Originally published December 2016
Lorna’s height written on the nursery wall
After the death of Fred Lamson, the Lamson house was inherited by his wife, Frankie Lamson. Frankie Lamson was born Frances Agnes Skeels and, interestingly enough, had a twin sister who was also named Frances Agnes Skeels. Perhaps their parents thought they were being clever or maybe they thought that it would just be easier for twin girls to have the same name. The reason behind the odd choice has long been lost to history. But eventually the two girls were separated by the nicknames Frankie and Fanny.
While exact details are sketchy, it appears that Frankie was considered to be a strong woman who loved her husband very much and was absolutely devastated when her husband passed away. She actually ended up keeping the Lamson name in her name until her death, despite that fact that she remarried twice more.
Fred Lamson’s passing hurt her so much that after his death she could not stand to stay in the house he had built for her and she moved away from Bedford with her children to Long Beach, California. The house was closed up and left empty in their absence.
Why she moved to California is unknown. Perhaps the West Coast was just as far away from the painful memory of her husband’s death as she could manage. Regardless, while on the West Coast she found love again, and shortly after 1910, she and her new husband, Edward Clark – a railroad contractor, along with their combined three children returned to the Lamson House in Bedford.
Their blended family seemed to get along famously in the house. The children played together and wrote notes on the walls of the nursery. These notes remain to this day. But like all children, they grew up and moved on. In 1917, Nelson joined the Navy and fought in World War I and eventually married – though he died a mere 10 days after the birth of his first child. In the mid 1920s, Frankie, Edward and Lorna said goodbye to the Lamson House one last time. The house was sold and the trio moved back to California. All three spent the rest of their days in Los Angeles.
As an odd footnote, Frankie did marry one more time after the death of Edward. And despite the fact that she did not live in Bedford again, her third marriage was to a Bedford resident. It appears that her 3rd marriage though was one completely of convenience, or as we would term it today, a green card marriage.