Now, if Dad’s mother, Anna, would have married Kalle Savolainen, Dad wouldn’t have felt the undercurrent of an identity crisis. But unfortunately, here is how it went down.
Anna was engaged to marry Kalle and, as was common, lived together in her parents home until a circuit preacher came to town to perform the marriage. One day, a letter for Kalle came from New York which seemed to be in a woman’s handwriting. Overcome by curiosity, Anna opened and read it. Indeed, it was from a woman, and she was seeking child support for the son he had fathered. Anna was quick to confront Kalle about this turn of events, angry that he had never mentioned her or the child. A heated argument erupted. Kalle claimed the child was not his but was sent packing anyway. To complicate matters, Anna was pregnant.
After Dad was born, Anna’s parents brought a paternity suit against Kalle. The judge ruled in their favor and documented that he pay child support for Anna’s new son. Anna tore up the document, determined to raise her son alone, Kalle be damned.
Kalle left North Dakota and changed his name to Charlie Savo. After sowing his wild oats, he settled down in Hood River, Oregon, became a fruit grower, married and had two legitimate sons. Dad never met these two younger brothers, Albert and Edward, even though he had spent a lot of money tracing Kalle Savolainen’s family line.
On a related note, when Dad was in the military another soldier told him that he had grown up in an Italian neighborhood in New York which was next to a Finnish neighborhood. His good friend was a Savolainen that “looked just like you”. Dad was convinced this was his missing older brother of the aforementioned letter.
Who knows? I just wonder if anyone of these siblings had an artistic bent like Dad. We know that Kalle was an artist of sorts, as he was a trumpet player in a band called Suomi (Finnish word for Finland).
The tiny pastel and pencil drawings below are the only other known works by Dad which have the signature SAVO. Interestingly, Dad also included the initials WAM for his legal name, William A. Miller, under the signature SAVO. He made these drawings for my sisters upon their request in 1991. I have to wonder, was he coming out of his identity crisis by this time or, was it getting worse?
(Left: Drawing given to Jennifer; Right: Drawing given to Christine)
My gratitude to Linda, Dad’s third wife, for her invaluable contribution to this story and my sisters, Jennifer and Christine, for providing images of the artwork.
Coming up : An art lover’s treat.
Coming now: Savogallery.com is live!
This is why you need to be careful who you marry.
Sweet, simple, pictures.
I like the bunnies!
In the words of Marilyn “Haven’t you ever heard of Birth Control?” lol only kidding 😉 That’s wild, people having baby daddy drama all the way back when you had to wait for the preacher to come into town to get married. They probably didn’t have any sort of contraceptive for that matter…But that’s neither here nor there, great story and beautiful pictures. Love the “No Hunting Here” sign.
I get your drift. It was hard to look at Grandma the same after that scandalous revelation. She was Grandma; someone up there with the saints!
Sorry, The response was to Natalie!
This stuff gets better and better as we go along. I love having the details painted into the broad brushed overview of my Dad’s life!! I almost feel like working on art once more.
Lillian, thank you for sharing the fabulous talent and personal details of your father. It is quite enjoyable, for me, to be able to read the details of the life of an artist. I look forward to new posts and am hoping to see more of your pieces and possibly more of your dads history and that of your family gifted family in the future.
I’ve never seen Jennifer’s picture so this was a fun comparison. Hers must be done on whiter paper. Some day, just for Dad, I’m tracking down Kalle Savolainen’s entry into the country. In his later life Kalle said he came to the country several years after Dad was born.
I like the bunnies and the birds.
Love the stories, and the artwork!
Hyvä tausta tarina Savolainen sukunimi.