More on Grover & Millie's Marriage

In my post Why Did Grover & Millicent Go to St. Louis to Marry?, I suggested that maybe they traveled to St. Louis because their families disapproved of the marriage. Since then I've come across some more information that may shed some light on the situation.

Grover's Situation Before the Marriage

In the 1941 Louisville City Directory I found that before getting married, Grover had been living with his mother (who at this time was going by Margie Brown) at 523 West Broadway and he worked as a bartender at Lurding's Café.

Also living at the Broadway address was Margie's second husband, John Bernard Toomey. The three of them had been living there since 1937.

But in 1941, Toomey was no longer living there. He moved to a different address in 1941. In fact they must of gotten a divorce, because on June 2, 1941, Margie Brown married for the third time, to Tom Harris.

Below are images from that city directory. For more information see my blog post on city directories. 

Was there pressure on Grover to find a place to live? After all, he was 21 years old and working. Maybe his mother and her new husband wanted the place to themselves? And in 1942, Margie and Tom were no longer living on Broadway. They moved to 672 South 5th Street.

Millie's Situation Before the Marriage

Millie was living with her father, Peter C. Tschudi, and her two brothers, Peter H. and Frederick at 1308 Rufer Avenue since about 1937. Her brothers were in the Army. Fred enlisted in October 1940 and Peter was drafted in March 1941. After that, it appears that it was just her and her father living there.

1308 Rufer Avenue on Google Street View

A contribution factor to going away to marry (or eloping) could have been that she did not have many family members there in Louisville. Only her father was there. Her brothers were off in the army, I'm not sure where her cousin Edythe Tessman (Aunt Edy) was at the time, the majority of her extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins) were in Detroit. (There are a few topics for future research here: 1. Aunt Edy, 2. the extended Tschudi and Tessman families, and 3. the extended Brown family.)

After They Married

After getting married, it appears that Grover moved in with Millie into her father's house. Previously I speculated that maybe her father was not happy with this marriage. But he must not have been too opposed to the marriage if he let Grover move into his house.

Conclusions

Even with this additional information, I still don't understand why they went to St. Louis to get married. I guess I should just stick with the theory that it was a spur of the moment, romantic decision by two young love birds.