Robert Eugene WESSLEY & Erna Frances KITCHEN
Husband: Robert Eugene WESSLEY, (son of Oscar WESSLEY), b. 1 Mar 1903, d. Jan 1981
My stepgrandfather was quite a character. He lived nine lives it seemed. He smoked and drank all his life and stories have him falling from a ladder, falling in the lake and many other things that should have been the death of him. But he outlived my grandmother by a number of years. He once told me he had been married eight times though I have not been able to verity this.I have only located four marriages Two of his marriages were my grandmother as they were divorced and remarried. His first wife was older than him and a woman named Clara. He married her sometime after 1920 and prior to 1922 when his daughter Roberta “Bobbie” was born. Then in 1925 a boy named Richard “Dick” was born to Clara and Robert E. By 1930 he is married to a woman named Etna and they are living in Jackson County Missouri. I do not think there were any children of this marriage. I later knew Bobbie and Dick his children from his first marriage though I never met either prior wife. Grandpa Bus as we called him was a very funny man and always made me laugh. He loved to eat everything with ketchup eggs and beans and it always amused me. He died when he caught himself on fire when he was cooking and lived in Gravois Mills Missouri
Wife: Erna Frances KITCHEN, (daughter of George L KITCHEN), b. 23 Oct 1895, Missouri, d. 24 Dec 1974, Camden Mo, bur. Green Lawn Cemetery KC Mo
I remember my grandmother quite well as I was in high school when she died. She was a good cook who loved holidays and always paraded us kids on the Plaza at Easter. She had three husband by the time of her death. Her second husband was a man named Max whom she apparently loathed and because of this her third huband Robert Wessley teased her by nicknaming her Max Most people thought her name was Max but it was Erna Frances Kitchen.She told my father she was of Scottish, English and German extraction on her side. Singleton is a very English name and that was her mother's maiden name.. Robert “Buss” and my grandmother bickered constantly but it was a love match as they were both full of energy and he seemed to be the man who finally caught and kept her. They lived in California for a time according to my mother. Late in their lives they moved to a cabin at the Lake of the Ozarks and retired where she passed away in 1974 of acute pulmonary edema and arteriosclerosis. On her death certificate her husband Robert gave her fathers name as Jess which was incorrect as on the census in Wyandotte County when she is 14 her brother is Jess and her father is George. He did not know her mothers name however her mother is listed on the census as Nannie and on the census Nannie's brother is living there and his name is John Singleton making her maiden name Singleton probably.
Married 31 Dec 1936