Graydon H. Lair was born in 1917 in San Antonio, Texas. His middle initial stood for Horace, but he would tell anyone who asked that it stood for "Hippocrates".
Jessie (nee) Lime Lair was his mother. She was described as small and sassy. She was Irish with a little Native-American in the woodpile.
L. Ross Lair was his father. His ancestors came from the Rhine Valley in Germany, migrated to Philadelphia, then to Kentucky and finally to north Texas. The original German family name was "Lehrer." Ross was a cotton trader of ambiguous character, reputed to have a second family in Oklahoma. He died when Graydon was nine months old from complications following an appendectomy.
Jessie was left with a modest annuity, a home in San Antonio on Cumberland Street, three daughters and an infant son. The three daughters were named Genavive, Madlyn and JoAnn; the son was called Graydon, but not for long...
Anglo-Saxon lore of that time alleged that any family which contained three sisters would have one who was sweet, one who was smart and one who was pretty. This was true in the instance of the Lair sisters. Geneveve was indeed sweet and patient. Madlyn had wit and an acerbic tongue. JoAnn was, well, pretty. Graydon, the only male in a home with four females was dubbed "Sonny".
As the calendar turned into the Roaring Twenties, this family would endure a depression and a world war.
They would become part of America's "greatest generation".
(To be continued...)
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