History of Jean Chamberlin

Dad's parents: Dr. Frank Harrison Chamberlin
and Marguerite Benecia Games

 

Jean Webster Chamberlin - age 6 months (1918) in his mother's arms. 
She homesteaded the property where Rosalyn and I live along
with her sister-in-law Blanche Chamberlin while
she was pregnant with Dad in 1917.




I don't know why Grandma named my dad Jean.  It is pronouced like Gene, but spelled like the girls name Jean, or like the french Jean (as in JeanPaul).  It appears that all through school he went by John, but after high school it was Jean.  He was forever getting mail to Miss Jean Chamberlin.  And, of course, My middle name is Jean, Ronald Jean Chamberlin. 
Go figure!




Jean's first Christmas (1918)

 


Jean - age 1 (1919)




Jean - age 1 (1919)

Jean - age 1 1/2 (1920) in a great old toy car



Jean - age 1 1/2 (1920) at beach
with his mother Marguerite

 

Jean - age 2 (1920)




Jean -age 2 (1920)

 

Jean - age 2 (1920) on another great great old toy. 
Look at that old tricycle.

 


Jean - age 3 (1921) on a pony brought around
by a photographer who canvassed neghborhoods
getting parents to by their photos.  But, it is cute!  

 

Jean - age 3 (1921)

  

Jean - age 3 (1921) on a cool scooter

Jean - age 3 (1921) with his sister Adelaide  

   

 

Jean - age 3 (1921) family photo
His parents divorced when Jean was 5


 

Jean - age 4 (1922) Three generations.
Jean, His father and his grand-father
Daniel Webster Chamberlin

  

Jean - age 4 (1922) pulling a friend
behind his tricycle.  Very creative!





Jean - age 4 (1922) another one of those
photographers has been around



Jean - age 4 (1922) at the beach with cousins ?? & ??
and sister Adelaide

  

Jean - age 4 (1922) pulling his sister
Adelaide in a wagon

Jean - age 5 (1923) with Adelaide



Just a note: All through Jean's school years he
  was registered as John Chamberlin.  However,
sometimes, in other venues, he went be Jean.  All
through the time his children were growing up he
went by Jean.  As an adult, he owned and played a
4 octave chromatic harmonica.  We have an undated
program listing a harmonica duet by John Chamberlin
and Bill Nicola which had to have been from
his junior or senior high school days.  We also have
a program from a Violin and Piano Recital dated
June 24, 1929 (when Jean would have just turned ten)
held at the First M.E. Church in Long Beach, CA that
lists a violin solo 'Sweet Hawiian Moonlight' by
Jean Chamberlin, so he had some musical talents,
besides singing and playing the harmonica. 

 

Jean - age 6 (1924) with Adelaide




Jean - age 7 (1925) Jean's mom married Paul Stephen Scheiern in 1924. 
This is Jean with Adelaide and his new sister Betty Ruth Scheiern



Jean - age 7 (1925)



Jean - age 7 (1925) with his cousins at the beach



Jean - age 8 (1926)





Jean - age 9 (1927) with Adelaide



Jean - age 12 (1930) with his Grandpa,
his dad and Adelaide

 


Jean age 13 (1931) Junior high school graduation

 

Jean - age 13 (1931) with Adelaide



Jean - age 14 (1932) with Betty



Jean - age 18 (1936) Southgate Hign School graduation photo
Just a note:



Jean - age 18 (1936)



Jean - age 18 (1936) with his fiancee
June Irene Porter dress for his high school prom



Jean - age 18 (1936) with his bride June
23 August 1936



Jean - age 19 (1937) with June her Mother
Genevieve Irene Porter, her stepdad Alfred John Fisher
and her greandfather John Sherman Thatcher



Jean - age 19 (1937) wih his mom Marguerite
and Adelaide's husband Russell Burkholder



Jean - age 19 (1937) with June, Adelaide and Russell Burkholder



Jean - age 20 (1938) with june and his dad
Dr. Frank Harrison Chamberlin,
who was a Shriner (Mason) thus the uniform 



Jean - age 21 (1939) with June and
first son Ronald Jean Chamberlin





Jean - age 23 (1941) with June, Ronny,
and New baby Dianna June Chamberlin






 



(1944) Jimmy Lee Chamberlin born when Jean was 26 





Jean - age 29 (1947) Working with Granny & Grandpa Al
on their chicken ranch in Baldwin Park, CA. 
Actually, we lived with them for o couple of years while
Dad and Grandpa Al set up a chicken processing plant
that allowed us to raise, kill, clean, and package cut up
fryers to sell to the public, something that was not available
at the local market in 1947.  I don't know what happened,
but Dad went back to selling cars until we moved to
Santa Barbara where he was given a large territory selling
Turco commercial cleaning products.  Once we moved,
Granny and Grandpa Al sold the ranch and bought another
one in Santa Barbara.
















Jean - age 29 (1947) same ranch in Baldwin Park





Jean - age 31 (1949) with several friends that Jean and June
Ran around with.  The and their wives all camped together,
danced together.  We spent a lot of time with them. 

   




 

Jean - age 32 (1950) home in West Covina, CA



 

Jean - age 32 (1950) Chistmas outfits
to go with our Welsh pony in West Covina, CA






 




Jean - age 33 (1951) with family at Christmas
Jean had just moved the family to Santa Barbara,
California having taken a new job with Turco Cleaning
products and his route went as far north as San Luis Obispo.

  

Jean - age 34 (1952) on a family trip up to Uncle Carl Sutton's home in Downieville, California north of Sacramento in the High Sierras.  Left to right, back row, Marguerite Benecia Games (Jean's mother), June,  June's daughter (Dianna), and Uncle Carl's daughter (Helen).  Kneeling is Jean holding the fawn, son Jimmy and uncle Carl's son.  Uncle Carl is Marguerite's brother-in-law who was married to Frances Marion Games who died just a few months earlier.





(1952) Jean's mom Marguerite and Uncle Carl with one of two fawns
he found injured along the road.  This one had a badly broken leg. 
Being the only doctor within 50 miles, he amputated the left rear leg
just below the knee.  That crazy dear grew up and became a town
pest bounding over fenches and generally causing trouble.  It finally
had to be taken to an animal reserve.  Marguerite was only married
to Grandpa Doc (Frank Chamberlin) for a few years.  She then
married Paul Stephen Scheiern.  She was a great lady.  We always
knew her as Grandma Scheiern

   

Jean - age 34 (1952) The remainder of the trip
camping through the High Sierras. 

 

Jean - age 34 (1952) foolin around with Mom.  This is the way I remember my parents.  What ever trouble was brewing between them, it was never in front of us children.  Mom loved to play the piano and Dad and the family used to stand around it singing while she played.  He had a nice voice and could harmonize with almost any song he heard.  Mom and Dad were very demonstrative about the love they shared.  They openly flirted with each other, hugged and kissed often.  They danced anytime and anywhere music was playing.  Being young and young at heart, my friends loved them.  They were our local taxi everywhere we went.      



Jean - age 35 (1953) with Mom at my Junior High School
graduation in Santa Barbara




Jean - age 35 (1953) Dad had always worked long hours and was not always home, and although Mom was our foundation and the stability in our family, Dad was my hero.  One more time, in 1953, things must have been really tight financially for we moved in with Granny and Grandpa Al in the little house, below.  It was the main house for their large chicken ranch in Santa Barbara. 

With Grandpa Al's help, Dad converted a three car parking shed into a nice little apartment for Granny and Grandpa Al to live while our family lived in the main house.  This is Dad age 34 working on the project.

 

(1953) This was the little main house that we shared on the ranch. 

 










 
 

(1953) This is the  finished apartment on the opposite side of the driveway where Granny and Grandpa Al lived.  Everything seemed to be going well until Turco offered Dad more money and a much larger territory ranging from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.  He would have to take the position immediately and in the the middle of my Sophmore year at Santa Barbara High School.  I was very active in the First Methodist Church and their youth group with many friends and a girl friend, to boot.  That was the most difficult decision I saw my folks make.  It was to be very hard on Mom, Dad, my grand parents, and the whole family.  That was the only time I ever saw my father cry.  It was decided that Dad would move to Los Angeles, find a house, and take the new position with Turco six months before the family could join him.  He found  a house in Sepulveda, California in the San Fernando Valley and Mom and the family traveled to and from there almost every weekend.  However, that was to be the beginning of the end for Mom and Dad's marraige.  He became involved with another women that he met in the Civil Air Patrol where he had become the Commandant of Cadets.  By the middle of my junior year at Van Nuys High School in 1955, they were divorced.  




Jean - age 37 (1955) Working for Turco
This is the year June divorced Jean



Jean - age 37 (1955) Las Vegas was part of his territory



Jean - age 38 (1956) around my high school graduation
Me, Dad, and a good friend, Guy Charno with his new tattoo.
We had gone together to get Tattoos, but I decided not to.



Jean - age 40 (1958)



Jean - age 42 (1960) with his new boat.
Jean bounced around for a few years in and out of
two or three marraiges








Jean - age 46 (1964) Selling Squire hairpieces
that he wore for years

 


Jean - age 48 (1966) when he mwt and married Doris Maridee Noteboom

 




Jean - age 52 (1970) with Doris



Jean - age 54 (1972)



Jean - age 57 (1975)





Jean - age 65 (1983) He and Doris were divorced sometime
before 1980 and Dad was living with Rosalyn and I





Jean - age 66 (1984) Three generations
of Chamberlins Me, David, and his son Joshua



Jean - age 67 (1985) with Kelly, Lauri, and their new baby Jessica.
Soon after this phot was taken we had to move dad into a skilled nursing home, because Rosalyn and I were both working and he couldn't care for himself.  He wouldn't stop smoking in our home and after dropping a cigarette onto the carpet and not noticing that it burned the full length of the cigarette,
we were afraid he was going to start a fire and burn down our home.

Jean - age 70 (1988) at Ron's son David's
medical school graduation



Jean - age 70 (1988) with his son Jim, Jim's daughter Corinne
and his son Jason.  This is the last picture I have of Dad before
he passed away 10 October 1989 at the age of 71