Glenn’s Little Family

Glenn’s first-born daughter, Carolyn, arrived November 25, 1946, at Stormont-Vail Hospital, Topeka. Someone took lots of pictures of the first-born: Carolyn and Jean, 1946; one-month-old Carolyn with Jean, Nana, Granddad and Uncle John as soon as the grandparents and the uncle arrived from England; separate shots of Carolyn with Mom, with Dad and with Nana at the Rose Garden; Carolyn with her doll and a stroller; Carolyn on her tricycle; Daddy holding Carolyn as he graduates from law school in 1947; and Daddy reading to Carolyn in a stuffed chair.

Glenn’s son, David, arrived September 21, 1949. By then, Glenn had already passed the bar, formed a law firm and been elected Judge of the Court of Topeka. As many pictures as there had been of Carolyn, there now appeared of Carolyn and David together: Carolyn shooting a water pistol into David’s mouth, as he sat in a high chair; Carolyn lifting David up off the ground in front of the house; David and Carolyn with Grandpa and a dapple gray pony; David and Carolyn in matching red and white striped jackets Nana made for them when they went to New Orleans with Mom and Dad; David and Caroyn brushing their teeth in the doorway at 711 Park Lane.

Those were the times before the trouble, when Glenn and Jean, Carolyn and David were an intact family. No one knew how times would change, but for a brief and significant space of time, the Glenn D. Cogswells were a normal family, and, other than an argument now and then, a happy family, as far as David and Carolyn knew. Maybe the trouble began when Glenn's political career taking off.