…in my Ancestry  “tree.” Here is a Wikipedia link plus two articles about Rosebud Yellow Robe, wife of Alfred Arthur Frantz. She was the great-grandniece of Sitting Bull. Alfred’s ancestry is still unknown so I can’t identify his “cousin” relationship to this writer.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) – Wednesday, October 7, 1992

Deceased Name: ROSEBUD FRANTZ, PROMOTER OF INDIAN CULTURE, DIES AT 85

Rosebud Yellow Robe Frantz, a great-grandniece of Chief Sitting Bull who devoted her life to making American Indian culture available to others, died on Monday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y. She was 85, and had lived in Forest Hills, N.Y., and Douglaston, N.Y., since 1928.

She died of cancer, said Marjorie Weinberg, a family friend.

As director of the Indian Village at Jones Beach State Park on Long Island from 1930 to 1950, Rosebud, as she preferred to be called, enthralled legions of visitors with information about and stories from Indian culture.

Rosebud, who was born near Rapid City, S.D., was a descendant of the Lakota-Oyate, called the Sioux by the white settlers. Through her family’s prominence, she came to know many well-known figures like President Calvin Coolidge, whom she helped induct into Lakota membership in 1927; and Cecil B. DeMille, who tried to persuade her to star in his films.

Last year, Edward Castle, a reporter for The Las Vegas Sun, contended that it was her name that inspired Orson Welles to make ”Rosebud” the last word spoken by Charles Foster Kane, the protagonist of his 1941 film, ”Citizen Kane.”

After leaving her post at Jones Beach in 1950, Rosebud continued to lecture and write on Indian culture.

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Los Angeles Times (CA) – Friday, October 9, 1992

Deceased Name: Rosebud Frantz; Named Linked to ‘Citizen Kane’

Rosebud Yellow Robe Frantz, a great-grandniece of Chief Sitting Bull who has been cited as the possible source of the mysterious term “Rosebud” in the classic film “Citizen Kane,” has died in New York. She was 85.

Rosebud, as she preferred to be known, was director for many years of the Indian Village at Jones Beach State Park and enthralled visitors with tales of Indian culture and her Lakota Sioux ancestors. She died Monday.

In the 1930s, she worked at the CBS radio network with Orson Welles, who later directed “Citizen Kane” and played the title role. The Las Vegas Sun once published a theory that when Charles Foster Kane, the protagonist of the movie, uttered “Rosebud” as his last word, it was in reference to her.

Yup, it’s early!! But I’m wide-awake at four-fifty. A raccoon was parading around on my porch and it activated the motion detector “door-bell.” (Remember my “door-bell“ purchase–in Livingston–to alert me to the arrival of “yard sale” customers?) Honestly, there is no garbage on my porch so I don’t know why the raccoon was on my porch.

Decades ago, I attended a seminar about “paradigm switch.”  Our mind and eyes do not record the same message is my brief explanation at this early hour of the morning. After I published the raccoon message, I reread some of my recent messages. I found some mistakes that had me shaking my head and saying “How did I miss that?”  I always “proof” my writing; I “proof” multiple times!!

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms is a favorite hymn and I was glad to learn that the music was written by a “cousin.” I have some men in my tree who have a “checkered past.” A name that the reader will quickly recognize is H.R. Haldeman. He was a prominent figure in the Watergate scandal. Here is a link to “H.R.” in my Ancestry database. You can find lots of information with a Google search. “H.R.” is my fifth-cousin-one=time-removed.

Another name the reader will recognize, Stephen Paddock. He is the evil man who killed so many people in the Las Vegas massacre. Stephen is my eighth cousin.

Those two are “up” my mother’s side of my tree. A third individual can be added to that list: Colonel William Gaston Coffin, former Secretary of Indian Affairs to President Lincoln. The newspaper obituary makes him sound like a saint. A Google search did not provide the information I was looking for; I must have read the details in literature regarding the Coffin family. I found this article on my website titled Digitized Library of Family History. The article is well-written (imho) but I heard (read) that supplies were deliberately withheld, and sold, and the money went into the pocket of William Coffin, and others. William is my first-cousin-four-times-removed.

On a more positive note: Levi Coffin, was considered the “President of the Underground Railroad.” During February–during “Black History Month”–it is comforting to remember that one of my ancestors was instrumental in saving so many lives. Levi Coffin and William Gaston Coffin were cousins who walked different paths. Levi is my fifth-great-uncle.

I have missionaries and ministers in my tree who will never be recognized with articles published on the Internet. It is my desire to recognize my family–and extended family–in my Ancestry database. Find the information at Lorraine Frantz Family Tree.

“The old lady” constantly praises her Heavenly Father for exceptional memory. Information about the misdeeds of William Gaston Coffin prompted her (me) to search the website created for scanned documents. Here is the information from Our Island Ancestors  prepared in 1992 by Lorraine Frantz Edwards. The bold emphasis has been added for this message.

231. William Gaston Coffin (Elihu, 224). Born, 26 Feb 1811

David Coffin writes, in the Coffin Family Newsletter, Vol. I, No. 3, August
1985, pp. 3-4: “During much of the Civil War, the man in charge of Indian
Affairs in the West was Colonel William G. Coffin, superintendent of Indian
affairs for the Southern District of Kansas. In a private letter to the
Secretary of War, Gen. Jas. G. Blount had the following to say.
‘Among the second class [Government peculators] are Thomas Carney,
Governor of Kansas, and Colonel Coffin, Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
Two greater thieves do not live. Their wholesale robbery of those poor
unfortunate refugee Indians is so gross and outrageous that their names
are a stench in the nostrils., .. ‘ Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 48, p. 543.
“A few months earlier Colonel Wm. A, Phillips had written:
‘I find that there has been a gigantic swindle by Coffin and
McDonald in corn in the nation …. The President authorized the
expenditure of $200,000. What do you think the rascals did? Coffin
telegraphed that McDonald & Co. could furnish corn for $7. … He sends
agents all through the Cherokee country buying at $2 and $2.50.’
“It gets even worse after this. The genealogical spot for Wm. G. is not known,
but should be easy to find in the archives.”

David P. Coffin writes, in the Coffin Family Newsletter, Vol. III, No. 9, Feb.
1987, p. 10: “We believe that the true facts and nature of our ancestors
should be reported, and events and traits which cannot be ‘pointed to with
pride’ should be included along with the honorable and the exemplary. We also
believe that we should all strive to know the true facts and look askance at
and not be carried away with those statements which are based on wishful
thinking along with careless research …. “

David P. Coffin: “Chapter two of Donald Lines Jacobus’ Genealogy as Pastime
and Profession, is entitled ‘Puritan Peccadilloes’ and in it he discusses
Puritan humor and the lack thereof, witchcraft and ‘fun and games’ our
ancestors engaged in. He states, ‘It should never be forgotten that truly
religious people were no more common in 1630 than they are today.’ In chapter
three, ‘Family Pride,’ he discussed faults beyond peccadilloes, pointing out
that genetically, we have nothing to fear about any traits beyond those of our
grandparents; he says family pride may be the motive that first attracts us to
genealogical studies. As we progress, this pride suffers one or more jolts when
we discover ancestors with whom we would not care to associate. If we retain
our interest in spite of wounded pride, and persevere in our genealogical
studies, we pursue these matters in better perspective and discover that we
have gained something in cultural experience. The above is setting the stage
for mention of some of our much respected ancestors who are not above reproach.
“We won’t mention the many cases of children born out of wedlock and the
many premature births, they were probably no more or less common in colonial
times than in this century …. In newsletter No. 3, we mentioned some of the
wrongful actions of Indian Affairs Superintendant Col. William G. Coffin during
the Civil War. Here are a few more at which we can frown. We hope no one takes
offence at this unveiling of reputed blemishes on otherwise untarnished and
laudable records.

INTERMARRIAGE WITH ABORIGINES? Ms. Grace Joyce Page has recently sent a
copy of an article from the Fall/Winter 1973 North Carolina Genealogy
written by William Perry Johnson and entitled ‘North Carolina Families
from Nantucket Have Indian Ancestry?’ Johnson tells undocumented tales
about marriages between Nantucketers and Indians, all based on rumors,
tradition and imagined Indian characteristics of some Nantucket
descendants …. Inbreeding among the settlers of Nantucket became so bad
that it was common practice for a widower, rather than remarry another
cousin, to take an American Indian wife. This Indian wife would then be
christened with the name of the first wife, whose date of death would be
obliterated from the records, thus covering up the Indian blood in the
record.'” Coffin Family Newsletter, Vol. III, No. 9, Feb. 1987, pp. 12-14.
Reference to Donald Lines Jacobus’ Genealogy as Pastime and Profession, can
also be found in the Coffin Family Newsletter, Vol. II, No. 7, Aug, 1986, p. 15.

It took several hours of searching and documenting to determine my “cousin connection” to the editor and publisher of the Coffin Family Newsletter. Click on the link if you would like information about David P. Coffin. The Coffin Family Newsletter  can be accessed from several websites. I didn’t know our connection three decades ago but now I declare that David is my ninth-cousin.

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Here are the words I wrote and added to the “comment” section of a woman I was researching. Seriously, I have located several cousins in mental institutions. The conditions are deplorable because I’ve carried my search to websites and read about the “deplorable” treatment of “inmates.”

It breaks my heart to uncover details like this. In the 1920 and 1930 Federal Census, Tenny is listed in Georgia State Sanitarium, Baldwin, Georgia. It was frustrating to search Ancestry and not find a death date because her children were with their paternal grandparents in the 1920 Federal Census. She isn’t mentioned in her father’s Memorial documentation. (Was he ashamed of this daughter?) ~~ (Lorraine Frantz Edwards, 14 Feb 2020, a fifth-cousin-two-times-removed.) ~~ ADDITIONS & CORRECTIONS WELCOME ~~

On this Valentines’ Day, I’m feeling very lonely and (intentionally) buried myself in family history. To his credit, the owner/manager of the RV Park brought me an adorable white stuffed bear with a real long-stem red rose. They are so kind and thoughtful here and I love every minute. (I took a picture of the bear but I was unable to upload it to my new desktop computer.)