Mary Annette Van Sant and Thomas Ellis Wheeler were married on April 10th, 1950 in a nuptial mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Augusta, Georgia.

My father, Thomas Ellis Wheeler, grew up in Augusta, Georgia during the Great Depression. Tom was the oldest child of Ellis Levi Wheeler (1896-1943) and Mary Agnes Brennan Wheeler (1905-1994).

My mother, Mary Van Sant Wheeler (1927-2020), and her three siblings grew up during the Great Depression in Augusta, Georgia.