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Marn
James Y. Marn, Jr.
Older Brother
8/28/99
My sister, Annabelle was always a live
wire when she as growing up. At St. Theresa’s grade
school she had friends who still remembers her. One of those
friends is married to my classmate, Reuben Aea at St. Theresa
‘s. Anna’s friends always remember her for the
fun times they had and for the school projects they worked
on.
But there were other times as we grew
up that she would sit quietly by herself and read books or
newspapers. Some of it was for homework, but a lot of times
she read out of curiosity and to keep herself informed. And
she was well-informed. On many occasions, I thought I knew
about the bargains around town, but I was always amazed when
she asked me if I knew about a sale, or some deal at a store.
Yes, she had a keen sense of values for her family.
In school she excelled. She was not only
a fun-person with her classmates, but she did very well in
class. In grade school I was always amazed at her report cards
with a lot of A’s and B’s as compared to my B’s
and C’s. Getting good grades just seemed like a natural
thing for her. And I was proud that somebody in our family
was doing well. And mom and pop enrolling her in Sacred Hearts
Academy put the finishing touches on her academic life and
more important gave her a solid foundation in the Catholic
religion.
Another area where I know she saw value
in was the Boy Scouts. Mom and pop had enrolled myself and
Alex in the Cub Scouts and we continued in the Boy Scouts.
I took it serious and earned some merit badges, but never
enough to be an eagle scouat. Alex did even less. But, I think
Anna envied us for being in such an outstanding and worthwhile
organization which she could never join. But when her boys
were old enough she had them join---every one of her boys.
And they excelled. That was surely one of her dreams, and
she saw it fulfilled in her boys
As we were growing up, I think all us
boys in the family knew she was very intelligent, but that
she also had a temper. So we knew enough that there was a
limit to our teasing her. If you got her angry, you could
be on the receiving end of a withering retort by our sister.
I criticized her on something one day and she told me: "You’re
no bargain, yourself." A statement like that is enough
for most guys to shut up. But as I mentioned earlier if she
could be verbally devastating, she also could be a lot of
fun with people and very considerate of them.
Whenever my family came over for family
dinners at mom and pop's home, she always made Kara and Andrew
feel right at home. She'd greet them, talk with them, ask
them what they were doing in school. Kara and Andrew had a
lot of love for their Aunty Anna.
Anna always had a good mind for business
even from a young age. When mom needed help, she would send
Anna to collect rents from the tenants in the back of Judd
St. She knew exactly what to do. She took the rent receipt
book and came back with the job accomplished. Of course, talking
business at the dinner table was normal. Although, she did
not say much about business at the dinner table, she certainly
was absorbing all this discusion in her mind. When the time
came with her own family and husband, I can't help but think
that she was the sparkplug and go getter--of course with her
husband's cooperation--in the assets acquired by the Dunns.
Perhaps the biggest changes in Anna's
life that I could perceive as her oldest brother occurred
while she was living on the Mainland in Los Angeles. She started
working after finishing school at a department store, Bullocks.
From her letters to me you could tell that she was not happy
there. Of course, then she met her husband so that eased the
pain somewhat. But around this time, she got hired by the
IRS where she became much happier.
More important, she and her husband, Jim
made an offer to buy her partners out and own the Shenandoah
Street property outright themselves. I urged Alex that we
should sell it to Anna and Jim for a nominal sum and let that
be their first investment. When the transaction was done,
the Dunns had their first 3-unit property and were in business.
You could see the pride she had in owning an investment. She
would write me about things happening on the property even
though I no longer owned the property.
The other defining moment in her life
was when her first child, Gregory was born. It was then I
noticed that her FAMILY was not so much the Marns, as it was
the Dunns: her husband and son...and later her other children.
She could never escape the fact that she was a Marn, but I
could tell as her brother growing up with her that her focus
and priority was going to be her kids.
And so it was. As I look back at Anna's
shortened life and seeing her grow up and mature into a fun-loving,
caring mother, trying to imitate what mom and pop did for
their kids. But rather than continuing to invest in the Marn
family business for her family, she elected to invest outside
of the Marn business-to make investments for the Dunn family
alone. I saw what she and her husband were doing and I understood.
Because this was what I was doing myself for my kids. If something
happened to the Marn family business, there would be our personal
investments to fall back on and vice versa. That's how I was
thinking and I'm sure Anna was thinking prudently also. Moreover,
her own investments gave her a greater financial independence
from family investments with others.
But now as I look over my sisters life
and achievements, I really am proud to be able to say she
was MY sister. She brought fear in my life only once and that
was when she was seriously ill at around age ten and we learned
she had rheumatic fever and was phsically weak. Maybe she
herself knew her condition and compensated for it by being
the outgoing, caring thoughtful person she became as she lived
her life. She touched me greatly and I thank God that I can
see so much of her in her kids. This makes her loss a little
easier for me.
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