Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Theodore Le Berthon (1892-1960)-Part Three

Theodore M. Le Berthon was born to John Leopold Le Berthon and Rose Marguerite (Vollmer) Le Berthon on January 9, 1892, in San Francisco, California. (1, 2) He was the oldest of their three children. The middle child, Anne Marguerite Le Berthon, was born on October 20, 1893, the youngest, Rose C. Le Berthon, on December 19, 1896. Whether they lived together as a happy family or not, they made a family affair of marrying during a three- or four-year period in the 1910s. Every single one of them. Rather than take their marriages chronologically, I'll start from the top and work my way down. I'll begin with a divorce.

On January 29, 1910, Rose M. Le Berthon filed for divorce against John Le Berthon in Los Angeles superior court. That cleared the way for a series of marriages:

In 1914, John Leopold Le Berthon (July 17, 1868-Feb. 26, 1952), the patriarch of the Le Berthon family, married Josephine L. Morris. She was born either in 1894 or on November 21, 1899. In either case, she was younger than Le Berthon's children, or at least two of them. If 1899 was the year, then Josephine was only fifteen when she became a bride. John and Josephine Le Berthon had a daughter named Adeline (1921-1946), who died tragically young. Josephine L. Morris Le Berthon died in either 1942 or on September 26 or 29, 1989, more likely in 1989. She and her husband seem to have lived a life full of squabbles, crusades, schemes, suits, and legal problems. More on that in Part Four.

On October 6, 1917, Rose Marguerite (Vollmer) Le Berthon (Nov. 21, 1869-Nov. 29, 1951) married Nickodemus [sic] Elias. It was just one of her eight marriages. The last was to a man named Gustaf Lucas, and that was the surname under which she was interred. See Find A Grave, here, for that.

On April 4, 1917, in Los Angeles, Theodore M. Le Berthon married Frances Elizabeth Hawley. Helene Le Berthon, born on February 19, 1918, was their only child. She attended Blessed Sacrament School and Hollywood High School, then appeared on stage and in at least one movie. She married Franklin B. Pollock on February 23, 1947, evidently at the Hampshire House in Boston. They divorced on October 21, 1954. Helene died in Los Angeles, California, on December 28, 1992. I don't know whether she married again or had any children.

On June 26, 1915, in Los Angeles, Anne Marguerite Le Berthon (Oct. 20, 1893-Nov. 21, 1982), married Otto H. Wyckoff (1893-Oct. 12, 1920). They had a son, Robert Hartford Wyckoff (Mar. 3, 1917-Nov. 8, 2014). At some point, Otto H. Wyckoff served in the U.S. Army. He died in 1920. Anne remarried. At her mother's death, she was Anne Hyskell. Her husband, Dean Hyskell, was an advertising executive, photographer, and the editor of National Theatres magazine.

On July 25, 1914, in Los Angeles, Rose C. Le Berthon married Harold E. Herndon. They may or may not have had children. She later married Joseph Peluso and at her mother's death called herself Catherine Peluso.

The Le Berthon family would seem to have faded into obscurity. However, there are living descendants of John L. and Rose C. Le Berthon. In addition, just recently--incredibly--Le Berthon's name was brought up in a legal action in Los Angeles. Their granddaughter's only movie is in the public domain and available on YouTube. And Ted Le Berthon's lone story for Weird Tales has been reprinted several times, most recently on the Internet. As William Faulkner said, the past is not even past. 

To be continued . . . 

Notes 
(1) These and most of the following facts on the Le Berthon family are from secondary sources on the Internet and could use corroboration from primary sources. 
(2) Theodore Le Berthon's middle name may have been Morican, and he may have been the grandson of another man named Theodore M. Le Berthon (1832-1906), who is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles. 

Text and captions copyright 2016, 2023 Terence E. Hanley

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