Biography for Maxine Hughes (my mother)
Maxine is my mother. I write this in loving memory of her. She was a wonderful person – kind hearted, gentle and extremely nice. Everyone liked her. She was a great mom.
Maxine was born Dorothy Maxine Hughes on October 11, 1918 in Asbury, Jasper, Missouri.[1] Her birth certificate appears to show October 17, but it is fuzzy and we (and she) always thought it was the 11th, and her baby book says the 11th. Her birth weight was 7 ½ pounds and she was 19 inches long. She was born at their home in Asbury, and her grandmother, Emma (Patzer) Hurd was the nurse who helped deliver her. Maxine died on August 9, 1998 at Hillhaven nursing home in Topeka, Shawnee, Kansas.[2] She is buried in Crocker Cemetery outside of Pittsburg, Crawford, Kansas.
Her parents were Charles Victor Hughes and Mary Luilla (Lula) Hurd.[3] Charles was born December 8, 1892 in Pleasant View Township, Cherokee, Kansas. He died January 1, 1986 in Asbury. His parents were Victor Hughes and Sarah Covey. Lula was born November 19, 1891 in Kansas and died February 19, 1977 in Asbury. Her parents were James Samuel Nance and Emma Patzer. Charles and Lula are both are buried next to each other in Crocker Cemetery (next to Maxine).Maxine married Theodore Edward (Ed) Marcum on April 29, 1956 in Miami, Ottawa, Oklahoma.[4] He was the son of Edward J. Markham and Etta Marcum.
Maxine and Ed had the following child:
- Kem Eugene Marcum, born October 16, 1957 in Baxter Springs, Cherokee, Kansas; married Rebecca Sue O’Dell June 27, 1980 in Cimarron, Gray, Kansas.
Narrative
Maxine (Mom) was born in Asbury, Missouri, a small town of about 100 people. She was born at home, and the delivery nurse was her grandmother, Emma Patzer.[5] Emma was born in Prussia in 1859 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1877. She was German Lutheran. According to Mom’s baby book, her first outing was on October 30, 1918 when her grandma Emma took her somewhere (it doesn’t say where they went). For her first Christmas, she got a ring and chain, two dolls, bells, a rattler and some shoes.
Mom went to grade school in Asbury. The school was down the road about three blocks. In a school picture from 1925, when she was probably in the 2nd grade, Mom is smiling. She has dark hair, kind of short with bangs. Her complexion looks darker than the other kids, she always had slightly dark skin. In a 1930 picture she has the same length of hair, but it looks wavier. She always had very wavy hair.
The town of Asbury began in 1896. It was promoted by the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railway and attracted quite a few investors. It grew quickly, within a year there were six stores, two livery stables, two hotels and an implement house. A two-room school house was built and there was a newspaper (which I have not been able to find copies of today). But the quick business growth could not be supported and Asbury remained a small farming town.[6] The founder of Asbury was J. M. Rutherford, he promoted the town and ran the newspaper.[7]
The house Mom was born in was built by her father, Charles (Grandad). Grandad and Lula (Grandma) got married in 1914 and he built the house shortly thereafter. They lived there the rest of their lives, and this is where Mom grew up. It’s a nice, 3-bedroom house. Mom and her younger sister, Janie, probably had one bedroom and her two brothers, Wilfred and Roger were in another. There was a large living room and dining room, and a big kitchen with a coal stove. There was a small cellar where Grandma kept the food items from the garden that she had canned.
Mom had a perpetually swollen left leg, a condition called lymphedema (sometimes referred to as elephantiasis). This is caused by poor lymph drainage that is a result of some type of blockage or abnormal development of the lymph vessels. There is no cure. She spoke once of having gone to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to have it looked at. They could not do anything to alleviate it. She had this condition from a young age for the rest of her life. It was not a disabling condition, but it did cause her some pain and agitation. She would sit with her leg up when it was bothering her, and she would wear a thick compression type sock at times. She would call it her “silly leg”. Being an optimistic, positive person, she seldom complained about her leg.
Mom attended Carl Junction High School. There were 32 students in her graduating class in 1937.[8] She would have taken a bus to school. Carl (as she always called it) was about 7 miles away. While Mom’s three siblings went to college, she did not. She stayed at home in Asbury.
Mom did not drive throughout her life. There was a story about Grandad teaching her to drive. Instead of backing out of the garage, she went forward and hit the front wall. She avoided driving and either walked, took a bus or got a ride from someone.
The Great Depression was from 1929 to 1939. Grandad was a mechanic at the local Chevrolet dealership and would have been helping his mother (Sarah Covey) with the family farm (Grandad’s father, Victor, died in 1915). Times would have been tough. Mom and Dad were both pretty thrifty, they didn’t spend money unwisely. I remember Mom doing things like saving aluminum foil to be used again. We did not eat out much, it was unusual for us to go to a restaurant.
World War 2 started when Mom was in her mid-twenties. We have a number of items that she saved throughout her life, and a War Ration Book is one of them. These were issued by the U.S. Office of Price Administration and they contained stamps that were used to ration certain food items that were in short supply during the war. Items rationed included sugar, coffee, meat, canned goods and cheese. The stamps in the book were used when buying these items, for example it might take 5 stamps to get a bag of sugar. Mom didn’t use all of her stamps, there are still some remaining in the book.
During the war Mom worked at the ammunition plant in Parsons, Kansas. It was called the Kansas Ordnance Plant. It was approved and funded in 1941 and was in operation by 1944. It cost $35,000,000 to build. It was on 16,000 acres and employed about 5000 workers, of which 75% were women. They made giant aviation bombs and large artillery shells.[9] By mid-1945 over 1,000,000 tons of bombs had been produced. Over 1400 railroad cars of bombs were shipped out each month.[10]
It was 40 miles from Asbury to Parsons. The ammunition plan had a bus system in place to take employees to and from work. Mom likely rode one of these buses. I don’t know how long she worked there. She did mention that at one point her hair turned a reddish color. This had to be from being around the gunpowder and other chemicals in the plant.
In 1950 Mom was living in Carthage, Missouri. She was working as a housekeeper and lived at 516 West Central Street. This is according to the 1950 Polk Directory.[11] On the 1950 U.S. Federal Census she is living in Asbury with her parents.[12] She is listed as being a house keeper for a private home, and as working 60 hours the previous week. The census was taken on April 28, she may have moved to Carthage later in the year. She was working for Cornelius Platt. He was the son of Charles Platt, who was the founder of Leggett & Platt. He was also President of Flex-O-Lators, a division of Leggett & Platt that manufactures automotive parts.
In 1952 she was living in Asbury and working at the Maddox Café that was in town.[13] Then in 1953 she was living in Carthage again and working at Red’s Café.[14] She lived two blocks away from her job, at the same 516 West Central Street address as in 1950. The house at this address was owned by Ralph Ralston. In 1954 to 1956 she continued to work at Red’s Café but had moved to 301 W. 7th Street.[15] In 1955 she made $1306.34 before taxes. The minimum wage was 0.75 per hour.
Mom was a cook at Red’s and this is where she met my dad. He had moved to Carthage from Kelso, Washington after separating from his first wife. His sister, Alice, lived in Carthage and he was originally from nearby Joplin. Dad also worked at Red’s and was the night cook (Red’s was open 24 hours a day) and Mom was the day cook. When Dad came in to work to take over for Mom, he would eat some of the food she was cooking. They got married on April 29, 1956.
After getting married Mom and Dad moved to Baxter Springs, Kansas.
In October of 1956 Ed began training at the National School of Meat Cutting in Toledo, Ohio.[16] This was a two-month course. Maxine and Ed would have driven to Ohio and stayed there during this time. Dad was making a career change from being a miner/laborer to a more professional job as a meatcutter. Their address was listed as 120 E. 19th Street in Baxter Springs.
In 1957 the couple moved to 235 E. 9th Street in Baxter Springs. Then is where they lived when I was born. It was a small two-bedroom house. As I write this the house is still standing and really doesn’t look all that much different than in 1957.[17]
Then in 1958 they moved to Joplin and lived at 2402 Annie Baxter. Dad was working as the meatcutter at Kroger.
In 1960 they moved to Parsons, Kansas.[18] Their address was 3019 Redwood. In 1962 they moved to 2330 Belmont Street, still in Parsons. This house was 3 blocks from where Dad worked as the meatcutter at Foodtown. Mom could walk there to get groceries. It was also right across the street from the school where I went to kindergarten. This was a small, two-bedroom house that they rented. The second bedroom was upstairs over the garage, this room was mine.
On March 8, 1963, there was a candy recipe in the Parsons Sun. It was by Mom for a candy called Honey Chews. It had butter, honey walnuts and dates in it.[19] I don’t think I liked it, I don’t care for dates.
Later that year, by August of 1963, they moved back to Joplin, at 528 S. McConnell[20]. This was another small, rented house. President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot on November 22, 1963. I remember this day. We were let out of school early; our teacher was upset. I didn’t understand the magnitude of what had happened. But when I got home Mom was crying and it became more obvious to me. Dad came home from work early. It was a tough time for the whole country.
Then in 1965 they moved to Erie, Kansas. The house was at 133 West 3rd Street and was a larger one, still rented. It was two stories, with three bedrooms upstairs. There was also a porch room upstairs, which had been turned into a fourth bedroom. This house was right across the street from the grocery store, called Olson’s, where Dad worked. It was an easy walk for Mom, and it was just a half of a block to Main Street for the other stores in the small town. She worked with Dad as meat wrapper for a while. We attended the Methodist Church. We lived here for six years and I have a lot of good memories of this house and living in Erie.
The Friday, March 5, 1965 edition of “The Parsons Sun” has a small article on page 7 stating that the “Lively Learners Home Demonstration Unit held its monthly meeting Wednesday at the home of Mrs. Ed Marcum”.[21] This was an article about events in Erie. Home Demonstration Clubs were a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service. They helped women learn about gardening, canning, nutrition, sewing and other household skills.[22] Mom must have joined this group after moving to Erie. In another article on October 8th that year, she is listed as being the groups Reporter.[23]
Ed was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF). Odd Fellows is a fraternal organization that aims to provide a framework to promote personal and social development. The degrees of Odd Fellowship emphasize leaving of the old life and the start of a better one, of welcoming travelers, and of helping those in need.[24]
Mom belonged to the Rebekahs, which was the woman’s version of the Odd Fellows.[25] In January of 1970 she was elected Noble Grand of the local lodge.[26] This was the position of chairperson and in this role she would run the meetings, be the group’s representative to other outside organizations, and plan the lodge’s programs in advance.
Dad belonged to the American Legion. He was the Commander of the local group at one point. Mom belonged to the Legion Auxiliary, which is a group for spouses and close family members of American Legion members. The Legion is the nation’s largest service veteran’s organization. Dad qualified for membership from being in the U.S. Navy Reserves for 8 years. They promote patriotism, provide community youth programs and support veterans and current military service members.[27] There is also a lot camaraderie among members. Mom and Dad went to meetings regularly and were engaged members. At one point Mom was President of the group. We have a pin that she kept that says she was a Past President.
Mom and Dad liked to go play bingo once in a while. One place they went to was a weekly bingo session in Parsons that was sponsored by the Parsons American Legion. Dad realized that the Parsons Legion group made quite a bit of money from this, which they could use for their various programs. He decided to start a Legion bingo game in Erie. He became the leader of this. He went to other bingo games around the area and talked to those in charge. He learned what worked and what didn’t work. Before long the Erie American Legion had a regular bingo game. It was on Saturday night, and the Legion had a big building with plenty of room. It was right across the alley from our house. Main street would be lined with cars on Saturday night by those coming to play bingo.
Bingo sessions typically had a concession stand to sell various snacks, food items and drinks. Mom took this on. She made chili and bought all kinds of snack items. She sold a lot of hot dogs and coneys, as well as pie, potato chips, candy and many other snacks. A lot of people came early to eat before the games started, and her coneys were a real favorite.
Mom and Dad ran the Legion bingo for over 15 years, it became something that they did together and they both enjoyed it.
Sometime in the mid-1960’s LaDeane got me a puppy for my birthday. We named her Cee Cee. She was a small border collie mix that LaDeane got at an animal shelter in Parsons. She was a great little dog. Mom didn’t like her too much, or so she said. Sometimes I would see her petting Cee Cee or giving her treats.
We took some great vacations when I was a kid. They were always driving vacations, Mom and Dad never flew in an airplane. We went to Disneyland and the Grand Canyon. One trip was to Yellowstone Park. This trip was with LaDeane and her husband Everett, and was to meet Mary and her husband Jim there. Another trip was to Florida. We went deep sea fishing and Dad caught a small octopus. Yet another vacation was to Pikes Peak and to Mount Rushmore. Another trip was to Galveston and to Six Flags over Texas in Dallas. Once we went to Louisiana with Grandma and Grandad. Part of this trip was to go fishing at a lake. We drove two cars. Grandad had his fishing poles in the back of his station wagon. Our family vacations were always great fun. We got to see and do a lot of things. We got to eat out, something we normally didn’t do much. We stayed in motels, sometimes with a swimming pool.
In 1970 Dad quit his job as a meatcutter at Olson’s to manage a restaurant. It was newly remodeled and was named for him – Ed’s 59 Diner. Dad ran the place and was also a cook. Mom also worked part-time as a cook or a waitress. Being 12 years old, I worked as a dishwasher sometimes. It was a 24-hour restaurant connected to a truck stop a few miles outside of Erie on Highway 59. When there was a problem in the middle of the night, Dad would get a phone call. Sometimes Mom had to go in to cook at night. They did this for about a year before Dad decided to go back to being a meatcutter.
In 1971 Dad got a job as the meatcutter at the IGA grocery store in Oswego, Kansas. We still lived in Erie and he was driving about 35 miles each way. Then one night when he got home, he told Mom to close her eyes and hold out her hand. He dropped a set of house keys into her hand. He had bought a house in an auction during his lunch hour. This was the first house he had ever owned. We moved to Oswego shortly after this.
The house in Oswego was at 1324 West Fourth Street. I don’t remember what the purchase price was, but the mortgage was for $3000.[28] They would have paid a small down payment. It had three bedrooms and one bathroom. The bathroom had been added on as the house was quite old and was built before inside bathrooms. It was four blocks from the IGA store and the downtown area. It needed a little work on the inside. Dad put in a new lowered ceiling in the living room and dining room, and also new carpet. Mom and I helped.
Dad came home for lunch every day. Mom would have lunch ready and they would eat in the living room while watching “Days of Our Lives” on TV. This was a popular soap opera at the time. They watched it every day.
As I stated earlier, Mom did not drive. But while in Oswego she did get a drivers license. Dad was worried about her being about to get around if something happened to him. He took her out for driving practice and she passed the driving test to get the license. I don’t remember her driving after that.
I have a lot of good memories from growing up in Erie and Oswego. We ate all of our meals together, breakfast, lunch and supper. Mom was a good cook. We always had a big dinner. There would be plenty of meat and vegetables, maybe a salad of some kind, and almost certainly some kind of dessert. Sometimes Dad would cook out, which was always a treat. With both parents being real cooks, I ate well. This is somewhat ironic given how skinny I have always been.
Despite her good cooking, I was a very picky eater. Sometimes I didn’t want to eat something on my plate. My Dad thought I should always eat everything (a Depression Era mindset, don’t waste anything). Mom was more forgiving. Sometimes I would “hide” some food I didn’t like under the side of plate, of course the side facing Mom. She was OK with this and I didn’t get in trouble from her.
Dad worked 6 days a week, his day off was Sunday. This is the day we always went to Grandma and Grandad’s house in Asbury. We did this every week. Grandma would make lunch, which of course was always good. Most weeks we would then all go over to Joplin. Dad liked to go to the auction at Webb City. There was always a lot of stuff being sold. It was interesting to hear the auctioneer. You had to be careful how you moved, a scratch of the ear could result in you buying something. A lot of the smaller items were grouped in boxes, and the box was auctioned off. If there was one thing you wanted in the box you had to buy the whole box to get it. Dad got a lot of extra stuff that way.
Another place we often went on these Sunday trips to Joplin was May’s City. This was kind of like a Walgreens today, it was a drug store but with many other items like a variety store. But Missouri had what was called the Blue Law. Items such as clothes, furniture, tools, jewelry, toys, hardware, appliances and many other things could not be sold on Sunday. The law was a carryover from the days when working on the Sabbath was frowned upon. The sections of a store that held the restricted items would be roped off, or the items covered up.
Mom liked crafting. She crocheted, sewed, painted and made various things. She would crochet granny squares, then put them together to make a blanket or something. I had several shirts she made for me. One was a black and white checked flannel shirt. It was a custom fit and the sleeves were long enough. I wore it a lot. She also embroidered a blue shirt with an image with my motorcycle on the back. I thought this was really cool. I wore this a lot too. It was a great example of her artistic ability.
She would make small things like Kleenex holders using some type of sewing. Her painting was mostly tole painting. She loved to paint strawberries. Many of the things she painted had strawberries on them. I remember going to a tole painting class with her once. I decided to paint a rooster. I had trouble keeping the pattern in place and I ended up painting a three-legged rooster. Mom kept this, she thought it was funny and cute.
Knowing how much I liked cars, she bought a needlepoint kit with patterns for four different old cars. After she finished them, she framed them. They were a present for me. I had these hanging in my room for many years.
Being tall, a lot of my pants were too short. Stores didn’t carry extra long pants. Mom and Dad would search everywhere to find some that fit the best. I remember having one pair of jeans that I really liked, but they were just too short. Mom had an idea. She found an old heavy cloth belt. She cut the pantlegs off just below the knee. Then she cut the belt to fit the circumference of the pantlegs. Next, she sewed the belt pieces into the pantlegs, putting them back together. The result was longer pants with a custom design insert below the knee. I thought this was fantastic and I wore these jeans all the time.
Mom had a couple of small collections. One was thimbles. Most of these came from Grandma, her mother. Grandma had old thimbles and some from various places. They were in a wooden display that was hung on the wall. Grandad made this. The other collection was spoons. These were decorative spoons, some old and some from different places. When we went on a trip, she would buy a decorative spoon from wherever we went. We have both of these collections today.
Here are some cards that Mom kept and that we have:
- Zales Jewelers credit card. Dated 1960. This is the same nationwide Zales Jewelers as is in business today. There was a Zales in Joplin.
- Newberrys charge card. Dated 1960. Newberrys was a small variety store in Parsons. They also had a small restaurant, with a soda and ice cream bar.
- Sears credit card. This is not dated, but they likely used it at the store in Joplin. There was a large Sears store there, it was the only one in the area. Sears was a lower priced department store that also had things like tools and some hardware items.
- Montgomery Ward charge card. This is not dated. Wards was a lower priced department store. There was one in Joplin.
- J C Penney charge card. Not dated. There was a Penneys in Parsons as well as in Joplin. It was a lower priced department store. I remember going to the Penneys store in Parsons a lot. Back in the 1960’s the stores were open in the evening only on Thursday’s. The other days of the week stores closed at 5 or 6. So Thursday evening, after eating dinner at home, is when we would make the 15 mile trip from Erie to Parsons to do some shopping.
- Venture stores senior citizen discount card. It is not dated but they had this in Topeka. Venture was a larger discount store, similar to a Walmart store today but without groceries.
Mom and Dad started having health issues in 1983. In March of that year Dad had 2 heart valves replaced. They used valves from a pig. Ed thought this was funny and always told people about his pig valves. In June of 1984 he passed out at an American Legion picnic. Fortunately, there was a doctor there who used CPR to revive him. He got a pacemaker shortly after that.
In September of 1984 Mom had stomach cancer. I remember sitting in the waiting room with dad. The doctor came out and told us it was malignant, and they would have to remove part of her stomach, gallbladder and part of her esophagus. They ended up taking out over half of her stomach. She recovered from this, but it did affect her eating habits.
In May of 1985 Mom seemed to be having heart problems. She ended up in the hospital in Wichita. They did a heart catheterization and decided she had experienced a mild heart attack, but was OK. While recovering from this procedure, Dad went to his hotel room for a while. He called her a little later, there was a phone in her room. She answered the phone but Dad knew instantly something was wrong. She was not talking well at all. He hung up and called the nurse’s station. They went to check on her and discovered that she had experienced a stroke. It was quite serious. She was paralyzed on the left side of her body. It was like you could draw a line separating her right side from her left. The left was complete paralyzed. This would not change for the rest of her life.
After starting recovery in Wichita and then back at the hospital in Oswego, it was obvious she needed a lot of rehabilitation. She had to learn to talk and eat again, how to get around in a wheel chair, go to the bathroom, and do simple things with her right side. We put her in the Rehabilitation Institute in Kansas City. Dad lived with Charles and Janie (Mom’s sister and her husband) during this time, which was a number of months. She went through intense physical, occupational and speech therapy. It was tough. She left being able to do simple things, but still needed help from Dad. We set their house in Oswego up to be as wheelchair friendly as possible, including putting in a big ramp up the steps to the front door. Becky and I lived in Topeka at the time, which was three hours away.
In September of that year, 1985, Dad had a mild stroke. It wasn’t a paralyzing stroke; it affected his vision. He lost vision in the bottom half of one eye. It became obvious after this that we needed to be closer to them. In December we bought them a house in Topeka and moved Mom and Dad from Oswego to Topeka. It was a nice little house. It was very flat, there were no stairs to the doors. We widened the bathroom door and put in rails. We made it as wheelchair compliant as possible. It worked out pretty well and they liked it there. But after a few months we realized that Mom needed more care than Dad could provide. We found a nursing home in Topeka called Hillhaven, and moved Mom there during the summer of 1986. Dad’s health was getting worse and we moved him to Hillhaven with her a couple of months later. They had their own room together.
Dad passed away at Hillhaven on February 7, 1987. He was 67 years old. His heart was weak and his health deteriorated pretty quickly the prior few months. Mom was now alone at Hillhaven.
Mom always tried to make the most of things. While the stroke certainly affected her physically and also mentally, she was still a positive person. She became president of the Hillhaven resident group. She was always doing word puzzles, she loved the find the word puzzles. We would take her out on weekends either to our house, or to have lunch somewhere. She loved Kentucky Fried Chicken, that was a favorite. She was down to about 100 pounds, but was pretty healthy considering what she had been through. When I got my MBA in 1993, we took her to the graduation ceremony at Washburn University in Topeka. I think she was very proud.
A quirky thing she started doing was saving things. She would save sugar and butter packets, and cartons of milk. These were things that came with her meals and that she didn’t use. She didn’t even like milk and never drank it. But she saved them. Eventually we would have to throw them away.
Mom lived at Hillhaven until 1998, when she passed away on September 8 at the age of 79. She was in Hospice care her last couple of months. She, and Dad, are buried in Crocker Cemetery outside of Pittsburg, Kansas. They are next to her parents, my grandparents. The cemetery is about 7 miles from Asbury.
Suggested reading:
“A History of Jasper County, Missouri, and its People” by Joel Thomas Livingston, Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, New York & San Francisco, 1912.
“History of Jasper County, Missouri”; Des Moines, Iowa: Mills & Company, 1883.
Biography written by Kem & Becky Marcum; June, 2023.
[1] State of Missouri, Division of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Birth, Number 54232, Certified copy requested April 21, 1966.
[2] U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007; accessed on Ancestry.com.
[3] Ibid, State of Missouri, Certificate of Birth, Number 54232.
[4] State of Oklahoma, Marriage License, County of Ottawa, in County Court, Certificate of Marriage for Theodore Ed Marcum and Dorothy Maxine Hughes.
[5] This is from Maxine’s baby book, which we have.
[6] A History of Jasper County, Missouri, and its People, by Joel Thomas Livingston, Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, New York & San Francisco, 1912, Page 433.
[7] J.M. Rutherford Collection, George A. Spiva Library, Missouri Southern State University, Joplin, Missouri, Special Collections SC#7.
[8] This is from her diploma and graduation announcement, which we have.
[9] “Parsons Gets 35 Million Dollar Shell-loading Plant”, The Emporia Gazette, Tuesday, June 3, 1941.
[10] “Huge Output at Parsons Plant”, The Emporia Gazette, Friday, December 29, 1944.
[11] Polk’s Carthage (Jasper Co. Missouri) City Directory, 1950, located in U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995, accessed on Ancestry.com.
[12] 1950 United States Federal Census, accessed on Ancestry.com.
[13] This is from Maxine’s 1952 W2 form, which we have.
[14] This is from her 1953 W2, which we have.
[15] This is from her 1954, 1955 and 1956 W2’s, which we have.
[16] We have the documents Ed received that includes his diploma and his grade card. He got 96.6 points out of 100.
[17] We have a 1958 picture of the house and I have a picture I took in 2017.
[18] This is per a Newberrys charge card dated 7/7/1960, which we have. There is also a newspaper article that shows him as the meat market manager at Foodtown in Parsons; The Parsons Sun, Parsons, Kansas, June 1, 1960, Page 18, Column 4.
[19] The Parsons Sun, Parsons, Kansas, March 8, 1963, Page 24, Column 1.
[20] This is per Ed’s blood donor card dated 3/26/62, which has donation dates and locations on the back, it shows moving from Parsons to Joplin and then to Erie. The first Joplin donation is dated 8/28/63.
[21] The Parsons Sun, Parsons, Kansas, March 5, 1965, Page 7, Column 1.
[22] Home Demonstration Clubs; Wikipedia; accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_demonstration_clubs.
[23] The Parsons Sun, Parsons, Kansas, October 8, 1965, Page 7, Column 1.
[24] Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Wikipedia; accessed at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Order_of_Odd_Fellows.
[25] International Association of Rebekah Assemblies; Wikipedia; accessed at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Association_of_Rebekah_Assemblies.
[26] The Parsons Sun, Parsons, Kansas, January 15, 1970, Page 9, Column 3.
[27] American Legion; Wikipedia; accessed at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legion.
[28] We have the deed records for the purchase and later sale, and the mortgage record. These are from the Labette County Courthouse, Recorder of Deeds. The purchase price and subsequent sale price are not shown in the deeds, it is listed as one dollar.