Once upon a time, there was a couple who married. Twice.
On July 5, 1930, in Hancock Co., Illinois Laura May Atherton age 15, wed 20-year-old Ray Foxall. According to Illinois’ marriage law, Laura would have needed parental consent to wed. Although both were residents of McDonough Co., Illinois, they traveled one county to the west to marry. Did they do so because of her age?
In the 1930 census, taken in April, Ray is residing with his parents. He stated that his occupation was a laborer but he wasn’t employed. Laura hasn’t been found in the census but it had been rough at home the previous few years. Her father, Joseph Atherton, was sentenced to 20 years in the state penitentiary in 1929 for multiple radio and agricultural thefts.
Almost one year later, their first of three daughters, Rita, was born.
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| Laura Foxall, age 16 with Rita Foxall, age 3 weeks (July 1931). |
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| Laura, Diana, Nancy, Rita, and Ray likely shortly before 1940. |
But in May 1940, Laura filed for divorce from Ray on the grounds of cruel and unusual punishment, claiming he was physically violent towards her in the fall of 1939. Laura was granted custody of their three young girls.
“Laura M. Foxall, of Macomb, has filed suit in the office of Circut Clerk Bobbitt for divorce from Ray O. Foxall. She charges him with cruelty and asks the custody of their three small children.” (The Bardolph News, Bardolph, Illinois, May 30, 1940, No. 39, front page)
“In Circuit court last Monday, Judge Roeth granted Laura M. Foxall, of Macomb, a divorce from Ray Q. Foxall on grounds of extreme and repeated cruelty. The wife was granted the custody of the couple's three children aged 4, 6, and 8 years respectively, and the father must contribute $30 a month to the support of the three children and their mother. He must also pay the wife's attorney fee of $50.” (The Bardolph News, Bardolph, Illinois, June 20, 1940, No. 42, front page)
It is not known if Ray actually demonstrated "extreme and repeated cruelty" to his wife. Unlike today, if a wife in the 1940s wanted a divorce, the accepted reasons in the court system were accusations of adultery or cruelty.
The divorce claim was granted in June 1940. But by August 1940, they remarried, this time in Keokuk, Lee Co., Iowa.
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| Second marriage certificate, August 24, 1940, Keokuk, Lee Co., Iowa |
This union would last until June 1944 as stated in the local news:
"The second marriage of Ray O. and Laura Mae Foxall, of Macomb, did not prove any more favorable than their first. They were first married in 1930 and later divorced. They were again married in 1940. Evidence in court last Monday showed that Foxall entered the army last February and when he came home on furlough on June 30 he found that Laura Mae had left home two days earlier and had gone to Minneapolis to live with another man, leaving her three daughters, 8 to 13 years old, with her husband's mother. She had also withdrawn their bank account of $235 and took their seven war bonds and a $120 government allotment check with her. Foxall was granted a divorce on grounds of adultery and the custody of his three daughters who will receive his government allotment for their support while he is in the service." (The Bardolph News, Bardolph, Illinois, July 13, 1944, No. 46, front page).
When their marriage finally dissolved, Laura was 25 and Ray was 30.
Each would go on to marry for a third time. Laura wed Leo Wheeler and had two children. They lived in Plainsfield, Wisconsin, where Laura started and operated Laura's Lane Nursery. Ray married Pauline Pollock in November 1946. They had three children and continued to reside in Macomb.
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