In 1991, my maternal grandmother Rebecca Blanton (Morris) Eisenbeis (1913-1994) wrote the following about her life [in italics]:
A Thing of Beauty Is A Joy Forever[1]
I was a lonely twenty-two year old young lady many miles from my family and home in Virginia – November 24, 1935 I had been to church, then spent the day with my rector and his wife. That night the young people’s Service League were having an outing on Iroquois Hill in their clubhouse. What a wonderful time we had. First our program, the cooking hot dogs over a beautiful fire in a huge fireplace. Lo & behold this young man came over and asked me if I he could take me home first going to hear Richard Halliburton.[2] Of course I was thrilled. As we were leaving then we ran into a girl outside crying. I had no idea what was her trouble. Later I found this young man, Jimmie Eisenbeis, had taken her there, then ditched her for me!
The rector my grandmother wrote about was William H. “Bill” Langley of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Louisville, Kentucky, which is where my Amelia County, Virginia born grandmother had moved after graduating from high school in Jetersville, Virginia. She went to live with her brother-in-law and elder sister Zack and Eleanor (Morris) Gray who had moved there for his work. They lived at 2802 Grinstead Drive. The Grays would later move again for work, but my grandmother decided to stay in Louisville.
During our courting years from ‘35 to ‘39 no one had any money & most of our dates were spent at the “Tavern” where all the young folks went for a drink – mostly Coca-Cola. I’ll never forget my first beer. Of course, at the Tavern. At the time I was living with the rector and his wife. They were in bed so softly I tiptoed down the hall when down the hall behind me came the rector. Good Lord I thought, how could he know I had had a beer – what a guilty conscience I had and scared to death. He slowly closed the door [and] then he reached under my bed and pulled out her Christmas present! He wanted my approval.
Time rolled on Jimmie wanted to marry, but I didn’t know how we’d ever make it financially. I was in my glory working for the pediatrician in Louisville [and] was scared to death to ask him if he would allow his jack-of-all-trades to marry. One day a fellow came in the office and told me he was moving into a house. His apartment was renting for $25 a month! I thought surely we could swing that so that was our first home.” “I, of course, wanted to come home to Va to be married. My rector was in Michigan – impossible for him to marry us so I sent my mother a telegram to make the arrangements for August 10th 1939 in the Methodist Church with my sisters and brothers in attendance. My dad gave me away – Jimmie, like all men, got a thrill watching the sun shine through my sisters’ skirts, all he could see were their legs! Just after the minister pronounced us man & wife we turned to leave when down on our heads came all this rice! I couldn’t imagine the minister throwing the rice. Later we found the culprit to be my brother – he and his girlfriend got such a thrill from our wedding they announced to us as we were leaving for Ky that they had were marrying the next weekend! This was her brother John Corlise Morris and his girlfriend Florence Ethel Kniceley who married on 25 August 1939. See my earlier post A Letter From Home: https://wordpress.com/post/asonofvirginia.blog/294
The first years found Jimmy with [an] illness we had never heard of, but with good doctors and God, he came through just fine.[5]
After eating lunch one day with my best girlfriend, which we never did as we both worked for doctors. [We] were so dedicated we never took time for lunch. We were both hungry so we ate fried apples & sausage. In a little while I was never as ill in my life. I knew I had tomain[6] [sic] poisoning. It kept on & didn’t stop. A week later riding the streetcar to work I was telling a friend how sick I was. She immediately said, “Beckie, you need to come see my doctor!” I looked at her in astonishment – you mean after four years of marriage I might be pregnant!! That was the beginning of nine long months of terrible nausea, then our beautiful little baby Suzanne – What [a] fun and wonderful experience so three years [later] I went through the same thing all over again and then my beautiful baby Betsy.
In 1947, Jimmie decided he wanted to move to Va to my home. So we sold our home and came home. Jimmie was anything but a farmer – he finally went to work fort the Rural Electrification Company in Crew, Va. Time went on until he got itchy feet. To the big city he went. On the bus coming home, he got to talking to a lady, which at that stage of life was very rare! She told him the best job she ever had was from an ad in the paper. Next day he sent me back to Richmond. I placed an ad for him. From that ad, we moved to Yorktown.
When the girls were small most of our trips were back and forth Ky to Va then Va to Ky. When the girls were about four and seven we had a marvelous vacation to stay with my rector and his wife in Northport Point, Mich – the cherry basket of the world. What a marvelous time – beautiful house, boat rides on the lake with Mrs. Shell Kelling, our girls all about the settlement of NP Point, many, many wonderful experiences.
In 1971, our first big adventure to Scotland, London & Ireland – staying with friends in Aberdeen, Scotland for 3 weeks of greatness. 1979 found us traveling up the east coast to Nova Scotia, Canada, Lake Placid, 1985 our marvelous Four Winds tour to the West Coast including lunch at Pebble Beach Golf Club on the 18th hole – also taking in the wonders of the Canyon Country – a beautiful, beautiful trip. 1987 saw us on our first Caribbean cruise on the beautiful Song of Norway – 1989 our second Caribbean cruise on the Sovereign of the Seas. Our wonderful, wonderful 50th Wedding Reception our children gave us marked one of the most glorious times of our lives with all our families and over two hundred traveling to celebrate with us.
This has been a thing of beauty and a Joy forever- we have seen our girls and grandchildren grow up. Just to have your children well, happy and living a good life. Now we have been married almost 52 years – healthy and able to do for ourselves and others.
What has kept us together all these years. We believe in our marriage vows – in sickness and in health so long as we live. And we’ve been through plenty of that, but we’ve worked at being married. Like most people, we’ve had difficulties. We married at time – we like most people had little or nothing. We worked hard to get what we have – no running to Mamas and Daddies for help as during the great depression we were all alike, worked hard, believed in God & have come a long way.
My grandmother died three years after she wrote this in 1994 at the age of 81. My grandfather lived to be 91 dying in 2006. They are interred at Grace Episcopal Church in Yorktown, Virginia.
[1] John Keats (1795-1821) wrote a long poem entitled Endymion. An excerpt from Book I begins “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44469/endymion-56d2239287ca5
[2] Richard Halliburton (1900-1939) was an American adventurer and travel writer.
[3] The Courier-Journal, 24 Nov 1935, Page 4; newspapers.com
[4] 1943 Louisville, Kentucky Map; https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/72931/map-of-louisville-kentucky-and-environs-showing-streets-tho-coleman-co
[5] I never heard about this before.
[6] Ptomaine poisoning is caused by bacteria and was a misnomer for food poisoning; dictionary.com
A Son of Virginia 
What an awesome memory!
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