Obituary of Belle Sparks McKenney

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Belle Sparks McKenney obit

Belle Sparks McKenney was the daughter of James Sparks and Carrie Burch, and wife of George W. McKenney Jr.

Larry McCombs supplied Belle’s obituary:

Mrs. G. W. McKenney

Belle M. SPARKS, daughter of James and Carrie SPARKS, was born January 14, 1868, in Shelby County Illinois, and departed this life, December 28, 1935, at the home of her son, J. A. MCKENNEY in Sedan at the age of 67 years, 11 months and 14 days.

She, with her parents, came to Kansas in 1873, where they settled on a claim on Limestone Prairie, where she lived until June 3, 1883, when she was united in marriage to George W. McKENNEY at Elgin, Kansas.

To this union, four children were born: James Albert, of Sedan; Mabel Clair TRIPP of Sidler, Okla; and two daughters, Cleo May, who died in childhood; and Carrie Isabel HAMPTON who preceded her mother in death a few years ago.

She, together with her husband, united with the Methodist Episcopal church in Kay County, Oklahoma in 1897. She later transferred her membership to the Methodist Episcopal church of Sedan, where she was a member.

She was a member of both the Rebeckah and Eastern Star Lodges.

Besides her companion and children, she leaves to mourn her death, two sisters, Mrs. Mary TRIPP and Mrs. Martha THOMAS, both of Pawhuska, Oklahoma; eight grand-children and two great-grandchildren, and a host of other relatives and friends.

She was a loving wife and mother and a friend to all who knew her.

Funeral services were conducted at the United Brethren church at Chautauqua, Kansas, at 3:00 o’clock p.m., Sunday, December 29, 1935, with Rev. Howard C. BENTON officiating, assisted by Rev. WILSON.

A mixed quartet composed of Misses Dorothy TULLOSS, Inez BUTTERFIELD, B. J. FUNK and T. E. HESS, rendered the following numbers: “Asleep in Jesus,” “In the Garden” and “The City Foursquare.” They were accompanied at the piano by Mrs. J. O. TULLOSS.

A short memorial service was conducted by the Easter Star Lodge at the church.

The pall-bearers were: Arthur BRUNGER, G. K. CROCKETT, C. M. HUNT, J. M. GWALTNEY, Wm. BRUNER and A. B. COOVER.

Those from out-of-town attending the funeral were: Mr. and Mrs. F. B. TRIPP and daughter, Georgia, of Shidler; Mrs. Mary TRIPP, Mrs. Martha THOMAS, and Mrs. Nannie WHITEHORN of Pawhuska; Mrs. Adda MCWHIRT and Mr. Harry MCWHIRT of Hominy; Mrs. Hattie MOORE of Oklahoma City; Mr. and Mrs. Ralph SPRAY of Catoosa, L. C. MCKENNEY of Ponca City; Thelma MCKENNEY of Wichita; Mr. and Mrs. Paul BLAKE of Shidler; Mr. B. COOK of Kaw City; and Mr. CAMPBELL of Ponca City.

Interment was in the Chautauqua cemetery with Baird Funeral Home in charge.

It may be incorrect but Mabel Claire’s obituary gives the family as having moved to Pawhuska OK when she was young, which would have been in Osage Indian Territory. But Belle’s obituary places them in Kay County, next to the Osage Indian Territory, in 1897, the year Carrie Isabel was born.

Ray Noyes Family Gathering

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Noyes Family Gathering

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Noyes Family Gathering (fix)

Courtesy of Nancy Benton we have this photo of a Noyes family gathering in Liberal, Missouri circa 1932.

From left to right: Jamie Noyes; Ray Noyes behind Mary Lou Noyes; Charles Bryant with Viola Noyes Harmon in front of him and Kathleen Bryant in front of Viola; Pansy Bryant, Lloyd McKinney with Dorothy in front of him and Jim McKinney in front of her; Ray Bryant with Delana Brewer in front of him; Betty Noyes. Photo circa 1932 or 1933, taken on the South side of the Noyes home, a mile east and about 1/2 mile south of the town of Liberal. The image is courtesy Nancy Benton who supplies identification.

Jamie, Mary Lou, Viola, Pansy and Dorothy (direct line) were children of Ray Noyes and Bettie Brewer. Charles Bryant was married to Pansy. Viola Noyes Harmon was Ray’s sister and wife of Ollie Harmon. Delana Brewer was Bettie Brewer Noyes’ mother.

Dorothy Noyes and Lloyd McKenney

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Dorothy and Lloyd McKenney

Lloyd Clinton McKenney, b. Jan 28 1909 in Chautauqua Co., Kansas, on July 28 1928 married, at Girard, Crawford, Kansas, Dorothy Nadeen Noyes b. Jan 13 1908 at Liberal, Barton, Missouri.

Dorothy died April 28, 1985 at Carthage, Jasper, Missouri. Lloyd died Nov 17 1992 at Fort Scott, Bourbon, Kansas.

Lloyd was a son of James Albert McKenney and Vera Crockett. Dorothy was daughter of Ray Noyes and Elizabeth Jane “Bettie” Brewer.

Lloyd and Dorothy McKenney in Carthage

Lloyd and Dorothy McKenney in Carthage

Lloyd and Dorothy’s Home in Carthage

The home of Lloyd and Dorothy Mckenney on Riverside Drive in Carthage, Missouri. They lived here in the 50s through the 80s. Dorothy had decorated it in a combination of mid-twentieth century modern and antiques, with some Japanese flavor sprinkled about here and there, textiles and walls in predominately green hues that were cool and restful to the eye, so with the large tree outside the living room had the feeling of being the extension of a shaded bower. It was always organized, fastidiously clean.

View from right

View from right

View from front

View from front

View from left

View from left

MORE RECOLLECTIONS FROM LLOYD CLINTON MCKENNEY

MORE RECOLLECTIONS FROM LLOYD CLINTON MCKENNEY

These are my notes from a conversation with Lloyd about 1981. — jk

Lloyd Clinton McKENNEY started school at about the age of 6 at the Crockett schoolhouse in Chautauqua County, Kansas which was located 1/4 mile from the main house. He says the kitchen at the farm house was the full width of the main house, a step or two down from it. One walked out of the kitchen into the cellar, the front of it was a concrete wall. It was a large room used as a refrigerator. Above it was the cellar house where the hired man lived. One could walk out of the second story of the main house and across the roof of the kitchen–it was used as a sleeping area during the summer time–and down the steps to the cellar house.

The family income came mostly from oil field teeming operations. James (Lloyd’s father) had teems working in oil fields–moved drilling rigs and took care of property. Run by horse power; father usually had two wagons. The farm was set up for two operations: grandfather Samuel Kelly CROCKETT had the North barn and buildings while James had the South barn, granaries and buildings.

This was how things were until Lloyd was 12. Then his parents moved in with his grandparents.

There were now three generations living in the house and this made it the meeting place. There was always company.

Heat came from a gas well on the farm, as well as light, gaslights.

The “old farmhouse” had burned with Lloyd was not a year old, a blaze in which James Kelly Crockett died. The new farmhouse was built.

The schoolhouse itself was only two rooms. It had a principal and one other teacher.

Grandfather George Washington McKENNEY Jr. gave Lloyd a horse when he was about five.

Lloyd started farming and driving a car when he was six. There was no age limit on driving then. The roads were hills and rock.

The milk cows were turned out onto the open range. The lead cow had a bell and that’s how one would find the cows if they didn’t come up. One had to go and find them with the help of that bell.

The farm had wheat, corn, oats. They didn’t sell the grain but fed it to the livestock. Little fields. 10 to 20 acres.

There was no high school nearby.

When Lloyd was 12 he was sent to Sedan, the county seat. The Crockett grandparents had moved there by this time. An uncle’s wife had died and left three children: the Crocketts took care of them. (This was probably George Keithly Crockett’s wife who died, Blanch Margaret Landis. She died 3 June 1921 and Lloyd would have been 12 that year.)

Lloyd left the farm for good when he was sixteen. In his senior year he went to Bonner Springs and lived with relatives–a sister of Vera, his mother.

After graduation from business college Lloyd was secretary to the master mechanic at Chanute, KS on the RR.

NOTES ON PHOTOS

Lloyd had some photos which are not on the website. I (JMK) recorded descriptions of them back bout 1981 when I saw them. Following are the descriptions.

There is a photo from the early 1900s, a family portrait of George Washington McKENNEY Jr. and his wife and their children before the farmhouse, George etc. Lloyd says, “George did more work doing nothing.” Was lazy but good natured and the depression really hurt him. In the picture the sons all have plain, simple expressions. There are lace curtains hanging in the simple frame windows of the house. Note: Because I wrote sons, and George McKenney Jr. only had one son, I’m thinking instead this may have been a photo of the family of Samuel Kelly Crockett, father of Vera who married James Albert McKenney, George McKenney’s son. Samuel Kelly Crockett had five sons.

Lloyd’s Chautauqua High School picture from when he was 14, 1923-24. His second cousin George JACK is in the picture–tall, a basketball player. George is a handsome youth with strong features, wearing a white sweater. He played basketball in Pittsburgh. The depression hit this George hard as well; he couldn’t find work. He died when he was only 24 years old with a wasting disease Lloyd doesn’t recollect the name of. In front of this brick schoolhouse, in the sun, on the steps, is Lloyd dressed in a shirt and tie. He looks very young and a little soft compared to some of the other students. Beside him stands a fellow Lloyd identifies as Tuton Fuller, a trapper. Lloyd says Fuller lived a “tough life” in scrub oak or what is called “black jack timber”. The rest of the bunch is a mix of fellows in limp shirts, straggly longish hair, work-worn boots and youths dressed in sharp shirts, ties, bowties. The girls wear longish, shapeless dresses, waistlines about their hips, short squared-off hair. Pauline JACK, sister of George is in the photo. Lloyd says the school no longer exists.

There is a photo of G. W. MCKENNEY Jr. He and Belle in younger times. Addie MCWHIRT, looking a bit plain, wears granny type glasses and a sour expression. George is relaxed, in his prime–handlebar mustache, white shirt, pocket watch with a bullet hanging from the chain. Lloyd identifies him as being the one who made the Oklahoma land run. He had gone out prior to the run and chosen the land he wanted. By the time he got out there were squatters (“sooners”) already on the land–people who had cheated by coming in the back way. As he was not able to prove that they had not participated in the run he lost the case. The bullet probably dangles from his chain because he was a sheriff in Chautauqua (Note: sheriff’s deputy). Lloyd says he was five feet six inches tall.

There is a picture of the old Crockett farmhouse. George W. MCKENNEY JR. and Belle stand beside it, rather stiff and staunch. The yard is brush. The men wear overalls. The women wear sun hats made of straw. The farmhouse looks plain, laid bare to the sun. Baked.

The picture of the Crockett schoolhouse shows it stands on bare earth. Lloyd is very young in this picture, eight or nine years of age. The little girls wear dark stockings, low sash dresses with skirts cut just below their knees, high-top boots. The boys are dressed in overalls or trousers and newspaper boy caps. Three girls to one side hold hands. There are older girls who appear to almost be women. A tall, smiling figure of a boy wears a man’s hat and overalls–Lloyd says this fellow never made it past the third grade, but he looks to be about the most proud of the bunch here.

Dorothy and Lloyd’s wedding picture. He’s a handsome, slender youth with deep-set eyes. Dorothy looks essentially the same as when older–dressed very prettily with the jewels about her neck, the fashionably crimped hair, the black strap dress with its sheer black cover-up. A very handsome picture of the both of them. This photo is in the photo portion of the website.

A picture of James Albert McKENNEY. He always looks stern and stiff in his photos.

Another photo of the CROCKETT schoolhouse, but this is from when Vera CROCKETT was a girl. The women wear their hair pulled to the top of their heads, high-neck white blouses and high laced boots.

A photo of James Albert MCKENNEY, Samuel Kelly CROCKETT with other men and their teams of horses.

Baby pictures of George JACK, very full of life. Baby pictures of Lloyd.

There is an old photo of Lloyd as a radio announcer.

An old photo of Lela and Thelma together.

Ray Noyes’ Obituaries

Ray Noyes, husband of Elizabeth Jane “Bettie” Brewer, was the son of James Allen Noyes and Caroline Atwell Noyes. He lived in Liberal, Missouri. Ray is of our line.

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Lamar Democrat Obituary

LAMAR DEMOCRAT obituary (Tuesday, January 21, 1941) for Ray NOYES reads:
“Ray Noyes dead–Ray NOYES, one of West Barton’s best known men, died at his home just west of Liberal at 4:15 Monday morning. The cause of his death was coronary occlusion, a spasmodic contraction of the arteries of the heart. He had suffered a good deal for several years from cardiac asthma thugh he was always up and about. Ray Noes was born at Anna, Illinois, January 4, 1874. He had just passed his 67th anniversary. He was the son of James A. and Caroline NOYES. When a lad of eight he came to Barton County with his parents, in 1882. The family made the trip in a covered wagon. Ray’s father bought and improved a farm near Liberal, Ray grew up in the Liberal community and was destined to live there for fifty nine years — to the end of his days. In 1895 he married Miss Betty BREWER. He leaves her together with five children, one son and four daughters. The son is Mr. James R. NOYES, northwest Barton’s largest and most successful farmer. The daughters are Mrs. Charles BRYANT of Liberal, Mrs. Cora DICKSON of Shreveport, Mrs. Lloyd MCKINNIE of Ponca City, and Mrs. Phil HURT of Laurenburg, NC.”

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Last Rites Were at Home

LAST RITES WERE AT HOME

With All His Childlren and Many Friends Gathered to Pay Final Tribute to Liberal’s Notable Citizens, Ray Noyes, As the Casket Lay In the Home, Final Services Were Held After Which the Casket Was Escorted to Its Last Resting Place in the Liberal Cemetery

Funeral services were held for the late Ray Noyes, at the family home, just west of Liberal, at 11 o’clock Wednesday a.m. Mrs. Noyes was yet unable to sit up and was compelled to be in bed during the services. Her daughters wrapped her warmly and supported her to the side of the casket where she took a last, lingering, loving look at the features of the husband of her youth. They put her back to bed before the services started.

A large group of relatives were present from out of the county. Bob Harmon brought his mother Mrs. O. E. Harmon, Ray’s only sister, from Shreveport. Mrs. Paul Noyes was present from Springfield.

All of the children were present. Mrs. Phil Hurt was there from Laurenburg, North Caroline; Mrs. Cora Dixon was present from Shreveport. Mrs. Lloyd McKennie, with her husband and her two sons, was there from Ponca City.

Carl Kenantz directed the funeral. Rev. Earl Bingham conduced the service. Miss (cut off) Bette Lee Bainter? sang Whispering Hope and Beautiful Isel of Somewhere. They were accompanied upon the piano by Miss Geraldine Sechrist.

The casket bearers were Robert Sweatt, Ewin Lipscomb, Buford Harkins, Robert Williams, Frank Curless Jr., and Mas Davidson Jr.

The flower bearers were the members of the Friendly Folks club. There was a fine floral offering and upon the casket was a beautiiful piece wrought from lillies and red roses.

Following the service at the home, the casket was escorted to the Liberal cemetery where the frail body of this notable, vibrant and vital poineer of Liberal was reverently lowered to its final rest.

Courtesy Nancy Benton. Transcribed by JMK

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Ray Noyes Obituary

FRIDAY, Jaunary 24, 1941

Ray Noyes Dies After One Week’s Illness

Ray Noyes, aged 67, died at his home two and one half miles southeast of Liberal at 4:15 January 20 after a week’s illness of flu and complications.

Mr. Noyes was well known throughout the county as a very successful and prosperous farmer. He was a good man and a substantial citizen. He was worthy of and had the respect of the entire community. He was devoted to his family, by whom he will be greatly missed, and passing represents a loss to the entire commuity.

Ray Noyes was the son of James A. and Caroline Noyes. He was born at Anna, Ill., January 4, 1874. In 1882 he came with his parents to Barton county in a covered wagon. He was marrried to Miss Betty Brewer in 1895. To this union five children were born, namely Mrs. Chas. Bryant of northeast of Liberal; Mrs. Cora Dickson of Shreveport, LA; Mrs. Loyd McKennie, Ponca City, Okla; Mrs. Philip Hurt, Laurinburg, N.C., and Jim Noyes of near Liberal. There are ten grand children and one great grand child. He also leaves a sister, Mrs. Viola Harmon, formerly of Liberal but now of Monroe, La.

Funeral services were held at the home Wednesday morning at 11:00 o’clock with Rev. Earl Bingham of Mapleton, Kans., officiating.

The many beautiful flower sprays expressed the esteem and sympathy the folk of this community have for the family.

Burial was in the Liberal cemetery. The Konantz Funeral Service had charge of the body.

All the children were present for the funeral also his sister, Mrs. Harmon and son Bob Harmon of Monroe, La.

Transcribed by JMK

Obituaries are courtesy of Nancy Benton.

THE FARM ON LIMESTONE PRAIRIE

My grandfather sent this to me in 1978, which concerns the family farm in Chautauqua county, Kansas that was shared by the McKenneys and Samuel Kelly Crockett and his wife, Sadie Hackney Crockett. The Crockett school is mentioned and my grandfather showed me an old photo of it once, from when he was a boy, and I would imagine my cousins in Kansas have that photo somewhere.

Does the limestone rock survive into which was chiseled 1871, the date the land was purchased by the James Kelly Crockett?

THE FARM ON LIMESTONE PRAIRIE

Recollections of Lloyd McKENNEY
13 December 1978

My first and very faint recollection is of a farm home on the limestone prairie on east side of the road about three miles north of Chautauqua, Kansas, and about four miles south of Sedan, Kansas in Chautauqua County, Kansas. My date of birth is 1/29/19. When I was about 4 years of age, we moved to the CROCKETT farm, to make our home with my mother’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. K. CROCKETT. The farm was purchased by my great grand-parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. K. CROCKETT in 1871. The date is chiseled in the face of one of the large limestone rocks that are the rimrocks of the hill behind the house location. Their farm where they lived prior to the move was near Nevada, Missouri. They had owned slaves, who were freed after the Civil War. Grandfather CROCKETT told me one of his early recollections was that of playing with the children of the slaves, in a road or play area that was in front of their homes. And that it was a pleasant memory. Our farm house was a two story, frame structure, with a kitchen one or two steps lower than the living-dining area, of about ten foot width and possibly thirty feet long (width of the house). A door opened from the kitchen into a large cellar area. The yard was divided into an upper and lower area with a mall separating the two areas. And there was a house over the cellar, with a porch and steps up, to walk across the flat roof over the kitchen into the upstairs of the house. The cellar house was for storage and living quarters for hired men etc.

Great grandfather CROCKETT apparently constructed a second set of barns and buildings needed when my grandparents moved there. The land owned by Great grandfather CROCKETT had been divided between the two sisters and my grandfather. There were some shallow oil wells and one gas well on the farm. They were pumped by a pumper who lived in the lease house on the portion of land owned by Mrs. W. E. LEMON (one of the sisters), and her husband, he was a lease operator and attorney who lived on a lease three or four miles east of there and had that lease along with others. A gas line about a half mile long to the well provided gas for our lights and heat, and cooking for all the years I know anything about.

The combination of incomes…oil field work (my father kept one team that he drove and sometimes a second and/or third oil field team at work in the oil fields…hauling, pulling, rods, casing, etc., for most of the time I lived at home). When not needed for oil field activity, there was the farming that was never without need for more work and activity, over and above the planting, cultivating and harvesting. It was a very busy…, more work than could be accomplished, time.

The school, originally known as the CROCKETT School, was on the land out of one corner of the CROCKETT land, a quarter mile east of the house in which we lived, and we drove down our road to the school grounds and around the north and of the two room, two teacher school house and out to the road in front, where our mail box was located along the road. It was a good school, paid the highest wages of any rural school in the county at one time (so I was told back then). Grades 4 through 8 were taught by the principal of the school, 1 through 4 and kindergarten by the other teacher.

The valley in which we lived was surrounded on north, west and south, from where we lived, by hills. Our farm buildings and house were on a mostly sloping area…flat where the house located and a flat parking area to the south…sloping where the south barn located (sloping to the east) and sloping from the north barn, mostly to the south. There were quite a number of buildings on the land around…to the north and northeast of the house…yard, directly east, parking to the south…several chicken houses including main chicken house and roosts, a newer addition to the east consisting of laying house and area for the layers in the house, and fenced in chicken yard…a fenced in area north of the chicken house containing another laying house (roosting house) for the best of the Rhode Island Reds (all of that breed) hens and roosters that were selected for breeding stock…from which chickens were added. There were possibly 50 hens and a few roosters in this area during part of each year…and open for all during other periods. And north of that larger area fenced in with possibly 12 foot high posts and chicken wire…numerous smaller individual houses or coops for each hen and a group of chicks during incubating season. Other far buildings, in addition to those mentioned included a combination carriage house…garage, with vise, forge and shop area in front portion, a milk cow area to east of that with cattle stalls on east side of carriage house, basically milking stalls and surrounded by a tall fence. To the north of that area was the hog pen area, with a hog shed and feed and water troughs along the north side of this penned in area…and they could be kept in the north area, or given the run of the entire area hog fenced. The north barn was to the northwest of that area, on level land and consisted of barn…stalls on each side, aisle between…a covered driveway at back of those portions and granaries north of the drive way…equipment etc. stored in the driveway and animals could be kept there also, and another fenced in area to east of that had a cow shed in it. To west of that barn was the windmill (no longer operative in later years, area, with gas engine and tanks for stock water…a rather deep well. Outside the fence on the north was the cattle feeding area for cattle outside the housing area, part of the time a feeding rack made of poles, and another area fenced, in which bundled feed was kept…also stacked feed or hay…to be carried out of there to the stock during winter. South of the north barn was the carriage house, in which the automobile was kept on east side and buggy and surrey on the other side for a long time. A water tank was half on each side of fence dividing the two barn areas, gravity flow water from big tank at north well. Another well with pump, hand operated, was in the south barn area. The south barn also had stalls on both the east and west sides, mangers and feed boxes between…hay loft above in same manner as north barn…and a feed building to south…and a machinery shed with partially covered area for equipment and building containing areas divided by partitions for grain and feed…also front part had harness repair area. Binder was usually under the covered area for implements and a spring wagon. The heavy oil field wagons chains, boomers etc. The vegetable garden was between chicken house and south barn area just north of yard area east of house…other yard area and automobile parking area was to south of house.

Transcribed by JMK 2001

McKenney Bible Images

Thanks to my cousins for sending photocopies of these pages to me.

Lloyd McKenney’s bible was used for recording some family history. I didn’t see it until about 2003. The genealogy I received as a child wasn’t in the bible, it was instead on loose paper, but in the case of the Hackney and McKenney families it was much as in the bible. The Crockett’s went back more generations.

We have a page recording the bible was a gift from a Rev. Paul Barth of the First Luther Church of Ponca City, Oklahoma in 1944.

All the below images link to larger images.

The below page records a brief history of Samuel and Sadie Elizabeth Hackney Crockett, written by Sadie on Sep 29, 1931, transcribed by Lloyd into the bible.

The below page is Lloyd’s recording of the McKenney line from George W. McKenney and Isabel. A good bit of info was missing on the family at that time.

The below page concerns again the Hackneys and also the Crocketts.

Lloyd notes a trip made to Tennessee to try to verify the Crockett genealogy.

Lloyd writes of the gift of the bible to him and that his sister, Thelma, had it rebound for him.

Lloyd’s notes on bible verses.

Lloyd McKenney as Child

Lloyd Clinton McKenney

A beautiful photo from 1909-1910 that shows ancestor Lloyd Clinton McKenney as a child, and a happy one at that. The photo would have been likely taken in Chautauqua County, Kansas, where the family lived. Lloyd was the son of James Albert McKenney and Vera Crockett.

FROM 1923 TO WAR YEARS AND EARLY RADIO

FROM 1923 TO WAR YEARS AND EARLY RADIO

Recollections of Lloyd McKENNEY
29 January 1979

…I had graduated from high school…had to stay in Sedan the first two years…no high school closer…my grandparents (CROCKETTS) had moved there to take care of children of a son whose wife had died (George CROCKETT). I stayed with them. A consolidated school had been completed by then at Chautauqua, which was a good farm and oil town then, had a railroad station, etc. So my junior year was there…and was sent to Bonner Springs, Kansas, to live with an aunt and uncle…the FLEMINGS, my mother’s sister and her husband who now lives in Rogers, Arkansas…he is 90, for my senior year. Their daughter, my cousin, called me yesterday.

The fall of 1925, had graduated from high school at Bonner Springs, where my uncle was the superintendent, was enrolled in business college at Coffeyville, Kansas…graduated following spring, went to work for Santa Fe at Chanute, Kansas, quit after a year to attend college at KSTC, now a University, and after acquiring nearly two year’s credits in summer and August sessions and the following year in the college, went back to work for the Santa Fe, and we were married that summer. I had a job, Gram had things she had acquired before and while in college and we got on the train, with railroad passes and went to Ottowa, Kansas, where I again had a job with the Santa Fe…worked there a while, went back and completed some work at college, then back to the Santa Fe at Emporia…worked as a secretary to the superintendent for a while and travelled on the private railroad car, and lived there about half the time….Gram was then caring for Jim. The depression hit, employees were moved back to prior jobs, we were found an office job in Enid, Oklahoma about 1930 and moved there…from there went to Continental Oil and Ponca City, your father was born and knows family happenings to some extent since then.

When we were in Ponca City, and war was imminent, took a night class course in radio communications…then started working part time at KBBZ (first letter W stations are nearly all east of the Mississippi…K’s west). There was no record industry at that time, nor was there a radio news service…the station was financially broke…I worked for nothing for a number of months at first…no pay check of any kind…and did everything because there was at one time only three of us…one full time boy, part time engineer and myself…were the staff. I programmed it with what was available…a very few albums of classical and semi-classical music. The popular recorded industry was yet to develop, the radio news wire was yet to come…we wrote our own news, or would “rip and read” part from newspapers.

Then, a few more recordings meant alot…we used live talent, live emceed all the live talent we could muster, and used what we could get to help radio become better, and many others did the same, and it did.

It has been my experience that most people want to help and many have helped me, and your grandmother had to carry much more of a load, and Joel and Jim carry more, for us to move ahead, and that we did…through a concerted effort. It wasn’t something each necessarily preferred to do, it was what each did that counted…and each certainly did help, and did develop abilities and the character to do what needed to be done, and what each wished to do in a proper and sincere manner.

I have great pride in what each has done…and it has been a concerted effort and continuing effort…quite possibly something each more or less had to do…and is still doing…and which you will do…and keep on doing.

Lloyd McKENNEY