Priscilla remembers, vaguely, that Magdalena lived in Racine, Wisconsin, as did Hakon and Virginia.
Known as "Aunt Magda".
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60944459/frank-j-jebavy
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/104404140/cora-b-jebavy
CORA BEMAN JEBAVY BIOGRAPHY, by Linda JebavyCora Beman Jebavy was born as Cora Beman in Ohio in 1893. Her brother was born
there in 1895. The family moved to Ponca City in 1899. Around the turn of the
century, her parents were divorced and the children stayed with their father in
Ponca City and her mother went to Kansas City to run a hotel. They attended
St. Mary’s School. Cora attended both as a boarder and a day student. The
family lived on a farm; she and her brother rode into town to school until the
family moved from the farm to South 4th Street and they could walk. Cora
graduated from St. Mary’s in 1911 with high grades; she said that she won 3
gold medals for the highest grades in class. After graduation, Cora attended
“Normal School” (2-year teacher’s college) near Oklahoma City. She returned to
Ponca City and taught 2nd grade in a small, 2-room school west of town. Around
that time, her father served on the City Council of Ponca City. Her mother’s
story was quite an adventure, but eventually she ended up in Chicago where she
was joined by Cora and Cora’s brother. Cora went to business school and got a
job as a secretary in the Calumet Baking Powder Company. She married Frank
Jebavy in 1922. Her brother had already married but died of a burst ulcer
around the time that Frank and Cora had their son, Robert Jebavy, in 1925. Cora
was a stay-at-home housewife but that happy part of her life was
short-lived. Her husband Frank died of a mastoid infection in 1929 just as the
stock market crash and Depression approached. Fortunately, her former boss at
Calumet saw the death notice and hired Cora to work for her at the Herald
American, a Hearst newspaper. The former boss was the Home Economics Editor and
Cora rose to be the Assistant Director of Home Economics at the newspaper, a
position she held until her retirement in 1963. She wrote a column for over 30
years and published hundreds of recipes and articles, all under the name of
Cora Beman. She also published a cookbook, “Economy in Cooking” in 1934. She
was a lifetime member of the Electrical Women’s Roundtable and a founder of the
Chicago chapter. (She saved the papers with her columns, recipes and articles,
and her family has them.) Mayor Daley apparently used her department’s test
kitchen as his personal restaurant, where he could bring celebrities for a meal
in privacy. Because of that she met many famous people of the time, including
Charlie Chaplin and the sisters who wrote as Dear Abby and Ann Landers. She
worked hard and struggled to keep her house and raise her son as a single
mother during the depression. She also took in her brother’s wife and child
during that time. In the 1940s, she attended the Illinois Institute of
Technology and Roosevelt College to expand her knowledge. Cora learned to drive
and bought her first car at the age of 60. Cora worked at the Chicago Herald
American, later the Chicago American, in the Home Economics department until
she retired in the 1960s, when she joined her family in Texas for the rest of
her life. Cora was a very devout Christian all of her life. She was a lifelong
member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), first in Maywood,
Illinois, and then in Richardson, Texas, until her death. In Richardson, she
was a church office volunteer for 13 years and taught the adult Sunday school
class for 12 years. She spent hours a day in prayer. Cora Beman Jebavy died in
Dallas, Texas, on 17 October 1986, at the age of 93, leaving a son,
daughter-in-law, 5 grandchildren and 1 great granddaughter. She was truly the
kindest, most religious and selfless person you could ever meet.