Ethel (Gwin) Deal
was born August 2, 1924 in Felton, MN, a small community northeast of Moorhead in Clay County. The Gwin family, which included parents Hayden and Nellie Gwin, and children Leo & Ethel, moved to a farm in the Lawrence Lake area of Itasca County in 1929.
Some friends of Ethel and her brother were Viola & Del Matteson who are shown in the middle of this photo from 1938. Ethel attended a rural grade school and then junior and senior high school in nearby Coleraine, graduating from Greenway High School in 1942.
The Deal family also lived in Lawrence Lake and they had a son named Douglas David Deal. Ethel had known Doug since she was six years old, but he had waited until she was sixteen before asking her out on a date. On July 30, 1942, Ethel and Doug were married in Grand Rapids. Doug had just been drafted to serve in World War II and he had to leave the next day for military service, so there was no time for any honeymoon.
The couple