Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 136, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1916 — BOY OF 10 SUPPORTS MOTHER [ARTICLE]

BOY OF 10 SUPPORTS MOTHER

Former Actress, Blind, Never Has Seen the Pace of Her Plucky Son. San Francisco. —A wonderful little life story of boyish pluck and maternal patience has been picked from the streets of San Francisco, where Frankie Lewis, now ten years old, has been supporting for two years his blind and helpless mother., f And an angle of it that lifts it out of the usual is that the mother, Mrs. Frances Lewis, lost her sight three months before the boy was born and has known only th 6 touch of his hand and has never seen him. Mrs; Lewis, who .used to be an actress, retired from the stage fifteen years ago to marry George Lewis of Los Angeles. Lewis met with an accident and became disabled. Mrs. Lewis, worrying over their affairs to a point of obsession, was suddenly stricken blind. Three months afterward little Frank was born. It was a hard struggle for Lewis to support his family, and he finally gave it up." Mrs. Lewis, when Frankie was one year old, came to San Francisco to live. Two years ago—Frankie was eight years old at the time —Mrs. Lewis was herself giving up the struggle, not wanting to be a burden to her friends. Little Frankie solved the problem — not all at once, by any means, but slowly and with certainty. He took to selling papers on the street. The first day he made 40 cents. Twenty-five of this was expended for a room for the two of them in a cheap lodging house and 15 cents for their dinner Dark days, many of them, followed. They never got very bright, except for the sunshine that Frankie brought home with him, along with his meager earnings. “It’s a hard struggle,” said Mrs. Lewis. “But the courage of my boy is overwhelming.”