Francis Ralph Holzer
Bud was born in a log cabin on a ranch in Sand Springs, Montana and later moved to a farm in Bridger, Montana. When he was 19, he contracted Polio. He went from a vigorous young man to a man who dragged one leg and was too weak on the right side to write. Bud set about regaining strength by using what ever came to hand on the farm. Since he could no longer work as a ranch hand or construction worker, he returned to school after learning how to write left handed. He learned to be a Medical Laboratory technologist during his service in the Army during World War II and went back to being right handed. He was very skilled at sharpening the needles used for blood drawing, which were cleaned, sterilized and reused many times. After the war, he completed a B.S. in bacteriology from University of California, Berkeley. Bud was a life long learner and completed many other graduate level classes during his 50 years in the medical lab. He read Luis L'Amour westerns and loved the game of basketball. Nothing interfered with the "very important non-historical events", i.e. Laker games and UCLA Bruin Basketball games.
Francis married Sylvia "Lorene" Cooper, daughter of William Leander Cooper and Sylvia Jane Loffer, on 10 Sep 1948 in Newman Center, Uc Berkeley. (Sylvia "Lorene" Cooper was born on 30 Dec 1918 in Commerce, Ottawa County, Oklahoma, died on 28 Feb 2000 in Riverside, Riverside County, California and was buried on 3 Mar 2000 in Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, CA.)
Coop and Bud changed their ages so that they would be the same age. Coop lowered her age by a year and Bud raised his age by a year. Mom was really 29 and Dad was really 27 but the certificate says both were 28. |
Another name for Francis was Bud.