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From: "Billie C. Reynolds" <>
Subject: Pickard Family
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 16:31:38 -0700


Charlotte

Charlotte, the wild one, blonde, blue-eyed, pretty and petite, has an
indomitable spirit, an unflagging sense of humor, love that knows no
bounds, and a weakness for strays in the form of children.
Though her life was marked by tragedy and heartache – two failed
marriages, the untimely death of her oldest son, the death of two
grandchildren from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, a bout with cancer, and
constant debilitating pain from a deteriorating spine – problems that
would crush a weaker spirit, Charlotte has never given up.
There have been times when she didn’t think she could go on. In those
dark days she discovered strengths she didn’t know she possessed and
drew comfort from her faith in The Creator.
Her sense of humor beings laughs to everyone. Once, when she hurt her
foot, she went to the dispensary at the Concord Naval Weapons Depot
where she was employed. The doctor on call x-rayed her foot and told
her it was just a bad sprain. A week later she learned her foot was
broken in three places and the doctor who first examined it was not
really a doctor but a dentist. Charlotte only laughed and said, “He
probably thought he was looking at a set of uppers!”
Her favorite butt of any joke is herself. She tells of the time she
made a lemon meringue pie, her favorite, and cooked it in a plastic pie
plate. The plate twisted and curled from the heat of the oven leaving
the pie setting atop it like a monument to plastic pie plates.
Charlotte married Norman Hill on February 1, 1957, and they had three
children. Steven Keith was born November 1, 1957. Gail Danette came
along on October 16, 1958.
While pregnant with her fourth child, (Norman’s third), she was
diagnosed with cancer of the uterus. Her doctors recommended aborting
the baby and performing a hysterectomy, explaining that any delay in
surgery would seriously jeopardize her life. Charlotte steadfastly
refused to kill her unborn child. She had the necessary surgery few
weeks after her son, Robert Stewart, was born on October 31, 1962.
Charlotte retired from Government service in 1984, after 33 years of
faithful service.
She lives in Antioch with her mother. There is often a fuzzy area
regarding who is taken care of whom.
Charlotte’s children live nearby and her greatest joy in life is
spending time with her grandchildren. Her constant pain occasionally
makes her short tempered with adults but with children she had the
patience of Job.
She may have slowed down a little in the past few years but she will
forever remain in our hearts “The Wild One”.

*

Billy Allen (“Fitzy”) Fitzpatrick joined the Marine Corps and saw
combat in Viet Name. An injury caused him to experience epileptic
seizures and he was medically discharged. He attended Los Medaros
Community College where he spearheaded the implementation of a Disabled
Veterans Program.
Fitzy married Diane Williams in 1965. Their only child, Diana, died
from SIDS when she was 22 days old.
Fitzy and Diane divorced and he married Marsha Thurgood in 1967. They
had two children, Bryan Keith and Michael Sean. Bryan and his wife
Stacie, have a daughter, Bryanna. Michael and his wife, Kathy, have a
daughter, Teresa. Both families live in New Mexico.
Fitzy and Marsha divorced and he married Kathy Prezza. They had one
dauther Shannon Kathleen.
On vacation in Las Vegas, Nevada, Fitzy was struck by a car and
hospitalized. While in the hospital he contracted pneumonia. He died
on December 27, 1989. The hit-and-run driver was never found.

*

Steven Keith married Diana Reppert and they have two children, Brandy
Nicole and Joshua Keith. Steven and Diane divorced and Diana
disappeared with the children. Their current whereabouts is unknown.
Steven married Julie Brown and they have two children, Jason and Allen.

Steven inherited a talent for poetry and has written several poems, two
of which are included in these pages.
Steven and his present wife, Valerie, are currently living in Reno,
Nevada.

*

Gail Danette married Frank Walker Peppin. Their first child, Melissa,
died from SIDS at the age of two months. They now have two children,
Stacie Lynn and Jeffery Walker.
Gail works for Chevron Oil Company and her husband, Frank, is a
dispatcher for a trucking company. The live in Antioch.

*

Robert Stewart married Jacqueline Jones. They have three children,
Michael Ray, Matthew Sean, and Theresa Ann. Robert works as a carpenter
and Jackie is employed by a department store. They live in Antioch.



Martha Jean

Martha Jean, though only 16 years old, settled into married life
comfortable. Jack and Martha Jean's second child, Wayne Martin, was
born on Jul y 9, 1951.
On January 31, 1961, their third child, Edythe Maxine, was born.
Martha Jean reached a point where she wanted to add to her life. She
tried her hand at selling encyclopedias for a while but that left her
unsatisfied. In her employment search she went to the California State
Employment Services office. She made such an impression that she was
hire to work there. She stayed with the Employment services until her
retirement in 1983.
After the children were grown, and Jack had retired from Shell Chemical
Company, Martha Jean and Jack sold the home they had lived in almost all
of their married life and bought a home on 5 acres in the mountains near
Somerset, California.
On January 21, 1988, Jack suffered a fatal heart attack while on his
way to help a neighbor shovel snow from his driveway.
Jack had always been very healthy and had no history of heart trouble.
His sudden and unexpected death was devastating to Martha Jean and the
family.
Two years later Martha Jean married Gordon Kotecki. Gordon, like
Martha Jean, is quiet and reticent but, a close look will find a merry
twinkle in his eyes. Orphaned at the age of four, he was adopted by Mr.
and Mrs. Kotecki, a couple who lived on a farm and spoke nothing but
German and Polish.
Mr. Kotecki and his Polish emigrant friends had frequent get-togethers
where liberal amounts of home made beer were consumed. During these
parties they would become quite vocal and their colorful Polish language
was heavily sprinkled with powerful sear words. Gordon quickly learned
the words, if not their meaning.
One day he happened to use a few of those words in the presence of Mama
Kotecki who took exception to such words coming from the mouth of a
little boy. She chased after Gordon with a butcher knife she had been
using still in her hand, yelling in German that when she caught him she
was going to cut off his pecker.
Gordon understood German and had no doubt she meant exactly what she
said. He ran for his life, straight for the root cellar.
The root cellar was a large hole in the ground covered by a wooden roof
that had rotted in the weather. It was strong enough to hold a little
boy but Mama Kotecki was a big woman over 200 pounds. While Gordon
cowered in the center of the roof the frustrated woman could only stand
at its edge, brandishing the butcher knife, and threaten him with dire
consequences should he ever use those words again.
Martha Jean was stricken with lung cancer in the mid 1990’s and had to
undergo surgery to remove part of one lung. She made a complete
recovery and has been cancer-free ever since.
Martha Jean is still small and slender. She seems to get prettier every
year. Her once lovely chestnut hair has turned a pure silver white that
would be the envy of any platinum blonde. There is a serenity about her
that adds to her attractiveness.
She and Gordon live in Placerville where they enjoy making cottage
crafts and selling them at craft fairs around the area.

*

Deryl Douglas married Betty Lee Blair on February 8, 1975. They have
two children, Kristine Ann, born August 12, 1976, and Denise Le, born
April 1, 1978.
They live in Oakley and Deryl is employed as a bus mechanic.

*

Wayne Martin spent six years in the U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarine
Service, the attended the University of California at Irvine where he
majored in Computer Sciences.
He married Sue Colleen Parks on February 12, 1972. Sue suffered a
malfunction of the pituitary gland as a teen-ager and, as a result, her
growth was affected. She was very tiny at only four feet, six inches
tall, and strikingly pretty.
Wayne died suddenly on January 14, 1991. He was 39 years old. She
passed away on April 21, 1998. They had no children.

*

Edythe Maxine attended Sacramento State College where she received a
degree in Business.
On September 21, 1991, she married Robert L. Rodgers. Robert has an
engineering degree and works in that field.
They have two children, Emily Jean, born February 9, 1995, and Kyle
Martin, born August 31, 1996.
They live in Rocklin, a suburb of Sacramento.


--
Billie C. Reynolds
Anita "Jean" Waters-Reynolds
http://www.rh2o.com (Family Genealogy)
http://www.rh2o.com/modoc/ (Modoc County Genealogy)


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