Not Just a Widow on Walker Street

Her husband died in 1913 when she was 29. She was left with an infant daughter, a small house in Braidwood, and no means of financial support. The headstone provides the dates, born 1883, died 1974. Missing are the vast experiences, joys, and most of all, the struggles. 

Mrs. Sarah Edwards Jeffrey’s story is the story of many women who survived the sudden death of a husband, the pandemic of 1919, World Wars I and II, the Great Depression, fending for herself as a widow for 61 years, and as a single mom. Her story will never adequately be told because she seldom talked about it. 

No Longer a Widow on Walker Street

From the time that the Kennedy family moved across the street, Mrs. Jeffrey was no longer “a widow on Walker Street.” Soon she would become a grandmother and would have a second daughter.

I knew “grandma” Jeffrey when I was barely old enough to walk but continued my affection for her as long as she lived. I was 33 when she quietly passed away in 1974 at the age of 90.  She was the only grandmother that I knew since grandmothers Ginter and Kennedy died prior to my birth in 1940. Mrs. Jeffrey also became surrogate grandmother to my sister and my brother. 

Her house was like ours. Trumpet vines clung to the front porch, a grape orchard lined a walkway to the south, and a small shed sat near on the west. On the far southwest corner of the lot stood the outhouse, active until a bathroom was installed.

My sister claims that Mrs. Jeffrey preferred me as her adopted grandchild, but I would counter that Carole Ann took more than here share of candy out of the glass jar in the front room and had the added privilege of practicing the piano at her house, spending more time with Grandma. 

My time at her house was consumed with mowing the grass (push mower), chopping wood, and sitting at her kitchen table with a coloring book while eating pancakes. I did spend close to two weeks isolated with Grandma Jeffrey while my sister was in quarantine with scarlet fever.     

Perhaps more importantly, Mrs. Jeffrey undertook – by default – the role as a second mother to my mother. Mom’s mother passed away in 1940 just prior to the birth us kids leaving a 22-year-old to fend for herself through the child raising years when motherly advice and knowledge are so critical. Mrs. Jeffrey was only a few steps away to assure and advise mom during times of childhood diseases, accidents, and injuries. 

The impact that Mrs. Jeffrey had as a grandmother and second mother can never be overestimated. Her wisdom harmonized with the immaturity of a young family.

What is known about Sarah Edward Jeffrey?

She was born in England in 1883 and came to the United States in 1901 when she was 18. Upon arriving in Chicago, Sarah worked as a maid until she married William Jeffrey, a coal miner from Braidwood. William’s mother and father came from Scotland in 1873 and had 6 children. Bill’s brother, Archibald, was Will County Treasurer and then became an interim Mayor of Joliet.

The marriage between Sarah and Bill was brief but produced one child, Louise. Bill died of pneumonia at age 29, the same age as his widow. It was 1913 and Mrs. Jeffrey had to figure out how to take care of her baby, put food on the table, and maintain her small house. 

She took a job as a cleaning lady at the Braidwood High School located half a block away. She probably trudged across the baseball field to her work while her baby was at home alone. She told my sister that she tied the baby tightly into the highchair, with food on the tray, and departed for work for several hours. How long did Sara work in this job? Unknown.

But we do know that her Louise ultimately attended college and became a teacher after she and her mother worked at the Rossi Macaroni Factory. She taught at the East side school.

By the 1920s, Mrs. Jeffrey was a maid at the Folger Adam house and later for a family on the East side of Joliet, taking a bus on Mondays and returning to Braidwood on Fridays.  During the week, mom watched over her house. Prior to picking her up at the bus station on Fridays, mom would fire up the pot belly stove so she would come to a warm house in cold weather. 

By the time that my family moved to the East side of town in 1951, the relationship between Mrs. Jeffrey and my mother had developed into an unbreakable bond that endured until death intervened in 1974. The former “widow on Walker Street” was transformed into the second mother and grandmother for a family that became whole, and Grandma Jeffrey’s life was enriched with another daughter and three grandkids. 

By moving from an apartment on Roundhouse Street to Walker Street, the Kennedys inherited the missing piece for a more complete family. And very few people outside our family ever knew about the former “widow on Walker Street.”