Fred and Janet Rutledge

The picture below is of Fred Marvin Rutledge. It was taken in 1951 when he was in the Korean War. He was born Dec. 10, 1923, in Fresno California.


This is Fred M. Rutledge in an undated photo, probably taken between 1928 and 1930. He recalls some early memories during Prohibition, including his mother Leah and his grandmother inadvertantly taking him to a Speakeasy one night in north San Francisco.



He grew up in Fresno during the Great Depression. His father worked as a retail salesman selling clothes and as a car salesman. He recalls being relatively well off comparatively speaking during this time, though he worked various odd jobs including a paper route.

The picture below is of a family outing in the 1930s. From left to right is Guy, Fred, Grandma Schofeld (b. just prior to the Civil War of which she had girlhood memories), and Leah.

After high school Fred Rutledge entered Fresno State as a History Major, but like so many of his generation, quit school in 1942 and joined the infantry. He recalls sitting on a front porch on a mild December day in 1941 with a group of friends, when his mothere came out and told them that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. He saw action first in the Phillipines, and then towards the end of the war in Korea (which suffered under Japanese occupation). The writing on the back of this photo succinctly states, "Lakawe 1945 after a strenuous patrol".

These are Fred M. Rutledge's army papers, complete with artillery scores.

Below is a picture of Fred M. Rutledge in 1945 in his dress uniform.

On the picture below was written simply "From left to right, Schenkel, Grim, Rutledge, Alexander". The picture was taken in Korea in 1945. I recall that growing up, especially as I grew older, he grew more willing to give accounts of his experiences in both World War II and Korea. As was the case with many of his contemporaries, the memories were not always pleasant.

In 1946 Fred M. Rutledge met Janet Jensine Rutledge at Huntingdon Lake, California. Below is a picture of Janet Rutledge at the age of 17. She was born November 14, 1925 to Anna and Carl Overgaard, and grew up on the family farm in Madiera California. Because she grew up on a farm, she was luckier than many in the Great Depression, though she recalls a great deal of thrift on the part of her parents, who raised, among other things, turkeys and pigs. Her father was generous enough to let the economic refugees from the Dust Bowl camp out on their farm.

Here she is in the photo below at the age of 19, at which point she was working for the war effort in San Francisco.

The photograph below is roughly contemporaneous with the one above.

This is Huntingdon Lake California. It was home to a summer camp which one could attend for college credit back then. It was here, in the summer of 1946, that Fred met Janet. Fred relates the story that Marion, Janet's brother, was also at the camp, and that he initially thought that he was my mother's boyfriend and so was slow to make his approach. Once that got settled, however, things moved rather quickly, and very soon (I believe within a week or so) my father was talking marriage. The backs of the postcards indicate that my mother was not feeling well one week, and another week received a care package from her mother which included fried chicken.

Below is Janet Rutledge with a friend on Huntingdon Lake.

Carl Overgaard liked a party, and he used the opportunity of Janet and Fred's engagement to fete the couple and their families.

Janet Rutledge's wedding picture from the Fresno Bee.

The wedding announcement from the Fresno Bee.

The Marriage License.

Their wedding invitation.

Janet Rutledge's wedding photo. They were married on March 6, 1947.

By January 7, 1948, Fred James Rutledge had been born; Joyce Carol Rutledge came along on December 15, 1949. The picture was taken on the beach in Santa Cruz in 1951.

After they were married, they not only started a family but continued their education: Fred recalls the story of seeing Janet have to leave from biology class ill, sufficiently naive in those days to not realize that they were on their way to being parents.