Difference between revisions of "Frederick Santee"

Frederick Santee was first married to Edith Rundle in December 1927 when she was 37 and he was 21. They met while both were in Rome studying Latin earlier that year. Edith was also a Latin scholar and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1914 with an A.B. and B.S. in education with a specialization in Latin. Santee later claimed that he felt pressured to marry her and only did so out of kindness, not because he was in love with her. They adopted a daughter, Ruth, while living in Nashville in 1930. They divorced in 1941 and Edith moved to the Philippines to teach at a government school. She never remarried.

Immediately following his divorce from Edith, Santee married Betty Addis of Philadelphia in 1942. They remained married for 21 years until her death at the age of 57.

Santee's only child, Ruth, married William Joseph McKnight in a private ceremony one month before her 18th birthday in 1948. They had met while in Neosho high school and were freshmen at the University of Missouri in Columbia together. William served in the coast guard as a radio operator after their wedding and was stationed in San Francisco on active duty. The had two daughters, Rebecca and Sheila Kathlyn in 1953, before divorcing.

Ruth then married Juan V. Zaragoza in 1957. She was 27 and he was 31. Her marriage to Juan was extremely difficult due to his violent outbursts which were so extreme that the police became involved numerous times. They ultimately divorced in 1962.

Ruth then married her third and final husband, Alfred Jenanyan, in 1963. He raised her two daughters as though they were his own. Ruth's mother Edith moved in with Alfred after and lived with his family until her death on 31 October 1971.

Ruth died in 1965 at the age of 35, although her obituary erroneously printed her age as 33. She worked as a dance instructor. She was buried in Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery (Section N, site 770).