As the month of August approached in 1915, David and Eva Bixler Everhart were eagerly awaiting the birth of their second child.  The young couple had a son, born Monday, September 9, 1912 and had named him David, Jr.  But with this second pregnancy there was great expectation and excitement.  First, they hoped for a daughter and second, they wanted a large family and not have young David be an only child.  David, Sr. and Eva were only children and felt they had missed out on many childhood experiences by not having any brothers or sisters.  Eva did have a half sister, Mildred C. Bixler, who was 14 years younger than Eva and lived in York, Pennsylvania with her father.
        Shortly after David, Jr.'s birth, the family moved from Manchester, Maryland to Frederick, Maryland  where David, Sr. set up his dentistry practice. David, Sr.'s mother, Josie Groff Everhart, was from the town of Frederick.  It was small town with well-established traditions dating back to its founding in 1745.   This was the type of place for a young family to settle down and establish its own roots.  So the family was ready on that warm Monday, August 9th, when little Nannie Musselman Everhart was born.  Her first name came from a great aunt  (Nannie Groff) on her father's side and Musselman from her mother's side of the family.  Little Nannie had dark hair with brown eyes and became the darling of the family.
        Eva had her hands full caring for the two young children, who were 3 years apart in age, but also she donated time to help at the Presbyterian Church and local charities.  These early years were great fun for the young family.

        By the fall of 1917, the United States entered the Great World War.  David, Sr. had already completed his draft registration card in June of 1917, so with the United States entering the war, he enlisted in the Officers Reserve Corps of the U. S. Army.
        He was commissioned a first lieutenant in the dental corps.  He was never sent overseas during the war but served at Camp Meade and Camp Greene in North Carolina and later in the 48th evacuation hospital.  This allowed him opportunities to be with his young children as the family moved with him to his different post assignments.  When David was discharged from the service on December 12, 1918, he had reached the rank of captain.
        With David and his family returning to Frederick at the end of 1918, he needed to restart his dentistry practice.  There was hope for more children so the family purchased the Tull property.  It was a 3-story, 13-room house situated on 10 acres of land.  The house address was 926 North Market Street and was originally built around 1900.  The name given the house was "Alhambra".  There was plenty of room for the family.  The extra space proved to be necessary with David's parents (Charles and Josie Groff Everhart) coming to live with them in the early 1920's.  The parents had lived on their farm in Lewistown, Maryland but that now was too much for them to handle.  The children had a large house to grow up in and grandparents to help in their up bring.

        There was a great deal of extended family members (aunts, uncles, and cousins) from both sides of the family.  They lived in Frederick and in other neighboring towns such as Hagerstown, Tallytown and Manchester.  Mae Louise Musselman Walters, a cousin of Eva, was a favorite relative who came to visit the family.  Her husband, Richard Jefferson Walters and their two girls, Alice Louise and Lelah Musselman joined her.  The Everharts and Walters remained very close over the decades.
        When Lelah Musselman Walters was born in 1925, her older sister, Alice Louise was sent to live with relatives, Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Henry Musselman in Manchester, Maryland.  But to keep Alice Louise company, Nannie was also sent for 2 months to live with her aunt and uncle in Manchester.  So protective was Nannie over her younger cousin she would even carry Alice Louise up the stairs at night to see she got safety to bed.

        The three young girls:  Nannie, Alice Louise, and Lelah always played together whenever the families got together.  Playtime included chores like going into the garden, picking vegetables, and  washing them in a huge water barrel.  But as soon as the chore was completed nothing was more fun than playing in the water barrel.  As the laughter of the girls increased so did the number of children from the neighborhood, drawn by the great fun the children were having with the water on a warm day.  Other times, Alice Louise and Nannie could find sweet pleasure along the stream where a field of watercress grew.  Eating the watercress and lying on their stomachs was enhanced by the beauty of the flowers all around them and the girls thought nothing could be better.
        Sunday visits were a great time to socialize, not just with family but with whole neighborhood.  A custom in Manchester on a Sunday afternoon was for families to walk down the main street, stopping at various houses along the way for any refreshments that were being served.  The treats included cake, cookies, lemonade or tea.  Families took turns with one side of the block serving the refreshments and the other side doing the walking.  The next Sunday everything was reversed.  Cousin Alice's grandfather, Jacob Musselman, made small rocking chairs for the three girls to sit in on the front porch to watch the parade of neighbors walk down the street.
        Someone was always visiting another family member almost anytime of the year.  But for holidays, birthdays or special celebrations, this was the occasion for large numbers of  family members to gather at one person's house for a special dinner.  Of course everyone was expected to dress appropriately.  The dinner was a huge meal with all kinds of  foods and a variety of desserts.  Each hostess putting out her finest dinnerware, crystal bowls and sterling silverware.  As was the custom, each family member had his or her own napkin ring.  So little Nannie had her own silver ring, but the engraver had misspelled her name on the napkin ring.  On the outside of the ring in italic writing was engraved, Nanie.
        Eva sewed dresses for her daughter and Nannie's favorite color to wear was red.  So over time many outfits were various shades of red and red prints.  David, Sr.'s dental practice increased with each year during the 1920's.  He expanded his knowledge by taking graduate courses in oral surgery at the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia.  He was a member of the Frederick County Dental Society and was active in civic organizations like Elks, Rotary and Masons.

        The spring of 1925 was very heartbreaking to the Everhart family.  Eva was expecting their 3rd child.  Everything had gone along fine with the pregnancy.  During the delivery, that April day in 1925, the doctor used a little too much pressure with the forceps along the baby's head.  The little boy had brain damage and only lived three days.  His parents named him Joseph Groff Everhart, after David Sr.'s grandfather, a Civil War veteran.  After the death of their newborn, there would be no more children, Eva was fearful of any recurrence of the loss of a child.  Young David Jr. and Nannie became even more precious to their parents.
        David Jr. attended the local Frederick elementary school up to the fall of 1926 when he entered Charlotte Hall Military Academy.  He graduated from the Academy in 1929.  Nannie was schooled in the local elementary and high school in Frederick.  Both children did well in school.  David Sr. had plans for his children's future.  He wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, become a dentist and take over his practice in Frederick years down the road.
        For Nannie, he saw the future of women's rights in his young daughter.  Women in the nation had just received the right to vote in 1921.  She would receive a good education and be offered the opportunity to achieve even in a male dominated society.  His hope was for Nannie to be a lawyer some day.  But Nannie's interests did not always follow exactly along the same lines of her father's, but she would not knowingly disappoint him.  Getting a good strong education would became her first goal.
        Nannie's great grandmother was Savilla Sherman (changed from Cebilla Scherman).  She was born April 18, 1840 in York, Pennsylvania.  When she married George Washington Musselman on Sunday, September 6, 1857, her father had made as a wedding gift two sets of bedroom furniture.  The wood came from trees on her father's farm in West Manheim, York Co., PA.  One set of furniture was made of cherry and other of maple.  It was Savilla who raised Nannie's mother, Eva, when Eva's mother Mary Jane Bixler died on July 24, 1893 of a disease.  So a very close bond had been made over the years with Savilla's granddaughter, Eva, and with her great granddaughter, Nannie.  It was Savilla's wish that Nannie inherit one of the sets of bedroom furniture made so many years earlier.  When Savilla died on March 29, 1927 in Manchester, Maryland, indeed the cherry bedroom set including the big double bed, large chest of drawers and dressing table were given to Nannie.  The maple set was given to Alice Louise Walter, Savilla's great granddaughter through her son,  Jacob E. Musselman.
        There were not many other children around Nannie's age to play with except for a  neighborhood friend, Helen Gregory.  The two were good friends over the years.  But to meet other girls her age she joined the local  girls' 4-H Club in Frederick.  She became an active member and it gave her a group of girls from other neighborhoods with which to form friendships.  One new close friend was Eleanor Thomas.  Besides Nannie and Eleanor both being active in the 4-H Club, they spent a great deal of time together at each other's homes.  Another house they liked to visit was Nannie's aunt and uncle at the old family Groff house.  In their 4-H activities they attended 4-H Club Week  in August for several years.  This gave the young girls an opportunity to be on their own, out of town.  Club Week was held at the University of Maryland in College Park.   For a week they stayed in the college dorm rooms, attended programs, had outdoor activities and  held campfires.  At one summer Club Week, Nannie and Eleanor gave a demonstration on "Table Setting and Decoration"  in a large assembly hall.  They were selected to give the demonstration because they had won first place on the same demonstration at the Frederick Fair several months earlier.
        The Christmas of 1928 was very special for 13 year old Nannie.  Her grandfather, Charles Henry Bixler (Eva's father) was marking the holiday season with a special family heirloom which now would be passed on to Nannie.  It was the porcelain china doll named, "Lizzie".  The doll had been Eva's doll as a child and had been passed on to her through the Bixler family.  The following is a newspaper article from 1928 telling of this special gift.

This doll was just to admire, to look pretty, as it sat on Nannie's dresser. (The doll was later passed on to Nan's granddaughter, Dawn C. Teepe.)  But not to worry, Nannie did have many other dolls she could play with.

 
        Nannie had the typical childhood illnesses like whooping cough, measles and chicken pox but a sudden appendicitis attack while she was diving into a swimming pool caused great concern.  With the assistance of people nearby she was pulled from the pool in immense pain and rushed to the Frederick Hospital for emergency surgery.  Everything turned out fine with no complications.
        The family had been strong Republican Party supporters for years.  David Sr. worked and supported the various Republican candidates in Frederick County.  In the Presidential election of 1928, Herbert Hoover was elected by the nation.  Due to David's campaign efforts in the Maryland area, the family was invited to watch Hoover's inauguration and parade in Washington, D. C. in 1929.  Another family member, John Groff,  David Sr.'s uncle, had served for years as a special policeman assigned to the White House.  It was during  President Harding's administration that John Groff suffered a heart attack while on duty in December 1921 and died in the White House at age of nearly 60 years.

        Some special events during Nannie's high school years were several school plays. Startling in her junior year, 1930 - 1931, she and her friend, Eleanor Thomas, were in the school play, "She Stoops to Conquer".  In December 1931, Nannie served as property chairman of the French II play.  Then in March 1932, Nannie played Martha Washington in the school play titled "Living Pages from Washington's Diary".  The next month, April 1932, she served as the stage manager in the senior play, "The Romancers".  She was always outgoing and did well meeting people.  Working with fellow students on the school plays served as a great learning  and friendship time for Nannie.  Another event was the honorable mention she received for writing about George Washington's farewell address in a school essay contest.  Her parents were so proud of Nannie (the family nickname for her was sister) when the special certificate was presented to Nannie before the entire student body.  On Thursday, June 9, 1932, was Graduation Day.  Nannie completed her high school courses from Frederick High School and now was ready along with her 160 fellow classmates to face the world beyond high school.

        Now out of high school, Nannie selected to attend Northwest Institute of Medical Technology in Minnesota.  She studied in the areas of  x-rays and physiotherapy technical.  This gave her satisfaction to be a part of the medical field.  The development of the x-ray was a recent advancement in medicine and for dentistry.  Nannie's father was one of the first in Maryland to use the x-ray in his practice.  But not all the effects of its use were known right away.  David, Sr. lost the tips of two fingers on his left hand from x-raying his patients' teeth.  Nannie's education would show her the latest developments and safety procedures to use.  Her studies in Minnesota were completed in August of 1934.  From there she entered George Washington University in late 1934.  By 1935, Nannie was at the University of Pennsylvania in the pre-medical program.  She continued at University of Pennsylvania until mid -1937.  She enjoyed the social life the large university had to offer.  Nannie joined Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority in February of 1936.
        David, Sr. continued to be active in local and state politics.  Under Maryland Governor Harry W. Nice, David worked with the State Roads Commission during the mid-1930's.  But he still kept his dental practice active and even made sure the students at nearby Hood College were treated.
 

     In 1935,  David's mother, Josie Groff Everhart, suffered a stroke.  Due to the extra care she would require by the family and the need for additional income, the family's large house was partially converted into rental apartments.  The family occupied the entire first floor.  The second story was made into two apartments and the third story was made into one apartment.  This would cut back some of the weekly house cleaning that Eva had to do.   But the medical care that Eva  provided  to her mother-in-law took its toll on her over the years.
        One favorite get-away place for the Everharts was to go to a hunting lodge located in the undeveloped woods outside of  Frederick on Catoctin Mountain at the northern end of Frederick County.   This is the same area later turned into a Presidential retreat, called "Shangri-La" and used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt starting in 1942 and then renamed, "Camp David" by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953.  The rented lodge cabin (during late 1920's and 1930's) made a restful retreat for the Everhart  family.  Friends many times joined the family on their trips.
        One close friend was Eleanor Linthicum, a schoolteacher, who traveled with the Everharts and visited with them in their Frederick home.  Another person close to the family was Mary Elizabeth Beall Castle, known as Marybell.  She dated David, Jr. and was included in all the family activities.  She graduated from Frederick High School in 1931 and the Maryland Institute in Baltimore in 1934 where she studied interior design.  So close were the two young people that the Friday morning of December 6, 1935, David and Marybell were married at her aunt's house on Rockwell Terrace in Frederick.
        During the mid-1930's, a couple of David, Sr.'s uncles passed away.  His uncle Charles B. Groff (his mother's brother) had been very active in Frederick, running the family flower shop since purchasing it from his brother in 1919.  He had also been active in politics, running for town alderman.  It was one day in early December 1936 that Charles tripped on a set of outside stairs fell and fractured a leg.  He soon developed pneumonia and died December 15th at the age of 63.  Charles' older brother, David Groff, who had build greenhouses and started the florist shop business, passed away the next year on August 31st at the age of 81 years.  Eva's father, Charles Henry Bixler, died on June 5th in 1938 in York, Pennsylvania at the age of  82.  David, Sr.'s Uncle Frank W. Everhart (age 78) and his wife, Aunt Laura Everhart (age 73) both died within a week of each other in mid-December of 1938 in Manchester, Maryland.  Within a few short years there had been a great deal of sorrow and lost for the Everharts.
        During Nannie's pre-medical program at the University of Pennsylvania  she had found several of her courses to be very difficult.  She was questioning whether she could truly follow a medical career.  By mid-1937 she made the decision, with her father's influence, to switch to the study of law.  From 1937 to mid-1939 she attended the University of Maryland in their School of Law program.  She was an excellent student and was able to ace most of the classes.  From September 1939 to June 1941 she was enrolled in Eastern University, located in Baltimore, at their Mt. Vernon School of Law.  Being in Baltimore also allowed her the opportunity to see some of the city's fine theater productions, both live performances and on film. Nannie was even one of the first group of people to view the Baltimore premiere showing of "Gone With the Wind" in December, 1939. After completing her law courses over the next couple of years,  it was on Saturday, June 7, 1941 that Nannie received her law degree (LL.B.).  There were eight males in her law class, Nannie the lone, sole female.

        The fall of 1940 was very difficult for Nannie and her family.  Her mother, Eva, had been ill and weak for months.  The doctors were not able to pinpoint the cause.  The family doctor mostly dismissed it to her being overworked in caring for the house and her mother-in-law.  But as the family learned later and too late to do anything, Eva had kidney disease.  She died September 20, 1940 at age 49 years.  The disease had so weakened and aged Eva in appearance, she looked older than her 49 years.  She was buried in Frederick, her home for so many years. This left a very empty place in the Everhart family.  One close family friend, Eleanor Linthicum, was there to help the family through their loss.  She became a source of great comfort to David. Sr. in the year that followed.  On December 23, 1942 in Silver Springs, MD, David and Eleanor were married in a surprise ceremony.  The new Mrs. Everhart was welcomed into the family because she had already been a part of the family for many years and she was good to David, Sr.

        Now, which way should Nannie use her college education and law degree that she had acquired in mid-1941?  Her father had always been active in the state Republican Party so she thought she would run for the Maryland State Legislature.  This became her focus in 1941.  Nannie was on the Maryland ballot as the first woman to run for a seat in the Maryland House of Representatives.  Being the first at anything can be an uphill battle.  She only needed to win her district of Frederick County but the general public found a woman lawmaker hard to accept.  Nannie did manage to have her grandfather, Charles J. Everhart, who had always voted Democrat to vote for her but at last she did not carry the necessary majority of votes to win the election.  David Sr. even ran for Frederick County Treasurer in 1941 and for Maryland State Senator in 1942 but was defeated each time by a Democrat.
        But this defeat did not discourage Nannie.  She had always loved Washington, D. C. from the family visits to her days attending George Washington University.  So she went to Washington to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) headquarters with all her qualifications in hand.  Nannie wanted to apply for the position of a FBI agent.  She had all the required schooling necessary for a rookie agent and she was willing to start at the bottom.  But the director of the Bureau, J. Edgar Hoover, did not see things that way.  He was not about to have a female agent, qualified or not in his bureau.
        Nannie was unsure now of her future, what to do but world events had changed the scene at the end of 1941 and into 1942.  The attack at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 and the United States entering the Second World War began to open some doors to women.  The Women's Army Corp (WAC) was created to help fill positions of service within the U. S. Army and free up more men for military combat.  With encouraging words from her father, Nannie decided to join the WAC.

 

        But another family death slowed Nannie's entrance into the service.  Barely had the family's mourning for Eva Everhart ended when Josie Groff Everhart, David Sr.'s mother died on July 11, 1942 from a stroke.  Josie had been ill from her first stroke seven years earlier and had never completely recovered.  Each stroke she suffered thereafter only made her weaker and later barely able to talk. She did enjoy having the 23rd Psalm read to her whenever visitors came to the house.  Cousin Alice Louise Walter would read from that Psalm and other parts of the Bible with Josie Everhart just being able to say, "all the days".

        Nannie was sworn into the Women's Army Corp on October 23, 1942 at Ft. Myers in Virginia.  Her army serial number was L-303678.  Her first training was in Des Moines, Iowa.  After basic training she received her 2nd lieutenant commission in February 1943.  Next she was sent to Alpine, Texas, where she was at the WAC branch #7 WAC Administration School serving as an instructor.  She later became an assistant director of WAC Administration.
        Nannie had a special background check done on her by pre-CIA agents of the government, who questioned her hometown friends and family about her character.  With being approved, she became part of secret military observation of new female recruits entering the Women's Army Corp.  Nannie was to observe and report on any questionable comments or behavior among the women to guard against any spies from becoming part of the WAC branch.
        Later assignments took her to Camp Bowie and to Brownwood, both in Texas.  She worked first in purchasing, then as an assistant to a  Judge Advocate (due to having a law degree) and later as an auditor in the finance department.

Nan.  New Year's Eve of 1946 found Nan part of the large crowd of people ringing in the New Year in Times Square, an experience not soon forgotten.

        By 1947, Nan was sent to Europe to help in the Army of Occupation.  Here she witnessed first hand what war does to towns, cities and its people.  She served in Austria as an assistant to a Judge Advocate, then as the only woman judge in a trial panel and also as the defense council (attorney) on a General Court Martial Court.  Some of her duties even were tied in with the ongoing Nuremberg trials in Germany.  Later duties included running the travel section at Army headquarters in Vienna, Austria.  It offered her an opportunity to travel to other areas of Europe including Budapest, Hungary then to  Amsterdam, Netherlands, and to southern Germany.  But just about every section of Europe still showed deep scars from the six years of warfare.  The thousands of displaced individuals, who had no home anymore, really tore at her heart.  With the summer of 1948, Nan was sailing back to the United States.
        In August 1948, Nan applied for a regular U. S. Army commission and was given the rank of captain in the reserve of the Women's Army Corp.  Nan became the first woman from the state of Maryland to receive such a commission and rank of captain.  Her military citations and decorations included: World War II Victory Medal, the American Theater Ribbon and the WAAC Medal.  During any lengthy leave time she received; she enjoyed traveling down to Miami, Florida to visit with cousins; Mae and Richard Walters, Alice and Lefty Leffler and Lee Perkins.

        With the fall season of 1948, Nan was sent to Ft. Lee in Virginia to WAC training battalion.  Then she was assigned to the Judge Advocates Office at Ft. Lee.  It was during this time that Nan met USAF Captain Harry Kershaw, Jr.  They were introduced by mutual friends on Election Day, November 9th, while having breakfast.  Harry was on special assignment at Ft. Lee from his base in Panama City, Florida.  They continued to see each other during any free time up until early December 1948 when Harry had to return to his post in Florida.  Their courtship continued with letters and phone calls to one another and a few short visits when each had some time off. 
        By March of 1949, Nan and Harry knew they wanted to marry.  Nan took her military discharge on March 17, 1949.  Before their wedding in April, Nan had many things to prepare and arrange to start her new life.  She purchased some new civilian clothes including a dark green suit with matching hat to wear at her wedding.   Large pearl earrings encircled with smaller pearls completed her trousseau.  With not much family remaining in Maryland, she was ready to settle down and raise her own family.  Harry had been married before and his divorce from his first wife became final in early April.  In Bonifey, Florida, before a Justice of the Peace on Wednesday, April 27, 1949, Nan married Harry Kershaw.  With Harry taking his military discharge also, the newlyweds settled in Longwood, Florida to start a new life together.
           Nan had tried and experienced many things in her early years, especially things not tried by females in the 1930's and 1940's.  She had traveled across the United States and overseas many times by herself.  Nan had seen the best and worst of mankind.  Now was her time to be a wife and mother and to begin the second half of the 20th century with all new adventures.

        Charles Jacob Everhart continued living in Frederick with the assistance of a housekeeper.  He remembered Nan's children on their birth dates in the early 1950's by sending a $1.00 with a card on each one's birth date.  He lived to the age of 93 years, 11 months, passing away in Frederick on August 19, 1956.

        David, Jr. and Marybell remained permanent residents of Frederick, Maryland.  They never had any children.  David continued to practice dentistry until he retired in 1977.  He and Marybell traveled within the United States and abroad plus spending  part of the winter season in Florida.  On Sunday, March 18, 1984, David, Jr. died of lung cancer in Frederick.  Marybell continues to live in Frederick, visiting with friends and traveling.

        Eleanor L. Everhart remained in Frederick and was a schoolteacher for many years.  She kept close ties with David, Jr. and Nan over the years.  She and her sister, Parepa Linthicum moved to a retirement home in Gaithersburg, Maryland around 1984.  Parepa died May 19, 1990 and Eleanor on January 21, 1994 at the age of 90 years. Nan died July 10, 1994 in Flagler Beach, Florida. She was buried alongside her father in Arlington National Cemetery.

        There are only a few descendants from the Groff family and even fewer from the Charles Everhart family.  The only ones, also part of the Groff family, are Nan's four children (Alice, Richard (died in 2001), Carol and Robert Kershaw), six grandchildren (Elizabeth, Richard, Jr. Kershaw; Dawn, Kristen, Lindsey Teepe; and Heather Kershaw) and four great grandchildren (Tyler, Nicholas, Joshua, & Fayth Kershaw and the newest one born April 2004 is Madison Ann Knightly - daughter of Dawn and Shannon Knightly).
 

     A great deal of the family history and photos came from Nan E. Kershaw through her own writings of the family history, newspaper articles, military records, and information written on the family photos.  Alice L. Walters Wallace, Nan's cousin and Nan's childhood friend, Eleanor Thomas, provided additional information.   Research was done to obtain copies of original birth, marriage and death records, which provided a source of information. On July 10,2004 (Sat.) - will mark the 10th anniversary of the passing of Nan Everhart Kershaw. Her family truly miss her everyday and she will always remain in our hearts.