Newspapers across the country carried a gruesome photograph of four children for sale in the late 1940s.
A woman named Lucille Chalifoux and her husband Ray had to deal with being unemployed, facing eviction, and seemingly having no other options. However, perhaps there was more to it than the general public was told.
Finally, the children were given the opportunity to share their stories.
Children for business
An advertisement was published in the Vidette-Messenger of Valparaiso, Indiana, on August 5, 1948, featuring a distraught mother with her head in her hands and her back turned.
Behind her on the stairs were her four young children and a sign reading: “4 children for sale.” Look inside.” Eventually, the notice appeared in newspapers across the United States: from Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin to New York and Pennsylvania.
He then appeared in newspapers in Texas, Louisiana, and several other places.
On the top step sat the children for sale, six-year-old Lana and five-year-old Rae.
Sue Ellen (2) and her brother Milton (4) sat on the lowest step. It turns out that Lucille was carrying her fifth child, who would also be sent away. Many children do not remember taking the picture or their birth mother at all. Some, on the other hand, met Lucille later in life and discovered that her choice may not have been driven by need.
Each child for sale has a different, interesting, sometimes tumultuous past when they were able to communicate with each other.
Except for Lana, who died of cancer in 1998.
Meet marketable children
On the other hand, they made contact with Lana’s family in an attempt to get as much information as possible about their older sister’s life.
Rae and Milton have had the opportunity to spend time together throughout their lives, although it is unfortunate that they were never able to reconnect with their older sister. Rae and Milton were taken to live with John and Ruth Zoeteman in DeMotte, Indiana, although there is no conclusive evidence that they were purchased or adopted. Rae claims that Lucille sold her for two dollars. It would seem that since the man she was seeing was not interested in her children, she could have had her bingo money. She then offered the children for sale.
After being raped and pregnant, Rae and Milton had their names changed to Beverly and Kenneth. They lived together for a while before Rae was sent to a facility for unwed mothers in Michigan. She lost a daughter who was later adopted.
Rae recalled that their upbringing was “loveless” and “abusive” and that the only time she felt anything from her father was when he was dying. “They kept chaining us up,” she recalled. “When I was a little kid, we were field workers. When she temporarily reconnected with Lucille at age 21, she reported feeling “no love”.
Re-contact with children for sale
A few years later, she gave birth to a boy named Lance Gray, who was instrumental in communicating with his siblings on social media. He exclaimed, “They don’t make them like her anymore,” referring to his mother. “Tough as nails.
Milton sent her a photo of the children for sale. “My brother in Tucson kind of sent it to my email,” she explained. “I said, ‘Oh my God’ as soon as I signed up. This is me.
Milton
Meanwhile, Milton arrives in Tuscon after his own arduous journey. Milton, who was one of the children for sale, commented, “There are a lot of things about my childhood that I don’t remember.” On his first day with his adoptive parents, he was told he would become a slave, bound and beaten. He said, “I said I would go along with it.” “I didn’t know what a slave was, I was just a child. Milton would suffer more abuse, kept in a barn with only milk and peanut butter. Milton one day asked why they were treating him this way and the answer was “to keep him in line”. John told him, “If you are afraid, you will listen to me.”
He then moved in with his aunt and uncle, attended high school, and helped deliver eggs.
Eventually, Milton’s adoptive parents were declared foster parents and he was placed with his friend’s family. He said, “I thought I was adopted.” “I don’t know how they got away with it.” After several problems, he ended up in a psychiatric hospital, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. After his release in 1967, he moved to Chicago before settling in Tucson. “My in-laws gave us $500 and we moved to Arizona,” the man said.
Introducing Lucille
Long after their biological mother offered her children for sale, Milton and his sister recognized her as well. He spent a month with her in 1970. But at that time he got into a fight with her husband and the husband was eventually arrested. Lucille subsequently kicked Milton out. “My birth mother never loved me,” he said. “She didn’t say she regretted selling me. She didn’t care because she hated me so much.”
Ellen Sue
Although Sue Ellen had no documentation of her adoption, she thought she was “legitimately” adopted by a couple named Johnson. Sadly, she died of lung disease in 2013, but not before reuniting with Rae. Sue Ellen wrote: “She’s fabulous. / I love her.” her sisters. But as for her biological mother, “she needs to be in a burning hell,” she added.
The youngest person to leave
David, their younger brother, was not one of the children up for adoption. He was born Bedford Chalifoux.
Rather, he was taken from his mother and placed in the care of the McDaniels, who were childless. “I had bed bug bites all over my body,” he said. “I guess it was a pretty bad environment. His biological father abandoned them, according to adoption records, and he is “not returning to his home due to a criminal record against him in Cook County, Illinois.”
Rae and Milton were not far from where he grew up and he visited them occasionally. “They would be tied up in the barn,” McDaniel added. “They were badly abused. McDaniel also met his birth mother and noted that he had remarried and had four more children. All the ones she kept. “As soon as my mom saw me, she said, ‘You look just like your father,'” McDaniel recalled. “She never expressed remorse. It was survival then. Who are we to judge?”
“People are what we all are. Everyone makes mistakes.”
Maybe she meant children.
he didn’t want them to die,” he said.
At first, it was thought that the children’s condition was due to financial hardship, which is why their appearance for sale is so terrifying. While that might be the case, it is clear from these siblings’ narratives that their mother had hidden agendas that are sure to shake the foundations of any devoted mother.
The haunting painting “Children for Sale” from the 1940s continues to captivate and frighten the public as it symbolizes the desperation and hidden pain of the Chalifoux family. Lucille Chalifoux’s decision to put her children up for sale may have initially appeared to be an act of financial desperation, but the stories that later emerged from her children revealed a more complex and disturbing story. Each child’s record reveals a life of hardship, neglect, and abuse that goes far beyond the visible sign of distress captured in this infamous photograph.
Rae and Milton’s accounts of being sold and subjected to an abusive environment highlight the serious consequences of Lucille’s actions. The abuse they endured, including physical restraint and emotional neglect, paints a grim picture of their childhood. Rae’s poignant recollection of being sold for just two dollars underscores the lack of value placed on their young lives. Her subsequent struggles, including being sent to a home for unwed mothers and losing her own child to adoption, reflect a cycle of trauma that extended far beyond her sale.
Milton’s experience was similarly harrowing, marked by abuse and manipulation by those who were supposed to care for him. His journey from selling a child to going through psychological problems and finally finding some semblance of stability illustrates the long-term impact of his early suffering. His later encounters with Lucille, filled with rejection and a lack of reprimand from his mother, only deepened the emotional scars.
Sue Ellen’s brief reunion with her siblings before her death provided a glimpse of family connection, but her harsh words to her birth mother revealed the lingering pain and resentment she harbored. David’s story, although slightly different because he was placed with a childless couple, also echoes the themes of abandonment and resilience. His observations of the abuse of his siblings and his own interactions with Lucille further solidify the tragic story of a mother who failed to protect and care for her children.
The stories of the Chalifoux children serve as a stark reminder of the profound and lasting effects of parents’ decisions on the lives of their offspring. The painting “Children for Sale” might initially be seen as a depiction of financial desperation, but the deeper revelations of Lucille’s motives and the subsequent lives of her children invite the viewer to consider the hidden complexities and human failings behind such a desperate act.. It encourages reflection on the wider societal and family structures that can drive individuals to such extremes, and the need for compassion and understanding in addressing the root causes of such despair.
Ultimately, the legacy of the “Children for Sale” photograph is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity. The Chalifoux siblings’ ability to share their stories and reconnect, despite their traumatic pasts, highlights the enduring hope for healing and reconciliation. Their stories force us to look beyond the surface and recognize the deeper truths and struggles that define the human experience.