Juanita Sinforosa “Jane” Jacques

Juanita Sinforosa “Jane” Jacques was born on March 30, 1917 to Tonita and Celestino Jacques. This is Aunt Jane as a baby, being held by Uncle Epi.

She has a very sweet, somber face. I think that is probably an apt description of her.

I will start my post by saying up front that I did not have a lot of interaction with Aunt Jane. I used to ask my dad why her real name was Juanita, why he called her Jane and why other times she was listed as Jean. He said he didn’t know, ha.

However, daddy called her Jane so that is the name that sticks in my head. I did not see her often, although I did see her a bit. I really knew her kids and saw them a lot more.

Aunt Jane was born in New Mexico, number six out of twelve children, on March 30, 1917. Because she was a full ten years older than my dad, he didn’t see her a lot. Her first daughter, Viola, was born in New Mexico on May 28, 1934. Viola (given name is Maryann Viola) was raised by Tonita alongside my dad and Aunt Angie.

Aunt Jane is the last girl on the right, just before Grandpa Celestino Jacques. You can tell she is probably wearing a one inch heel dress shoe but she looks really tall. She was probably about 5’8″ (two inches shorter than myself) and she looks really tall. All of my other aunts were very short but Aunt Jane was a tall woman.

Here Aunt Jane is just about the same height as daddy (he was 5’8″ too).

In this picture she is the first on the left.

This next picture is, by far, one of my favorites.

When I first got this picture from my cousin Tommy, I wasn’t sure who it was. I thought, gosh, I should know this person because she looked so familiar but I couldn’t get it into my brain who it was.

When I uploaded his pictures again into my new computer, names popped up on each picture (he had saved it this way originally, but my old computer didn’t bring them up.) When I realized this was Aunt Jane, I laughed because then it occurred to me why I thought she looked so familiar.

I think, in this picture, she looks just like my cousin Donna, her second daughter.

Eventually, Aunt Jane came to California and married Ernest Frederick and had Donna Frederick, Ernest Frederick Jr., Shirley Frederick and Mary Frederick. Aunt Jane also had another son by the name of Milton Lee.

So while we didn’t always see Aunt Jane, we did spend a bit of time with Viola. Here she is with my momma, both pregnant in 1953. Mother was pregnant with Cammie and Viola was pregnant with Michelle Lynn. Michelle (or Mitzi) was born on May 27, 1953 and Cammie on May 30th, 1953.

Here is the result!

I love this picture. This is Marcelle Lee Ann born 4/6/1952. She was Viola’s older daughter.

Isn’t that sweet? What a cutie pie.

Viola also had Lisbeth Mae on 5/19/1955 and her last daughter, Danielle on September 3, 1966. Here she is with her mom

I found this listing for Aunt Jane and Uncle Ernie and it shows that he was working at Foster’s Bakery. As soon as I saw that, I thought yes, that’s right. I always remember my dad saying Ernie was a nice guy. That’s how I remember him too.

I also found this:

Cute, right? That is Donna and her husband Ray when they were engaged. Here is the article.

Awesome.  Love finding little nuggets from the past.

Interesting side note: I was searching for information on Ernie Frederick Sr. and I didn’t get far. I couldn’t find him on a census (being born in 1927, he should have been on  the 1930 and 1940 census). When I re-read Donna’s announcement just now, I see that Ernie’s mother’s name is listed as Mary C. Frederick and that she was from Pennsylvania.  Then, I had also found that her maiden name was Cameron and I found an Ernest Eugene Frederick from PA on the 1930 census with a two and a half old son by the name of Ernest E. Jr. Frederick. Now, only my supposition, but it looks like this could be the correct information for Ernie Senior. My idea is that his middle initial is probably E for Eugene but because he was a Junior it was transcribed into his records as Ernie J. If all of this information is correct, his grandparents were David Frederick born in 1872 and Sallie Catherine Deater born in 1874, both from PA. That information would have to be confirmed by someone who knows the family or knows the information.

Back to Aunt Jane:

Most of Aunt Jane’s family is in this picture. From Celestino in the first row, is my mother Jubie, then Viola sitting next to Aunt Jane. Behind her are Donna and Mary and Ernie Jr. Shirley and Ernie Senior are on the top row, last on the right. Sitting on the ground are Marcy, Mitzie and Lizzie. Viola’s husband, John Pacheco is standing behind her. Missing are Dani and myself, because we weren’t born yet!

This is one of the last pictures that I have of Aunt Jane. Pictured are (starting on the left,) Rosemary Serna, a family friend (her name was Gaytha) Aunt Jane in red, Donna in the center in pink, my Aunt Jeanie on the front left (my mom’s sister) and Sharon Saiz in front on the right. This was at Cammie’s wedding shower in about 1974 or 1975.

Aunt Jane passed away on December 26, 1980.