GARY H. DITTO
Long & Foster® Real Estate, Inc.
4650 East West Hwy.
Bethesda, MD 20814
301-215-6834

Bethesda-Gateway Office
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Isadella Ward’s Family Memories: Part 2

by Ilene Sheris

May 2000

As Part 1 ended, it was the evening of Thanksgiving 1939, and Isadella Ward, her two small children, and her brother Hoyt had just started their journey from California. They were on their way to join Isadella’s husband Dayton, who had just started a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.

Isadella described their midnight drive through the desert. She recalled that it was a “real adventure.” At one time, there was a coyote in front of the car, and she was afraid it would tip their car over. She remembered that in many places “there weren’t any real roads.” While driving along one road, “I had to just hug the side of the mountain; there were no barriers.”

To get some rest, she would let Hoyt take a turn at the wheel. She would always be aware, however, if he started to drive off the road. During part of the trip, she was able to drive on Route 80, which took her to her family’s home in Way Cross, Georgia. They arrived there on Tuesday morning, just before daylight, and stayed through the Christmas holiday.

Dayton joined his family in Georgia for Christmas. Isadella’s sister, Margaret Hyde, was living in Annapolis at the time. She picked up Dayton and brought him to Georgia so he could be with his family for the holiday. After Christmas, Isadella, Dayton, and the children drove to Maryland together. Hoyt remained in Georgia.

When the Wards arrived in Kensington, they lived in a house on Georgia Avenue. At that time, University Boulevard was an apple orchard, and Wheaton was just a grove of wild trees.

The Ward children were now five and three years old. School was becoming an important issue. Tonisa went to Wheaton Elementary School, a four-room schoolhouse out in the woods near what is now Glenmont.

When Gerald was only four years old, Mrs. Smith, the head of the School Board, contacted Isadella and asked her to “send him to kindergarten to justify having a kindergarten.” Isadella agreed, explaining that Gerald “loved people and got to ride the bus.”

Gerald enjoyed school very much indeed, Isadella remembered. She told how he came home from the first day of school talking about a little girl in his class: “She has the prettiest curls, Mother.” On the second day of school he came home and said, “Mother, I kissed her.”

Mrs. Ward chuckled as she recounted the following story. That little girl of whom Gerald was so fond lived on a big farm near what is now the corner of Georgia Avenue and Plyers Mill Road. One afternoon, the little girl decided to visit Gerald. To do this, she had to walk down a two-lane dirt road through the woods, alone.

Isadella remembered thinking that the little girl’s parents had brought her to their house. It was only later that afternoon, when the girl’s worried family called, asking if anyone had seen her, that Isadella realized that the child had walked all that way by herself. Once the little girl’s whereabouts were discovered, the children played happily all afternoon.

The outbreak of World War II sent Dayton to St. Louis, Missouri. It was his job to electrify the camps. This meant yet another move for the Ward family. Their third child, Dale, was born on November 11, 1942, in St. Louis. When the war ended, the Wards were sent back to Maryland. This was to be the family’s last major move.

Once again, the Ward family had to travel across a significant portion of the country. As he’d done in the past, Dayton set off for Maryland without his family, to find a home for them all.

This trip without the family was an attempt at house hunting. It turned out to be a very successful trip. Soon after he arrived, Dayton went to the Baptist church on Dupont Street, where he told the congregants that he was looking for a house to buy. After the service, a woman told him that her house in Kensington was for sale. Dayton called Isadella to tell her about the house, and they agreed to buy it.

Dayton traveled back to St. Louis to help with the move. The family set off for Maryland—Dayton by car and Isadella and the children by train. Isadella arrived on February 12, 1946. It took the movers a few days to find their new house. There were so many streets with the same name in the area that the movers kept going to the wrong address. In August 1946, the Wards’ fourth child was born.

Mrs. Ward proudly stated that over the years, many great people lived in Kensington. She recalls that one of the Giffords, of Gifford’s Ice Cream, went to high school with her daughter Toni. She also remembers that Senator Olin and Mrs. Alice Johnson, of South Carolina, lived on Bexhill Street. Their daughter was also a friend of Toni’s.

Walter Johnson, a famous baseball player, lived in the area, too, and his granddaughter went to school with Toni. Isadella also fondly remembered that Maude Shaw, one of the Wards’ neighbors, was the baby nurse for John F. Kennedy, Jr.

From their home in Kensington, Isadella and Dayton Ward watched their children and their town grow and change through the years. Singing and swinging in the swing, spending time together, and enjoying it all.

Editor’s Note: After Part 1 of this article appeared, we received a call from Isadella’s daughter, Toni Ward, of Kensington. She told us that afer living for 55 years in her Kensington home, Isadella has recently moved to the Kensington Park assisted living facility on the grounds where Kensington Junior High School once stood. Isadella will celebrate her 90th birthday in June. She likes being so close to her home of the past 55 years, and the family has also received nice phone calls from people who enjoyed the first article.

This article continues.

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