Willis W. Peck

Ethel and Willis were the only children of Mary Amelia (Williams) and Charles Booth Peck. Ethel and Willis were both born in Minneapolis, as that is where much of their maternal family lived. Ethel was born 4 Jan 1888, so she was buried two days before her 16^th birthday. Her younger brother, Willis was born in September 1889, so they were just 20 months apart in age. Willis was named after his maternal uncle, Willis Stoughton Williams.

Ethel and Willis received theater tickets from their uncle as a gift, so their mother dropped them off alone with the understanding that they would meet her out front after the performance had concluded.  They were buried in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis where much of their maternal grandfather’s family is buried. Their mother was buried there upon her death as well.

Their father, Charles was a lawyer, and they moved to Chicago for his work sometime between 1895 and 1900, so they hadn’t been in Chicago for very long. He worked for the Chicago Street Railway. At some point between the fire (1903) and Charles’s second marriage (1907), Mary and Charles divorced. Charles’s second wife had a daughter just a year or two older than Ethel; he died in 1932. Mary never remarried, moved back to Minnesota, lived with her sister’s family, and died in 1931. (Penny Clark)