrived but a lot of elbow grease, loads to the dump and the addition of things like in-door plumbing made it home.


Marge posing on the tractor
Gayman and Marge raised seed-corn on their 160 acre farm while the three girls helped Mom in the house (Nancy cooked, Norma cleaned and Jean……..). The three girls were kept busy with chores, school work and 4-H projects. They also found time to and play with the kittens and their dog Peggy. They all graduated from Janesville High School; Nancy in 1963, Norma in 1965 and Jean in 1967.
Norma's older sister Nancy moved to California after training at the University of Wisconsin and met and married Ernie Pananganan, who was born on Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands and was a "Lifer" in the Air Force. During the next several years, they were stationed in Italy, Germany, the Azores and at Patrick AFB in Florida. Along the way they had two sons, Michael Glenn and Tim Kalani. Nancy and Ernie pananganan@aol.com as well as Mike and Tim all live in the Sacramento area.
Norma's younger sister, Jean also moved to California where she went to work for the City Police Department and then the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office. Jean had a number of jobs within the Department including Crime Scene Investigator and the "Bingo Bitch" who chased all the little old ladies away from the illegal Bingo games.

In 1992 she married Jim Ezell, who was a Lieutenant in the Sheriff's Department. Jean and Jim are now both retired and live in Folsom, California.(jimezell@mindspring.com)


Richard Stamp Dawdy was born in Janesville's Mercy Hospital on January 7, 1947 to John and Margaret Dawdy. John, was the son of Harold and Marie Dawdy of Onalaska, Wisconsin. Harold had been born in Greenville, Illinois, and Marie Melby in Whitehall, Wisconsin. For many years Harold ran the Onalaska Pickle and Canning Company that supplied superior quality vegetables to some of the finest hotels in the country. Although Harold was blinded when he was 18, it didn't stop him from teaching is son and grandson how to fish and appreciate the outdoors. Marie had been very involved in the Women's Christian Temperance Union and her strong Methodist principles were instilled in Dick at an early age.
Father and son in 1947
John, after graduating from High School in Onalaska, moved on the University of Wisconsin, where he graduated in 1936. John began work at the Parker Pen Company in Janesville shortly after college and throughout his 37 year career at Parker held many significant positions, including National and International Sales Manager and Director of Corporate Development (the acquisition of subsidiaries for the Parker Pen Company). John retired in 1982 to a home he purchased in Trempeleau, Wisconsin, and passed on Christmas Day in 1999 following complications from congestive heart failure.


Mother and son in 1947
Margaret, the daughter of Dr.and Mrs. Bernard (Anna) Krueger of Cudahy, Wisconsin, also attended the Univeristy of Wisconsin and was THE Domestic Engineer of the Dawdy household. She was an avid bowler and participated in many bowling leagues in Janesville. She is best known, however, for chasing Dick into the house at sundown every evening while he was playing with friends, and the cry became, "Better go in Dick, it's steamboat time". Margaret passed in 1970 from pneumonia, shortly after Dick and Norma were married, .

Dick attended Roosevelt Elementary School, Marshall Jr. High and Janesville Senior High School where he was active in sports, including basketball and track. He also spent countless hours pursuing the lovely females he encountered but eventually it was the spring of 1965 and the time came when he had to graduate from High School and move out into the real world.

                                   

In addition to his parents, Dick was "blessed" with a little brother, Daniel who has less hair now, than he did in this 1955 photograph with Grandma Krueger. (dsdawdy@ribbonrail.com) Dan, even back then was a real train fan and his current website (www.ribbonrail.com) shows that he hasn't lost the fascination with railroading.

Dorothy Watson, Margaret Dawdy and Stan Watson at Krueger cottage

One of the great "get-aways" as a kid was Grandma Krueger's Cottage near East Troy, Wisconsin. Margaret's sister and her husband Lt. Colonel Stan Watson owned the cottage next door and plied Dick with pancakes every chance they had. Dick learned to fish at the cottage and was always bringing home trophy sized perch (that's when the fishing stories really started).
                                   
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