My grandma, Edith Aileen Groseclose Harvey, was born September 27, 1926 at 819 Chase Street, Indianapolis, Indiana. She was the 7th child of Walter J. and Grace Lucille (White) Groseclose. She was named for two of the ladies that lived in their neighborhood. She always went by Aileen. One year she started school and the teacher called her Edith. Her mother insisted she go back and tell the teacher she was to be called Aileen.
As a young child – maybe 2 – the family borrowed a car to visit some relatives. Along the bumpy road at some point Grandma went flying out the car. She was hitting in the lap of one of her brothers who obviously did hold on to her quite tight enough. It took a few minutes to get stopped and by the time the family had turned the car around she was standing up walking down the road as if nothing had happen. She would say it was a sure sign that she had a hard head!
Growing up on the westside of Indianapolis, Grandma spent summers of her youth swimming at the pool at Rhodius Park. She attended West Morris Street Christian Church where she accepted Christ. The house where she grew up on Chase Street was crowded with her parents and siblings. She talked about if you finished dinner first you had to go out the back of the house to get back to the front.
Her father insisted that all of his children would have high school diplomas. Grandma graduated from George Washington High School in 1944. In August 1948, Gaynell Case introduced her to Grandpa, Ralph C. Harvey. Six weeks later to the day they met on September 24, 1948 they were married in the West Morris Street Christian Church.
They lived in a few places on the westside before building their first house on E. 33rd Street. They lived there for many raising their sons Carl and Mark.
Grandma worked for RCA until she got married. She stayed home with her children for a while, but returned to work in 1966 as a U.S. Postal Clerk in 1966. She retired in 1973 following an accident where she was hit by a car that crushed her hip. While in the hospital, Grandpa and her sons moved her and the family to their new home on Jackson Street back on the Westside of Indianapolis.
Grandma enjoyed sewing and crocheting. She sewed many dolls and clothes. When she made a new dress she would often make a matching tie for Ralph to wear. Even as her eyesight began to fail, she continued to crochet making many blankets to give to her grandchildren.
After Grandma’s eyesight was completely gone, she became a voracious listener of audiobooks. She listened to stories of all kinds borrowing many of them from the Speedway Public Library and the Indiana State Library.
In the mid-1980s she and Grandpa moved to Brewer Drive. They spent many years at that house together taking care of each other as they got older. Grandpa and Grandma enjoyed the frequent visits and phone calls from their grandchildren.
Often Grandma loved to look through her old pictures. Even though she couldn’t see them, she loved the memories they brought back for her. Someone would start describing a picture to her and she would stop them and say, “Oh yeah, I had on such and such a dress. It had this pattern in it.” or ”There were four of us in that picture and I’m the 2nd from the right.” She had an amazing memory for details of events that had happen many years ago and even not being able to see the picture in her hand, still had a perfect image of it in her mind. Grandpa and Grandma lived on Brewer until 2008 when they moved to Cicero to live with their son Carl.
Grandma died Thursday, August 27, 2009 at home in Cicero just one month shy of her 83rd birthday.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Ralph C. Harvey, four brothers Elvin Richard, Roy Merle, Eugene Howard, and Milburn Walter Groseclose; two sisters, Doris Lucille Groseclose and Vivian Groseclose Henson.
She is survived by her sons, Carl (Brenda) and Mark Harvey; grandchildren, Carl II, Lara (Roger) Najdek, Mary, Craig (Elizabeth), Monica, and Matthew Harvey; step-grandchildren, Derek and Shannon Finley; and great-grandchildren, Matthew Najdek and Hannah Harvey; and one brother, Wilbur Groseclose.
She was buried at the Bluff Creek Cemetery next to her husband Ralph and near her parents, grandparents, and many of her siblings.
Tags: 1 Comment
1 response so far ↓
Dear Harvey Family,
I am deeply sorry to hear of Mrs Edith’s passing, I feel honoured to have had the pleasure to meet a beautiful spirited lady, and spend much quality time with her, she truly was a amazing woman, that will be sadly missed by all.
May God bring you much comfort and peace has you grieve your loss of Mrs Edith.
Love Sally Street.