Voyle Johnson Fowle

Voyle Johnson Fowle, his middle name taken from the surname of his maternal grandfather Alonzo Diah Johnson, was born 5 November 1913 in Berkeley, Alameda County, CA. Voyle was the last of the three children born to Alice Bretelle Johnson and Gifford Mecklenberg Fowle.

When Voyle was a very small boy, his father grew dissatisfied with his job as an accountant for Southern Pacific Railroad and took a job in Santa Barbara County as a produce buyer, and then as an accountant for a produce wholesaler. The family relocated, living at first in Santa Maria, then in Lompoc, and then briefly back in Santa Maria. Voyle began elementary school during this “down south” sojourn.

A big reason for Gifford M. Fowle’s unhappiness with Southern Pacific was that he had been unable to advance from mere accountant to auditor, which represented the level of change necessary to get the upper hand on the household financial situation. He was up against a glass ceiling because he had no high school diploma, having been forced by circumstances to head out into the workforce as a young teenager. In the late 1910s, he began taking night courses that would both get him his G.E.D. and juice up his accounting skills. Southern Pacific welcomed him back to its Oakland offices in the latter part of 1919. Voyle and his mom and siblings lingered behind in Santa Maria until the right sort of quarters could be found for the whole family. During this interval, his grandmother Mary Jane Branson Johnson shared the home in order to help out. In early 1920, the Fowles moved back north and soon were settled on Claremont Avenue in Berkeley. Later in the 1920s a new home was established on Merced Street, also in Berkeley. Voyle would remain rooted in the East Bay for good, never making a home elsewhere in the many decades he had yet to live.

In the early 1930s, both of Voyle’s older siblings moved out and got married. Voyle lingered in the family home on Merced Street until he had finished his education at UC Berkeley, which took until 1936 or 1937.

With his schooling finally completed and having found a job as a clerk with Southern Pacific, Voyle was ready to become a married man. His bride was Margaretta Louise Newman -- known by her middle name. The pair were joined by Pastor Laurence L. Cross at Northbrae Community Church in Berkeley 28 August 1937. Pastor Cross had in 1932 officiated at the wedding Esta Jane Fowle to Robert Kennedy Service. In the 1960s Esta and Bob’s son -- Voyle’s only nephew -- would also be married at Northbrae. They would have been married by Pastor Cross had he not passed away about a year earlier.

Louise spent the early year of the marriage working as a nurse while Voyle continued to be a clerk. They had two children, the first born in the early 1940s, the second in the mid-1940s. At first Voyle and Louise's home was at 2027 Delaware Street in Berkeley. By the mid-1940s, they were based in the “Richmond Annex” portion of Richmond, Contra Costa County, CA. This neighborhood is the southernmost part of Richmond, bordering El Cerrito. By the 1950s, they moved just north of Richmond to San Pablo, also in Contra Costa County.

Louise was Voyle’s wife for nearly fifty-four years; that is to say, until his death. Because Louise is still alive as of this writing -- March, 2015 -- her genealogical background is being withheld as part of this website’s policy of limiting information revealed about living individuals. Nearly one hundred years old, she currently lives with her older son and daughter-in-law in the Mother Lode region of California.

Voyle died 14 August 1991 in Contra Costa County. His cremains were placed at the Rolling Hills Memorial Park in Richmond, CA.

Descendants of Voyle Johnson Fowle and Margaretta Louise Newman

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