Sylvia Florence

Born 11 March 1894
Elk Point, Union, South Dakota

Died 15 November 1999
Banning, Riverside, California

Married Ransom Marion Tone
11 August 1917

Father Edward Charles Ericson
Mother Sylvia Ann Hayes

1894 Born in Elk Point, South Dakota. Third child and second daughter of Edward Charles Ericson. Her brother, Harry, was ten and her sister, Nell, was eight.
1897 Parents left for a three-month trip to Europe. Florence and her siblings were taken care of by their grandmother Johannah Ericson. (3) Florence Ericson Tone.

1903 November 3rd her brother Harry dies from a baseball accident. (9)

1909 Started a journal. She was 14.
1910 February 8th her father dies one month before her 16th birthday. (15)

February 12th “Such long, terribly long days. It seems as th’o they will never end. But everyone has been so good and so kind. We can never thank them enough.”

March 11th “What a lonesome, lonesome birthday! …I am such a lonely little girl. If I could only see my father for just one minute. Why, oh why could I not have died instead of him? No one would have cared. And what is the use of living anyway? I could almost believe that there is no god, or why must everything be so lonesome and dark and dreary.”

March 26th “Oh dear, everything has gone wrong today. Am so tired and lonesome. Nobody loves me so I’m going out in the garden and eat worms.”

1912 Graduated from Elk Point High School. (18)
1912-1917 Attends and graduates from Oberlin College, Ohio. (23)

1917 August 11th married Ransom Marion Tone. He was 33 and she was 23 years old.
1918 First child, a daughter born. Margaret "Peggy" Sylvia, July 18th. (24)
Lived in Montana.
1920 Second child, a daughter born. Mary Elizabeth, October 16th. (26)
1921 Moved to Utah.

1922 Third child, a son born. Richard Marion July 27th.
Husband moved to Seattle, Washington then to Alaska to earn a living. (28)

1923 Husband was transferred back to Salt Lake City, Utah, but traveled a lot. (29)
1925 Fourth and last child, a daughter born. Phyllis Ann June 29th. (31)

1928 Moved to Billings, Montana. (34)
1934 Moved to Junction City, Oregon. (40)

1960 Her husband died February 22nd. (almost 66)

March 15th I told you the night before you died that I had never had enough words to tell you how much I loved you. You said I had shown you hundreds of times in hundred of different ways, but now I keep thinking of so many little things I could have done to make you more comfortable and maybe happier. Hot cakes, for instance! You enjoyed them so much. Why didn’t I bake them for you more often even though they weren’t good for you.

June 13th “Elk Point was so depressing…I went to the cemetery Memorial Day…The first time I could bear to go there since I was nineteen and we left E.P. I guess losing you is so much worse than losing Harry and my father that their being gone doesn’t hurt so much now.”

August 21st “Six months ago tonight we were together at Thermal, both ill. You were in a lot of pain and neither slept well. I can see you sitting on the dinette seat undressing so slowly. You needed me to help you, but I was still pretty sick with the flu, but I had only known especially the next night. I didn’t even hold your hand. I didn’t know enough to give you demoral to ease the pains of death which must have been so terrible for you.”

September 14th “I made scones today, as we used to eat at the State Fair and tried to imagine you were there at the table eating with me. I even set your plate & favorite cup.”

1961 April 15th ran the Colorado River and saw Rainbow Bridge with Georgie White. “She (Georgie White) loaned me a rubber suit & two rubber bags for my junk. She calls this ‘a share the expense-do it yourself trip.’” (67)

1960's Traveled to Mexico, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, and New Zealand.
1972? Last trip with Georgie White. (78)
1970's Traveled to England, South Africa, and Greece.
1980 Traveled to Tahiti. (86)
1988 Moved to Cherry Valley, CA. (94)
1995 Moved into a nursing home in Banning, CA. (101)

1999 November 15th Florence died. She was 105 ½. She was cremated and her ashes laid on Mingus Mountain, Arizona with her husband and son, Richard.