Birth Father

I am not sure what caused my mother to marry my birth father (William Joseph Byers) however in February of 1950 they eloped to Elkton Maryland and were married by a judge. Elkton was the place where young couples went to get married in a hurry as no marriage license was required. A little over nine months later I was born after my mother's journey from Newark, New Jersey to Hollywood, California. Mother was a telephone operator in Newark and would often take vacations in small resort by the name of Virginia Beach, Virginia. While visiting with family friends, the Spencer’s, in Virginia near the end of World War II she met and dated my father who was stationed near by at Dam Neck Naval Base their romance bloomed over the next few years as she often visited the Spencer’s during this time. As my father was mustering out of the navy they decided to the time was right to move her small family to California where he had served for a short while in the Navy. Prior to my birth, mom transferred to the phone office in downtown Los Angeles and they began their across country journey and along with my only sister they arrived and settled in at 121 ½ S. Rampart Blvd. My older brother Jack had stayed behind in New Jersey with his father’s family as he didn’t want to interrupt his schooling and friends. For many years afterwards I am sure he felt abandoned by my mother and I am sure his father’s family promoted that thought. As Thanksgiving approached, my mother worked her operator shift on the 22nd of November and prepared for the day off holiday the next day. I arrived unexpectedly shortly after 2:30 am the next morning ahead of the taxi and the doctor in the tile bathroom. Many my mothers co-workers didn’t realize that she was even pregnant. I was given the name of William Joseph Byers II and I guess I ruined the holiday that year. Not too long afterwards my father abandoned my mother and left for parts unknown. He would occasionally call and touch bases from Ohio or New Jersey however communications were not frequent. In 1953, my grandmother traveled west via airplane to visit mother and brought with her an article from the local newspaper reporting the death of my father. A death certificate would later reveal he died from a broken neck after diving from a pier off the New Jersey coast. Interestingly he was an excellent swimmer and diver. The death certificate also revealed another interesting fact, another wife’s name on the certificate. He was a modern day polygamist. Information about my father was sketchy at least. He had married once prior to my mother and had father’s two children. That marriage had ended in divorce. His father John had married his mother, Nellie Giesinger and adopted her two children one being my father. Only recently has new genealogical information been unearthed that revealed that he has not born in Ohio but in neighboring Erie, Pennsylvania. Nellie’s family was from Alabama and Texas. I was destined to be born a fine southern gentleman, by my father screwed it up by moving to California. I am grateful for my father for giving me birth and I honor him for that; however I cannot imagine what caused him to abandon his family. For years I envisioned him in naval intelligence and continuing on assignment post World War II and which he was unable to reveal these facts to my mother. This eventually contributed to his death.