Luella Ruth Johnston, my husband's grandmother, was born to David C. Johnston and Mary Elizabeth Hildinger on 2 Mar 1903 in Braddock, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Her great-grandparents immigrated to America from Württemberg, Germany. She was an only child born seventeen years after her parent's marriage. Why the long amount of time between the marriage date and birth of first child? This is unusual. It is a mystery I have yet to solve, her parents have disappeared from all records between 1886 and 1910. I have some theories and flimsy leads, but no definite facts.
Her father went to work for her mother's younger brother, Charles Clark Hildinger, the moving picture king, in Trenton, around 1910 who had become a prominent Trenton businessman. Whatever the family's earlier lifestyle, the future was about to change for the better.
On 23 July 1925 in Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey she married Alvin Stackhouse Rogers Sr. She was an accomplished musician and organist. Upon the death of her husband, she began performing and traveling with the big bands of the era.
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