Fannie Mae Turner Collection

Collection

Identifier: MGC-1175

Scope and Contents

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This collection mainly contains correspondence received by Fannie Mae from her family and friends. The correspondence begins when she is a teenager in the 1930s and continues throughout her life. She had lifelong correspondence with many family members, many which lived to be in their 90s. Other items in the collection include notecards and greeting cards that Fannie created. The cards were used by friends to write to Fannie Mae. Over the years Fannie Mae saved invitations to weddings, baby showers, anniversary parties, and class reunions. She kept birth announcements and funeral notices as well. A sampling of the numerous cards that was originally donated represent the types cards mailed to Fannie Mae and Buford. They include some cards given to Fannie Mae as a child in the 1920s as well as to her son, Jimmie, in the 1940s

The letters not only provide important genealogical information about the family, but include information about the communities in Kansas and Missouri in which the families lived. The letters provide insight into the time in which the individuals lived. Fannie was born in 1918, a year where war and influenza, impacted the country. A 1918 Club was later started for anyone born in that year. Fannie’s correspondence from a friend includes information about that club in the area. The family corresponded through the Depression. Fannie received several “Prosperity Club” chain letters in 1935. This first chain letter encouraged recipients to copy send a dime, copy the letter and send it to five of their friends. The chain letters that year almost shut down post offices across the country. During World War II, Fannie received letters from family and friends serving in the military. One letter kept by Fannie was a letter from a family in her hometown notifying them that their son was missing and presumed dead. Later in life, Fannie received post cards from her family and friends as they traveled throughout the country and the world. As older generations passed away, younger generations of children and grandchildren continued sending letters to Fannie Mae.

Dates

Creation: 1920s-2008

Creator

Turner, Fannie Mae Twombly, 1918-2017 (Person)

Biographical / Historical

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Fannie Mae Twombly was born in Arcadia, Kansas in 1918. She was the daughter of Emma and Archie Twombly. She had two siblings, Archie and Ruth, and one half-sister, Billie Mae, from her mother’s second marriage to Walter Hughes. Her father remarried to a woman named Nellie. Her mother, Emma “Etta” Foulk, was the daughter of John Foulk and Lydia Moore who lived in Arcadia, Kansas. Her father, Archie Twombly, was the son of Nathanial “Nat” Twombly and Martha Starns who settled in Crawford County, Kansas in the town of Dearing in the early 1900s.

Buford H. Turner was born in Kansas in 1911 and was the son of James B. Turner and Ida Troy. James B. Turner was the son of Micajah Wilson Turner and Priscilla Elizabeth Fields. The Turner family came to Bourbon County Kansas from Missouri in the late 1800s.

Fannie Mae married Burford on November 11, 1933 and together they had one son, Jimmie Arthur Turner. The family lived in Independence, Missouri. Fannie Mae desired to be an artist at a young age. Her husband built an art studio for her and encouraged her to paint. She attended the Kansas City Art Institute and over her lifetime received many honors for her work including portraits, scenes and still lifes. Fannie Mae remained active in her art into her 90s. She passed away at the age of 99 in Independence, Missouri on August 7, 2017.