John Churchill & Frances Huster Wyeth

JOHN CHURCHILL WYETH I (TURK) & FRANCES LOUISE HUSTER

By Lucia Outlan (cousin of Turk)

Frances and Turk met at a dance at West Point. They were both dead attractive.

During the War (I or II), they would spend some of their time in Memphis visiting Lucia and her family. She knew them very well. They were there quite a lot during the war.

Frances wanted to be an actress. She was absolutely delightful. She and Turk danced well. They would meet with Dorothy and her husband every year in New York City. They would go to the theatre.

Turk and Frances were wonderful party people. They were very patriotic. He wanted to win the war. He thought Pearl Harbor was the most horrible thing. Lucia grew up listening to the news every night for news about the war and to recognize any Wyeth or Chandler relative’s name who had died.

Leslie and Churchill got honesty from their parents. They are not capable of cheating anybody. Being a second-rate someone was something they were not capable of being. Honorable to the core whether they succeeded or not, they were not going to lose out by being dishonest

Turk & Frances were attractive people. Turk was the sweetest and nicest person that Lucia has ever known. Turk and Churchill’s personalities are so much alike. Turk was more reserved while Churchill is quieter. Turk was very much a man’s man.

Turk was very studious unlike his sister who preferred to sneak out and do something else. Turk was very military in his personality. Turk was very much a republican. He wasn’t political enough.  He was more apolitical which probably kept him from being a Brigadier General. He wasn’t going to play politics with anyone. He was who he was and what he was. He was a good leader and that was that.

Turk was tall, stood straight, handsome. He looked like his son and a breathing image of his mother. He had a large mouth which had a big smile.  He had a dry sense of humor especially one liners. Frances memory of Hansi is that she took Frances with her after the divorce and got her what she needed.

Frances like the fact that Turk was attractive and had a dashing manner who was very kind and sweet. They were taken with each other from the first time they met.

She was talented and had an eye for color and style. She would have been a good actress. Frances was talented with her hands. She like to draw with color. She was interested in the arts. She was interested in new and young artists. She went to many art shows. She was very interested in water color.   

Frances laughed a lot and loved attention and being noticed. She was very dramatic. She was a nice height and pretty light blond hair to begin with then light brown hair with pretty blue eyes.

Lucia was a little girl but remembers having dinner together quite often. Frances was a good cook. She learned in her adult years to cook like Frances because it was very tasty. Frances had wonderful recipes for seafood. Lucia would use her recipes. So many of her recipes had a Philippine flavor…sweet & sour… Polynesian type of recipes. The deserts were very good especially the tarts. She had a good recipe with curry.

Frances told Lucia that the only thing she had growing up was her step-mother Hansi. Her father and Hansi divorce and Hansi raised her.  She wasn’t sure that if it wasn’t for Hansi, she would not have had love, care and mothering. Frances had a resistance side because she had no loving mother or father. She had a half-sister who married Leslie McNair. Frances had a distant relationship with her father and was not close with him. Yet, she was wild about him. Lucia feels that he may have been torn because he had another child. Frances had a rough time and didn’t get much love until she married Turk.

In 1949, Dorothy died in Tucson, Arizona and her brother Turk was going to see her. The plane never left the airport because of a snow storm. She had a cerebral hemorrhage and Turk just couldn’t get there. It was a blow to him. Turk had a heart problem to begin with and that stress added to his death. He and his sister were very close, but they hadn’t seen each other in a while. She had cancer and it was more advanced than anyone realized

Frances didn’t know what to do with motherhood. She did the best she could. She said she wanted to be a good mother and have her children think she was a good mother. She said that she had to learn on her own because she never had experience of what a mother would be like even though she loved Hansi. Hansi loved and coddled her. Hansi was very devoted to Frances. Frances’s father was a rather good-looking man who was distant. He was very much a play boy.

Turk had heart problems while in France. After Turk retired, he and Frances drove all the way from Memphis, Tennessee to Santa Barbara, California. When Lucia was first married, she visited them in Santa Barbara when Frances lived in the guest house of Mrs. O’Brien.

Frances thought living in the Philippines was interesting. She and Turk knew quite a few officers.

Leslie wanted to study medicine and be a doctor and be more feminine and be more like a girl. Leslie was anything but that. Frances didn’t like that idea. However, it didn’t bother Turk. Churchill wanted to be geologist so Frances thought that is what he should be. It made Frances happy that her children were successful and happy. Turk was happy being with Frances and family.

She never complained and was proud of her grandchildren.

Raising children back then was more formal than it I now. Turk had to do so many tings with other officers that he didn’t take the children. Turk just adored his only daughter Leslie.  He was very proud of Churchill. He was a very sweet brother in a man way. Turk and his father Marlborough got along very well.

Leslie was an unusual conservative that had interesting side “vents” Very political interested. She said she was a repubican but Lucia was not sure if she was a republican inside.

Frances and Turk had a spring spaniel dog name Batsu. He loved that dog. He was animal oriented.

Frances was only unpersonable in that she wouldn’t talk personal things. She talked about social and historical thing along with current events. Turk and Dorothy were more formal and stiffer because that how their parents were. Growing up in Cuba and moving around all the country opened their eyes to many experiences as children.

Frances did not have good health growing up. She had health problems. Lucia believes it was her teeth. Frances said, “I suffer from not eating what I ought to be.” Dorothy and Turk didn’t have that problem because their dad was a doctor. Frances probably took care of her own self and health due to not really having a parent when Hansi was not there. Also, she wasn’t warm and loving like she would have liked because not having a parent around.  Leslie and Churchill are warmer and loving than she was. Lucia never saw Frances upset often.

During World War II, Memphis was a major stop for army depot supplies. It was miles and miles long. It brought several general there who were friends of Dorothy (Turk’s sister).

When Turk was at war, Frances would keep busy. When she was in Memphis, she worked for the Gray Ladies, Red Cross and those type of organizations. The Gray Ladies would visit the large veteran’s hospital in Memphis. She would read to the boys and run errands for them.

Frances and her sister in-law Dorothy were good friends. The wives thought that the Wyeth’s were wild because Marlborough was an adventurer and had a love of life.

Frances couldn’t believe her hubby died and never got over it. She thought he was too young and didn’t spend too many years in retirement. They had plan to travel and do thing it was a shock to everyone he died. He was in his 50’s. Frances was with him when it happened. Frances worked over in turkey for a short time after Turk died and she also worked in a very high end fashion shop.

Frances came every year to visit. She would first go to Corpus Christi, Texas to visit Churchill and his family and then here to Memphis. I was so well acquainted with all of Churchill’s children that when I met Margaret, I told her so many things that I think she was amazed. I was excited to go down there and see them all in the flesh to celebrate Churchill’s birthday and anniversary. Especially Gregg…My father was beaming when Greg was born. He received a letter that he was named Gregg Chandler Wyeth after my parents (last name Chandler). It just thrilled them.