By family of Emery Todd

 

Emery was born in Sierra Madre, California, near Fontana, California, as Emery Sumner Todd on December 14, 1898. At the age of two years, he traveled with his father and mother to Santiago, Cuba, where his father was interested in a Manganese mine. Emery learned to speak Spanish as well as English at a tender age. When he was three, he and his parents returned to Sutter, California, his mother’s home, where his father went into the dairy business. Emery went to grammar school at the Britton District School and to high school at Sutter Union High in Sutter.

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During World War I, Emery served in the US Army and was stationed in Siberia and the Philippine Islands. After the war, he attended the College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, California and earned an Associate of Arts Degree in 1929. That summer after graduation, he and his brother, Abbott traveled to Mexico and hiked in the mountains of Sonora. He returned to Sutter and earned a Contractor’s license, and he built homes in Yuba City, California, in the pre-war years.

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In 1932, Emery married Dorothy Iola Haffner from Modesto, California, whom he met in Sacramento, California. She bore him three children: Mary Etta in 1933, John Phillip in 1935 and Adrianne Ann in 1937, who died in infancy. Mary and John are living. This marriage ended in divorce in 1937.

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In 1942, Emery went to Hawaii under contract with the U.S. Army Engineers and built airfields and ammunition shelters. He returned to the South Pacific several times during World War II and worked on Christmas Island, Guam and Okinawa. He also worked on the Alaskan Alcan Highway in the Yukon Territory and on Adak, one of the Aleutian Islands.

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At the end of the war, Emery came to live in Oakland, California, where he built luxury homes in the Oakland Hills. In 1956, he met and married Edna Schwab of Sacramento, California. In 1963, they moved to Concord, California, and he continued to do some carpentry work, although semi-retired. In 1963, Emery flew to Europe and the Holy Land. He visited the art galleries in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland and London.

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In 1967, Emery and Edna bought a beach resort near Tillamook, Oregon, where he planned to spend the rest of his days painting. However, on a visit to Concord in 198, he died very suddenly at the age of 69 of a stroke. He was buried at Sutter City, California, in the Russell Family Plot.

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Emery was a member of the Methodist Church. His consuming interest was painting, and all through his life wherever he traveled he produced and sold many, many canvases. His work won prizes whenever shown. Emery also produced poetry and had a lovely tenor voice.