Allegra Catherine O'Rouark(1904-1971) Algae met a bear |
![]() At her 8th grade graduation, Allegra Catherine O'Rouark was a beautiful and engaging young lady.
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I don’t think I have ever met a person as unusual
as my mom, and that may even be an understatement.
She was whimsical, brilliant and eminently disdainful of any kind
of hypocrisy. Then too she
was zealously loving and aggressively protective of her offspring,
almost and sometimes certainly to a fault. That was my mama.
When all us boys turned 15, we were no longer her loving little kids but were suddenly and summarily men and thus sent off to fend for ourselves in a harsh and inhospitable place called the world. We go to school or spin a joke, spring a funny pun, or pen a letter of such beauty and elegance (see below) that it would certainly be the envy Steinbeck himself. But she carried a lot of baggage. She felt that life itself was unjust and had done her a great and grievous disservice. She was born into a family that had expected and anticipated her to keep her place and do what good young women were supposed to do; that is, care for her father and mother, the former whom she much loved and respected, and the latter, whom she considered lazy, inadequate, unintelligent and inconsiderate, two older brothers who were usually gone or constantly in trouble and a younger sister of wild and unpredictable temperament. I dedicate this web page to the affectionate memory of my mother and the five children she brought into this world and the two others she raised..
playing with her younger sister Elaine O'Rouark, Allegra is dressed up like an Indian.
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![]() With her two older adopted boys. Allegra with her daughter
Baby Allegra.
With big brother Gerald. She has a bat and he has a glove. I don't think she knows what to do with it just yet. |
I have included a few or my mother's letters on this page. The first letter to her daughter-in-law describes some of her early childhood experiences.
The second letter offers some rather vivid insights into my Dad's side of the family.