lived through two World Wars – Someone Peed In My Gene Pool!

August 15, 2025

Introducing Lois Catherine Buchanan

Welcome to the Memory Page for Lois Catherine Buchanan

August 14, 1914 – February 15, 2007

Lois’s story is one of quiet strength, deep roots, and the kind of steadiness that anchored her family through nearly a century of change. Born in Ridgeway, Illinois, the daughter of Reverend Maurice Buchanan and Pearl Wilton, Lois grew up in the warm but watchful world of a Methodist parsonage. From her early years in small Indiana towns to her long life in Indianapolis, she remained devoted to family, faith, and the art of creating a welcoming home.

Over her 92 years, Lois witnessed two World Wars, the rise of the automobile and the computer, and the transformation of her city—but her heart stayed firmly grounded in the things that mattered most: the people she loved and the communities she served.

A Few Things to Remember About Lois

The Preacher’s Daughter: She spent her childhood in parsonages, learning grace and hospitality from an early age.
A Long First Marriage: Married to Robert Daniel Boone for more than four decades, raising two children, Michael and Marilyn.
A Second Chapter: At 63, she married James Steven Kiraly, finding companionship and stability in her later years.
An Indianapolis Fixture: From the 1930s onward, she made the city her home—through bustling downtown years, suburban life, and a quiet retirement.

Share Your Memories

Do you remember visiting Lois’s home on East 62nd Street?
Did you know her from church, the neighborhood, or family gatherings?
Do you have a treasured recipe, holiday tradition, or photograph tied to her?

Your stories help keep her spirit alive for future generations. Please share them below so they can become part of her legacy.

📜 Back to the Buchanan Family Page to explore more relatives and history.

Curious about Lois’s place in the family tree?
Return to her Family Page to see how her story connects with generations past and present.

August 10, 2025

Introducing George Thomas Applegate

Introduction Page – George Thomas Applegate

Every family has those steady, familiar presences — the kind of people who anchor a family’s story without demanding the spotlight. For our family, George Thomas Applegate was one of them.

Born in Crothersville, Indiana, in 1899, George grew up in a time when the pace of life was measured in work shifts, neighborhood news, and the changing seasons. His life carried him through early factory work, decades at Allison, and the shifting rhythms of a city that was always growing around him.

George was no stranger to life’s twists — from stepfathers to wartime draft registrations, from divorce to late-in-life marriages — yet he met each chapter with a kind of quiet perseverance. He remained rooted in Indianapolis, building a life that blended hard work, community, and family ties.

If you knew George — whether you worked alongside him, saw him at church, or shared a seat at his kitchen table — we’d love for you to add your stories here. It’s these personal memories that bring his history to life far better than census records and draft cards ever could.

📝 Share Your Memories
Use the comment box below to tell us about George — his laugh, his habits, the advice he gave, the things that made him uniquely himself. Your stories will help keep his memory alive for future generations.

Want the full story?
Visit George Thomas Applegate’s Family Page to explore his complete life timeline, from his Crothersville childhood to his final years in Indianapolis.

July 29, 2025

Introducing Lillian Francis Beyl

🕊️ Meet: Lillian Francis Beyl Mobley (1890–1953)

Matriarch. Homemaker. Quiet Architect of Legacy.

Lillian Francis Beyl was born in the chill of January 1890 in Columbus, Indiana—so quietly, in fact, that the earliest record of her birth didn’t even list her name. Yet the life she built would ring louder than any document.

Known lovingly as Lillie, she was the daughter of Jacob Beyl, a French-born carpenter with calloused hands, and Margaret Kern, a strong-willed daughter of German immigrants. From the start, Lillie lived in a house that spoke the language of hard work, faith, and resilience.

She married James Everett Mobley at nineteen and bore at least ten children—some she raised to adulthood, some she mourned too soon. Through every move, every era, every ache and joy, Lillie was the constant: the woman behind the meals, the mending, the music of daily life. She lived through wars and depressions, through the rise of modern Indianapolis and the fading of horse-drawn wagons, all while nurturing a home filled with life and noise and need.

Lillie died in 1953, leaving behind a family tree that still blooms with her strength. She’s buried beside Everett in New Crown Cemetery—a woman not remembered for headlines, but for holding a family together in a world that rarely paused to thank women like her.

Want to know more?
Her full story—including census clues, family mysteries, and quiet triumphs—awaits on her family page.

This page is dedicated to her memory—and to the memories still waiting to be shared.

Have a photo? A story? A pie crust recipe with her handwriting in the margins? Share it below. Because Lillie Beyl Mobley didn’t live to be famous. She lived to be family—and that’s the kind of story that deserves to be told.