Eva Rae Marshall - Eva Marshall Totah

What amazing times my Grandma Eva lived through!  Her life spanned almost the entire 20th century (1895 - 1990). When she was born, even radio didn't exist! I used to work at a mailorder computer software company in the early 1980's, and remember having a hard time trying to explain to Grandma what software was. "You know how a record is to a record player? That's what software is to a computer" was as close as I could get. She lived through two World Wars and earned a Master's degree at a time when many (if not most) women only completed high school. She travelled around the world to teach for a year in the Holy Land and ended up staying 18 years.

As I write in the Preface to From Prairie To Palestine: The Eva Marshall Totah Story, my grandmother Eva wanted to publish her autobiography.  However, those of us around her (including me!) didn't provide much, if any, support and she ended up not pursuing the publication project.  But she was right - she lived through some remarkable times and had quite a story to tell.  One of my profound regrets was not giving encouragement and support to her project, but hopefully the book belatedly rectifies that. Her autobiography, together with the letters she wrote to the folks back home in South Dakota, and a compilation on my five years of research on her family lines, is a lot of story.  She didn't live to see it, but hopefully she would have approved the project.

Eva with her Grandmother Sarah (Ginn) Strahl, around 1905.  I love this picture!  In her autobiography, she talks about how her Grandmother wanted Eva to come live with her in Kansas after her Grandfather died.  But her mother would not let her go.

My mom and I visited South Dakota and Nebraska in 2010.  We went to Wessington Springs, SD where Eva was born.  Then we continued on to the Sand Hills of Nebraska, where Eva's father OJ Marshall and grandfather William Marshall had homestead claims.  I love this photo of this great expanse of prairie with a dilapidated fence trying to contain its vast expanse.



In the 50's or 60's, an event was held commemorating women who were active in the womens' suffrage movement of the 1920's.  Eva is on the right.

Grandma Eva and me in Oakland, where she lived from the 1980's till she passed away in 1990.