Remembering Rose Ellen Skeen: Part 2: Unraveling the story
Many thousands of children deemed feeble-minded, idiots, morons and imbeciles were institutionalized from the 1920s right up to the 1970s. There were no services or support for parents and their children with disabilities in the community, no schools or therapy clinics. The prevailing belief was that it was best for everyone to segregate the disabled. Children with disabilities were thought to be better off with “their own kind.” Doctors routinely recommended that parents give their child up to the state and get on with their lives. Senior’s aunt was institutionalized in 1953 at 21 months of age. Rose Ellen, as I found out, was enrolled in a “special school” in 1920, at six years old. “Without any malevolent intent we’d all colluded in one woman’s erasure. And our entire family had been the poorer for it.” (Senior, 2023). Me too, Jennifer. My family, too.
Now, when I played alongside and chatted with my PlayGarden friends and parents, thoughts of Rose Ellen intruded. I couldn’t help imagining what her life would have been like if she could have come to summer camp or preschool or had any kind of life outside an institution. Needing to know more and with very little to go on, I turned to my oldest brother, Don. He has kept the family history and, being nine years older than I am, I was curious about what he remembered about Rose Ellen.
Hi Liz – 15 years ago I wrote a history about the Skeen /Haynes side of the family. Gave me goosebumps to look at it again. That is the source of most of this information. Quotes from Grandmama are from a short handwritten reflection on her life that she wrote; I might have it somewhere.
You might know that Mom had two sisters. The first was Virginia, born May 21, 1911 in Gunn or Rock Springs, Wyoming. Gunn was a coal mining town (very small) a few miles outside of Rock Springs. In 1908/09 Papa Don took a job there as town doctor.
Grandmama described Virginia as a “tiny mite.” Sadly, Virginia died a few days after her birth, on June 4, 1911. She was buried in Lot 1, Block 228, in Mountain View Cemetery
Rock Springs, on June 6, 1911. The cause of death was “colitis and possibly an imperfect closure of the foramen ovale.” I remember seeing three photos of the grave taken shortly after internment – don’t know for sure where those photos are now. Also, think that I have Virginia’s death certificate.
Mom’s second sister was Rose Ellen, who you asked about. She was born in Gary on December 10, 1913. Evidently, she was named after Grandmama’s sister, Rose Haynes Keller. Don’t know about the “Ellen” part.
I know very little about Rose, not the cause of her problem or much of anything else. I don’t even know if anyone has a photo of Rose. I remember seeing her just one time. That was when Grandmama and Papa Don lived on Koontz Lake and some of us kids spent the day at their house. I was about 7 or 8. I remember not understanding who Rose was but liked that she was a grownup who acted like a child. I also remember Papa Don reprimanding her in a stern voice I was startled to hear. Evidently, Grandmama and Papa Don brought Rose to their home on occasion, but mostly when we kids weren’t there.
Grandmama’s mention of “special school” was a nice way of saying what we’d now call an institution. Evidently, she was institutionalized from age 6 until her death.
I was 31 when Rose died. I don’t remember anyone ever talking about either daughter, not even a mention when Rose died. Isn’t that strange?
At one time, I’m sure there was a file of papers pertaining to Rose, Papa Don was meticulous that way. My guess is that Mom destroyed it – I know she did that with other papers that embodied uncomfortable memories. It’s also possible that I have a birth or death certificate buried in a box upstairs – just don’t remember.
That’s all I have, wish it was more. Brings back many memories! Don
The “note’ that my Grandmama wrote, referred to by Don, reads:
“Such a long wait for the second daughter. So fair and perfect she seemed. My father saying, ‘Why she has a nose, not a dot’. When she was six, I had finally accepted the fact she must be in a special school. This heavy burden has made the years drag. I am relieved because people, through the long, long years, have grown tolerant and accepting of the handicapped.” June 1973.
My grandparents carried a heavy burden, but one they took on with incredible love and fortitude. In my investigation, I learned they did all they could to place Rose Ellen in a progressive private school at great expense, requiring significant travel. Once she was moved to a state institution, they visited her nearly weekly. This is my attempt to know Rose Ellen. To consider her, to imagine what her life was like and to share her life so that others may know that she lived and was loved. She was kept a secret from us and for that, I feel great sorrow. Our lives could only have been enriched by knowing her.
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My Grandmama and Papa Don, Rose Ellen’s Parents
“Earl Donovan Skeen, known as E.D. Skeen, began his medical practice in Gunn, Wyoming in a soft coal camp, eight miles from Rock Springs, Wyoming, which one could reach either in the caboose of a freight train carrying coal there or on horseback over a three mile trail on which rattlesnakes seemed to have “right of way”. He and his wife, Ethel, moved to Gary, Indiana. in 1912 where he remained for 44 years.”
– Skeen and Haynes Family History, written by Don Bullard (2009).
My Grandmama wrote this about her life with E.D.
“In final thinking, it is the personality that counts. Quiet, persistent, patient, non-assuming, steadfast, generous, kind, correct. Dr. Earl Donovan Skeen, a Christian gentleman. He married Ethel Haynes, A.B. 1906, U. of Nebr, Dec 24 in Decatur, Ill. First Christian Church. They moved to South Bend, IN in 1963 to be near a hospital. Death came for him at St. Joseph Hospital, South Bend May 30, 1968.
During college Ethel and Don earned good grades (we have some of their report cards) and were active in many organizations. Ethel was active with Alpha Omicron Pi, the YWCA Club, and the Dramatic Club. Don was active with the Medical Club, Iron Sphinx, and Phi Rho Sigma. He was Captain of Company B, President of Pershing Rifles, and Captain of the State University Cadets. He got a gold medal in competitive drill and got medals for sharpshooting. Don was the leading contender for Senior class president but bowed out of contention when a female student, supported by many of the other women students, sought the office.
On June 14, 1906, Ethel received a Bachelor of Arts degree and state teachers certificate. She was, “especially fitted to teach English literature, elocution and rhetoric”. Don received a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as a Captain in the Nebraska Militia. There were 177 total graduates, which included 91 women. Grandmama spent the next year or so teaching – here are her words “…a job offer. I grabbed it because my father had warned me he was washing his hands; of me after I had my A.B. There I was green as a gourd & scared, no observing, no practice teaching, no nothing, just a piece of paper saying I could. And here into my first grade room filed Sixty children. No kindergarten either. Bless their hearts, they were wonderful and in them I found my second love. I would never have left them but, you see, they were second. There had to be a first” (Bullard, 2009).
Grandmama and Papa Don, were married Christmas Eve, 1907 in Decatur, Illinois (Bullard, 2009). I have one piece that shows the inner thoughts my Grandmama had: a short statement given to my oldest brother and a poem written in a notebook that my oldest sister, Candace gave her in 1973 to record her thoughts. She named that notebook of poetry, “My Thoughts.”
R.E.S. Why? Why?
Situation, heart breaking.
Sweet, patient, kind child. Child still tho’ many years have passed.
Why? Why?
Bringing without end despondence, tears.
No Answer.
E.H.S. June 1973
Next Up: Rose Ellen: Birth to Age 6 (1913-1919), Mollie Woods Hare School, Indiana School for the Feeble-Minded Youth
Up Next: Remembering Rose Ellen: Part 3: A Timeline of Her Life
