A pair of ????? Forteans.
So, here’s one of those examples of a common last name appearing once in the pages of Doubt. I really don’t know who it refers to—there’s just not enough information. But, there is a couple who were associated with the Fortean Society that had this exact same last name, and I’ll use the incident as an example to write about them. Although—reversing the usual happenstance—I am more confident about the woman of the pair than the man. He remains ?????.
Phe Laws was born Phyllis Mae Wyand 2 January 1925 in Kewanee, Illinois. Her father, Charles Eldon, was a glove cutter. Her mother, Fern Green (really) died when Phe and her baby sister, Sheila were still very young—five or less in Phe’s case. According to the 1930 census, Charles’s much older aunt lived with them, presumably to care for the girls. Charles was 28 at the time—a young widow—and Minnie 65. (Charles himself had been raised by his grandfather and Minnie—or at least lived with them in 1910.) The family was still in Kewanee in 1940, but had changed in many ways. Minnie was no loner there. Charles remarried, a woman some dozen years his junior. Phyllis and Sheila were in high school, a sophomore and freshman, respectively.
So, here’s one of those examples of a common last name appearing once in the pages of Doubt. I really don’t know who it refers to—there’s just not enough information. But, there is a couple who were associated with the Fortean Society that had this exact same last name, and I’ll use the incident as an example to write about them. Although—reversing the usual happenstance—I am more confident about the woman of the pair than the man. He remains ?????.
Phe Laws was born Phyllis Mae Wyand 2 January 1925 in Kewanee, Illinois. Her father, Charles Eldon, was a glove cutter. Her mother, Fern Green (really) died when Phe and her baby sister, Sheila were still very young—five or less in Phe’s case. According to the 1930 census, Charles’s much older aunt lived with them, presumably to care for the girls. Charles was 28 at the time—a young widow—and Minnie 65. (Charles himself had been raised by his grandfather and Minnie—or at least lived with them in 1910.) The family was still in Kewanee in 1940, but had changed in many ways. Minnie was no loner there. Charles remarried, a woman some dozen years his junior. Phyllis and Sheila were in high school, a sophomore and freshman, respectively.
Phyllis attended Kewanee High School. She was part of the Nature Club her sophomore through senior years. She was in band all four years. She was in Tri-Y, Orpheum, and the class play her senior years. In her final year, she was remembered as “always courteous. Her interests were camping, music, and writing. Phe graduated in 1942, aged 17.
Two years later, on 10 August 1944, she married Albert Laws in Cook County.
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I wrote about Phe and Albert Laws several years ago, calling them “the hard to find.” I have since found reliable information about Phe—not so much about Albert, though. Indeed, I’m taking a gamble that this is the correct Albert. I could be wrong. Maybe I’m not.
The Albert Laws who married Phyllis in 1944, I believe, was born in New York on 19 February 1924, making him just a little more than a month younger than her. His father, Edward, had emigrated to the U.S. from England (where he was born to an English father and Swiss mother.) In 1930, he was a solicitor for an insurance company. His mother’s maiden name was Habonesian, and she was apparently born in Turkey. By 1930, Edward had remarried—after divorce or the death of his first wife—a woman named Beatrice, a native of Connecticut, born to an Italian father and American mother. Edward and Beatrice had married in 1929, when she was 22 and he was 34. That same year, Albert traveled to England, presumably to see extended family; I cannot find either of his parents on the manifest, though.
No later than 1935, the family had relocated to Los Angeles. Five years later, they’d moved north, to San Jose, California. Albert had been joined by two brothers, Jerold and William. Edward was a real estate salesman. They owned a home valued at $2,500, suggesting some comfort, even amidst the depression. Albert, then 16, was a sophomore in high school, and also worked as a handyman for some level of government. I’m not sure if Albert finished high school. He joined the navy in July 1941—which may or may not have been after graduated. He served until 25 September 1945, which—if this is the correct Albert Laws—does raise the question of how he met Phe Laws. Perhaps she had come to California after graduating from high school, and then they married back near her home. Perhaps I have the wrong guy.
*********
In 1948, Phyllis was living with her husband Albert Laws in San Francisco, on Dearborn Street, in the Mission District. He was a clerk with the E. W. Reynolds Company. I’m not sure if she worked or not probably not, though, since they had two children, Richard and Carmela. Nor am I sure that their marriage survived the decade. Albert seems to have been living alone in Oakland the following year—at least there’s a reference to him in the city directory. A wife is not listed. Where Phyllis was, I don’t know. In general, it becomes very difficult to follow them from this point. It seems that at some point Phe’s dad was living in California—he died in San Mateo County in 1964.
Phe returned to school in the late 1960s—like her friend and fellow former Fortean Garen Drussai. She received an AA from Canada College (in San Mateo County) in 1969, and completed her bachelor’s at San Jose State College (now university) in 1972. She had developed an interest in nutrition and home economics. She became a coordinator for Litton Microwaves in 1972 (continuing until 1974, when she moved to Whirlpool for a year). She wrote for Hidden House Publications during the 1970s and taught at Ohlone College and Canada College. She published “International Gourmet Coooking with Microwave,” which went through several editions in the 1970s. She followed up her debut book with Vegetable Magic with Microwave, published in 1978. This was either continued or revised as Vegetable Cookery in 1980.
I do not know when she started going by the abbreviated first name, but Phe was her professional name. She had other interests, too, in horses and yachts. At some point, she moved to Sonoma County, where she was near her old friend Garen Drussai.
Albert Laws—the Albert Laws I followed and think married Phe—died 25 November 1983. He was 59. Phe may still be alive, and living in Santa Rosa If so, she’s 91.
**************
As I suggested above, this consideration of the Lawses is an updated and revised version of a post I did back in 2011(!). I only know that Phe and Albert were Forteans because of a letter that Robert Barbour Johnson wrote to Damon Knight, when the latter was preparing his biography of Fort. Johnson reiterated his story that Thayer had evicted Chapter Two—the San Francisco Fortean club—from the Society. In the course of that, he mentioned the Lawses as members—along with the Drussais, Kenneth MacNichol, Polly Lamb Goforth, George Haas, and Richard Lamb. I didn’t have much information on either of the Laws when I wrote that post. I had spoken to Garen Drussai (now deceased) and knew that Garen and Phe had been friends.
Presumably, the meetings at Kenneth MacNichol’s school, where Chapter Two convened, were the main Fortean outlet for the Lawses. I’m not sure what brought them to the meetings in the first place, though. Nor do I know which of the coulee was the main Fortean driver, or if it was both. They may or not have been members of the Society. If they were, it seems likely that they were brought into it by Chapter Two. According to Johnson, the meetings had issues of Doubt for sale, and ways to join the Society. Given all this ignorance, it is of course unknown whether they—or one or the other—maintained any connection to Fort, Forteanism, or the Society. Or if, like so many other Forteans, they drifted away from the subject as the calendar passed from one decade to the next.
As it stands, there is only one other (possible) link between one or the other Laws and the Society beyond the letter by Johnson and Garen Drussai’s confirmation. That came in issue 27, winter of 1949. This was the exact issue when Thayer was trying to trim the Fortean tree. He wrote a screed about Lilith Lorraine and her poetry journal, “Different,” and Eric Frank Russell a philippic aimed at Lorraine’s accomplice, Stanton Coblentz, who had attacked Ezra Pound. Thayer also laid down the law against the Chapters, saying they had no special authority, nor were they recognized by the Society. He would have nothing more to do with them. Robert Barbour Johnson remembered Thayer’s actions as directed at them—and removing a charter that Thayer said never existed—while Thayer himself said it was really other Chapters that caused him to give up on the idea of organizing Forteans (though he would remain committed to the Fortean University for some time more).
I do not know which of the Laws sent in the material—or, indeed, if it was neither of them but some other Fortean with the relatively common last name. At any rate, Laws was not the only one to contribute a clipping on the subject: so did other unknown Forteans Wheeler, Morrison, and Ferguson, as well as the known (Olive) Oltcher and (Judith L.) Gee. The story was about a two-minute stretch of time in Lisbon, Portugal, on 6 July 1949, just after a hurricane, during which the thermometers shot up dramatically, reaching a temperature of somewhere between 146 and 158 degrees.
Surprisingly, Thayer undersold the story. Press reports had “thousands” of fish and fowl dying. Hundreds of people fell to the ground—it so happened that the market was busy at the time. The religious imagery was hard to miss, and people were said to rush to shady spots and pray. A Portuguese navy official confirmed that the temperatures were recorded. But an American meteorologist doubted the temperatures were that high. It was the kind of arm-chair theorizing that Thayer usually liked to ridicule, and was especially ripe given the conflicting reports of officials. For whatever reason—momentary boredom, space constraints, something else altogether—he downplayed the episode.
It is interesting, then, to note that this is one case where a Fortean anomaly came to be accepted later. In the early 1960s, meteorologist Dansy T. Williams characterized what he called “thunderstorm wakes.” The terminology changed over the years, becoming known as a “warm wake,” a “heat burst,” and sometimes a “heat flash.” Meteorologists are still not sure of the exact mechanism behind the phenomenon, but note that it has something to do with the end of rainfall—after thunderstorms, especially, but hurricanes, too. In most cases, the blasts are not as dramatic as they were in Lisbon that day in July, 1949. Nonetheless, the records from that day are referenced—if only for historical interest and not treated as undeniably confirmed—and seen as possible, in the weather literature.
It is damned no longer.
Not to belabor a comparison which is probably already too obvious, but the happy career of the phenomenon known as the “heat burst” was the exact opposite of the Fortean career of Phe and Albert Laws. Not only does it remain murky—is the Laws who contributed this story one of them?; is this even the right Albert Laws?—but their interest in the Fortean Society, if not Forteanism and Fort, seems to have burned out quickly, leaving little trace.
Two years later, on 10 August 1944, she married Albert Laws in Cook County.
***********
I wrote about Phe and Albert Laws several years ago, calling them “the hard to find.” I have since found reliable information about Phe—not so much about Albert, though. Indeed, I’m taking a gamble that this is the correct Albert. I could be wrong. Maybe I’m not.
The Albert Laws who married Phyllis in 1944, I believe, was born in New York on 19 February 1924, making him just a little more than a month younger than her. His father, Edward, had emigrated to the U.S. from England (where he was born to an English father and Swiss mother.) In 1930, he was a solicitor for an insurance company. His mother’s maiden name was Habonesian, and she was apparently born in Turkey. By 1930, Edward had remarried—after divorce or the death of his first wife—a woman named Beatrice, a native of Connecticut, born to an Italian father and American mother. Edward and Beatrice had married in 1929, when she was 22 and he was 34. That same year, Albert traveled to England, presumably to see extended family; I cannot find either of his parents on the manifest, though.
No later than 1935, the family had relocated to Los Angeles. Five years later, they’d moved north, to San Jose, California. Albert had been joined by two brothers, Jerold and William. Edward was a real estate salesman. They owned a home valued at $2,500, suggesting some comfort, even amidst the depression. Albert, then 16, was a sophomore in high school, and also worked as a handyman for some level of government. I’m not sure if Albert finished high school. He joined the navy in July 1941—which may or may not have been after graduated. He served until 25 September 1945, which—if this is the correct Albert Laws—does raise the question of how he met Phe Laws. Perhaps she had come to California after graduating from high school, and then they married back near her home. Perhaps I have the wrong guy.
*********
In 1948, Phyllis was living with her husband Albert Laws in San Francisco, on Dearborn Street, in the Mission District. He was a clerk with the E. W. Reynolds Company. I’m not sure if she worked or not probably not, though, since they had two children, Richard and Carmela. Nor am I sure that their marriage survived the decade. Albert seems to have been living alone in Oakland the following year—at least there’s a reference to him in the city directory. A wife is not listed. Where Phyllis was, I don’t know. In general, it becomes very difficult to follow them from this point. It seems that at some point Phe’s dad was living in California—he died in San Mateo County in 1964.
Phe returned to school in the late 1960s—like her friend and fellow former Fortean Garen Drussai. She received an AA from Canada College (in San Mateo County) in 1969, and completed her bachelor’s at San Jose State College (now university) in 1972. She had developed an interest in nutrition and home economics. She became a coordinator for Litton Microwaves in 1972 (continuing until 1974, when she moved to Whirlpool for a year). She wrote for Hidden House Publications during the 1970s and taught at Ohlone College and Canada College. She published “International Gourmet Coooking with Microwave,” which went through several editions in the 1970s. She followed up her debut book with Vegetable Magic with Microwave, published in 1978. This was either continued or revised as Vegetable Cookery in 1980.
I do not know when she started going by the abbreviated first name, but Phe was her professional name. She had other interests, too, in horses and yachts. At some point, she moved to Sonoma County, where she was near her old friend Garen Drussai.
Albert Laws—the Albert Laws I followed and think married Phe—died 25 November 1983. He was 59. Phe may still be alive, and living in Santa Rosa If so, she’s 91.
**************
As I suggested above, this consideration of the Lawses is an updated and revised version of a post I did back in 2011(!). I only know that Phe and Albert were Forteans because of a letter that Robert Barbour Johnson wrote to Damon Knight, when the latter was preparing his biography of Fort. Johnson reiterated his story that Thayer had evicted Chapter Two—the San Francisco Fortean club—from the Society. In the course of that, he mentioned the Lawses as members—along with the Drussais, Kenneth MacNichol, Polly Lamb Goforth, George Haas, and Richard Lamb. I didn’t have much information on either of the Laws when I wrote that post. I had spoken to Garen Drussai (now deceased) and knew that Garen and Phe had been friends.
Presumably, the meetings at Kenneth MacNichol’s school, where Chapter Two convened, were the main Fortean outlet for the Lawses. I’m not sure what brought them to the meetings in the first place, though. Nor do I know which of the coulee was the main Fortean driver, or if it was both. They may or not have been members of the Society. If they were, it seems likely that they were brought into it by Chapter Two. According to Johnson, the meetings had issues of Doubt for sale, and ways to join the Society. Given all this ignorance, it is of course unknown whether they—or one or the other—maintained any connection to Fort, Forteanism, or the Society. Or if, like so many other Forteans, they drifted away from the subject as the calendar passed from one decade to the next.
As it stands, there is only one other (possible) link between one or the other Laws and the Society beyond the letter by Johnson and Garen Drussai’s confirmation. That came in issue 27, winter of 1949. This was the exact issue when Thayer was trying to trim the Fortean tree. He wrote a screed about Lilith Lorraine and her poetry journal, “Different,” and Eric Frank Russell a philippic aimed at Lorraine’s accomplice, Stanton Coblentz, who had attacked Ezra Pound. Thayer also laid down the law against the Chapters, saying they had no special authority, nor were they recognized by the Society. He would have nothing more to do with them. Robert Barbour Johnson remembered Thayer’s actions as directed at them—and removing a charter that Thayer said never existed—while Thayer himself said it was really other Chapters that caused him to give up on the idea of organizing Forteans (though he would remain committed to the Fortean University for some time more).
I do not know which of the Laws sent in the material—or, indeed, if it was neither of them but some other Fortean with the relatively common last name. At any rate, Laws was not the only one to contribute a clipping on the subject: so did other unknown Forteans Wheeler, Morrison, and Ferguson, as well as the known (Olive) Oltcher and (Judith L.) Gee. The story was about a two-minute stretch of time in Lisbon, Portugal, on 6 July 1949, just after a hurricane, during which the thermometers shot up dramatically, reaching a temperature of somewhere between 146 and 158 degrees.
Surprisingly, Thayer undersold the story. Press reports had “thousands” of fish and fowl dying. Hundreds of people fell to the ground—it so happened that the market was busy at the time. The religious imagery was hard to miss, and people were said to rush to shady spots and pray. A Portuguese navy official confirmed that the temperatures were recorded. But an American meteorologist doubted the temperatures were that high. It was the kind of arm-chair theorizing that Thayer usually liked to ridicule, and was especially ripe given the conflicting reports of officials. For whatever reason—momentary boredom, space constraints, something else altogether—he downplayed the episode.
It is interesting, then, to note that this is one case where a Fortean anomaly came to be accepted later. In the early 1960s, meteorologist Dansy T. Williams characterized what he called “thunderstorm wakes.” The terminology changed over the years, becoming known as a “warm wake,” a “heat burst,” and sometimes a “heat flash.” Meteorologists are still not sure of the exact mechanism behind the phenomenon, but note that it has something to do with the end of rainfall—after thunderstorms, especially, but hurricanes, too. In most cases, the blasts are not as dramatic as they were in Lisbon that day in July, 1949. Nonetheless, the records from that day are referenced—if only for historical interest and not treated as undeniably confirmed—and seen as possible, in the weather literature.
It is damned no longer.
Not to belabor a comparison which is probably already too obvious, but the happy career of the phenomenon known as the “heat burst” was the exact opposite of the Fortean career of Phe and Albert Laws. Not only does it remain murky—is the Laws who contributed this story one of them?; is this even the right Albert Laws?—but their interest in the Fortean Society, if not Forteanism and Fort, seems to have burned out quickly, leaving little trace.
