Louise’s grandfather, Dr. Frederick Raker, delivered her. After Dr. Raker’s first wife passed away, he remarried only to have his second wife die at the age of 28. The widower was left with four children, from ages one to eight, to raise. Dr. Raker’s sister, Harriet Raker Moyer, who also had a child of her own, moved in with her brother to help raise his four children. Because of this, Louise always thought of Harriet as her grandmother.
Louise’s father, Joseph, worked on the railroad and later for Pennsylvania Power and Light Company. Susan (Eba) had two brothers and a sister. The two boys went off to college, while Susan stayed home to keep house for her father, who, along with another doctor, owned a drug store.
Louise said that she had a wonderful life while growing up. Her summers were spent at her Aunt Harriet’s cottage, Rest Awhile, located along Penn’s Creek. On the property, there was a swimming pool, where she learned to swim. Louise remembers the pool as being an old house foundation filled with water from Penn’s Creek. The swimming pool was fenced in, a warning that the children were not allowed to swim unless an adult was present. Rest Awhile also had a tennis court and a swing that hung from a large tree. Instead of chains, the swing had two metal straps that allowed the swing to go really high. The cottage attracted many children from the area, especially boys. The summer was spent either swimming, bicycling, canoeing or just sunning on a big rock.
Louise graduated from Shamokin High School in 1940 and went on to Cornell, where she studied Home Economics. Since there were no men in her classes, dating was limited; however, a classmate, who lived in Ithaca, knew four young men that had an apartment down the street from where she lived. When one of the young men asked her friend for a date, she replied that she already had a date for that evening. He then asked whether she had any friends that would go out on a date, and she gave him Louise’s phone number.
The young man called Louise, and they talked for four hours and this led to the date. The young man was Evan Williams.
The couple began dating regularly but since living on opposite sides of the campus, they met in the middle at either a café known as ‘Johnny Parsons’ or the school library. During the week, Louise had to be back in her room by 9:30 p.m. and 12:00 midnight on weekends, which allowed very little time together.
One evening Evan borrowed a friend’s vehicle to take Louise on a date, and it began to snow, making the roads slippery. The car in front of Evan and Louise spun out, and their car slid into the other vehicle.
In the accident, Louise was injured and had to have 25 stitches in her knee.
On spring break, Louise and Evan went to Troy to meet his parents, and soon after he went to Shamokin to meet her parents.
The following summer Evan went to work in the Adirondack’s, where he worked as a waiter. It was not all work for Evan loved to play cards and tennis. Louise stayed at home and kept in contact with Evan by letters.
At the start of the next semester, Louise and Evan were both back at Cornell; however, college life had changed. There were quite a few servicemen attending school with the Reserve Officers Training Corp.
War was nearing and Evan wanted to finish college before being drafted. Many students were being married before the men were to be sent oversees.
During this time, Benny Goodman’s Band came to Cornell, and for the first time the band played the song, “Stairway to the Stars”. Louise had been in attendance and heard the band playing, and just recently she was able
o get a disc of this original recording of “Stairway to the Stars”.
During the time Evan was at Cornell, he worked at many jobs: meeting new students at the train and assigning rooms; a waiter at a restaurant and also at an ice cream parlor. Evan had been saving money to buy Louise an engagement ring but his time was soon to be up before leaving for the military, and he still did not have enough money for a ring. So, Evan sold all of his clothes since he no longer would need them (he would be wearing uniforms). This gave Evan enough money to buy the engagement ring, which he gave to Louise as a birthday/engagement present.
Evan did not finish college but instead enlisted in the newly formed Air Force and left for his training in Mississippi. After training in Mississippi, he was sent to Carlisle. Every weekend Louise would ride a bus, and then a train, at a cost of nine dollars, to visit Evan. She would leave Ithaca on a Friday night at 9:30 p.m. and arrive in Carlisle at 10:00 a.m. the next morning. Evan would be free from 10:00 a. m. until 1:00 p.m.. While in Carlisle, Louise stayed with a professor and his wife for three dollars. The Professor was the football coach and had coached Jim Thorp, while he attended the Indian School, in Carlisle. On her return trip to college, Louise would leave at 9:30 p.m. Sunday night and be back at Cornell in time for 10:00 a.m. class on Monday morning.
On March 1943, Evan received his commission, which meant an increase in pay, making it possible for the couple to be married. They were married in Albany, Georgia, with only the minister attending. Since there were no witnesses, the minister put down his daughter’s name as witnessing the ceremony.
After Louise graduated in February of 1944, she joined Evan, in Georgia, and then moved to North Carolina. Nine months later, a son, Evan Jr., was born. Evan Sr. was then sent to Ardmore, Okalahoma. Louise and their son returned to Shamokin to live with her parents and also spend time with Evan’s parents in Troy. In time, Louise was to join Evan, in Oklahoma. She boarded the train for Oklahoma, using a market basket to carry Evan Jr.. It was in Okalahoma where Evan (the pilot of a B17) met his flight crew, who were of all different nationalities. One of the crew was a German, who had been in the country for 15 years. The flight crew had only been in Oklahoma for five weeks before being sent to England.
This time Louise stayed with Evan’s parents. She was given pieces of furniture that had in a barn. Besides tending to Evan Jr., Louise kept busy stripping and refinishing furniture, with lye and starch; reupholstering a couch; collecting items for her hope chest and writing letters to Evan Sr. Louise still has all of the letters (approximately 1,300) that she and Evan wrote to each other throughout their time apart during the war.
Although the crew never saw combat they did have some close calls during training when planes came too close to each other. The crew became a
close knit family, and after the war, they continued to have reunions.
Two of the crew are still living and Louise hears from them and also the co-pilot’s wife.
At the time Germany surrendered, the crew was being trained to go to the South Pacific. Instead, the war ended, and Evan was discharged from the service and returned to Cornell.
While attending school, Evan found a job as a janitor for an 18 unit apartment complex, with a basement apartment as a portion of the salary.
Both Evan and Louise worked at running the apartments for $90 a month.
The job included keeping one furnace going that supplied heat to the apartments and tending another furnace that supplied the building with hot water; removal of garbage; keeping the hallways clean and taking care of grocery orders that arrived for the apartment dwellers (they had to put the groceries in a dumb waiter to be sent up to the tenant’s apartment). The couple stayed there a year and a half, and during this
time, they were able to save some money because Evan was now going to school under the GI Bill.
During this period, food freezers were just coming into use. So, with their extra money, the couple bought a large freezer, with the idea that they would save money. Louise remembers buying and washing two bushels
of spinach and also the breaking of 60 dozen eggs, all of which were put into containers and loaded into the freezer. The freezer plan did not work out as well as they thought it would.
Due to the war, Evan was able to finish law school in six years. (If a student had a half semester in and left for the military, the student was given credit for a full semester.)
Evan had not yet passed the Bar, so it was back to Troy, where he went to work for Attorneys Smyth and Bullock. In 1947, Evan passed the Bar, and opened his own office above McClellen’s Store, in Troy.
Eventually, Evan became involved in politics and was elected as a State Representative in 1959 and served for nine and a half years. At this time, he became the Common Pleas Judge in Bradford County and served in
this position from 1968 until retiring in 1984.
Louise taught Home Economics at Troy High School for three years and then stayed home to raise their family. She also ran a nursery school in Troy and was still able to tell me most of the children in her class.
Evan Jr. (born in 1944) married Linda Miller; Barbie born in 1950
(married Don White); Susie (born in 1955) married Ray Welty and Lorie (born in 1957) married Allan Krasner. There are 10 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.
Evan Sr. died April 5, 2005, while in Florida. Every Christmas the family has a Memorial Service for Evan on the lawn of their home. At 10:00 a.m., balloons are released and a special prayer is said for Evan, the husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. Also, a letter
is read that Evan Sr. wrote on his thoughts of dying. This was a letter that he was required to write while in the service.
Louise said that she has had a long and wonderful life and states that a happy person will live longer than a disgruntled person. This is one of her sayings: “When you get up in the morning, do you say “GOOD Morning GOD.” or do you say “GOOD GOD, IT’S MORNING..” “Put you big girl panties on and deal with it.” is another of her favorite sayings.
I spent over three hours interviewing Louise and this short article does not do her life justice. She loves collecting and cutting out Scherenschnitte, which is German for ‘scissor snips’ and is the ancient art of paper cutting.
It was a privilege to talk with this lovely 92 year young lady, with such a wonderful outlook on life. If you are having a bad day, go and talk to Louise, who (I guarantee) will have you leaving with a better outlook.