Rovilla

Mary Rovilla Heidemann Lindsey
born 121 years ago today: 8 October 1891
died 14 June 1966

Rovilla, age 17
Photo taken in Elk City, Kansas, 1908
[I love her black pinafore & black ankle boots!]

My grandmother's copy of
Dr. D. Jayne's Medical Almanac
for the year of her birth, 1891.
If you look closely, you can see in her writing across the top:
"Calendar of M. Rovilla's Birth"

The page for October.
Can you see? On Thursday the 8th,
her mother has penciled in "Baby"

I have always loved my grandmother's beautiful, unusual name; and always thought that I would use it if I had a daughter. The story goes that her mother -- Anna Mary Miller Heidemann -- had an elderly, childless friend who confided in her that she knew no one else on earth who shared her name: Rovilla. Thus, my great - grandmother promised her friend that if she had a daughter, she would name her "Rovilla."

Mrs. Rovilla Swarthout
My Grandmother's Namesake

The pendant that the first Rovilla
passed on to my grandmother as a keepsake:

My favorite!

On the back, in Grandma's script:
"Rovilla in ball suit"
My Grandmother Mary Rovilla Heidemann Lindsey
and my mother, Mary Elisabeth Lindsey Carriker
See Mother's Day Post