My oldest sister was named Pearl, and she got hurt at school. She was the eldest. When she was eleven or twelve years old, she fell down and cracked the bone in her leg. My mother had a friend who was a doctor. My mother used to do washing and ironing for the doctor’s wife. The doctor came over and took care of my sister.

Poor Pearl was bedridden until after I was born—at least three or four years. In fact, it was so bad that the doctor arranged to take her to a specialist in Oklahoma City. They operated, but she had a very stiff leg for the rest of her life.

Eventually, I ended up living with my sister Pearl, and that is where I met my husband. She took care of me. She sent me to private schools and paid for it. She went into nursing.

My next sister was a girl named Muriel. She was a professional student. She went to school all the time. She never had children. Pearl also never had children.

Then came Earl. He was the father of Donna, who now lives in Carmel.

Next, my mother had Thelma.

Next there was Ira. We always called him “Dodge,” he always used to say his name as “eye-gee.”

When I was born at home, my sister Muriel helped to deliver me. Our whole family was very close. My sister Muriel used to tell me what I was born: “it’s a miracle. I kissed you from your feet up to your head.”
Because I was the youngest of the six children, everyone took care of me.


My Mother Remarries, but Her New Husband Has a Temper

When my mother remarried, she chose at Choctaw Indian. His mother was a full blooded Choctaw. His name was Tom Sorrels, and he looked quite Indian. He was from someplace near Bradley, Oklahoma.

Tom Sorrels had a temper. He used to beat my brother.

When I was little we lived in a house without running water or electricity. My mother had a stove that was used for cooking and for heating water for bathing. When it came time to take a bath each one of us would take a turn. The tub was on a porch.

One time, my father told me to go out on the porch and take a bath, but I was afraid. He was going to spank me, and make me go out and take a bath. But my sister Pearl said: “don’t you dare touch her. If you do, I will kill you!”

Pearl said that she would go with me to take a bath.

I had a half – sister who was born in October. In November of that year, I was five years old. That year, we moved up to Bradley.

My stepfather worked hard; he was a farmer. Tom and my mother had John, who was the youngest. John belonged to the seventh day Adventists so when he was called to serve in the Second World War, he would not carry a gun.

They put him in jail, and when he got out they gave him a job driving an ambulance in France. The job changed him, because he saw so much death.

When he came back he went back to school and became a dentist. He graduated from Loma Linda University in southern California. He had three boys, and the middle son also became a dentist; he just retired. That boy had an office in Ventura. He married, and had two girls.