Francis Madden - pt. 3

After leaving Stanford, probably in April of 1920, Frank returned to Bay City.  In Dec. of that year he had an emergency appendectomy as noted in the Bay City Times of Dec. 11.

 A year later on 15 Oct 1921, Frank married Isabel Louise Haffey, the daughter of Joseph Phillip Haffey, Esq. (dec) and Mary Murphy.

After his marriage in 1921, Frank  went into the fruit transport business with his brothers.  After a brief time in Bay City, where Thomas Joseph Francis was born in 1922 they moved to Flint, Michigan (2515 Kaufman Ave.) where James Howard (1924) and Jane Marie (1926) were born.  About 1928 the family moved to Duluth where in Jun 1929 Mary Patricia arrived.  A final child John Joseph was born and died on 13 Sep 1930.

1418 Vermillion

A new business with his brothers to ship cars saw them spread between Bay city, Minneapolis and Duluth.  The business proved profitable, from Duluth they shipped cars throughout Minnesota, the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Montana by rail and truck.   See Madden Brothers. 

During their years in Duluth Frank and Isabel never bought a house.  The lived first at 1418 Vermillion Rd and later at 2516 E 6th St.

With the onset of WWII, all steel was commandeered for war work, so there were no new cars and the business became defunct.  The Poker fleet was commandeered and all the ships were sunk in the war. This was not a loss to the Madden brothers who had only leased the boats, but it did put an end to the shipping business.

Frank became the assistant manager for distribution of rationing in Duluth, spending the next four years at the task.  He did not like his immediate boss, however, so after the war he left his government job.

5636 Abbot Ave. S. Minneapolis

Taking a job as a design engineer with Northwest Airlines, Frank moved to Minneapolis,  There in 1947 they purchased their first house at 5636 Abbot Ave. S. in Minneapolis with the help of Jim's Veteran's fund.  Frank continued with Northwest Airlines to the end of his working career.  Isabel taught art in Catholic schools in the area.

I remember Grampy as a quiet, kind, mild man who was rather overrun by my grandmother.  He would often turn off his hearing aid and remain oblivious to the world around him.  He was the type of person everyone finds it hard not to like.

Frank and Isabel with Maura
Colleen and Catherine
1953 China Lake

I remember well the death of my grandfather.  As he grew progressively more ill, my grandmother felt incapable of handling the deterioration by herself, so she packed him up and moved him to our house in Fair Oaks.  She then went back to Minneapolis to pack up their belongings for a permanent move to California where three of her children were living.

Grampy's health rapidly deteriorated and he was soon in a care facility.  He was gone before Grammy could complete the move.  Although he died in Sacramento, California on 25 Nov 1866, he is buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery in Bay City.  Less than two weeks later, 6 Dec 1966 my mother's father John Edward English died in Tuscon, AZ.  Needless to say it was a sad holiday season in the Madden household.