My lineage is artists and engineers.
My maternal grandfather was Wilhelm Busch, an immigrant from Germany after WWI. He had flown with Manfred ( Baron) Von Richthofen and was a topographer. My mother had a photo of him with his squad. He had written in white ink the names of the soldiers with him across their chest. On one side of him was Hermann Goering. To the other was Rudolf Hess. The photo is currently in a siblings safety deposit box hidden from history.
After the war he played violin in silent motion picture theaters in Germany before immigrating. He was also a photographer.
In the early 20s, he traveled the US with a circus as a musician.
He met my maternal grandmother in Springfield, IL. They had a...rendezvous and she discovered she was with child shortly after the circus left for STL. More travel and a long story shortened, a shot gun was present at their wedding.
They eventually settled in STL in the 50s where GF Busch was first chair with the STL symphony and in off season worked at American Can Company as a label designer. American Can was bought by Consolidated Chemical and he designed their logo.
He owned and played both a Guarnerius and a Stradivarius violin. The Guarneriushad a carved rose. His bow had cost $500, shocking all family members.
When he died my mother received the violins. Not knowing their value she took them to Bearden Violin Shopand was told they were priceless. She thought this meant they didn't have value and shipped them to her brother.
No one knows what became of them, not even my cousins.
After she graduated from Roosevelt high school in the late 40s my mother.
A talented artist as a teenager, she went to work with her father. She illustrated magazine stories.
