James W O’Shea born in 1904 was the son of Timothy O’Shea and Delia
James W. Shea married Dorothy Cook Dewbell on March 29, 1947.
DOROTHY COOK DEUBELL’s STORY
Dorothy was previously married to Frank Dewbel with whom she had four children, Thomas, Robert, Frank and Raymond.
From the newspapers articles below, it’s clear that the relationship between Dorothy and Frank Dewbell (whose surname appears under various spellings) was anything but ordinary. There was passion, drama, and enough turbulence to rival a Hollywood script—more Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton than quiet courtship.
One early article reports that Dorothy’s mother accused Frank of harassing her daughter, prompting a judge to order him to stay away. But the story didn’t end there. In a later hearing, the tide turned when a judge accepted Frank’s account—that it was, in fact, eighteen-year-old Dorothy who had been pursuing twenty-one-year-old Frank. Whatever the truth, the emotional weather between them was clearly stormy.
Frank himself comes across in public records as something of a youthful firebrand—restless and perhaps reckless. At twenty-one, he was fined $50 for two separate traffic offences. The following year, in 1922, he struck a man with his car, fracturing the man’s leg. To Frank’s credit, he drove the injured man to hospital himself—a small gesture of responsibility amid a pattern of impulsiveness.
But time didn’t seem to soften his edges. In 1965, well into his sixties, Frank was taken to court by his own cousin, who lived next door. The family car, it seems, had collided with the neighbour’s house no fewer than five times. One can only imagine the tension over the garden fence.
Despite the legal dramas and chaotic undertones, on 29 August 1923, Frank and Dorothy married. Their story settled, for a time at least, into something steadier. They went on to have four children—a quieter legacy left in the wake of a tempestuous beginning.
