Great Aunt Lucille
My grandaddy's big sister is still alive, and recently an article about her appeared in her local newspaper. It isn't available online anywhere else, so I transcribed it (easier than setting up my scanner, remembering how to use my OCR software and then cleaning up the bloopers afterward).
Roberts vividly recalls the day in the early 1930’s when the cloud of dirt and sand came rolling and boiling toward her home. She said there was no ground wind, not even a breeze underneath the cloud.
Roberts said the family from next door came over just before the dirt cloud struck. They all went inside her home and lit coal oil lamps before it became too dark. The cloud completely blotted out the sun. They feared it was the end of the world.
Roberts said someone suggested a game of dominoes to help pass the time. One of the women, who was walking the floor and wringing her hands, replied, “I’m not going to be caught playing dominoes when Jesus comes!”
Roberts also has a vivid memory of cattle starving and dying in the barren fields during the depression years. Her brother-in-law was hired to shoot the suffering cattle to end their misery. That was when Roberts first heard of the pressure cooker which was used to make the tough beef tender enough to eat.
Roberts retired from the Farmer’s Home Administration at the age of 65. “Not 65 and on day, but 65,” she said. She then began her travels. She has traveled to Alaska, all over Europe—several times, Scotland, Ireland, Jerusalem, Australia, England and New Zealand.
Roberts has lived through the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, WWI and WWII.
She believes the only reason her family was spared the ravages of the Spanish Flu is because her mother soaked sheets in a disinfectant, and hung them over all the doors and windows in their house.
Roberts was not fortunate enough to escape the typhoid fever epidemic. She had just begun attending the Texas Women’s College in Denton, Texas, when she was stricken with the fever and had to withdraw from college. She later attended and graduated from a business school in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Roberts loves to tell of the time during her childhood when her mother took charge. “One night my mother heard a commotion at the front gate of our house. She took her six-shooter and went to the front porch. There were three or four men on horses. My mother fired one shot into the air. The men mounted their horses and left. I have no doubt had any one of them opened the gate she would have shot him. I’m sure they had no doubt either. Afterward, my mother said she would find out who the men were because one of them would be bragging around town that he saw ole Miz Isaacs in her night gown,” Roberts said, while laughing.
Roberts remembers when communication was very different from today. She said the telephone operator was summoned by turning the crank on the side of a wooden box that hung on the wall with a mouthpiece protruding from it. The ear piece was attached to the box with a long cord. Roberts said she once called and asked the operator for a number. She was told by the operator, “It won’t do you any good to call her. She isn’t home. I just saw her going into the store across the street.”
Roberts believes her long life can be attributed to eating lots of milk and eggs, eight hours of sleep and eating three meals a day. She also believes socialization is very important. She said she has always been a joiner. She has been a member of the Eastern Star for 78 yrs. She is also a member of the Business and Professional Women’s Organization, the Twentieth-Century Club, and the La Femmes’ Red Hats Society.
Roberts still loves to read. Her eyesight is dimming but she has a large magnifying glass that she holds above the words in her books.
A wooden sign hangs outside the entrance door of Roberts’ apartment. The words carved into it reads[sic], “I plan to live forever. So far, so good.” When you see her whizzing by on that electric scooter with a big smile on her face, waving to everyone she passes, decked out in her wide-brimmed, floppy, red hat and purple clothes, headed for the bi-monthly meeting of the La Femmes’ Red Hat Society at Brookridge, there can be no doubt that she will do just that.
Evan and I went to see Aunt Lucille last summer, and she was in better shape than a lot of people in their seventies. Evan particularly enjoyed her sense of humor, and I was amazed at how much she is still able to do. Her daughter Janey (my dad's cousin) goes over every morning to help her dress, and Janey and her husband Bob take Aunt Lucille out for breakfast or icecream a couple of times a week.
Lucille Roberts Article
The Lawton Constitution
Monday, November 12, 2007
Pg 2c STYLES
Living History, not just reading it
Oldest resident recalls the days of hardships of early Oklahoma
Lucille Roberts, at 101, is the oldest resident at Brookridge Retirement and Assisted Living Community in Lawton where she has lived the past four years. She has not only read “The Grapes of Wrath,” she has lived during the hard times of the 1930’s Dust Bowl days.
Roberts has four children: Janey Robinson and Jack Roberts, both of Lawton, Finis Roberts Jr. of Springer N.M. and Philip Roberts of Tucson, Arizona. Roberts, born Lucille Isaacs on June 25, 1906 in Clayton, N.M. met and married their father, Finis, there in March 1928. Roberts was widowed 37 years later.
The Lawton Constitution
Monday, November 12, 2007
Pg 2c STYLES
Living History, not just reading it
Oldest resident recalls the days of hardships of early Oklahoma
Lucille Roberts, at 101, is the oldest resident at Brookridge Retirement and Assisted Living Community in Lawton where she has lived the past four years. She has not only read “The Grapes of Wrath,” she has lived during the hard times of the 1930’s Dust Bowl days.
Roberts has four children: Janey Robinson and Jack Roberts, both of Lawton, Finis Roberts Jr. of Springer N.M. and Philip Roberts of Tucson, Arizona. Roberts, born Lucille Isaacs on June 25, 1906 in Clayton, N.M. met and married their father, Finis, there in March 1928. Roberts was widowed 37 years later.
Roberts vividly recalls the day in the early 1930’s when the cloud of dirt and sand came rolling and boiling toward her home. She said there was no ground wind, not even a breeze underneath the cloud.
Roberts said the family from next door came over just before the dirt cloud struck. They all went inside her home and lit coal oil lamps before it became too dark. The cloud completely blotted out the sun. They feared it was the end of the world.
Roberts said someone suggested a game of dominoes to help pass the time. One of the women, who was walking the floor and wringing her hands, replied, “I’m not going to be caught playing dominoes when Jesus comes!”
Roberts also has a vivid memory of cattle starving and dying in the barren fields during the depression years. Her brother-in-law was hired to shoot the suffering cattle to end their misery. That was when Roberts first heard of the pressure cooker which was used to make the tough beef tender enough to eat.
Roberts retired from the Farmer’s Home Administration at the age of 65. “Not 65 and on day, but 65,” she said. She then began her travels. She has traveled to Alaska, all over Europe—several times, Scotland, Ireland, Jerusalem, Australia, England and New Zealand.
Roberts has lived through the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, WWI and WWII.
She believes the only reason her family was spared the ravages of the Spanish Flu is because her mother soaked sheets in a disinfectant, and hung them over all the doors and windows in their house.
Roberts was not fortunate enough to escape the typhoid fever epidemic. She had just begun attending the Texas Women’s College in Denton, Texas, when she was stricken with the fever and had to withdraw from college. She later attended and graduated from a business school in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Roberts loves to tell of the time during her childhood when her mother took charge. “One night my mother heard a commotion at the front gate of our house. She took her six-shooter and went to the front porch. There were three or four men on horses. My mother fired one shot into the air. The men mounted their horses and left. I have no doubt had any one of them opened the gate she would have shot him. I’m sure they had no doubt either. Afterward, my mother said she would find out who the men were because one of them would be bragging around town that he saw ole Miz Isaacs in her night gown,” Roberts said, while laughing.
Roberts remembers when communication was very different from today. She said the telephone operator was summoned by turning the crank on the side of a wooden box that hung on the wall with a mouthpiece protruding from it. The ear piece was attached to the box with a long cord. Roberts said she once called and asked the operator for a number. She was told by the operator, “It won’t do you any good to call her. She isn’t home. I just saw her going into the store across the street.”
Roberts believes her long life can be attributed to eating lots of milk and eggs, eight hours of sleep and eating three meals a day. She also believes socialization is very important. She said she has always been a joiner. She has been a member of the Eastern Star for 78 yrs. She is also a member of the Business and Professional Women’s Organization, the Twentieth-Century Club, and the La Femmes’ Red Hats Society.
Roberts still loves to read. Her eyesight is dimming but she has a large magnifying glass that she holds above the words in her books.
A wooden sign hangs outside the entrance door of Roberts’ apartment. The words carved into it reads[sic], “I plan to live forever. So far, so good.” When you see her whizzing by on that electric scooter with a big smile on her face, waving to everyone she passes, decked out in her wide-brimmed, floppy, red hat and purple clothes, headed for the bi-monthly meeting of the La Femmes’ Red Hat Society at Brookridge, there can be no doubt that she will do just that.
Evan and I went to see Aunt Lucille last summer, and she was in better shape than a lot of people in their seventies. Evan particularly enjoyed her sense of humor, and I was amazed at how much she is still able to do. Her daughter Janey (my dad's cousin) goes over every morning to help her dress, and Janey and her husband Bob take Aunt Lucille out for breakfast or icecream a couple of times a week.
Aunt Lucille uses a motorized wheelchair, but she can get up out of her lounge chair and walk to it, using a walker, without anyone's assistance. For exercise, she walks about a hundred feet up her corridor and back. She has had terrible arthritis pain for decades, and for a couple of years, she couldn't take a step without excruciating pain. Fortunately, new medications are helping her a lot, making some walking possible again.
Anyway, when I grow up, I want to be like my Aunt Lucille.
Labels: Family History
posted by Jeannette | 9:47 AM
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