Sounds like he had a rough childhood. Hopefully he can get it together and doesn't end up like Roy Tarpley.
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It's a rare NBA player who traces his fondness for tattoos to his mother. Linda Holubec started with an orchid inked onto her back and now sports various designs all the way to her ankles. She also rides a Harley but cites a family history; her mother rode choppers when pregnant with her.
Linda Ogle and Claus Andersen were married 30 years ago in Southern California, where Chris was born in 1978. She suspects that disagreements in the marriage prompted him to move the family to Texas, where she surmises he thought it would be easier to get a divorce.
Hardship for the Andersens extended beyond any parental disagreements. While Claus was building a house on their 20 acres in Grimes County, the family made do in the barn. There was electricity, a bed for the parents on one side and a bunk bed for children April, Chris and Tamie on the other. One table accommodated meals, homework and the television. For a time, the shower was outside.
Claus left for North Texas before the house was finished – Linda said she and the children had "a half jar of peanut butter and little else" – and the divorce became final in 1986. Her brother came from California and finished the house to make it livable.
Linda worked multiple jobs to keep the family going. She even tried joining relatives in Tennessee for about a year, only to return to Iola. The situation overwhelmed her, and she settled on one regrettable solution in 1989. Her two oldest children, April and Chris, would be better off with Claus.
Any measure of relief disappeared when she couldn't contact them in Irving. Even certified letters and packages that she sent on special occasions were signed for by someone else. She said she eventually learned Claus had placed them at the Cumberland Presbyterian Children's Home in Denton.
'A place to sleep'
What initially was the entire Cumberland home founded in the 1930s now occupies one corner of the 17-acre complex just off Interstate 35E and is called Old Main. There are eight cottages that collectively can house 32 fulltime residents from pre-schoolers to high schoolers.
Judith Keith, executive director of the home since 2000, emphasizes that the facility's goal is to provide children as normal a daily environment as possible until kids can return to one or both parents.
Claus Andersen chose Cumberland for April and Chris in February 1990 when, according to Linda, he wanted to travel and sell his artwork. Chris, then 11, chose living at the home over a military boarding school.
April Andersen is two years older than Chris and now lives in Houston. She said she wasn't given any option and recalls her father saying he'd be back for them soon. She wasn't as willing to accept life at the home and, after frequently trying to run away, was sent back to her father by the home.
Chris had a simple reason for not trying to leave: "I wanted a place to sleep."
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