Claude Earl, Lillian Erna, Addie Myrtle and Benjamin Frank Roper were the siblings of Clyde Roper. Their parents were Benjamin Franklin and Bettie Reeves Roper. One interesting note is that all the children seemed to go by their middle name, including Clyde (Edgar Clyde). We don’t have a lot of information on them, other than Earl.

Lillian Erna (1891-1951)

Erna, as she was called, married Albert Draper in 1910 in Texas and had three sons, Elmond (1911-1975), Marshall (1916-1940) and Lee Earl (1918-1970). She and her family lived in Albuquerque until 1941 and then moved to California. Marshall died when he was 23, apparently of a kidney condition. He had been an engineering student at the University of New Mexico. Elmond was a civil engineer and hydrologist and worked for the Bureau of Reclamation in Arizona and maybe Montana. Lee Earl was a technical sergeant in the Air Force in WWII where he was an airplane crew chief in Northern France.

Claude Earl (1892-1968)

Earl and his wife Alma lived down Tillotson Street in Trinidad from Blanche and Roy Bratcher. Earl was a fireman for the C & S railroad and then an engineer. He and Alma had three children, Earl Jr. (Buddy), (1929-2002) Ruth Ann (1927-2015), and Jimmy (1939-) Ruth Ann and Buddy were playmates of Joan Roper, Clyde and Mabel’s daughter. Buddy became a professor and taught at a university in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Ruth Ann was a librarian and lived in Arizona.

Earl was in the Army in World War I and was in France from 1918-1919.

Here’s a harrowing story in the Greeley newspaper about a train crash that Earl narrowly escaped from in November, 1941.

Addie Myrtle (1899-1972)

Myrtle married Ralph Slane in 1920 and they had three children, Bettie (1922-2005), Bob (1923-2011) and Billy (1927-2010).

Bob was the Air Force pilot from the last entry, Judy and Billy lived most of their lives in Colorado and California.

Benjamin Franklin (1901-1982)

Frank lived most of his life in Trinidad, Colorado, and California. He was married to Frances, but there’s not much more information about him.

Erna, Earl, Myrtle, Frank

Great aunts and uncles

Great great aunts and uncles

3rd great aunts and uncles

Bob, Judy, Billy, Elmond, Marshall, Earl Lee, Buddy, Ruth Ann Jimmy

First cousins once removed

First cousins twice removed

First cousins 3 times removed