Stories from the Tree - A remarkable chronicle of Ina Bramblett's life

Among the items in my genealogy closet is a scrapbook that belonged to my Aunt Ina - my mother's little sister - the youngest girl in Lee and Maggie Brambletts' family of 4 boys and 4 girls.

It is a remarkable collection of the memorabilia of much of my aunt's life. Received as a gift (from my mother) on the occasion of her high school graduation in the spring of 1928, Ina proceeded to fill the early album pages with items typical of a "Friendship Album," notes from teachers and friends, photos of and clippings about the 60 members of the Cleburne High School graduating Class of 1928, lists of teachers, and a page listing all her graduation gifts.

The stalk of bananas from my father evidently is part of a running joke; 

there are other banana references in the album as well.

After a few pages, the entries begin to focus on TCU, where Ina enrolled in the Fall of 1928. She was the only one of her siblings to attend college. In fact, as far as I can determine, only two others in the family completed high school. In that era, folks grew up early, married early and began making a living early.

She enrolled as a math major, and a large number of the pages chronicle her life at TCU. Schoolwork (and grades), and news of clubs and extracurricular activities, and photos of classmates adorn this section. She received awards and scholarships and dutifully recorded those facts. She began a long-term friendship with her major professor, C. E. Sherer, and became part of his family in the process; she took several trips with his wife, Mirth.

Ina graduated from TCU May 30, 1932, Summa Cum Laude. By this time, she was adding additional pages to the scrapbook to hold all of the memories and photos. She (and parents Lee and Maggie) moved to Tyler where she accepted a position as a math teacher at John H Tyler high school, teaching there for the next 10 years - except for a sabbatical to receive her MA degree from the University of Texas in 1936-1937.

The John H Tyler era was a time of page-filling. She was obviously well-liked by her students - page after page of the book contains poems, cartoons, Valentine Cards, photos and notes from students. There are several clippings about a time when she had throat surgery and  couldn't talk, so she had to communicate with her classes by writing on the blackboard; unfortunately, she fell during her first week back in the classroom and and broke her elbow, complicating the process. That was the school year that the JTHS yearbook was dedicated to her.

"To Miss Ina Bramblett, our beloved friend and guide, 

whose wisdom and devotion to duty have ever urged us onward, 

this volume is affectionately dedicated."

She retained her friendship with Dr Sherer during this period - in fact they collaborated on a math book together.

Evidently they did complete the project. A Google search turned up this reference:

So it was almost inevitable that Dr Sherer lured her back to TCU in the fall of 1942 and Ina took a position teaching trigonometry at her Alma Mater. Photos of friends and co-workers abound in this section, along with news items about this activity or that lecture. A humorous item related to her work was picked up by the newspapers and reprinted in papers all across the country.

There's no question that this was complicated stuff. Here's a card that was tucked into the book, and I can't even begin to tell you what it's about.

These were the War Years, and many, many pages are given over to snapshots of former students and clippings about their training, and deployment, and capture, and safe return, and news of some who didn't return. This is the location in the scrapbook of the V-Mail letters that I mentioned in an earlier post.

Throughout the years, starting when she was a student at TCU and continuing on through the remaining pages are sections of wedding announcements, and sections of birth announcements. Each one is carefully preserved, and one has to wonder about her state of mind as she put them into the story.

Ina never married, and though there are hints that there were "gentlemen callers" from time-to-time, there is no indication in these pages of why she chose to remain single. It might have been clear at the time, but that information is forever lost, and I can only create scenarios in my mind - of young men who didn't return from the war, or romance gone bad or, most likely, aging parents. She continued to care for Lee and Maggie in her home until their deaths.

There are more pages. She returned to UT in 1966 to begin work on a PhD - in fact she was on campus when Charles Whitman began shooting from the Tower - but in the end she never wrote her dissertation "because it was too hard to find a suitable topic" in her chosen field. She remained at TCU until her retirement in 1974.

The last entry in the scrapbook, now numbering 124 memory-filled pages, was in 1948 - 20 years after she pasted in the very first item.

But what of the remaining 49 years of her life? After 20 years of faithful scrap-booking, did she just grow tired of carefully recording her life? Or decide there was nothing more of interest to add? Doubtful, because she traveled extensively on behalf of several professional organizations she belonged to, and I know she went on a number of trips abroad and visited distant places. Or perhaps another scrapbook or two chronicle the period from 1948 to 1997, the date of her death. If so, they are likely lost. A pity. I know they would be equally interesting.