Russell Mahan

Bettie's father... Charles S. Bledsoe Russell Mahan

This book is the story of a girl's father, a man's life, with its ups and downs and strivings for success. Like everyone, Bettie Bledsoe's father, Charles Smith Bledsoe (1892-1956) had good personal qualities and those that were not so good. His life was a slice of Americana in the first half of the twentieth century, when the country emerged as a world power. The United States grew to greatness based upon an abundance of ordinary good men like Charles Bledsoe. Smith, as he was originally named, was raised by a single mother in Evansville, Indiana. By his own efforts and merits he made a successful career as an auditor and accountant in the oil boom town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1920s. He married Marielva Mayginnes and had two daughters, Bettie and Virginia. His life was an embodiment of middle class people seeking to do their best, to earn their slice of the American pie, to keep it during the Great Depression, and to balance the demands of family, profession and personal happiness. Sometimes he triumphed, and sometimes he didn't. He was a personification of the American dream in that he was a better man than his father had been, and he made it possible for his daughter to be better yet. Charles S. Bledsoe was descended from the Kentucky Bledsoes who migrated there in 1799. He was the son of John Calvin Bledsoe (1851-1915) and his second wife Mary Jane Swan (1864-1950). The book contains several pages about them, including photographs. Charles was the grandson of David Calvin Bledsoe (1815-1900) and Mildred Williams (1815-1890).