Charlotte Elisabeth "Betsy" Sims Krupp Pratt
1898 - 1981
Betsy Krupp the eldest child of Edwin Walter Sim and his bride Charlotte Smith Sims, was a true “Honeymoon baby”. Born Nov 17, 1898 only nine months after her parents wedding on February 9, she arrived as her father was starting his law practice at Malley & Sims, in Chicago and diving deeper into Republican politics. She was named for her mother Charlotte, but was always known by her middle name nickname “Betsy”. Deep in Ed’s “Mark Twain’s Scrap Book” dated 1898-1902, surrounded by letters from the Woodlawn Improvement Club and newspaper clippings of his career, was a clipping from the Chicago Tribune, titled “Dance of Young Folks at the Woodlawn Country Club” illustrated with a photo of a 2-year-old Betsy. The only family item in the entire folio.
She grew up a beautiful, vivacious and very musically talented young girl in a fairly stern late Victorian household. Her father felt her musical talents were undignified and never appreciated her amazing talent. It was part of family lore that she could go to the opera on Friday night and come home and immediately play the entire score on the piano.
She grew up in a thriving city, the daughter of a well-known politico. She remembered the years the family spent in Washington, DC (1903-1906). She spent her summers at Sims Ranch enjoying boating, horseback riding and swimming with the ever-increasing family of six siblings. At some time around 1918, she accompanied her parents on their winter trip to visit Ed’s brother Reginald Sims, the major developer of New Port Richey, Florida. It was here she met a vacationing dentist from Texas, Peter Cornelius Krupp. There was an 18-year difference in their ages and he was Catholic and she was Presbyterian, but that did not prevent the couple from falling in love. It is unknown if there was any family disruption over this relationship, but on Dec 3, 1919, at age 21, Charlotte Elizabeth Sims became Mrs. Peter C Krupp at her parents’ house at 4800 Kenwood Avenue, Chicago.
Married life started in Houston, Texas. Thirteen months after her wedding, her first son Peter, Jr. was born and 17 months later, a second son Edwin. Living in Houston was not the same as living in Chicago and by 1925, the family had left Texas and moved to Chicago.
Aside: Peter Cornelius Krupp, was the only surviving child of Jean “John” Adam Krupp from Germany and Phillipine Veronica Pereira, a dark-haired beauty from New Orleans. He grew up in Houston, Texas where his father owned Krupp and Tuffley Shoe Store. After Phillipine died in 1899, he decided that the shoe business held no charm. He went north to Michigan and graduated from the dental school at University of Michigan in 1903. He returned to his childhood home and set up practice. His father died in 1916 and this may have been the impetus for him to go on vacation to Florida, the winter he met Betsy Sims.
He was an exceptional dentist. His work was known far and wide and patients came to see him from all over the world. Two anecdotes should be shared. 1. Ann Hajen, later to marry his son John, had a cavity in her upper front tooth and all the restorations she had received fell out. On recommendation from her future husband, she went from her place of employment to See Peter Krupp in his office across the street in the Bell Building at 307 N. Michigan Ave. It was her lunch hour and her time was limited. He drilled for 30 minutes, during which she felt no pain – and these were the days before Novocain- and restored her tooth. Finally, he handed her a mirror and asked, “What do you think?” Worried about being late back from lunch hour, she merely glanced in the mirror and said, “It’s fine.” Dr. Peter Krupp took the mirror from her and said by way of correction, “No, it’s perfect!” Her central incisor still bears that restoration done more than 70 years ago. And 2. Later in his life, one of Peter Krupp’s dental patients was ill and went to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for advanced care. In preparation for surgery, the anesthesiologist asked the patient to remove her bridge. The staff in the operating room were so impressed with the quality of work they asked the patient, after recovery, who her dentist was. She named Peter C Krupp, DDS. Some weeks later, Peter Krupp received a phone call from the Mayo Clinic asking if he would consider moving his practice to the Mayo Clinic. He was careful, meticulous, talented and became the dentist to the entire family.
Once settled in a brownstone at 85 East Elm on the near north side of Chicago, a few blocks from Lake Michigan and close to family, the couple welcomed daughter Nancy in 1927 and son John in 1929. Betsy had her own way of rearing children. She never picked them up or held them, she had a nursemaid for that. Betsy said later to her sister-in-law Betty McNair Sims, that how she maintained her sanity with four active children was: she gave up trying to be personally involved with them through each phase of growing up because, by the time she figured out how to help them, they had moved on to yet another phase and other concerns. Her approach was to stay sane and positive, be available when they really needed her, keep them out of jail and hope for the best.
Summers were spent at Sims Ranch. The Krupp cottage was spartan affair. It was a wooden structure consisting of 2 bedrooms and a kitchen in a single row, connected by a front screened porch. There was a wood stove in the kitchen, no fireplace and, when built, no indoor plumbing – but there was a garage. The boys normally slept in tents outside, Nancy in one bedroom and, for a time, Betsy and Peter in the other.
At some time in the 1920’s, a large field stone foundation was built closer to the water, and we can infer that this was to be the basis for a much larger home. No one is sure what interfered with construction of the new cottage; possibly Peter Krupp invested heavily in the stock market before the crash and reduced straits thwarted his plans, maybe it was World War II. The reason is lost to the history.
Soon Betsy and her husband moved to the Ranch House and made that their summer home. Peter would be seen prowling the Ranch House porches with flyswatter in hand trying to dispatch as many flies, mosquitoes and spiders as he could. As he aged, he became bald and wore rimless glasses. He kept his Texas twang and bore a stern countenance; Johnny Evans (John Ford Evans, II) does not remember him speaking much at family meals. Nonetheless, he was a force in his family.
Out of the frame to the left is Betsy’s sister Helen and her husband Alex. “Mac” McLaughlin
Betsy, on the other hand, was much more approachable. She was lighthearted and quick to hug. Family remembered her curiosity about the world and life-long learning. She wore her long white hair piled on the back of her head in an old-fashioned hairdo. She was more than once voted the “favorite Aunt” by the hordes of Sims grandchildren. While the men were back in Chicago working, the women were left to hold the fort. Betsy, maybe a sister or two and her sister-in-law Betty Sims would gather at the Ranch House and play bridge in the evenings after dinner.
Back in Chicago, the pre-Christmas sing-along at the Krupp house on East Elm was a favorite family memory. All the family who lived in Chicago were gathered. Betsy at the piano, favorite Christmas Carols sung by all, lots of food and lots of cousins. Johnny Evans shared this story: “Betsy asked [my father – John Ford Evans, Sr.] to get a big load of brand new, freshly minted copper pennies [from the bank where he worked], which he did. Probably $10.00 worth which was 1,000 pennies. She wrapped them in Christmas wrapping paper and, at the party, got someone to hold the wrapped pennies up on the stairway to the second floor which was right in the middle of the living room. Little kids were there. Mostly girls. My job was to use a stick to punch open the paper like a piñata so the new pennies would cascade down the steps for the little kids, Pammy, Susie, [children of Ned and Bettina Sims] and Sherry [daughter of Frank and Betty Sims]….. I forget who all composed the targeted beneficiaries. Apparently, it was assumed that I had the good sense to realize that I should not be competing with the little girls. They were just looking at the shiny new pennies all over the stairs, like someone had spilled something and none of them were picking up the pennies. I, however, was stuffing my pockets and quite effectively reducing the available penny count. That is, until my father came over and explained the limits of my role, and the need for me to disgorge the booty.”
Finally, Betsy and Peter Krupp sold their house in Chicago and retired to the site of their first meeting, New Port Richey, Florida. Here they lived, along with their eldest son Peter, enjoying the warmer winters. In 1960, Peter and Betsy went on vacation to Maricopa, Arizona where he died of a stroke Oct 18 – two weeks shy of his 80th birthday.
Betsy had never been alone and may have found herself “adrift” since, within 2 years, had married Wendall Ballou Pratt in Las Vegas.
The couple spent lavishly and one granddaughter remembers seeing Betsy arrive at her home near Chicago, in a limousine and swathed in a lush white fur coat. This marriage did not last, nor did the money, and Betsy spent her remaining years with her son Edwin and his family. She died in Glenview, Illinois July 10, 1981. She was laid to rest in the Sims Family Cemetery, next to her parents and her sister Helen.
My thanks to John Ford Evans, Frank McNair Sims and Ann Hajen Krupp for sharing their memories.