Legend

Original Document
Cemetery
Description
History
Map
Newspaper
Census

(aaa) Has Web Page

[aaa] Ref. Source

Thelma Susette (Vanderford) Jensen Mills (7008)

Father: Otis Harrison Vanderford (6003)
Mother: Birdie Cleo Mock

b. October 23, 1923 in Yuba County, California [Thelma]

m. March 6, 1943 at Bakersfield, California, Floyd Raymond Jensen (jen7001) b. February 28, 1919, d. March 30, 1990, buried in Gridley, California .

Issue: [Thelma]

Kirk Thomas Jensen (jen8005), b. March 28, 1944

Karen Suzette Jensen (jen8006), b. March 7, 1946

m2. November 20, 1994 in Napa, California, Elroy Mills

Information:

1936:
Thelma nearly died from rhuematic fever and her recovery was slow. To help her get exercise and be outdoors, her doctor prescribed a horse. The story of Pat.

1940-3:
Thelma attended Chico State where she was president of the College Riding Club and active in the Theta Sigma Epislon Sorority. [Thelma]

March 6, 1943:
Miss Thelma Susette Vanderford became the bride of Army Air Cadet Floyd R. Jensen in a candlelight ceremony taking place Saturday evening, March 6th, in the Chapel of Sacred Memories Methodist Church in Bakersfield.

1943-45:
Thelma followed Floyd through flight training. Floyd was sent overseas to New Guinea as a B-25 pilot. Son Kirk was born while his father was overseas and was a year old when Floyd saw him for the first time. Thelma moved to Florence, South Carolina where Floyd trained for the planned invasion of Japan. [Thelma]

January 21, 1944:
Floyd shipped out to the South Pacific and Thelma left Carolina for California by train. She had booked a lower berth because she was 7 months pregnant with Kirk. When she got to the train she had an upper berth, the lower one taken by a young lady who had been visiting her Cadet fiancee. Too proud to ask for a berth swap, she struggled into the upper berth each night and comforted herself with the thought of "little miss fur coat" surviving on a Cadet's pay of $76 a month before uniform dry cleaning bills. [Thelma]

March 1944 to May 1945:
Floyd flew B-25s during his Southwest Pacific Tour of Duty. His story is here.

1945-90:
Thelma and Floyd moved to the Vanderford Ranch west of Gridley, California where they raised rice, oats and cattle. [Thelma]

1990:
Thelma and grandson Jon David Moss (moss9001) formed a partnership to continue farming the Vanderford Ranch after Floyd's death. [Thelma]

Photo Gallery

Floyd

This document maintained by sherry@vanderfordfamily.com.
Material Copyright © 1998 {CDAccess.com, Inc.}