How She Lived Her Dash

Inabelle Bott, known to friends as Ina, was born in a small frame house in Denver, Colorado and moved to another in Denver where she lived until she graduated from South High School. Her first job was in the office at Gated Rubber Company on South Broadway, then later worked at Remington Arms Company where she ran a weigh and gage machine that inspected machine gun bullets.

Ina met Sergeant John Paul Bott at a USO event while he was stationed at Lowry Field at Denver, Colorado. They became engaged, but he had been transferred to McDill Field at Tampa, Florida. Having only been out of Colorado twice before, Ina traveled on three separate trains to reach Tampa where they were married on March 8, 1942 at a Bay Shore Hotel called "Edgewater" with John's friends as the wedding party. Ina returned to her job in Denver a week later, after their honeymoon. She lived with her parent while John was stationed in England to fight in WW II.

John was Critically injured with flack over Polesti, Romania after he performed 40 bomb runs (sorties). While he recuperated, they traveled throughout the states during the war years and lived in Japan during the occupation.

They returned to the U.S. in January, 1949 with their new daughter, Bonney Jo, who was born on September 27, 1948, and lived in Riverside, Sunnymeade, and Perris, California. Ina's mother, Nellie, came to live with them after suffering a fall resulting in a broken hip.

The family, including Nellie, moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana when John was transferred. They lived there for five years and survived 2 floods. Ina and John's son, John Paul Bott, II, was born in Lake Charles on December 17, 1951. Another son, Harry Bruce Bott was also born in Lake Charles on January 7, 1954.

A transfer was finally obtained in 1956 out of Louisiana and the family moved to Ernest Harmon AFB in Newfoundland. In addition to fishing, claming, and playing bridge, Ina worked as a Red Cross Gray Lady helping Hungarian refugees as they came through Newfoundland on their way to freedom.

After only a year in Newfoundland, the family was transferred once again, this time to Madison, Wisconsin in 1957. They spent two years there before John retired from the Air Force in 1959.

Retirement took the family to Harlingen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. Because of Ina's interests in entertainment and media, she became involved in publicizing the Community Concert Association events and worked as a proofreader for the Valley Morning Star newspaper.

With the economic depression in the Valley, aggravated by the closing of the Air Base, after seven years in Harlingen, John found work as an insurance investigator in Houston, Texas in 1967. There Inabelle became very active as a free lance writer of columns, feature stories, restaurant, and play reviews.

ALthough her husband, John, died on June 28, 1977, Ina resided in Houston, Texas for thirty-two years. During that time, Ina worked as a social columnist for twenty six years, and was a feature story writer, a restaurant and play reviewer. She also authored her book, "Poems and Prayers of a Lifetime," and co-authored several plays, including "Who Dunnit?" and "Shirley."

Ina was a charter member of the Romance Writers of America, a member of the National Press Women, and a member of the Press Club of Houston.

Historical Interview with My Grandmother, Inabelle Bott on February 3, 1998
by Brandi Amanda Griffith

Remember Inabelle Bott 1920 - 2000 on September 5, 2000
by Paul Brown

Family

Inabelle and John had three children: a daughter Bonney Jo Bott, and sons, John Paul Bott II, and Harry Bruce Bott.

Books