Theodore and Virginia Barber
Jeffrey La Favre - jlafavre@gmail.com
Virginia (Mowry) Barber - 44 years old
The Bridge of Wings A story of the Wing family by Virginia Mowry Barber.
A Ribbon on the Stairs A story of the Barber family by Virginia Mowry Barber.
Letters, Fall 1925 Letters between Virginia Mowry and Theodore Barber, fall 1925.
Theodore Barber - started a nursery in Altadena with a partner in 1912 when he came to California. They started with oranges and then avocadoes Theodore found in Orange County growing secretly behind barbed wire. Everyone knew Altadena was so high, it was frost free. But one night the temperature dipped below and they lost all the young trees except the ones in this lath house. Several years later Father went to work as superintendent of Edwin Hart's large development in North Whittier Hts, La Habra Hts, Vista and Bloomington. The headquarters were at the corner of Vallecito and Los Lomitas. Father was born in 1885, divorced from Adelaide in 1925 and married Mother, Virginia Mowry, in 1926. After our 5 1/2 acres froze and got red root, we moved (1940) in with Grandma Stella on Turnbull and eventually Father went to work as Production Manager of Rohm and Haas. They made plexiglas airplane parts during World War II. The plant was sold to Shellmar and shortly they offered him the job of managing the whole plant. But he declined the offer because he felt he was not well enough now to do a proper job. - Barbara La Favre
Theodore Barber and his daughter, Barbara. We are in front of our house on Avocado Terrace, North Whittier Heights, CA. The porch here was screened in so we could sleep out on it when the weather was unbearable. Our home was on 5 1/2 acres of avocadoes. I remember one time quietly climbing up one of our tallest trees and hoping my father would not see me swaying in the breeze as he walked right under me. - Barbara La Favre
Barbara Virginia Barber at 15 or 16 years old. We moved to Grandma Stellas when I was 13 and moved back home off Avocado Terrace in 1945 when I was a senior in Puente High. By that time my father was doing well at Shellmar. - Barbara La Favre
Barbara V. Barber - This little tot would creep out of bed and in her p.j.s and run several blocks to her grandma's house early in the morning. Shortly, father would appear with a little spank and cart her off home. Barbara Barber determinedly did this over and over. - Barbara La Favre
Oliver (Dutch) Chester and his sister Emily.
Mother remarried in 1960 after Father passed. Oliver (Dutch) Chester joined our family. They moved to Paradise, California where she died in 1970. - Barbara La Favre.