Leta

She has always been there. I don't remember a time that I didn't know where she was supposed to sit and how quickly she comes and goes. This is the lady that taught us the word Nonagenerians. She gave a PARTY, It was her 90th birthday. She instead made it a party for every 90 year old in our congregation. She wrote a poem, she coordinated all the decorations and rounded up persons to assist her. The President of the Poetry Society read a poem she wrote. She has been a poet for as long as I have known her. This is about what I knew of Leta. Well come with me......

She was born on May 8, 1917. Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States of America. He went before Congress and asked permission to enter the war against Germany on April 2 that year and World War I began. A month later Leta entered the world.

Born in Oklahoma and lived all of her life in Southern Oklahoma and Texas. Her father and mother married when they were 21 and 35.  Her father was a part time actor in traveling tent shows and a chef among other things. Men of that day and time were "Jacks of all trade" doing what ever it took to make money to feed their families. Her brother, George Howard, five years older than her was a friend all their lives.

It was almost time for her to be born, April storm season. Her father was terrified of storms.  Her mother not so much. There was a community storm cellar. Her father wanted them to go, her mother was frightened because there was a "feeble minded boy" who went to the cellar and she was afraid that her baby would be marked. She refused to go. There was a new Methodist Church just up the block, Mother would not go there either. They weathered the storm right there at home,  but the Methodist church was destroyed. It may be that there was a purpose to her life and that God watched even while she was carried close to her Mother's heart.

Times were hard.  Men could barely feed their family.  Her dad had fallen off a ladder and could not work.  It was time for Christmas.  Her Mother and Dad went out into the pasture and found a large weed which was very green.  They cut it and brought it in the house.  Cranberries and popcorn were strung and decorated the weed.  They put oranges on the weed  and her Mother bought an undressed doll, crocheted clothes and hung those on the tree also.  The real surprise was her father had carefully carved out a doll bed and made all the accessories.  Somehow they found her brother a toy gun and a drum  It was a wonderful Christmas  Years later she would read stories and feel as if they were describing her Christmas.  She never wondered if she was loved by her family.  It was shown to her every day.

Leta's Junior year she wanted to take typing. You had to pay $1.00 a month  for a typing course. Her Mother sold a hen for the dollar and Leta learned to type. She then got a job for one of the welfare offices typing and was able to get together enough money to buy a sampler suitcase full of Newton Products which cost $5.00.  She went door to door selling from that sample case .

  Her father died after battling asthma caused by working in  dust from gins and chafe from  wheat combining,  His lungs were ruined.  There lives were harder than I can even imagine.    The land was dry, there was no way to water the stock. Cattle were being killed because they could not be fed or watered. The last four years of her father's life, her family shared a four room house with a man,  his wife and  kids. She does not have a lot of patience with someone who complains about being crowded.  The man was able to get a cow that had been shot. He gave half of it to Leta's family. They had meat all year long. She doesn't have much patience with you if you complain about your meal.

Leta was considered a hard worker back in the times when it was mandatory to survival Her brother joined the CCC, and she got into the National Youth group.   Both organizations founded to help people to work to feed their families during the Great Depression, Her job through this organization was  in the County Clerks office. She began a lifelong period of "building contacts" That might be a lesson for us to teach today. She got where  she was when she retired by carefully planting seeds of hard, precise work everywhere she went. She got along with the people she worked with and they would contact her about jobs. She never went backward from the moment she started in the County Clerk's office. She needed more money so she did what was natural to her. She went to work in the telephone office FOR FREE. She liked to learn and also needed to learn. There she built more contacts. Finally, they paid her for 6 hours a day, 7 days a week, fifteen cents an hour. But she learned and she showed her abilities, She then reached what would have been the ultimate job,  hired by Retail Merchants for $7.50 per week and greatest of all she did not have to work weekends She told the phone company "good bye"

Always active in Church, she kept building her contact list, Soon everyone in the area knew that if you wanted something done and done well you looked for Leta. If she had an hour during the day and you would pay her, she was yours The war began in 1939 and salaries were raised. She worked several places and finally came to  Draughons Business College becoming  proficient on every office machine that existed at the time. In January of 1945 she heard (again from a contact made long ago) about a job at Halliburton and she got that job making $57.00 per week. She stayed til 1951 and her salary rose "some"

During this time she came to Wichita Falls, stayed a couple of days with friends and applied at Sheppard Air Force Base for a job, Back in Duncan, still at Halburton she bought her first house close enough to walk to her job, In order to make ends meet she rented out a bed room, She became a landlord, Something she still is today.

In December, 1951, through many trials and recommendations of friends, she finally went to work at the Base in the accounting department. A place she continued to work until she retired She sold the house in Duncan and bought the home where she lives today. Her mother lived with her from 1951 to 1957. Even though her home is some distance from the Base, she never drove. Rode the bus, or if someone close was working in the vicinity, she would arrange for a ride. She looks back and realizes it was difficult to get around but you just managed.

She made friends at church; she taught children's Bible Class for years and Vacation Bible School. She saved every penny she could, determined to complete a college education. In 1960 she quit her job and rented her house, enrolled in ACC and moved into a dormitory with an 18 year old roommate.  She graduated from ACC with a degree in accounting and a minor in education and in Bible at age 46.

 To pay for her education she would work every holiday and vacation day at jobs found with the help of contacts she had made all those years. She had to take 6 major tests in one day and remembers it as the most daunting thing she ever accomplished. One of my favorite quotations that Leta used a lot was "God took care of me. There were many thorns in the garden but without the thorns you wouldn't have the roses."

It was hard for a woman just out of college above the usual age for a new graduate to make it in the world, but make it she did. Made of steel and cotton, she survived and the world knew she was there, She ended up being a driving force in the teaching section of accounting at Sheppard, She was loved and respected. She took very few vacation days and hardly ever a sick day. In fact she had enough time accumulated that she drew a full salary for over a year without working  before she retired in 1983.

She and her friends would eat out, go to movies and she sang Tenor in a ladies quartet. Mostly her life revolved around Church and friends there.

Leta took on a role at Tenth and Broad that was difficult, one might say impossible, but then here came Leta She was in charge of visitation at the hospitals and it was her job to "organize".  She sent visitors out "two by two" taking a page from the new testament trips.   This was not a one visit, have done my duty, go home. This was an all day event, beginning at 9:00 in the morning with training on "how to", and a list of name all ready for you to go.  When the day was finished every person had been visited.  If you were in the hospital during that period of time you knew about Tenth and Broad Street Church of Christ.

She held this post for 25 plus years before finally giving it up. In addition to the job she would reward members of her visitation team and Ladies Bible Class members with multiple course lunch once a year at her home where she gave her annual report

Leta still walked everywhere, or rode the bus to work or sometime had someone going the same way she was. She just never saw a need to drive. One day with time on her hands, something that she did not waste, she went to the Church building. At that time we had a house on the lot, across from the building where the clothes for those who needed them were kept. Ladies would work on sewing, ironing and generally organizing supplies. She was working alone. Needed to go over to the Church building for something, did take her purse and lock the door to the house. On her way back she recalls a man darting quickly,  snatching her purse and taking off. Fortunately, she was not hurt, her purse was later found with only the money missing and she made a decision. At age 58, Leta went to driving school.

Driving school was just fun. She believes she may have gone through more than one intructor, but finally it was time to take the test. She passed the first time. Leta hit the road. Her first automobile was a bright yellow Mazda named Buttercup. She graduated to a BMW in 1987, and never looked back.

Today Leta is computer literate, checks her email, except when the computer is down and stays abreast of the news.

Travels with Leta: Went to Mexico with her sister in law. Good friend Lou Ellen Foster told her where to go and what to do and most importantly where the Church met. She went and of course made friends with Christians in her two visits with them. She and her sister in law stayed in an inexpensive hotel right in the middle of town where they could walk everywhere. They then traveled by bus to a small town where they stayed with her sister in law's Aunt with all three of them sharing a small bedroom.

In 1983 it was time to say "I'm going to Disneyland". Bought a train ticket. Traveled all by herself. Wonderful trip. Of course found a Church and attended. She won't have much patience if you tell her you were somewhere and couldn't find a place to worship.

Then there was Hawaii.  Nephew traded the use of an RV for a home and car and she went along.  Says it is the most beautiful place on earth.

Her last big trip was with four other ladies to Alaska in 1992. What a great trip and what fantastic memories she has
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This is the poem she wrote using language taken from the Gettysburg address and I close, reprinting it with her permission.

(red letters from the address)
Four Score and ten years ago our parents brought forth to this country a new generation blessed with abilities to progress and prosper-unequaled by many previous generations,

Now, as nonagenarians we have survived the great depression, two world wars, a police action, Vietnamese war, Desert storm and are now experiencing the War on Terror, being tested whether this nation or any nation can long endure. Many of our generation gave their lives in past battles. We are a part of the few remaining nonagenarians who have lived to witness and experience all of this historical era

We have seen the evolving of transportation, communication, medicine, astronomy and meteorology-to name only a few. The brave men and women, living and dead who struggled are a part of this nonagenarian generation. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what this nonagenarian generation contributed . It is rather for the living of this generation to share the torch of unfinished work with a younger generation who can continue the task remaining, They too have skillfully toiled along with us. We honor all generations who have given a full measure of devotion and pray that their efforts were not in vain; and that this nation, under God, will be blessed with abilities for all future generations of America.

We pray for freedom and liberty to use these abilities to make America a more God fearing generation and that it not perish from the earth.


She will tell you again, God has been good to me and watched over me.  I have had more roses than thorns.  


I began this as a way to put down something about our nonagenarians.  I did not realize it would be such an experience for me.  It has been a blessing.  On behalf of my generation and those after me.  Thank you Leta.