A Day of Remembrance in Mobile
November 1934
Note: This story involves someone who took their own life, and I’m aware that the discussion here could be difficult for anyone who has been touched by an act of suicide or an attempt. If anyone reading this is having a difficult time and is in need of support, please don’t hesitate to call 988 immediately. The National Suicide Hotline is available at any time of day or night. They are there to help.
Walter Jr., Gert and Walt Sr.
Beneath the surface of happy photos and fun stories and joyful times together, whether they appear on Instagram or in a scrapbook over 100 years old, there can lurk darkness and struggle that we often don’t want to face, much less talk about.
The 1938 travellers diverted from their original planned route to go straight to California. When they hit Louisville they headed south to Mobile instead of continuing west. This was not an impulsive act, but rather an intentional visit to the city where Frank’s son Walter (and the brother of Fred, Flo and Bertie, who were also in the car) had lived with his wife Gert and son Walt Jr. (“Buddy”). This was also the city where Walter had died just four years earlier. Here’s what we know about what happened:
On November 22, 1934, this article appeared in the Mobile Times newspaper:
Gun Victim Dies
Larson died at 3:05 p.m. today.
Leaving a brief note to his divorced wife, Gertie, W.G. Larson, about 45, shot and fatally wounded himself today as he sat in his automobile in the driveway at the home of his father-in-law, D.B. Bolton, 204 Tuttle Ave., police said.
Larson, according to detectives, remained seated in the car 10 minutes from 1:30 to 1:40 p.m. before he sent a 38-calibre bullet crashing into his head.
He was found slumped across the steering wheel, the pistol still in his hand, when police arrived.
Larson, according to police, returned to Mobile from New York last night.
He was taken to City hospital, where death was expected momentarily. …
Larson and his wife were divorced several months ago, according to information this afternoon. Police said there is one child.
The next day, on November 23, 1934, the following article appeared in the New Orleans Advocate:
Man Suicides in Front of Former Wife’s Home
Mobile, Ala., Nov. 22 (AP) — W.G. Larson, 45, New York lumberman, who fired a bullet through his head as he sat in his car parked before the home of his former wife here today, died two hours later in City hospital.
In his pocket was found a note addressed to his former wife, Gertrude Bolton, from whom he had been divorced in June. The couple separated a year ago.
Coroner Howard Walker returned a verdict of suicide.
On Saturday, November 24, 1934, the Dunkirk (NY) Evening Observer reported this:
Fredonian Called to Mobile, Ala. by Death of Brother
W. G. Larson Who Spent summer Here Shot Himself in Head.
Fred Larson of Central Avenue received word this morning that his brother, W.G. Larson, was dead at Mobile, Ala., and left immediately for that city. No particulars were given.
Mr. Larson spent three months last summer with his brother in Fredonia.
According to a dispatch from Mobile, Mr. Larson shot himself in the head Thursday while seated in an automobile in front of the home of his wife’s relatives.
We think that both Gert and their 14 year old son Buddy were in the house when Walt took his life, although Buddy may have been at school and heard about it when he got home. They must have known he was out there because they told the investigators the exact amount of time that he spent in front of the house before he shot himself. Did Buddy see what happened? Did Gert? It’s not hard to imagine that they did and I can only begin to guess how traumatizing this would have been for both of them.
When Fred got the news about his brother he, Josie and his father Frank got in their car and drove to Mobile as quickly as they could. It had to have been a shock to get the call (probably from Gert) since Walt had just left Fredonia after being there for several weeks in November. He had also spent most of the summer with them after getting the final divorce papers from Gert in June that year. When the marriage broke apart, Walter was distraught and sank into a deep depression that he wasn’t able to overcome. His father and brother and perhaps other relatives in the area no doubt tried to provide the love and support that they could to help him through it. In the end it just wasn’t enough. Serious mental illness isn’t something that just goes away on its own. In those days there likely would have been fewer helpful community resources for Walter than we have today. His family likely didn’t really know how to help Walter, and just did what they could, whatever that was.
Fred, Frank and Josie stayed in Mobile for about a week. The funeral for Walter was on November 27, two days before Thanksgiving. It was held at a mortuary rather than a funeral home or a church. The officiant for the funeral was from the Salvation Army, which a local historian told me is a clue that he was probably struggling with alcohol dependency, which fits with my mother’s description of him as “a drinker.” Her comment was likely based on what was said about him over the years as she was growing up. She wouldn’t have known him well herself, since she was only 5 when he died.
Fred was named executor of Walter’s estate. Fred, Frank and Josie drove back to New York in early December, and as they were going through Ohio on December 3, 1934, they got into a serious car accident that sent Frank to the hospital in Massillon, Ohio, for several weeks for broken ribs and other injuries. Fred and Josie were also injured, apparently, but were able to make it back to Fredonia. Fred drove back to Massillon to retrieve his father when he finally was discharged. The scare of this bad accident couldn’t have come at a worse time, just days after burying Walter.
“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”
Bryan Stevenson
There’s much we don’t know about why Walter did what he did and what was in his mind in those final moments. The note to Gert found in his pocket is a breadcrumb that is likely forever lost.
When I started my research for The 1938 Project, I knew early on that I wanted to know more about Walter. I had heard my mother say that Walter’s death was a tragic one and that he had killed himself but I didn’t know any details and really hadn’t given it much thought since it was a branch of the family I had no childhood connection to. That indifference changed when I stumbled across the first news article that described how he died. I was just beginning my 1938 Project research and I realized right away that I needed to lift him up and bring back the honor and dignity to his life that is totally missing in the newspaper accounts. That is the salacious hook of news reporting. Certain facts get amplified but important truths get left out.
Too often, families are reluctant to talk about the darkness that lurks underneath the photos of happy times. When tragedy strikes such as suicide, truths can get covered up, people who bring shame or harm to their loved ones can get erased from family histories and scrapbooks, or just get pushed to the back corners of the family lore. Buddy would grow up, get married and have children of his own. Neither he nor Gert talked much to Bud’s children about what happened to their grandfather. Thankfully, Gert saved her scrapbook of pictures of her happier days with Walt and Bud. It is a window into a life marked by love, happiness, joy and family. I am so grateful to Walt’s granddaughter Katie for saving the albums and entrusting them to my brother, who scanned all the photos in this treasure trove of history.
Anger, sadness, trauma, grief, and love all get mixed together as we try to make sense of why someone would do what Walter did. When depression gets blended with substance abuse and dependency, it can be a lethal combination, as it was in this case. And let’s not forget that the Great Depression was happening, which makes me wonder whether Walter was financially destitute and possibly deeply in debt from his businesses that may have been failing by the early 1930’s. At the time of his death he had two debts recorded, one to a bank and one to his father. The local historian said this may mean there had been a foreclosure on his property, although I have no definitive evidence for that.
Whatever his demons were that drove Walt to do what he did, I have no doubt that he fought mightily to save his marriage and put his life back together. The fact that he spent months at the home of his brother speaks volumes to me about his efforts to figure things out, and his brother Fred’s commitment to help where he could. There just wasn’t the right kind of help available in those days for someone suffering a severe emotional crisis.
Finding Walter Again
There are a few things we do know that help fill in some of the gaps about who Walter was as a person, beyond just being someone who took his life at age 45.
In the 1920’s Walter had a variety of business enterprises. He started the Loop Lumber and Wood Company with his brother-in-law Dudley Bolton in 1920.
Walter with some of his workers at his lumberyard.
He also dealt in railway products. One of his classified ads offered: “Relay Rails —I have several cars of good secondhand 30-pound and 35-pound rail I can sell cheap. W.G. Larson, 453 Michigan avenue, Mobile, Ala.” This advert appeared in the Times-Picayne in New Orleans and also in the Mobile News in 1927. Besides selling rails and lumber, Walter also tried to make his living speculating in the real estate market. Throughout the last half of the 1920’s there are numerous classified ads of land or commercial properties for sale with W.G. Larson as the contact.
I’m guessing that all of these businesses dried up during the stagnant economic years that followed the 1929 stock market crash. The fact that Frank loaned Walt money is revealing. If the house were in fact foreclosed that would explain Gert and Buddy moving into her parents’ house. The combination of drinking, severe depression, and economic devastation would be enough to tax any marriage. We have no idea what the final trigger was that drove Gert away, but many marriages end based on just one of those factors, and Walt had all three.
1928 was a fun year of travel and sightseeing.
We know that in 1928 and in 1930 the family was still intact. They took a couple of trips north and went to Niagara Falls. Around that same period we also know that the family took a trip to New York City and Washington, D.C., where they visited Walt’s sister Bert.
We don’t know how Walt met Gert, but they knew each other before he went off to war, and got married when he returned in 1919. They may have known each other as early as 1915 because when Walt went to California that year with his sister Jane he sent a number of pictures to Gert with scenes of his time there prospecting for gold with his brother-in-law Bob. There is no evidence that any gold was ever found by either of them. We know that Walt liked to fish and hunt, and that he was pretty good at both, judging from the numerous photos.
Walter enjoyed being a father, and there are many pictures of Walt with Buddy (Walt Jr.), starting with shortly after he was born.
This is one of my very favorite pictures. My grandmother Josie is on the far left, with Fred next to her with one arm around her shoulders and the other leaning on Walt. Gert is next to Walt, and then Emma. I don’t know who the couple on the right are, but you can see Frank laughing on the ground in the midst of his grandchildren, Buddy on his right and my uncle Bill on his left. Josie is enjoying the kids and no doubt keeping an eye on Billy.
From the many pictures of visits between Mobile and New York it is clear that he loved his family very much, and they loved him right back. Judging from these photos, he was particularly close to his father and his brother Fred.
Paying Last Respects
I spent the day in Mobile for the express purpose of tracing the life and death of Walter, Gert and Bud in a more tangible, visceral way than one can do just by looking at photographs or researching old newspapers and records online. I went to the house where they had happy times together, where Frank and Emma visited them in 1926, and where Buddy spent his early childhood. I also went to the house at 204 Tuttle Street, where the tragedy happened. It was a beautiful day and both houses were just a few blocks apart in an old, well-preserved neighborhood. The streets are tree-lined with old, magnificent live oak trees that easily could have been there a hundred years ago. I sat in silence in front of the Tuttle Street house on this quiet, sunny morning, trying to imagine the despair and anguish and hopelessness that Walter must have been feeling in his last moments.
I drove to the cemetery. Gert and Bud are buried in the Bolton plot with Gert’s parents. Walter is distant from them, in a section of the cemetery reserved for “single graves.” There was moss covering some of the etching, and leaves and debris all over the flat stone that is about six feet by four feet. I cleared off the debris and doused the etching in the stone with water so that I could better read it:
Walter George
Larson Sr.
1891 — 1934
Till the dawn breaketh
And the shadows flee
The verse is from the Song of Solomon 2:17. I’m sure that Gert must have chosen it as a final gesture of her love for Walt.
Thanks for remembering Walter with me.
