Mary Hardin-Baylor (1935-37) (continued)

Some of the classes I enjoyed most at Mary Hardin-Baylor were in the field of English literature and Classical languages. Mr. William Vann and Miss Catherine Bowen were my most memorable professors. Mr. Vann was head of the English Department, and I remember especially his Shakespeare classes. When we were reading "Hamlet", he was so moved that he could hardly finish reading the last lines. He was so emotional that he had to get up and leave the room. The class was equally overcome by emotion. After sitting silently for a while, we slowly filed out. Mr. Vann's love for literature was contagious and everyone wanted him for classes every semester possible. For one thing, we all admired him for his personal courage as well as his intellectual ability. When he was a child, we heard, he had been in a hunting accident of some kind which greatly disfigured his face. He never talked about it, himself, but it was apparent that he had had to overcome a great deal.

Miss Bowen was a wonderful teacher of Latin and Introductory Greek. In her course in the Aeneid, she made all the stories of mythology come alive and I will always be moved by the good qualities of Aeneas' character which she drilled into us (expressed in the word pietas - love of god, love of family (his father, especially), and love of country.\

Another teacher whom I recall with great fondness was Dr. Amy LaVisconte, the chemistry professor. I remember how thoughtful and gracious she was as hostess at our dinner table in Hardy Hall. In those days, at Mary Hardin-Baylor, each girl was assigned to a table of eight, with a faculty member as hostess sitting at the head of the table. Along with academics, the school tried to instill in us good table manners and other social graces. Even though Dr. LeVisconte was not the most attractive person physically, she was so interested in each girl at her table, that we all loved her. Her sister lived in Japan and she was always sharing with us things that her sister sent.

There were several trips that I took on week-ends or holidays while I was a student at Mary Hardin-Baylor. I remember visiting my suite-mates, Virginia and Clara Bowman, at their home in Goldthwaite, Texas. Virginia and I sang a duet Sunday morning at her church there. In addition to their house in town, her parents had a really neat home out from town at a lake. Another week-end I went over to Lockhart to visit my father who was there visiting his best friend, Dr. Ross, a medical doctor, after whom my brother Ross was named. At Thanksgiving time, one year, I was invited up to Gatesville to spend the holiday with the family of Elmo Routh, a beloved cousin of my father. They had a lovely family of five daughters, who were older than I but were very sweet to me and became friends of mine. That was my first experience of small town life and I really enjoyed being part of all the activities, including the high school football game of their hometown team and its arch rival team from a nearby town. The "Routh girls" were a vital part of everything that went on in that town, it seemed.

One Christmas holiday, while I was a student at Mary Hardin-Baylor, my parents and I went down to spend Christmas with Lucile and Clinton in Corpus Christi. At Christmastime they took us for a ride down to "the Valley" (Rio Grande River valley along the border of Texas and Mexico). We ate Christmas dinner just across the border from Brownsville, Texas, in a little border town named Matamoros. That trip was particularly memorable because we stopped at the Western Union office of every little town in the Valley to see if my father had received a cablegram from Nigeria saying that Elizabeth and Christie had had their wedding ceremony and were married. Their wedding was scheduled for Christmas Day and Daddy had left instructions with the Western Union office in Oklahoma City to forward the cablegram when it came. Every place we stopped, they said there had been no cablegram. Finally, the next day, Daddy received the message that their wedding had been postponed until the next day and they were indeed married! [Dec 26, 1935][Alice made Elizabeth's wedding dress and it arrived in Nigeria in time for the wedding.]

Three times a year there was a meeting of B.S.U. students from Baylor U, Baylor Medical School, and Mary Hardin-Baylor (called the Tri-Baylor Meet). Once a year they'd meet at Baylor Med. In Dallas, once a year at Baylor U. In Waco, and once a year at "Baylor Belton", the nickname for Mary Hardin-Baylor College at Belton, Tx. I always enjoyed these meetings and made many friends from the other Baylors. For one thing, my good friend from OBU Freshman Quartet days, Fredona Baker (nee McCaulley) went to Baylor U - in Waco. I got to be with her at these meetings. Also, she invited me to spend the week-end with her in Waco. Her father was pastor there and her mother taught English at Baylor U. Another friend of mine, Fran Luper, also went to these meetings as well as the state B.S.U. Conventions at Austin, where we would room together. One week-end she invited me up to her home in Dallas where her father was pastor of Oak Cliff Baptist Church. He had retired from being a missionary in Brazil, where Fran was born and grew up. After graduation, she went to Rio to work with Pan American Airways for many years, first in Rio and then in New York City. She was secretary to the General Counsel of Pan American Airways until she retired and returned to Texas. Several years ago we spent the day together in Dallas where we saw the Catherine the Great exhibit together.

My parents and (I think) the Burnetts (Lucile and Clinton) came for my graduation in May, 1937.

Ridgecrest - Summer 1937

Sometime during my senior year I wrote to Dr. T.L. Halcomb, Ex-Secy of the Sunday School Board in Nashville and applied for a job at Ridgecrest during the summer and at the SS Bd itself in the fall. Dr. Halcomb had been my pastor when he was at First Baptist Church before he went to Nashville, and knew me in high school. In fact, his wife had been my Sunday school teacher. He answered my letter and said he had sent my application on to Perry Morgan, who was manager of Ridgecrest and that there would be an opening for me in September after I had finished work at Ridgecrest. Mr. Morgan wrote me and asked me to come to Ridgecrest following my graduation to work as his secretary before the assembly opened and then to work as clerk at the front desk, registering guests and assigning them rooms.

After graduation I boarded the train at Temple, Tx., for a brief visit in Nashville with Aunt Leila and her family in route to Asheville North Carolina and Black Mountain where Ridgecrest was located. I will never forget the beautiful scenery along the French Broad River, which the train followed part of the way to my destination. In Nashville, Aunt Leila had shown me many beautiful places in Nashville, the Parthenon and the Hermitage among them. She also invited me to make my home with them when I returned to Nashville in the fall to work at the Sunday School Board. Since B.B. Jr. (We called him Mack Jr.) was away in college, I could occupy their extra bedroom, she said, and just pay her my share of the grocery bill. I certainly felt lucky.

That summer at Ridgecrest was just wonderful! I enjoyed working at the desk. There were four of us who worked there. We lived in Pritchell Hall and were roommates in a large room just down the hall from the place where we worked. We worked odd hours, day and night sometimes, when conferences were beginning and ending, and people were checking in and checking out. The girls all were congenial and we became good friends. They were: Tony Bates from Moultrie, Ga.; Gladys Gatewood from Americus, Ga.; Ruby McCroskey from Rockingham, N.C.; and I. We kept up with each other for many years, but we finally drifted apart. The three others were older than I but they accepted me and "showed me the ropes". We worked out a schedule so that we could each have time off for attending conferences or doing recreational activities. I remember taking trips to Mount Mitchell, Chimney Rock and other famous places like Biltmore Estate. I also remember going horseback riding for the first time. It was such a painful experience, though, that I didn't go but one or two other times while I was there. I never did learn "to post" properly.

During B.S.U. Week, many people I had known in Texas came for that week, and it was good to see some people I knew, for a change, as I hadn't seen anyone at Ridgecrest I had known before. We had almost too much togetherness there for awhile, though, as two of the boys I had dated and corresponded with -- one from Baylor U and one from Southwestern Seminary -- happened to room together and put my picture up in the room. Each one was surprised as they hadn't known about our friendships. I had to choose which one to sit with at the conferences and it was rather embarrassing for me. The one at Southwestern Seminary, Lattimore Ewing, and I had corresponded quite a bit, so he and I sat together all the time, though I really did not feel that I knew him very well. After that summer he came to Nashville for a meeting of state B.S.U. presidents (he was president of Texas B.S.U.) and stayed over for the week-end to visit me at the McKinney's house. Before he came though, I had met Wendell (a few weeks before his visit) and I didn't feel quite the same way about Lattimore as I had thought I did when we had corresponded. I am sure that I handled the situation quite immaturely and hurt his ego a lot when he started to propose and I just told him lightly that I hoped we could always be friends. I didn't tell him about Wendell, but I'm sure Uncle Mack told him. The next time they had a B.S.U. president's meeting in Nashville, he came. However, when he saw me at a distance he ran the other way and I was glad! I have always felt that I had not been completely honest with him, but I think things worked out for the best for us both, after all. Anyway, I'm sure I made the right decision for me!

Nashville Years (1937-42)

When my summer at Ridgecrest was over, I drove back to Nashville with Aunt Leila and Uncle Mack who had also been at Ridgecrest, for the last conference of the summer which I think was Music Week. The next week I began working at the Sunday School Board as secretary for Marie Estes who was in charge of the establishment and promotion of church libraries. It was part of the Sunday School Department of which Mr. I.N. Barnette was an associate. When his secretary, Martha Story, left to go back to Mississippi to be married, I was promoted to be his secretary. His daughter Mary Sue, incidentally, because one of my best friends and remained a good friend until she died just a few years ago, around 1995.

One of the first things I did after moving to Nashville was to join First Baptist Church, where Aunt Leila and Uncle Mack belonged. Aunt Leila was on the staff of the church as Training Union Director. She had previously held a similar job at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth where Uncle Mack had been Minister of Music after he quit teaching at Southwestern Baptist Seminary. After they moved to Nashville, where he was head of the Department of Church Music at the Sunday School Board, he traveled quite a bit and was therefore unable to take any regular responsibility at his home church. Aunt Leila, however, became deeply involved and really gave her life to the ministry of Training Union.

Wendell, Gerry & Mack, Mary Sue & Roupen

When a young commercial artist joined the church, Aunt Leila immediately enlisted him to make posters to hang around the building, advertising Training Union. When I joined the church, he found out that I was her niece and asked her to introduce him to me - which she did the next week. Wendell always said that he told a friend of his, with whom he was sitting that night when he first saw me, that he was going to marry me. He hadn't even met me yet! He was pretty self-confident, wasn't he!! Or I was awfully easy to get. I did have dates with a few other people and a fellow in Texas with whom I corresponded, but Wendell and I were soon going steady and before long were engaged. We double-dated a lot with Gerry Steele and Mack Smith. Gerry had come to Nashville to work about the same time I did. She had grown up in Oklahoma and had graduated from O.U. just before moving to Nashville, to work at Grace's the foremost clothing store for women's very fine clothing. She had majored in Home Ec and aspired to become a "buyer" for a store. However, when she met Mack, also at First Baptist Church, they fell in love and planned their wedding the same week as ours. We had all our parties together but did not get to attend each other's wedding , as we married in Oklahoma City and she married in the First Baptist Church, Nashville. After Gerry married, she quit work and devoted her time to home and church activities. Since Mack taught chemistry at Vanderbilt and was Dean of Men, he and Gerry lived in an apartment on campus until they moved to Waco, Texas where Mack became Academic Dean at Baylor U.

Soon after I moved to Nashville, Gerry, Mary Sue Barnette and I formed a little trio and sang at different places from time to time. She was younger than Gerry and I, and her boyfriend lived out of town; so we usually drove to her parent' home, where she lived, and practiced there. She and her boyfriend, who was an undertaker in Florence, Alabama, married at her church (Belmont Heights Baptist Church) the week before we married. I was maid-of-honor in her wedding, and Wendell was a groomsman. We went by Florence, Alabama, on our honeymoon and spent the night with Mary Sue and her husband, Noble Yocum, whose apartment was upstairs over the funeral home where he worked. It turned out that Noble was mean to Mary Sue and their wedding lasted on a few months. That was a devastating experience for her and her family. She went on back to college and started going seriously with Roupen Gulbink, whom she had accompanied on the piano for him to play his violin on different occasions. They were both marvelous musicians. After they both finished school they married and had a wonderful life together. Roupen was an only child whose mother had died early in his life. He lived with his father and uncle who had become quite wealthy in the engraving business. When they both died, the Gulbink Engraving Company was inherited by Roupen. He finally sold it and began collecting and selling priceless American antiques, which he has continued doing in Franklin, Tennessee, just out of Nashville.

Roupen had a remarkable family. His grandfather and family had lived in Armenia and had decided to fell the country during the terrible political upheaval around the time of World War I. His grandfather, however, did not make it out of the country because of his being a Christian. He was given the choice of renouncing Christianity or being killed. When he realized that he would be put to death because he would not renounce Christ, he called his sons together and divided among them all his gold coins and told them to flee the country and use the money to start a better life in another place. They all did get out except the grandfather of Roupen, and settled elsewhere, some in Europe and some in America, but their father was put to death. Roupen's father and one brother finally settled in Nashville, Tennessee, and established the Gulbink Engraving Company. Roupen told us he still had two of the gold coins he father had received from the grandfather. One of them had the picture impressions of Cyrus of the Medes and the Persians, and the other had Caesar's head on it. He (Roupen) had them in his lock box and was planning to leave one to each of his daughters, Sue Ellen and Betty.

Roupen and Mary Sue took care of the older Gulbinks until their deaths, and then cared for Mr. And Mrs. Barnette until they died. They built three beautiful houses that I know about, the second of which burned up. It was filled with gorgeous antiques, which also burned. They soon began collecting again and built their most beautiful home, Cinnamon Hill, where they were still living when Mary Sue died. After her death, Roupen continued living there for awhile. I have heard, by grapevine, that he finally sold that house, remarried and has his antique shop in Franklin, Tennessee. He had been quite active in First Baptist Church, Nashville; however, his new wife is an Episcopalian - so I'm not sure where he goes now. They have done a lot of traveling since they married and may not have had a chance to find a new church home. Gerry told me that his new wife was a wealthy widow and that Roupen told her, "The first time I married it was for love; the second time it was for money!" I certainly wish them happiness and a carefree life, as he had a hard life for several years when Mary Sue was sick from various surgeries and finally, kidney failure. She was on dialysis quite a long time before she finally succumbed to that disease. She was a wonderful friend, so gifted and gracious. In addition to her musical talent and training, she was a marvelous cook and hostess, and was quite accomplished in the art of drying flowers and arranging them. She was equally interested in antiques - - furniture and houses - - and she went with Roupen all over the country in search of antiques.

But this is getting ahead of the story! I think I left off when I first came to Nashville. I really enjoyed working at the S.S. Bd. And living at the McKinneys. We all really enjoyed First Baptist Church, too, and became active in several organizations. I taught an "Intermediate Dept." S.S. class and Wendell joined a Bible class taught by Maxey Jarman, who was owner of the Jarman Shoe Company; we both joined the choir, which practiced every Saturday night, and were so fond of the choir director, Ovid Collins. He was a well-trained musician and had a beautiful voice. He was so good that many churches used his talent on many occasions. I never did understand how the church happened to call him as choir director, as he was a member of the Methodist Church; but the pastor, Dr. W.F. Powell, must have liked him and kept him as choir director as long as I could remember. He was also hired by the Jewish Congregation to sing at their services on Friday nights. His main job, however, was working as an accountant for the L & N Railroad, but singing in all the churches as a paid singer was another job he really enjoyed. He was a find Christian man and everyone admired him. His wife had had a long bout with cancer and had recently died when we met him. He had two fine sons who were just through school and we all felt he deserved so much credit for the way he managed to keep the family on such an even keel in spite of great adversity.

Late in the fall of 1937 Wendell and I made a trip to Louisville. I stayed with Porter and Routh in Whitsett Hall at the Southern Baptist Seminary, where Porter was a student that year, and Wendell stayed at the Henry Clay Hotel where his mother, Aunt Lillian (from Illinois) and Paul's family were staying [for the weekend]. That was the first time I met any of his family. They had evidently come to Louisville to bring Aunt Lillian on part of her way back to Illinois [from Salyersville where she'd been visiting her sister Lucy], that week-end and we decided that it would be fun to go up to see them. Mrs. Arnett invited Porter, Ruth and me to join them for Sunday dinner at the Canary Cottage, a popular eating place in downtown Louisville. I believe Paul and Ruth had two children. (They must have been Alvin and Barbara.) The next time we saw them was when we went by their house in Lexington, where they lived at the time and they had had a third child (Dianne). I believe that was in the spring of 1938. Wendell's mother had invited me to come spend the week-end. I remember walking all through town and up the hill behind the Phoenix Hotel to meet Wendell's Aunt Erin (Mr. Arnett's sister) and her son Max. We stopped back by the hotel and met Aunt Rose and Uncle Wiley Rice who owned the hotel. Their daughter Mabel lived with them and helped run the hotel. She had been maid of honor or bridesmaid at Ruth Schoppe's wedding. (Aunt Rose was Ruth's aunt.) The front porch of the Phoenix Hotel was where all the gossip of town was broadcast! Immediately word got around about Wendell's girlfriend!

On Sunday we went to the First Baptist Church and met the preacher and other faithfuls like old Brother Caudill. I believe he used to be the pastor. When he met me, he said, "She's a right pretty girl but she wears too much paint." He was famous for making remarks like this. Ruth Schoppe told me that one time when she was back home for a visit and met him at church he said, "Ruth, you're as pretty as you ever were." When she said "thank you", he said, "I didn't say you were ever pretty!"

Later on, when Wendell and I announced our engagement, the Salyersville Independent put a big picture of me on the front page. That's the only time in my life that I ever made the front page! I decided that the Arnetts must have really rated in town - or else there was a shortage of news that week.

Engagement and Wedding

I'm not sure when Wendell "proposed" to me, but sometime during 1938 he did, and I said "yes". We went to Jensen and Jeck, a jewelry store in Nashville to look at rings, and one night when we were in the car at the airport watching planes land and take off, he put my engagement ring on my finger. It was quite a surprise because I didn't know he had actually purchased the ring. When we drove home, I kept putting my left hand up to my face so that Aunt Leila would notice my ring. She finally did, and we were all quite excited about the big event. When we finally set the date, Aunt Leila had a dinner party for us and a few of our best friends to announce our date of marriage. I was disappointed that no one in Nashville, not even the McKinney's would get to attend our wedding, but it seemed best for us to have our wedding in Oklahoma City rather than in Nashville. The last time I had been home my stepmother and I had picked out the pattern and material for my wedding dress and slip. She worked on it all spring, and it was indeed beautiful. I did not see it or get to try it on until I went out to Oklahoma City, a week before the wedding date. It fit beautifully. She had also made the veil and headpiece. The dress was never worn again, but I did lend the veil to Virginia Bowman when she married, and also lent it to a Nashville Friend, Etta Mae Baird, who took the liberty of cutting the veil off the headpiece which distressed me when I found out about it, but - what difference did it really make, I finally concluded. I had thought originally and naively that if I had children, one might want to wear my wedding dress. As it turned out, the dress didn't fit or appeal to anyone else; so it is still in the bottom of my cedar chest.

Since our wedding [June 10, 1939] was so far away from Wendell's family, only his mother was able to attend it. Wendell drove his little Chevrolet coupe out to Oklahoma City just before the date and brought his mother with him. They stayed at a hotel in Oklahoma City in rooms provided by my father, who had some "scrip" for rooms there, which he got through the Baptist Messenger. Mrs. Arnett went back to Kentucky via railroad the next day after the wedding. We did not have a rehearsal or rehearsal dinner. My bridesmaids rode up from Texas with Lucile the day before the wedding and we all slept in the sleeping porch at our house in Oklahoma City (1625 N. Klein), and the next day the wedding and reception were all held in that same house. The men all waited in the kitchen whereas the women dressed in the back bedroom and bath and marched through the bedroom, study and living room to the dining room, where an "altar" arrangement of candles and flowers or palms had been placed just outside the kitchen door so that the men could join the wedding party in the dining room there. Guests were seated or stood in the dining room and adjoining living room which were separated by double doors which slid out of the wall when needed. [Lucile sang "Because," and E.C. Routh performed the ceremony.]  All the furniture was moved about and rearranged to accommodate the needs of the occasion. The reception was held in the bedroom and study. The dining room table was moved to the bedroom.

After the wedding and a bit of cake and punch, Wendell and I left for Dallas, Texas, where we spent two nights at the Adolphus Hotel and then drove on to a lake near Hot Springs, Arkansas, where we spent two or three days and nights in a little cabin before driving on to Florence, Alabama, to spend a night at Mary Sue's apartment, and then on to Nashville. [Wendell got one of the worst sunburns of his life during while rowing on the lake with his shirt off.]

Nashville Years Together (1937-42)

In Nashville we lived all summer in Mr. And Mrs. Bennette's apartment, as they were going to be out of town all summer and charged us very cheap rent. By the time they returned, we had rented an apartment at 1607 Linden. It was in a lovely big house owned by Mrs. Todd, an elderly widow, who was nearly blind. She lived downstairs and we lived upstairs for three years until Wendell went into the army. We paid $37.50 a month rent for the apartment which consisted of four big rooms and a bath. One of the big room areas opened onto the stairway. We used it for a dining room and art studio for Wendell. The large kitchen had seven windows and must have originally been a sleeping porch. It had not been modernized, as the sink and drainboard were very small, and there were no built-in cabinets. It did have a pantry, however, a small electric stove which was new, and a table and a medium-size refrigerator. The other two rooms we used for living room and bedroom. We had a studio couch in the living room, which was not very comfortable, but Lucile and Clinton slept on it all summer one year when they came to Peabody for summer school. We enjoyed them so much, that summer, and had an especially good time when the four of us, Aunt Leila and Gene rode down to Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain for the Fourth of July. The men tried to get us to ride the incline train up to Lookout Mountain, but they finally had to go alone as we were too afraid! When they came back down, they drove us up there - so we did get to see the pretty view after all!

The first vacation [summer 1939] Wendell and I took was to the Norris Dam area in East Tennessee, Gatlinburg, and then up through Jenkins, KY to Weeksbury, where we spent a week-end with Helen, Don and Gene Donaldson before going on to Salyersville. Helen and Don were always fun to be with, and I'll have to confess that I went to my first Sunday picture show with them. Weeksbury was in the middle of coal-mining country, a commissary town, and the only thing to do was to go to the show. I remember their apologizing to us about taking us to a Sunday show!

One of the first Christmases we celebrated after we married was to go to Oklahoma City for a family reunion. Elizabeth and Christie were to be home from Africa and had with them little Frances, whom everyone called Bamidele, which means "Go home with me" in the Yuroba language. We rode out to Oklahoma City with Gerry and Mack, who were going to spend Christmas with her family in Marlowe Oklahoma. Two other young men rode out there and back with us, and we had a lot of fun.

I believe it was in the summer after this [c.1940] that Copass was to be married in Ada, Oklahoma, and we went to Oklahoma for his wedding. He married a lovely girl named Catherine Curry whose father was pastor of the Methodist church, I believe. Since Copass didn't own a car at that time, we lent him our car for his honeymoon and we stayed in Oklahoma City until they returned from their honeymoon. After they returned, Wendell and I went up to a little town somewhere near Tulsa to visit one of the Sublette relatives who was reported to have really made a lot of money in oil. When we found his place, it was a very run down little shack and we didn't see any evidence of great wealth!

Speaking of Copass, his marriage to Catherine Curry didn't last too long. I didn't know any particulars, but it may have been his alcohol problem. He left the newspaper in Oklahoma and went to New Orleans, where he was a reporter on the Times-Picayune.

December 7, 1941 - Beginning of War Years

On December 7, 1941, we were listening to the radio at home one Sunday afternoon, having just come home from church, when the program was interrupted by the announcement that Pearl Harbor had suddenly been bombed by the Japanese in a surprise attack on Sunday morning. When we went to church that night, no one could talk about anything else, and the next day Roosevelt made his famous talk about this day" which will live in infamy", because the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. was at war! Many people enlisted immediately for the Service and the Draft was established. For us, life went on just as it had been doing, but Wendell began to look into options for himself in the military, as he feared that if he didn't join soon he would be drafted and be sent to a less desirable place of Service. He read about a unit called a camouflage outfit which might be able to use his gift and training in the field of art. After much prayer and deliberation, he decided to enlist and be sent to that group.

Fall 1942 - Wendell enlists

In the fall of 1942 he did go down to the Federal Building and join the Army. I remember so well when I told him good-bye and then returned to my job at the S.S. Board what a lost feeling I had. I was obviously very upset, but there was a lot of work that needed to be done in my office - so I just kept working until the office closed and I could go home and await word of Wendell's whereabouts. Finally I had word that he was being transferred from Tullahoma, Tennessee, to Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia. On the week-end I drove down to Fort Oglethorpe to see him. I did see him, in a fenced-in area, dressed in his army uniform. I took some pictures of him and talked with him through the fence, but he could not leave the base. I drove on back to Nashville and he was shipped out to Fort Meade, Md. Since I could not afford to keep an apartment on my income of $80.00 a month, I decided to store our furniture with different friends and get a room somewhere. There was a boarding house down the street about a block where a lot of Sunday School Board people roomed and took their meals. In fact, the woman who owned the house and ran the boarding house, Novella Preston, also worked at the Board. I inquired about living there and found that she did indeed have a vacancy if I would room with Naomi Redding, another girl who was a secretary at the Board. I made arrangements to move there and stored my furniture with friends while I waited to see what Uncle Sam was going to do with Wendell. That Christmas seemed to be coming soon as a very bleak and lonely time for us both. While Wendell had to spend Christmas in camp, it turned out to be less lonely for me because Gerry and Mack invited me to spend Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day with them. Since Mack taught chemistry, he was valuable to the war effort and did not run the risk of being drafted. Gerry did volunteer work every day in some war-related agency or hospital. She did this all through the war.

It soon appeared that Wendell would be stationed at Fort Meade, so I made a trip to Baltimore to see him and to look into the possibility of getting a job there. The only person I knew about was someone in the Baptist Headquarters in Baltimore who was head of the Maryland Sunday School Department, with whom my boss, Mr. Barnette, had corresponded. Therefore, when I went to Baltimore, I first contacted that office. They said that they did not have an opening but a good friend in their church was Mr. Roles who was Chief Clerk in the War Department office a few floors below their office in the Hearst Tower Building, and he might be able to help me. When I went down to see Mr. Roles, he was very kind and told me where to go to take a test and make formal application for a job as a secretary in the 2M Corps of the War Department. I took the test and they offered me a job in that office. I went back to Nashville and resigned my job. Mr. Roles had told me about a friend who was a good Baptist lady who would rent me a room if she had a vacancy. I wrote the lady, Mrs. Mundorf, and found that she did have a room I could rent! She had a beautiful home at 8 York Court, right on the Greenmount streetcar line, and wanted to rent her extra room as her husband was away in the Navy and her daughter was away in school at Wake Forest. It was just a miracle the way things worked out. My boss was in the Quartermaster Corps HQ of the Third Service Command was a Mr. Tinder who was also a good Baptist friend of Mr. Roles! My salary was considerably more than it had been at the S.S. Bd. And the work was much easier, I found. Since it was wartime, however, we had to work six full days a week. The only day off was Christmas Day. Even Thanksgiving Day was a work day.

During World War II, many things were rationed. We were issued stamps for sugar, stamps for shoes, stamps for meat, and stamps for gasoline when it was necessary to drive your car to work. Since I was able to go to work with someone else at the boarding house after we "broke up housekeeping," I did not need the car. Furthermore, I didn't know anything about car maintenance or even driving a car, very much. (Since we had never had a car when I was growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, I had never had a chance to learn to drive until Wendell taught me.) Most of all, on my small income I couldn't afford to keep up a car, therefore, I sold the car before going to Baltimore. Since there was so little gasoline available during the war, no one was able to do any pleasure driving or take any vacations by automobile. When military personnel were assigned to other bases during the war, they were given the necessary ration stamps or papers to cover the trip, however. One of the functions of the office where I worked in Baltimore was to give authorization for gasoline purchase by military personnel.

While I lived in Baltimore I roomed at Mrs. Mundorf's but ate all my meals out. Wendell had all his meals provided by Uncle Sam, so when he was able to get overnight leave he would eat dinner before boarding the train from Odenton which was the railroad station near Fort Meade, to Baltimore. It just took about fifteen minutes to make that trip. I usually went to Pennsylvania Station to meet him and we'd take the street car home. If he wasn't on the train, I knew that he couldn't get leave and I'd go on home by myself. On nights when he could get leave, he had to get up about four o'clock in the morning to catch the streetcar to Camden Station and then board the train for Odenton to get back to camp on time. He knew he'd never be late because his top sergeant rode the same train!

Just after Christmas of 1943, Wendell began to hear rumors of their outfit being moved out of Fort Meade. Since I worked for the Third Service Command, I knew about as soon as he did that they were going to be sent to Tullahoma, Tennessee and then to Camp Kilmer, N.J. their part of embarkation. Therefore, I resigned my job at Baltimore and received the offer of a job at the S.S. Bd. Again, as secretary to Dr. Clifton Allen, the head of the Editorial Department. I accepted the offer and went back to work at the Board a few months. I had not told them that I was pregnant but that soon became apparent to everyone! Dr. Allen was very kind and knew that I would be temporary, anyway, since it was wartime and wives followed their husbands, as long as they could, before their husbands were sent overseas. It gave him time to search for a permanent replacement of his former secretary, who had left to follow her husband.

Leaving Baltimore so suddenly presented one problem, though, which I hadn't anticipated. I had no money to buy a ticket to Nashville! We had no credit cards in those days, not even a bank account, as we paid cash for everything and put all our savings into U.S. Savings bonds. I had thought I could just take a bond to the bank and cash it in. When I tried to do that, however, I found that it would take several weeks to get my money!! I didn't want to ask my family for a loan, although I could have repaid them as soon as my next payday rolled around; so I decided to go to a local "loan shark" and borrow enough to get my ticket. To my dismay I found that I didn't qualify for a loan since I didn't have any credit rating. I gave my Mrs. Mundorf's name as a character reference, and I knew she would give me a good recommendation. Unfortunately, when they called her she said, "We just love Leila and Wendell and will be glad to give them a recommendation. We are so sorry they are leaving Baltimore." That was the "kiss of death"! I hadn't thought it was necessary to tell the loan company that I was borrowing the money to leave town! When the man told me I couldn't get a loan, I broke down and cried, and I remember saying such a stupid thing to him. I said, "I've gone to Sunday school all my life and now nobody will trust me to pay back a little loan." Well, I left in tears and just thought I wouldn't be able to make the trip. When I got home, though, Mrs. Mundorf told me that a man had called for references since I had applied for a loan. She told me that she would be glad to lend me the money and I could repay her when I got my money from my next paycheck. My tears turned to tears of gratitude for her kindness! She did indeed lend me the money; and the day I got my next pay check, I repaid her. I guess what was implied by my "going to Sunday school all my life" paid off, after all!

Then I did another dumb thing. I caught the train as soon as I got packed and headed for Nashville. No one knew I was on my way since I didn't let anyone know. I knew I could always stay at Aunt Leila's but I didn't bother to let her know I was coming. During war time, we didn't make long distance calls as we would do today, as we were urged to leave the lines open for calls regarding the war. Also, I had very little money so I just left town. My train got into Nashville in the wee hours of the morning. I got a taxi and went out to Aunt Leila's and rang her doorbell. She finally woke up and came to the door, to find me there! She appeared to be happy to see me, but I'm sure she must have been surprised! I then stayed with her the next few weeks while I worked at the S.S. Bd.

Richmond, Virginia - Birth of John Wendell (June, 1944)

Since our first child was due about June, everyone thought it would be a good idea to travel to Richmond about the time Wendell left Tennessee for his part of embarkation. He called me every night from NYC for a few days, but then came a night when I knew he had left because he did not call me. It was a sad and anxious time, but I finally got a V-mail letter from "somewhere in England." He could not be more specific but we had devised a system for him to let me know where he was. We had a list of places, each with a number, and he was to write me saying that he had received my __ page letter, using the number from our pre-arranged list. That's how I knew when he was in Paris, Luxembourg, Belgium, etc.

My parents had moved from Oklahoma City to Richmond, Virginia about the time we moved to Baltimore. One summer when Wendell had a furlough from Fort Meade, we had ridden a boat down the Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore to Old Point Comfort, Va., in route to Richmond to visit my folks. We went from there to Salyersville to visit Wendell's family and then went on back to Baltimore. That was the time the railroad lost my suitcase. When I went to claim my suitcase, it didn't arrive. I had to go to work in my old clothes as all my new and better things had been in that suitcase. When the railroad asked me to identify something in the suitcase, as they were searching for it and my name wasn't on the bag, I remember that Wendell's mother had given us a jar of blackberry jam to take back with us, and it was in my suitcase. I mentioned it to the railroad agent. About two weeks later I had a Western Union telegram from the railroad stating, "Your suitcase containing a jar of blackberry jam has been found in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia" where it had been taken off the train by mistake. We all had a good laugh about that. The railroad forwarded the suitcase to me in Baltimore, and everything else was OK in the suitcase, including the blackberry jam.

In June of 1944 Elizabeth and her two girls were scheduled to get a freighter in NYC and return to Africa. Christie had gone back to Africa a year earlier, but because of the war wives and children of missionaries were not allowed to cross the Atlantic for fear their boat would be sunk by German submarines. They came through Richmond for a few days, en route from Oklahoma City to NYC. The morning of June 6 was the day they were to leave Richmond to go to NYC. When we got up that day to see them off, we turned on the radio and heard that the Allied Forces had landed in Normandy. D Day! I didn't know whether Wendell was in the invasion forces, but, if not, we knew he'd soon be going to Normandy. The Pools left Richmond with all kinds of mixed emotions.

When I had gone to Richmond, I went to an OB doctor named Dr. Ware, who had been recommended. My condition was fine, and I went to him regularly until June 22, when he told me to go to the Medical College of Virginia hospital that morning where they would induce labor. I had not had a doctor for regular check-ups until I went to him but had just gone once in Baltimore to confirm my pregnancy and once in Nashville to a doctor friend of Wendell's to give me something to clear up itching in my vaginal area. I was so naive and dumb I didn't know any other prenatal care was needed. I guess it really wasn't. Fortunately for me, as everything went normally. John Wendell Arnett was born two minutes after midnight in June, 1944. My father had taken me to the hospital on the morning of the 22nd and then had gone on to work. He had checked with the hospital several times but they had no information about my condition until after the baby arrived at 12:02 a.m. He and mother dressed and drove down to the hospital right after the baby arrived and saw for themselves that everything was all right. The next day he sent a telegram to Wendell via the Army, and he received it in England. Not long after that, he was sent to Normandy.

In Oklahoma City Ruth Routh had gone to the hospital the same day I had, to have their third child, Dorothy Kate was born in the late afternoon, if I remember correctly, but John Wendell Arnett did not make his appearance until 12:02 a.m. the next day. It was still the 22nd in Central Time Zone, but we were in Eastern Time Zone in Richmond, Virginia.

Since John Wendell's father was a "GI", his doctor bill and our hospital bill was paid by Uncle Sam. There were many other babies born whose father's were GI's and overseas. My bed was in an eight-bed ward and we were company for each other. Since I did not know many people in Richmond, my parents and one other person at the Foreign Mission Board (Marjorie Moore, who was Daddy's associate editor) were the only visitors I had. Even if I had known anyone, I doubt that they would have been able to come see me because of gasoline rationing. In those days new mothers were not allowed to sit up until about the tenth day, I think, after delivery. When I went home on the twelfth day, I was therefore, quite weak from lying flat on my back so long. Fortunately we had hired a practical nurse to stay with us at home for a week until I got my strength back.

My stepmother had never had any children, and she was quite relieved to have a nurse there when I came home. She didn't know that she was going to have full care of the baby, before long!

Like most mothers in those days, I planned to nurse my baby. I did so, for about three weeks, but my milk didn't seem to be rich enough or abundant enough to satisfy him. Therefore, the doctor gave us a formula for bottle-feeding and asked me to come back to see him at the hospital to bind up my chest so that my milk would dry up, they said. The night before I was going to do that, I had a hard chill in the night. I didn't want to tell my parents I didn't feel well, and so Daddy took me to the hospital to have my breasts bound. When I got there, he left me with the nurse. By that time I was feeling really dreadful and mentioned the fact to the nurse. She took my temperature and found that I had fever over 104. The doctor said I should be admitted to the hospital. For several days they didn't know what the problem was, but they finally diagnosed it as pyelitis, a kidney infection. They prescribed a new drug, sulfa something, and it cured my problem. I was able to go back home on the tenth day, I think. I remember that altogether, including the day of John Wendell's birth, I was in the hospital twenty-two days. Uncle Sam paid for it all, thank goodness! My father and stepmother did a good job taking care of my baby, and the formula seemed to work out fine.

I remember one visitor we had when I first came home from the hospital the first time. It was Gene McKinney, who had been stationed at a nearby army base. We were so glad to see him again and also let me see his new cousin. Before long, he too was sent overseas to "somewhere in Europe." I have a picture of him somewhere in a picture album, of him holding John Wendell.

Wendell and I wrote each other every day, but the letters sometimes arrived in bundles. That was always a good day when a letter would come from him. It was a hard time that we all went through. I was grateful to my parents for inviting me to come there to stay but it was a very stressful and unhappy time for all of us. Even though my stepmother had never had any children, she had read a lot and was an expert on child rearing (she thought!) I was obviously a novice and she criticized me every time I'd pick up my baby, saying I was spoiling him and should let him "cry it out." Lucile and Clinton had had a similar experience when they had visited Oklahoma with their little boy, Gene Burnett, and felt sorry for me. They invited me to come stay with them "for the duration", as soon as I was able to travel. We all thought that that was a good idea and began to make travel plans. My parents had planned to go to Oklahoma City in August or September, for some reason, and would be able to help go with us part of the way, as I had planned to stop off in Eastern Kentucky, en route, so that Mr. And Mrs. Arnett could see the baby for a couple of weeks. I transferred at Ashland to the train which took us to Paintsville. I remember Mrs. Arnett, Ruth and Alvin meeting us and driving us over to Salyersville. At the end of the visit, I went back to Ashland and boarded the train Mother and Daddy were on, and we traveled on to Oklahoma City with John Wendell in his basinette.

My parents didn't stay too long [in Oklahoma City], but I think John Wendell and I stayed about a month with Fay before boarding the train for Houston for a visit with Aunt Katie and Uncle Ryland. Fay was also an army wife. Ross had been sent overseas to North Africa and she was living in their lovely big house in Oklahoma City. Rob Roy and Donald were elementary school age, and she rented out one room to an elderly widow, to help with expenses and to have someone else in the house with her for safety reasons. Her roomer did not take meals with her, however, and so she didn't see a lot of her. Fay was always sweet to me and I appreciated her hospitality at that time. Ross was gone for a much longer time than Wendell was; so she had to raise Rob and Donald alone for several years. When Ross finally came back from WW II, they had Alan and Jon. Then he had to leave home to go to the Korean War for a couple of years; and she had to raise those two boys, too, as a single parent all that time he was in Korea. When they were old enough to be in school, Fay went back to school at Oklahoma City University and also the University of Oklahoma and got her master's in library science. She had taught Spanish, many years earlier when she was just out of college, but library work appealed to her. She became librarian at a school near their home in Oklahoma City. Then years later, when they moved to Austin, she was librarian at LBJ High school there until she retired and they moved out to El Paso again. But this is getting way ahead of my story.

After John Wendell and I left Oklahoma City in 1944, we went to Houston and spent about a month with Aunt Katie and Uncle Ryland there en route to Corpus Christi where Lucile and Clinton lived. Just before Thanksgiving we arrived in Corpus Christi, where we stayed until May, 1945, when it appeared that the war would soon be over in Europe.

Aunt Katie had a beautiful little brick home in Houston. I believe their address was 2206 Branard St. Uncle Ryland and she both loved working in the yard as soon as they got home from work and they had every blade of grass and flower bed manicured. When Uncle Ryland retired from the Rock Island Railroad where he was an accountant, she also retired from working as a clerk in the hosiery department at Foley Brothers, the leading department store in Houston. Since Aunt Katie's brother, Henry Wroe, was in declining health and his son Sam was away building for the companies in Dallas working for defense, someone was needed to help care for Uncle Henry. Therefore, Aunt Katie and Uncle Ryland sold their home in Houston and moved out to Frankston to live with Uncle Henry. After his death, Sam told them to stay on there, as he was still working in Dallas. He worked in Dallas until his retirement and moved back to his place in Frankston. Aunt Katie and Uncle Ryland were getting older and more feeble and needed some looking after, themselves. Therefore, Ross found them a nice retirement/nursing home in Austin near them, and they both lived there until they died. They really enjoyed making friends in Austin and participating in activities, including various field trips.

My last visit with them in Houston, before they moved out to the farm was in the spring of 1945. John Wendell and I rode up to spend a couple of weeks with them. While we were there, the news came over the radio that Roosevelt had died at Warm Springs, Georgia, and I remember that we sat listening over the radio for several days as the funeral train made its way to Washington and then they broadcast the funeral itself. What a sad time that was for our country! Many people couldn't remember any other president, since FDR had been president for such a long time. Everyone wondered who in the world was Harry Truman? Even though he had been vice president, no one really knew much about him.

Lucile and Clinton were wonderful people and both John Wendell and I had a most enjoyable life with them in Corpus Christi.

Our life in Corpus Christi couldn't have been more pleasant, because of Lucile and Clinton's kindness and acceptance. She offered to let me get a job and she would stay home with my baby. I was naive enough to think that the money I got from Uncle Sam would be enough "to pay my keep" with them and so I told her I didn't want to work but to stay home with my baby rather than hiring anyone to help her. She let me pay my share of the grocery bills and gave me and him a free room. I tried to earn my way by helping with housework. They moved to a larger house, soon after I arrived; so their son Gene had more space for his bed and belongings. That made me feel better, because he had had to give up his former bedroom to me and the baby while he slept in the dining room. I also helped Lucile with "sitting" with Gene (4 yrs. old) and his friends while she went about her activities. An additional way I helped was by cleaning the room and bath of a little space or area, additional quarters, attached to their garage. They had a "roomer" who lived there and it was my job to change the linens and give the rented quarters a good cleaning once a week.

Lucile and Clinton were very active in school, civic, and church affairs. He was asst. Supt. Of schools in Corpus Christi and chairman of the Board of Deacons at First Baptist Church, as well as president of the Kiwanis Club. She was in many organizations in and out of church, being soloist in the choir, and president of many clubs. They wanted me to participate in activities, too, and encouraged me to get involved as much as I wanted to. I worked in Training Union Sunday nights and joined a "study club" of young matrons which met in people's homes once a month.

Just before Christmas, in 1944, I woke up early one morning with a hard chill and piercing pain in my chest. The thermometer showed I had 104 degree of temperature (I hadn't even had any warning, the day before, no cold or cough even). The doctor came and ordered an ambulance to take me to the hospital. The x-ray showed that I had "double pneumonia", and they doctored me with a new drug called "sulfanilamide". Penicillin had not yet been introduced, but I believe soon became known. The sulfa drug cured me, but I remember one dreadful side effect was nausea. After about a week, I was able to go home and take care of my baby again. They hadn't told me while I was so sick that John Wendell was also sick, at home, having come down with a painful ear infection. He was well by the time I got home. Lucile took care of us all, as usual. I had no more problem with my illness that year, but nearly ten years later I needed lung surgery because of scar tissue from that illness causing the bronchial tube to be eroded causing me to hemorrhage.

During the spring of 1945 Johnny developed some condition which caused him to cough and cough every night. The pediatrician thought that the climate in Corpus Christi was keeping his cough from clearing up, so he suggested that I take him to a higher altitude. I wrote Fay and asked her if we could visit them again for awhile. About the same time, a letter came from Porter asking if I could come baby-sit Dorothy Kate, along with Johnny, at their apartment in Oklahoma City. Porter had been asked to come to the S.S. Bd. At Nashville for a job interview and he wanted Ruth to go with him. Mr. And Mrs. Purtle, Ruth's parents in Sulfur, Oklahoma, were going to keep Charles and Betsy. I came on to Oklahoma City with Johnny, and we stayed at Porter and Ruth's apartment with Dorothy Kate while they were gone. Then I moved over to Fay's when they returned, awaiting news from Wendell. The war seemed to be coming to an end in Europe, and we thought maybe we should head for Salyersville where Wendell could meet us when he returned. We headed for Salyersville and were en route when a telegram was received for me in Corpus Christi and forwarded to me in Oklahoma City and Salyersville saying that he had landed. The telegram reached Salyersville before I did! We learned later that his train headed for Cincinnati probably passed my train going in the other direction traveling from Cincinnati to Ashland.

I don't remember the exact date of travels in that May and June, but I remember I was still in Oklahoma City on June 23 when John Wendell celebrated his first birthday, as well as Dorothy Kate's first birthday the day before his.

Wendell's Return from the War (August 1945)

After Wendell landed in Virginia (Newport News, I believe) he was sent to Camp Atterbury from which he was granted a 30 day furlough. He called us in Salyersville where Ruth, Helen and others in the family had met awaiting his arrival home; and he told me to meet him at a certain time in Lexington, where we would spend the night and travel by bus to Salyersville the next day. Helen and Ruth said they'd keep "John Wendell: (we all called him the double name in those days) and let me travel by bus to meet Wendell in Lexington by myself. I thought the bus would never get there! I kept counting to sixty, trying to make the time pass more quickly. Our plan was to meet in front of the Phoenix Hotel, thinking that we'd stay there. As I walked up the street from the bus station, I spied him, talking to another soldier. I had visions of meeting him running to meet me with open arms, like Hollywood movies; but when he turned around saw me, being the timid person he was about showing affection in public, he said simply, "Hello, how are you?" Then he actually kissed me in public!

We should have known there would not be room at the Phoenix Hotel for us, as there were at least then thousand other soldiers in town, but we were fortunate that the USO volunteer ladies found us lodging in a private home. We boarded the bus for Salyersville the next day, but Gracie and Oaks stopped the bus somewhere near West Liberty. They took us off the bus, as they had brought "John Wendell" with them and couldn't wait until the bus got to Salyersville to introduce Wendell to his son, in person, for the first time. That was indeed a happy day!! It was the beginning of our life together as a family. It had been six years since our wedding. God has been good to give us fifty-three more years together.

Sometime during Wendell's furlough we went to Nashville by train (caught the train in Lexington which took us to Chattanooga and then to Nashville) where we visited several days with friends and family before returning to Salyersville. It was a hard trip, for us and Johnny, but we were glad to see our friends in Nashville again and show off our baby. I believe we stayed with Gerry and Mack that time as Porter and Ruth had not yet moved to Nashville where he was to be head of the Department of Survey, Statistics and Information at the Sunday School Board.

When Wendell's furlough ended, early in August, he thought he was going to a camp to prepare to go to the Japanese part of the world, as the war with Japan was still in full swing. As he traveled back to camp, though, news came that a powerful new bomb had been dropped in Japan; then, another one. In just a few weeks time (or was it "days"?) the war with Japan was over!! Before long, Wendell was mustered out of the army and returned to us in Salyersville. The devastation in Japan was unbelievable! Everyone was sad that so many had been killed by the atomic bomb, however, most people felt that undoubtedly thousands of American lives were spared and they (we) were thankful for that!

Mr. And Mrs. Arnett, Wendell's parents, were most gracious and hospitable to me and John Wendell. I had had anxiety about where I would stay when Wendell had gone back to the Army camp following his furlough, but Mr. Arnett told me one day, "You are welcome to stay here as the flowers in May." I always appreciated and loved him for saying that. Of course Wendell's mother was equally glad to have us stay and did everything in the world for us to make us feel welcome and happy. When the war was over, we were all so happy to have our family together again and to have a place to live. We knew, however, that our stay in Salyersville was to be temporary. The next big hurdle we had to face was what would Wendell do to make a living, and where would we go? He could have had his old job back in Nashville, but it did not pay enough to support a family. In those days there were not any day-care centers as there are today, and women usually stayed home with the children and lived on the husband's income. Therefore, Wendell had to find a better job. On his way back from Nashville to Salyersville, he stopped off in Louisville and decided to apply for a job at the Courier-Journal. They took his application interviewed him and told him they would contact him if they had a vacancy. He came on back to Salyersville from Louisville and awaited a letter from the Courier-Journal.

Louisville Opportunity 1945

During this time of waiting, Wendell turned over in his mind several ideas of ways in which he might make a living, even though he did not have any training in any of them and it would mean going to school to learn a new trade. One idea was to become an undertaker (believe it or not); and another one was to open a bakery!! Both Mrs. Arnett and I put a damper on these ideas, and prayed that an opening would be found, more in line with Wendell's training. We were not disappointed, therefore, when a letter came from the Courier-Journal offering him a job in the Promotion Department doing art work. He accepted the offer and came to Louisville to begin work. He stayed at a rooming house downtown and I stayed on in Salyersville until we could find a place for us to live here. Sometime during November of 1945 we decided that I should come to Louisville for a few days and look for a place where we could move to Louisville and begin housekeeping again. The Arnetts kept John Wendell there so that I would be free to house-hunt. Since there were so many soldiers being mustered out of the Service, housing was very scarce. Rent was high, even if anyone could locate an apartment. Wendell's parents thought that the best thing for us to do would be to buy a little house, and they offered to lend us the money which we could repay to them at $35.00 a month. Mr. Arnett showed a lot of faith to me when he wrote out a check for $6,000.00 and gave it to me to bring to Louisville to pay for a house we hadn't even found yet! Someone referred us to a real estate agent named Mr. Taylor, who showed us houses in that price range in several parts of town. My friend Marie Estes whose father was pastor of West Broadway Baptist Church, had married Joe Stopher and lived in the West End. They were soon going to move to the East End, however, and advised us not to buy in the West End because it was an area which had flooded in the 1937 flood.

I had known of Dr. Boone, who had been president of OBU, and had heard that he was pastor of Crescent Hill Baptist Church. Also he was the brother of Mrs. Frank Leavell whom we had known in Nashville, so we decided to look at houses near that church. When Mr. Taylor showed us the little house at 104 Carlisle (later called "North Crestmoor"), it was within our price range, and the people there could give us possession in about a month. We talked it over with Wendell's parents and decided to use the $6,000.00, which we had deposited in Citizens Fidelity Bank, to pay for it. A further inducement to buying that house was the fact that the people living there agreed to sell us their stove and refrigerator at a very reasonable price. I went back to Salyersville and wrote to all our friends in Nashville with whom we had stored our furniture for three years that a moving truck would come get all our things soon. I believe the truck did get our things about the middle of December as we wanted to get into our house and be able to celebrate Christmas together for the first time since our child had been born. In addition to the furniture in Nashville, there were several things we needed to move from Salyersville. Therefore, Mr. And Mrs. Arnett arranged for a friend and relative, "Brother" Patrick to load up his truck and bring John Wendell and me to Louisville. We brought along the baby bed, high chair, an old iron bedstead, mattress and springs, and a couple of old kitchen chairs.

The day we planned to leave Salyersville, we woke up to a blizzard. The Arnetts wanted us to postpone our trip, but "Brother" thought he could make it OK in his heavy truck (even though we had to travel over the winding mountain road of Index Hill). We arrived in Louisville after dark that night and unloaded the things, as the rest of our furniture had not yet arrived from Nashville. I don't remember where "Brother" spent the night before returning to Salyersville the next day, but Wendell and I and John Wendell spent our first night in Louisville in the nearly vacant house we had purchased (thanks to Wendell's parents) and felt like a king and queen in a palace because we were so thankful to be together with a roof over our head.

Another attractive feature about our little house on North Crestmoor was the fact that it was right on a bus line, giving Wendell convenient transportation to and from work. Since we had to depend on the bus for transportation to work, church, and shopping. We were fortunate that there was a grocery store just across the railroad tracks, and other grocery stores a few blocks away who would deliver groceries when the weather was bad.

Just before Christmas, our moving van arrived from Nashville. In addition, I purchased a divan and chair for the living room and a little drop-leaf table for the dining room, along with four straight chairs. The van from Nashville brought my piano and several end-tables and lamps, along with our bedroom suite of bed, chest, dressing table and bench. We had sold some of our Nashville furniture - - a table and chair set, couch, and over-stuffed chair -- but had kept all our dishes, linens, pictures, and books. With all these familiar furnishings, the little house on Carlisle began to look more like home. We even purchased a Christmas tree and decorated it with ornaments left in the house by the previous owners. One thing I remember buying that first Christmas was a little manger scene with crèche, shepherds, and wise men. I bought it at Woolworth's downtown but it held up well, and I still have it. What a happy Christmas that was! It had been three Christmases that we had been "displaced", and it was so wonderful to be together again. We were fortunate to have been together for the next fifty-two Christmases. I had hoped to write more about those years, but the days and months since Wendell died have been so busy that I have had to put this project aside for awhile. Maybe before another Christmas rolls around I will have time to continue the story of our life together, much of which you already know. Since July 10 [1998], I have spent a lot of time remembering those years and cherishing each memory of my wonderful husband and your dear father. It will be a different Christmas for us all this year [1998]. We will all be together, in spirit though. As Tiny Tim would say, "God bless us every one!"