When I was a youngster, I often peppered my maternal grandmother with questions about our family history. I was particularly curious about her husband (my grandfather) who died in 1960, about 9-1/2 years before I was born.
My maternal grandfather Vernon Johnson was the second of four children born to Martin and Marie Johnson. What I recall from grandma's anecdotes was how my great-grandparents' lives were fraught with trials and tragedy. In 1930, just after the Great Depression began in the United States, my great-grandfather's drugstore went out of business. The next year, their 24-year old son was killed in an automobile accident. Three years after that, their 6-year old boy was hit by a car and killed after he walked onto a street. Two years later, in 1936, my great-grandfather passed away at the age of 53.
So why do I share all this? Well, my cousin Larry (the son of Martin & Marie's daughter Elaine) was in town on Monday. As we are wont to do, we shared stories about family. When I conveyed that I had heard the tale of my grandfather's 6-year old brother Laurence's tragic passing, Larry shared a detail that his mother had told him many, many years ago. The person responsible for Laurence's death was pro golfer Walter Hagen, who trails only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods for most PGA championships with 11.
My grandfather's brother is buried at Union Cemetery in St Paul
As Hagen’s career wound down in the 1930s, he was involved in a traffic crash that would affect him for the rest of his life.
Hagen was playing in Minnesota’s St. Paul Open in July 1934. On the way back to his hotel after a day of golf, his car struck a 6-year-old boy. The boy was then run over and killed by a streetcar.
Hagen is said to have jumped from his car and cried, ‘Don't tell me you're dead, Sonny. … Come on, speak to me.” Hagen was not held at fault for the crash, but from that time on he nearly gave up driving.
I'm not gonna say a whole lot more about that story, but I am floored how Hagen was "not held at fault." Can we assume that his stature as arguably the best pro golfer in the world at the time played a role in his not being charged with anything? No way to know for sure, I guess.
I've written in this space of the admiration I have for my maternal grandmother and the struggles she had to overcome. But my great-grandmother is someone whom I've never really given props to for all she endured. In her 87 years on this planet she buried her husband, three sons and a grandchild (my mom had a 1-month old brother David who died of a heart issue in 1948), yet from all I've been told she embraced every day with joy over who was still with her.
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