Otto Spradling, as Aunt Blanche’s husband, was living proof that opposites attract. Uncle Ott was a very quiet demure man who rarely said anything in the presence of others. Each day at 7 a.m. he would quietly disappear to make his bus commute to work as a salesman for the (now non-existent) Brick’s Men’s Wear store in downtown Wichita, Kansas.

Then just as mysteriously in the evenings, he would reappear after work, eat his supper in silence by himself, and retire early for the night. And for the record, the one time I ever heard him speak up to disagree with Aunt Blanche’s version of “the fac...