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TI: And so they had eight children.

DK: Yes.

TI: And so where are you in the birth order?

DK: I'm in the second one, and my oldest brother has passed away and two of my younger brothers have passed away.

TI: And so you have, still, you have four other siblings.

DK: Yes, I have three sisters and one brother.

TI: Okay. And what was kind of the age range between the oldest brother and say the youngest sibling?

DK: My oldest brother was fourteen when my mother passed away and my youngest sister was about three months old.

TI: Wow, so she had eight children in the span of fourteen years.

DK: Yeah.

TI: And so your mother died when you were, what, about twelve?

DK: I was twelve, yes.

TI: Twelve years old.

DK: And she'd had a operation, a gallstone operation which was, at that time was quite drastic, but now is pretty simple-type operation.

TI: So how did the family change after your mother died? What was the difference?

DK: Well, it was during the Depression, 1934, and my father couldn't take care of us, so we were... I don't know, I think an uncle and aunt decided these issues, we were passed around to different relations and actually, I've been practically on my own since that time. I went and lived with my dad's cousin for one year and then since then I've been pretty much on my own.

TI: So, so all the siblings, all your brothers and sisters were kind of broken up and sent to different, different families?

DK: Yeah. And 1957, I think it was, we hadn't been together for twenty-some years, and I had a family reunion in Colorado, and so since that time, we've been having 'em every three years for some time and then every two years. We're having one this year in Idaho.

TI: So who, who put together that family reunion?

DK: My younger brother who lived in Denver at the time, he put this together and started it.

TI: And prior to that, had you ever gotten together with your other siblings?

DK: Yes, not all at one time. Right after Pearl Harbor, I took four of 'em that lived in a, pretty near in Kansas yet, to Illinois to see my brother and sister who were there with my grandparents.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.