Page:Schenck v. Knight.pdf/7

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Schenck v. Knight
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years. She said she married Lawrence Schenck on August 14, 1957, lived with him eight years and was divorced from him in 1965. She said that following her divorce from Schenck and subsequent unsuccessful marriage to Joe Brown, she almost had a complete nervous breakdown requiring one week's hospitalization. She said that Donna Marie developed a reading problem in the second grade which retarded her progress in school, and did not improve in subsequent grades. She said she was concerned about Donna Marie "because she was at the stage of being boy crazy and was concerned that something could happen in that field," so she contacted the Child Welfare Department in connection with the problem. She said that she was told there was more than a possibility that Donna Marie could be gotten into "a reading foundation" if she was at the orphanage in Pulaski County, so she signed papers for Donna Marie to become a ward of the Child Welfare Division. On this point she said:

"I signed the papers at the Court House so that they could take Donna. And like I said—Faulkner County. I did not go before a Judge or anything. There was no hearing on that. I just like a lot of people did not read the papers I signed. I believed they were telling me the truth."

Mrs. Brown then testified to visiting Donna Marie in the Florence Crittenton Home, where she remained until after she was delivered of child by caesarean section. She said she requested that Donna Marie be permitted to come home after the birth of the child but that the Welfare Department personnel threatened to not let Donna Marie come home at all unless she and Donna Marie signed papers releasing the child for adoption.

Mrs. Brown said that during the pendency of this litigation well-wishers in Faulkner County have given over $100 worth of baby clothes, a brand new baby bed and playpen, a stroller, a walker, jumpseat, baby bottles and a complete layette for a baby, and that she and Donna Marie are ready, able and willing to properly care for the infant child if it is returned to them. She said that she and her children are being supported by public welfare; that Donna Marie was born on