This blog is in memory of my grandmother, Alice Hooper Chapman. Alice was born in Omaha in 1904 and died in Panama City, Florida in 1970. I did not know her well... I was 11 when she died. I've always been intrigued by what I knew about her.
She was an only child and aside from her parents, had no close relatives (or so we thought). After high school in Omaha, she went to the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1920s. She married a classmate, my grandfather, Henry Thomas Chapman, had two kids, then moved to north Florida in the 1930s.
My grandfather worked in advertising in Chicago. After the move to Florida, he managed his Tung Oil Grove. Throughout her life, Alice continued working as an artist and a teacher of art. Alice and Henry lived in northern Florida for the rest of their lives.
I've always been fascinated by the idea of a lonely girl in Omaha, so interested in art--- and so talented-- that she sought an art education after high school. Where did her passion for art come from? How did she end up at a prestigious art college, when neither parent had even a high school degree?
No one can answer these questions for me... but my research into the family history can at least give some clues. Before I started this search, my mother could only give me the basics of her mother's history... birthdate, birth place, parents' names... and a story or two about the Hoopers. That was it. So this blog is an attempt to find some answers and to document my genealogy research in the hope that one day my own daughters will be interested in their great-grandmother and her family history.
