Bessie
Mae (Stairs)
Hanson-Bailey-Wierbacki
(1898-1985)
Bessie Mae (Stairs) Hanson-Wierbacki was born on New Year's Eve 1898 in Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, PA, the daughter of Lehman G. and Mattie (Minerd) Stairs.
Little is known of their lives.
Circa
May 1910, Bessie sent a postcard to her married sister Lula
Swift, who was residing in the coal and coke patch town of Braznell (now
known as Grindstone), Fayette County. The postcard today is seen at right,
and is preserved in the Minerd-Miner-Minor Archives. In the card, Bessie wrote:
Get a straw hat and come home for decoration and show day. School children are to march. The show is coming on Sunday morning and staying till Mon. evening. It is to be in Rumbaughs Field.
In 1931, when her mother died, Bessie was married to a man named Hanson, and was residing in Pittsburgh. They are thought to have had a son, William Hanson.
By 1951, when her brother Clarence died, Bessie was still in Pittsburgh, but had the name Bailey.
In 1975, at the time of death of her brother Clyde, Bessie was using the name Wierbacki, and was residing in Akron, Ohio.
Bessie died in 1985. Her husbands' fates are unknown.
Copyright © 2001, 2005 Mark A. Miner