Lewis Burl Higday

This was shared by Jude Higday

This is a photo of Lewis Burl Higday taken at age 33.

Lewis Burl Higday was born May 24, 1906, to Elroy and

America Swank Higday, the youngest of six children.

Lewis started at an early age helping his Dad build homes.

As a young man, building homes in Des Moines, he often

stopped at a little grocery store for a cold drink or a

snack--it soon became evident he was not always

thirsty or hungry, just interested in the owner's

daughter.

Being shy and lacking a lot of self-confindence, it took

Lewis quite some time to finally ask her for a date--

when this pretty young girl said "Yes", Lewis almost

fainted and asnwered her "Yes" with, "Are you sure,

do you really mean it?"

This date was the beginning of a life together that lasted

six days short of thirty years, when Helen Catherine

Wing Higday died following brain surgery, leaving Lewis

a broken man, without his beloved Helen.

To this marriage was born Beverly Fern in Biloxi, Mississippi,

while Elroy and Lewis were building homes and then back

to Des Moines in two years for the birth of Richard Lewis.

Through the years, Lewis became a real craftsman in the art

bricklaying and built many of the finer homes around Des

Moines, including one of Frank Lloyd Wright's Designs.

Some elite families around Des Moines would wait

a year for Lewis to do the brick work on their home,

because they wanted only the best, and Lewis

was it!

Within a year after Helen's Death Lewis married again--

Helen Elizabeth Adcock Kelleher. This marriage lasted

24 years until Lewis' death in October 1984.

"His Death was the end of an era of a master

craftsman"