James Hanna and his father, William, were delivering milk from their East bay dairy (now part of San Ramon Village) the morning of April 18th. They had gotten separated and James ended up staying at a refugee camp at 19th and San Bruno avenues until he could make it back home. Alvina Josephine Larsen (13 at the time), her mother (Charlotte) and brother (John) headed to the same refugee camp, as their house was going to be destroyed as part of the effort to halt the spread of the fire; their father (John), a painter, had already left for work and didn't find the family for almost a week. Alvina later recalled to her granddaughter how she was sitting at the curb of her house and a fireman coming up and giving her several cans of peaches to take with her. She had began crying, because she didn't know how she was going to open the cans! James and Alvina met at the refugee camp and James was smitten with her. He waited for her to turn 21, and they were married in 1914 in San Francisco.

James's father, William, lost the dairy shortly before his death in 1911. James went on to be a delivery truck driver for Blum's cakes in San Francisco. James and Alvina only had one son, Ralph Larsen Hanna. Ralph had his own sheet metal business in Redwood City. Ralph married Helen Alta Perdue in November 1937 and had only one child, a daughter, Sharon. Sharon married David Manzanares and had three children, Elisa, Lynette and Devin. Sharon remarried to Richard Allen Ruehle, and now has six grandchildren.
 

50th Wedding Anniversary

Credits:  Story and photographs provided by and used by permission of Sharon Ruehle.

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