Edna Gladys Voorheis was born on 23. Jul. 1917. She was the daughter of
Floyd Deforrest Voorheis and
Edith May Devowe. Edna Gladys Voorheis married
Grant Avery Ranney on 22. Mar. 1935.
This was from the Cedar Springs Clipper in 1938
CHARLES SPARROW AND SISTER MEET FOR FIRST TIME.
Brother finds sister after 21 years.
"Here I am, your own brother", he said. A stranger to Mrs. Grant Ranney of Salon Center, as she opened the door Sunday to look into the face of a young man she did not know. "I really am your brother! I am Charles" he insisted, with a mixture of emotion. A mixture of emotions also welled up in Mrs. Ranney. Her brother? where from? How did he find her? Tears, smiles, doubts, and gratitude, a turmoil of feeling filled her heart.
He lived at 441 Highland, Grand Rapids. His and her mother's brother, their Uncle Ernest, lived only five blocks from him. He had called his uncle whom he had not know, but his mother when she was dying had told him who his uncle and aunt were. He called his uncle to see if he knew where Edna was and found where his aunt lived and called her, and she told him lakeview. He went to Lakevew and found the VanAntwerps who had brought her up. They were reunited at Ranney's home, where they worked for Munsin Robinson.
An ill mother had let her son, Charles, go for adoption. He had wondered where his sisters were since his mother told him about them before she pased away. (at age 13 Sparrows let him go see his mother). Golda June was 12 when her mother passed away. Charles was 13 Edna was 4 years old. Elizabeth (their half sister) was 18. She told him about his sister. He started searching the phone book for the aunt and uncle his mother had told him their names. He called all the DeVowes and no one knew. He started to stop calling, and his wife, Marion encouraged him not to give up. Call that last DeVowe, she said. He did, and it was his uncle. Stub then went to Lakeview and stopped at Ballingers' Garage where he had taken Purity gas to them for years, and he asked if they knew any VanAntwerps. They told him where they lived, out in the country on a big farm between Lakevew and Alton, Mich. They told him I was married and lived at Salon Center near Cedar Springs. When he came, he was surprised I had 3 children already. He said, "Sis, you are nothing but a child yourself!"
Karen, Linda, Stub and my children loved to roam the woods and fields and found many interesting things that Stub told them all about. We had many many good times together. Stub loved my dinners...especially canned sweet corn and pies. He was a dear dear brother. I loved him and Marian so much. He was very intelligent and had many friends. The men at Purity Cylinder Gas Co. in Greenville had great respect for him. We have never found our sister, Golda June. Last time we can find was in 1940-1948. She was a maid at 115 Grant Street, a maid in a boarding house, and had married a William Davis. Still searching for her. The summer Stub found me we had a reunion. Ruth, Elizabeth, and my mother's sister, Aunt Toot and all their families, Stub and my families all met at Olin Lake. So Pat took our old car and got behind and pushed and we both got up the hill. We had one last Christmas before Marian and Pat died the next Spring. Marian had cancer. Per Elizabeth Kennedy, Edna's husband: Patrick Ranney (killed in car accident), lost of kids including Edie, Verna Marie, Mary Lou, Shirley Ellen.
Edna Gladys Voorheis died on 19. Nov. 1991 at Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan, at age 74.