Laura Hoar

Other Events:

• Census: 1940
• Adopted: 4 Dec 1860; Adopted

Notes:

Cemetery:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=josh&GSfn=laura&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=103694041&df=all&

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http://www.kmitch.com/Pueblo/asylum2.html
It may never be known how many people were sterilized at the Colorado State Hospital. No records were kept, and individual patient files are closed to public scrutiny.

However, during the civil lawsuit brought by a sterilized former patient in the 1950s, attorneys asked the hospital superintendent, Dr. Frank Zimmerman, detailed questions about operations performed on five other women.

The judge in the case ruled Zimmerman didn't have to answer.

But Denver court records show all five were committed to the state hospital between 1938 and 1950.

At least three were sent there as minors.

Their case files shed light on the frighteningly efficient way in which county lunacy commissions of the time locked people up. When they met, commissioners typically heard 10 cases every three hours. They were paid $10 per case.

It's impossible to tell what happened to those women. An extensive search of computer databases and court files turned up little about them or their families.

Except for Elmer Hoar.

Hoar's sister, Mabel, was one of the women. When Elmer was 4, his father died and his mother, unable to cope, put him and his two sisters in the state orphanage. In 1944, he and Mabel were shipped to the Colorado State Hospital.

He's 70 now and has trouble remembering. He has lived in a retirement home in west Denver for 30 years. He shares a room with three other men. He's used to it.

"They told me I was sick," Elmer says of his years at the hospital. "But they never told me what I had."

He looks away and laughs. He is holding a faded photo in a cheap gold frame. Behind the smudged glass is Mabel, her hands neatly folded in her lap. A doctor once summed up her problems with a broad brush: "Mabel Hoar suffers from a definite mental disorder."

Little of her life after that is known. In and out of the hospital. Resident of a Ca?non City nursing home. Died about five years ago. Her name typed in an old court file full of unanswered questions.

"Word had gotten around to me about what happened to her," says Mabel's sister, Laura Josh, who was adopted from the orphanage. She has been married 53 years, raised two sons, and lives in the eastern plains town of Yuma.

"I wondered why in the heck they would do that to a girl," Josh says. "She was still in her late teens, early 20s at the time. I thought it was very disgusting."

For years, she and Mabel exchanged letters, Christmas and birthday cards. Josh never brought the subject up.

"I figured the least said the better."

But the truth stayed with her, gnawed at her.

"It bothered me so much that I took it to the Lord in prayer," Josh says. "I just couldn't handle it myself."
November 21, 1999

~

Obituary:
Written by The Family
Thursday, 17 January 2013

Laura was born June 14, 1925 in Burlington, Colorado, and left for her heavenly home on January 11, 2013 at age 87 from Loveland, Colorado. In 1940, she moved to Ovid, Colorado after her adoption into the family of John and Rosa Hamp in 1938. While working at the Great Western Sugar factory in Ovid, she met Warren Josh, who also worked in the factory. After Warren's return from the Army in the Pacific in December 1945, they were married on January 13, 1946. Walter Ray "Butch" was born March 11, 1947 in Ovid. They helped Warren's sister, Lynda and Avery Rich, on a Ranch in Golden Gate Canyon during 1948, then moved back to Yuma, where Jerry Wayne was born March 12, 1950. While the boys were growing up in Yuma, she was involved with school and church activities, and was a wife, mother, and homemaker.

Warren passed away February 8, 2006, and Laura moved in July 2007 to The Joneses Assisted Living facility in Loveland. She appreciated being closer to Jerry in Loveland and Butch in Frederick.

Laura enjoyed crocheting, cooking, baking, going camping and fishing with her family, and trips to the mountains especially the fall colors in the Rockies. She corresponded with friends and relatives, writing cards and letters for any and all occasions, staying current on happenings around the country, and loved getting outdoors for yard and garden work and tending her roses and other flowers with Warren.

Preceded in death by her parents, husband Warren, many friends and extended family members.

Laura is survived by her brother John L. Hamp (Florence) of Missoula, Montana; sons Walter Ray "Butch" (Kit) of Frederick, Colorado, Jerry Wayne (Wenda) of Loveland, Colorado; grandchildren Amanda Groseclose, Cale (Rachelle) Groseclose, Erik Josh, and Ian Josh; great-grandsons Joe, Adam, and Derek, and many nieces, nephews, friends and neighbors.

Laura was the last of the Josh "Pioneer Generation." She will be greatly and lovingly missed by her family and many friends.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, January 17, at Yuma First Presbyterian Church, 4th and Ash, and interment at Yuma Cemetery by Baucke Funeral Home. A reception will follow in the Church Fellowship Hall.

Adopted:
By John and Rosa Hamp

Laura married Warren Monroe Josh on 13 Jan 1946. Warren was born on 17 Dec 1921; died on 8 Feb 2006; was buried in Yuma, Yuma Co, Colorado, USA (Yuma Cemetery). [Group Sheet]