I REMEMBER MAMA
So 111 years ago, Tully Joyce Hearn was born on June 30, 1914, in Victoria on Vancouver Island in Canada.
At age 3, she and her older sister Patricia lost their pregnant mother and unborn sibling to the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic and because their father was an international traveling businessman, they were raised by their maternal grandparents.
The family relocated to Los Angeles, California… Joyce was a smart cookie and skipped third grade. After graduating from Los Angeles High, she was unable to go to college due to the depression so she joined the workforce.
She met my dad, Gordon Palmer, on a blind date. They married and eventally moved to Burbank, California with their three daughters where she used her many talents on local volunteering.
Her favorire pass time was spent reading and I remember going often to the library with her. She used a large straw bag to carry the many books back-and-forth.
Our mom was smart, fun, witty and full of love and in honor of her, here are a few short gems she taught me when I was a little squirt…
Q. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
A. A woodchuck wood chuck all the wood he could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
Betty Botter bought a bit of butter, but she said, this butter’s bitter and if I put this bitter butter in my batter, it will make my batter bitter but if I buy some better butter and put it in my batter, it will make my bitter batter better.
Q. What kind of a noise annoys an oyster?
A. A noisy noise annoys an oyster.
(song) Be kind to your web footed friends
For a duck may be somebody’s mother Who lives all alone in the swamp
Where the weather is cold and damp. Now you may think this is the end.
Well it is.
(Written by Cathy Palmer on June 30, 2025)
