In August 1929, while she was still working at the law firm, Marguerite married Edward John Pic, Jr.,[A13-10] a quiet man of her own age, who worked as a clerk for T. Smith & Son, a New Orleans stevedoring company.[A13-11] The marriage was not a success, and by the summer of 1931 she and Pic were separated.[A13-12] Marguerite was then 3 months pregnant; she told her family that Pic did not want any children and refused to support her.[A13-13] Pic ascribed the separation simply to their inability to get along together.[A13-14] A boy was born on January 17, 1932, whom Marguerite named John Edward Pic.[A13-15] Pic saw his son occasionally until he was about 1 year old; after that, he did not see the boy again[A13-16] but contributed to his support until he was 18 years old.[A13-17]
During her separation from her first husband, Marguerite saw a great deal of Robert Edward Lee Oswald, an insurance premium collector,[A13-18] who also was married but was separated from his wife.[A13-19] In 1933, Marguerite was divorced from Pic[A13-20] and, Oswald’s wife also having obtained a divorce,[A13-21] they were married in a Lutheran church on July 20.[A13-22] Marguerite has described the period of her marriage to Oswald as “the only happy part” of her life.[A13-23] A son was born on April 7, 1934, who was named for his father;[A13-24] Oswald wanted to adopt John Pic, but his mother objected on the ground that John’s father might cut off the support payments.[A13-25] In 1938, the Oswalds purchased a new house on Alvar Street for $3,900,[A13-26] in what John remembered as “a rather nice neighborhood.”[A13-27] The house was across the street from the William Frantz School,[A13-28] which first John and later both he and Robert, Jr., attended.[A13-29] On August 19, 1939, little more than a year after the Oswalds bought the Alvar Street house, Robert Oswald died suddenly of a heart attack.[A13-30]
Two months later, on October 18, 1939, a second son was born.[A13-31] He was named Lee after his father; Harvey was his paternal grandmother’s maiden name.[A13-32] For a while after her husband’s death, Mrs. Oswald remained in the Alvar Street house without working; she probably lived on life insurance proceeds.[A13-33] Sometime in 1940, she rented the house to Dr. Bruno F. Mancuso, the doctor who had delivered Lee.[A13-34] (Dr. Mancuso continued to rent the house until 1944,[A13-35] when Marguerite obtained a judgment of possession against him.[A13-36] She sold the house for $6,500 to the First Homestead and Savings Association, which resold it to Dr. Mancuso.)[A13-37] She herself moved to a rented house at 1242 Congress Street, where she lived for about half a year.[A13-38] For part of this period after Oswald’s death, the two older boys were placed in the Infant Jesus College, a Catholic boarding school in Algiers, La., a suburb of New Orleans.[A13-39] Neither they nor their mother liked this arrangement,[A13-40] which John thought was intended to save money;[A13-41] it lasted for less than a year, after which the boys returned to the school Frantz and then transferred to the George Washington Elementary School.[A13-42]
On March 5, 1941, Mrs. Oswald purchased a frame[A13-43] house at 1010 Bartholomew Street, for $1,300.[A13-44] According to John’s recollection, the neighborhood was not as pleasant as Alvar Street; the house had a backyard, and the family kept a dog named “Sunshine.”[A13-45] A neighbor, Mrs. Viola Peterman, recalls that Mrs. Oswald kept to herself but appeared to be “a good mother to her children.”[A13-46] She opened a shop in the front room, where she sold things like sewing supplies and small groceries.[A13-47] Oswald’s Notion Shop, as it was called,[A13-48] failed to make money,[A13-49] and on January 16, 1942, Mrs. Oswald sold the house back to the Third District Home Association, from which she had purchased it, for a profit of $800.[A13-50]
Probably in contemplation of the sale of the house, Mrs. Oswald applied in December 1941 to the Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem Orphan Asylum Association for the admission of her two older sons to the orphan asylum, known as the Bethlehem Children’s Home; she stated on the application that she could contribute $20 per month to their maintenance and would supply shoes and clothing.[A13-51] She had inquired also about Lee, who was too young to be admitted.[A13-52] John and Robert were accepted and entered the home on January 3, 1942.[A13-53]
Mrs. Oswald moved to an apartment at 831 Pauline Street,[A13-54] and returned to work. In December 1942, she listed her occupation as “telephone operator”;[A13-55] this may be the job she held at the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., a company for which she worked at some point during this period.[A13-56] She left Lee for much of this time with his aunt, Mrs. Murret, who thought him a good looking, friendly child, but could not devote a great deal of attention to him because she had five children of her own.[A13-57] In the late spring of 1942, Lee was watched for several weeks by Mrs. Thomas Roach, who lived with her husband in the same house as the Oswalds.[A13-58] Lee evidently did not get along with Mrs. Roach who told the next occupant of the house that Lee was a bad, unmanageable child who threw his toy gun at her.[A13-59] Apparently referring to the Roaches, Mrs. Oswald testified that she had once hired a couple to care for Lee; the couple neglected him, so she “put them out” and cared for Lee herself until Mrs. Murret was able to help her again.[A13-60] Soon after the incident with the Roaches, Mrs. Oswald moved again,[A13-61] this time to 111 Sherwood Forest Drive, near the Murrets.[A13-62]
Mrs. Murret took care of Lee for several months longer. Near Lee’s third birthday, Mrs. Oswald again inquired about his admission into the Bethlehem Children’s Home,[A13-63] perhaps because a disagreement with her sister made it impossible to leave him with her any longer.[A13-64] He was admitted on December 26.[A13-65] On his application, Mrs. Oswald agreed to contribute $10 per month and to supply shoes and clothing, as for the other boys.[A13-66]
Lee remained in the home for about 13 months, but according to John’s testimony, left on several occasions to spend short periods of time with his mother or the Murrets.[A13-67] John and Robert have pleasant memories of the home,[A13-68] which apparently gave the children a good deal of freedom.[A13-69] Robert described it as nondenominational but having “a Christian atmosphere”; “it might have been just a Protestant home.”[A13-70] Mrs. Oswald visited them regularly,[A13-71] and they occasionally left the home to visit her or the Murrets.[A13-72]
In July 1943, Mrs. Oswald was hired to manage a small hosiery store.[A13-73] This is probably the store to which she referred in her testimony as the “Princess Hosiery Shop on Canal Street,” at which, she testified, she was left by herself and “in 6 days’ time * * * hired four girls.”[A13-74] Her employer remembers her as a neat, attractive, and hardworking woman, an aggressive person who would make a good manager.[A13-75] She was not good with figures, however, and after several months he discharged her.[A13-76] At about this same time, she met Edwin A. Ekdahl, an electrical engineer older than herself, who was originally from Boston but was then working in the area.[A13-77] They saw each other often. Ekdahl met the boys[A13-78] and, according to John’s testimony, on at least one occasion, they all spent a weekend at a summer resort area in Covington, La.[A13-79]
By January 1944, Mrs. Oswald and Ekdahl had decided to marry.[A13-80] She withdrew Lee from the Children’s Home[A13-81] and moved with him to Dallas, where Ekdahl expected to be located.[A13-82] They planned to postpone the marriage until the end of the school year so that the older boys could complete the year at the home before they left it.[A13-83] In the meantime, she would care for Ekdahl,[A13-84] who was recovering from a serious illness, probably a heart attack.[A13-85] Mrs. Oswald has testified that when she arrived in Dallas, she decided that she did not want to marry Ekdahl after all.[A13-86] Using part of the proceeds from the sale of the Alvar Street house,[A13-87] she purchased a house at 4801 Victor Street,[A13-88] a portion of which she rented.[A13-89] In June, John and Robert left the Children’s Home and joined their mother in Dallas.[A13-90] They entered the nearby Davy Crockett Elementary School the following September.[A13-91]