Ethel Allen

Ethel Rosina Tasker was born September, 5, 1909 in Itchen, England. She was the daughter of Mary Ann Jones Tasker and William Tasker, both born in Wales. Her parents had lived in England for about 5 years by the time their third child, Ethel, was born, and always considered themselves Welsh. In the 1911 English census records, the Tasker family was living at No. 170 Mortimer Road, Itchen, Hampshire, England. The family is listed with the following ages: William Tasker 31 Mary Tasker 28 William H Tasker 5 Eileen C Tasker 3 Ethel R Tasker 1 Father, William Tasker, has a noted occupation " journeyman sail maker", working in a nearby ship yard. Ethel's family immigrated to the states in 1913, settling in Lead, South Dakota. Her father filed his 'first papers' (intent to become a US citizen for himself and family) in South Dakota, and obtained his final papers on 2 Nov 1919 after moving to West Seattle, Washington. According to the 1920s census Ethel Rosina Tasker was 10 years old living at 46 Ave South West in Seattle Washington. Her father William Tasker was 40, mother Mary A. Tasker was 37, brother William Harold Tasker was 13, her sister Eileen Constance Tasker was 11 and Ethel was 10 years old. The Tasker children later attended West Seattle High School, where Ethel's sister, Connie, carved her initials behind the clock in the Clock Tower. The two Tasker daughters were known for sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night, attending parties their strict parents had forbidden them to go to, and other rowdy antics that weren't repeated to their grandchildren and nieces until their latter years of life. In the 1930 census Ethel was still living at home with her parents ( 3021 Belvidere Avenue, West Seattle) and not working at that time. Ethel was very close to her father, William, and must have been devasted when he passed away January of 1934. Her only brother, Willie, passed away from pneumonia in November of the same year. On 18th January, 1939 Ethel set sail from the Port of Vancouver, arriving in Honolulu a week later. She and her mother had been residing at 201 Olympic Place, Seattle, at the time. Ethel met Floyd Allen, her future husband, in Honolulu. Floyd was working at a piano shop and had been living in Honolulu for a year or so prior to Ethel's arrival. They married in May, 1939 five months after Ethel arrived and made their home in Waikiki. By 1940, Ethel's mother Mary Ann Tasker was resided with the couple at #334 Ohua Avenue, Honolulu. Ethel and Floyd returned to the states in September of 1942, settling in Idaho. Their daughter, Nancy, was born in Boise years later. After her birth, they moved to Idaho Falls were they spent most of their married life.

Eileen Constance "Connie" (Tasker) Benning's father was William Tasker (1879 - 1933) and her mother was Mary Ann (Jones) Tasker (1882 - 1956). She had siblings Willie Tasker (1906 - 1932) and Ethel Allen (born 1909). My great-grandmother, or "GG" as I called her, was a strong proper Welsh woman. She outlived each of her 3 husbands and just could not take another spouse dying on her. She worked hard in her later years, moving to Seward Alaska as a nurse (she was in Seward during the great quake on March 27, 1964 and her family didn't know if she had survived for 3 days) and then returned to California's Bay Area, working at a hospital in Redwood City. GG was a proper Welsh woman until the day she died. From her granddaughter Kathy: Grandma was married 3 times - her first husband was our biological grandfather - and between 1946 and 1961, each of her 3 husbands died. Later in life, she told me that she had so much heartbreak during that time that she didn't want to marry again and have another husband die. But as she got older, she was lonely and wished that she had married again. Grandma was an active person and always up for an adventure. In her 50s, she moved to Seward Alaska (on her own, knowing no one) and was there for the big Alaska quake. She was working at Seward Hospital and had a funny story about the quake: When it begin, she stood in the doorway of a patient's room - an elderly man. After they both survived the quake, the elderly patient told everyone who would listen that she had "saved his life by holding up the room." After Seward, she moved to Valdez (also devastated by the quake) for a year. Grandma returned to the San Francisco Bay Area (where we were living) and worked at Sequoia Hospital. After she retired from Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, California, she went to work as a companion for an elderly woman in Arizona. The woman was very wealthy, so they split the year between her home in Scottsdale and her other home in Michigan. But the work was physically difficult, so Grandma retired and returned to the Bay Area where she bought a small mobile home in Aptos, near Santa Cruz California. It had been a life-long dream of hers to live in Australia, but that dream was never realized. While she lived in Aptos, however, she became an active member of AA, a daily walker, a devoted yoga practitioner, and took lessons in the Welsh language. Even in her 70s, she couldn't sit still!

Joyce Vandever (as she was known in her later years) was a loving mother of two daughters Kathleen Rae (Kroetch) Pinna & Pam (Kroetch) Marks who she had with Frank Kroetch, and grandma to two grandchildren Daniel J Pinna & Layne. Joyce had a half-sister, Lois (Benning) Ewen, the product of her father's first marriage. She also had a step-brother, Charles Henry Barrett Jr., from her mother's second marriage to Charles Henry 'Heinie' Barrett Sr. She had many friends and relatives in California, Washington state, England and Wales. Her best childhood and lifelong closest friend was Beverly Clarice (Washington) Scoffone in Monte Sereno California. Joyce loved being a grandmother and spent countless weekends with her grandchildren. She lived in the California Hawaiian mobile home park at 3637 Snell Ave in San Jose for many years when it was an adult community. To hear Joyce describe herself see Joyce Vandever In Her Own Words