Completing the picture: Siblings reconnect after 7 decades apart
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Completing the picture: Siblings reconnect after 7 decades apart
Family-tree research unites Charlie Puckett, 74, with his long-lost sister in
California
LINDA HASTINGS
Special Correspondent
Charlie Puckett finished the portrait a few weeks ago. It's of a beautiful
young woman with brown and auburn hair cascading off her shoulders.
The oil-on-linen painting is not unlike others the nine-year Weddington
resident has painted throughout his years as a skilled artist. But this one has
special significance.
It's a picture of his sister, Hazel Upton, copied from a tinted photograph of
her as a teenager. A sister he was reunited with just a year ago in June after
72 years apart.
Puckett was just 19 months old when he was adopted out of an orphanage in
Lyndon, Ky., where he and two of his older siblings, Hazel and a brother,
Robert, lived.
For reasons unclear, the children had been taken from their mother. Their
father had disappeared -- possibly looking for work -- and was never heard from
again.
The orphanage was the last contact Puckett had with his biological family.
Until last year.
That's when family members began researching the 74-year-old's ancestry and
located Upton in Tulare, Calif.
The brother and sister corresponded by mail and phone until this past December,
when Puckett and his wife Barbara traveled out west for a reunion with Upton,
76.
"It was just like we'd always known (her)," said Barbara Puckett.
Barbara Puckett said the resemblance was obvious from the start -- the way they
talk, their eyes, similar health problems, their spirituality and their
outlook.
"She has a very happy optimistic way about her that (Charlie) has," she said.
With a twinkle in his eye, Charlie Puckett adds, "She's stubborn (and) I'm
stubborn."
Puckett, who is self-publishing a book based on his experiences as a kid, never
expected to know his real family.
He was born in Sturgis, Ky., in 1930 and was just 14 pounds and suffering
malnutrition when John and Susie Puckett took him in to live in Bowling Green.
It was a loving home with an older brother and sister. Puckett grew up never
really desiring to research his family tree, partly because he didn't want to
offend his adoptive family.
He knew he had siblings, including an older sister, Elizabeth, who lived with
other relatives.
Puckett married at 18, started a family and served in the Air Force from 1952
to 1956. He worked 30 years at Lockheed-Martin in Marietta, Ga., before
retiring in 1990.
He's been painting since he was 11 and selling his work, mostly landscapes,
still life and portraits, for nearly 50 years. He also teaches art classes and
is a member of the Union County Art League. His painting is based on a photo
Upton gave him.
Even though his adoptive parents died decades ago, and his adoptive sister
passed away in recent years, he's continually dismissed the idea of pursuing
his birth family.
But his granddaughter Jessica Boartfield and her stepmother, Vicki, skilled in
genealogy, have felt otherwise. Without Puckett's knowledge (but with his
wife's permission), the two Arizona residents began researching the family's
history last year.
The 1930 census records proved the most valuable.
"We found Charlie...right there on the list," said Vicki Boartfield, as well as
noting the names of his brother, sisters and mother.
Through further research, she learned that Puckett's brother and second sister
had died and that Hazel Upton was now living in California.
Boartfield called Upton one Sunday afternoon.
"You could hear the tears," Boartfield said.
"I was shocked," said Upton, from her Tulare residence.
She said she lived between the orphanage and several foster homes before an
aunt, and later an uncle, took her in and moved her to California.
Robert eventually ran away from the orphanage and reunited with his mom. After
that the oldest three children maintained contact with each other and their
mother. She died in 1961.
The family always wondered what happened to their little brother, but could
never get information from the orphanage.
Before hanging up with Boartfield, Upton asked if her brother's feet still had
scars from burns she knew he had suffered as a baby. Boartfield said she'd find
out.
She relayed the conversation to Barbara Puckett, who kept the information to
herself for a week before telling her husband, unsure of how he'd react.
"She caught me in a happy mood," said Charlie Puckett, who was initially
reserved when he heard about his sister. The tears welled up when he learned
that Upton knew of the scars on his feet.
"I knew it was her then," he said.
Barbara Puckett says finding Upton is a gift from God, especially in light of
his adoptive sister's death three years ago.
"(Charlie) has been a good person all of his life," she said. "God is good, and
he provided...another sister."
As a result of finding Upton, Puckett has also discovered he has a niece living
in Georgia (his brother's daughter) and her family. He visited them before
seeing his sister.
He and Upton don't know when they'll see each other again. But the next time,
Puckett will have something of himself for his sister.
The portrait is his gift to her.
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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown