Raymond's Mother and Father broke up housekeeping about 1928 or 1929. Aunt Alice came to stay with us awhile and never left. She lived with us 7 years until she died with asthma. She snapped a lot of green beans and shelled a lot of blackeyed peas in that time. Raymond’s Father was at our house when he died in 1929. He hadn’t been there long. Raymond’s Mother also lived with us most of the time the next 2 years before she died. Raymond had built on. 2 more shed rooms. We had to step down into the kitchen and one bedroom. Then in 1940 Raymond tore off the back rooms and put all the house under one roof with 3 bedrooms, living room, dining room and kitchen and our first inside bathroom, bungalow type, He dug a basement under the back rooms. Junior helped him and nearly dug too far. From time to time the rooms were paneled or sheetrocked until it was a nice snug home for our last years.

All of our children except Junior (Raymond Martin) started and graduated from Cement High School beginning with Elmer and Ruby in 1929. When Donald graduated the school presented us with a beautiful landscape picture for’ having graduated the most kids from the school. I believe the record still stands. All the girls except Betty went to some kind of college, Ruby, Iva and Bessie made teachers, but only Ruby got her degree at this time. She borrowed money from her Uncle George to go to Weatherford State Teachers College and stayed with them one year in Chickasha to go to the then Oklahoma College for Women. Her brother, Elmer, planted 10 acres of cotton the second year and she helped him with his crop during the summer. She taught one year at Kechi, then married. All 3 of the girls married and had families then started teaching again. The others married one by one. All together they presented us with a large number of wonderful grandchildren. All of them were’ raised up not to be afraid of hard work. We have gone through lots of hardships that made us appreciate the pleasures much more. We are proud of’ our family. God has richly blessed us in many ways. At this time we have 46 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren. Raymond retired from the oilfield at age 65 but continued with his farming, doing some carpenter work until he had emphysema so bad that he was not able to do anything. He passed from this life on Jan 3, 1968 in the Anadarko hospital and laid to rest in the Cement Cemetery.

Mother and Junior continued living at the home place until she passed away on April l2, 1971 also in the Anadarko hospital and was laid to rest along side Dad. I know there was a glorious reunion in heaven on that April 12. Junior passed from his life in Monahans, Texas on January 17, 1977 at age 45. He was living, with Ruby at the time. Another joyous reunion in heaven. He was laid to rest along with Mom, Dad and the baby brother in the Cement Cemetery.

Ruby added on the last paragraph as Mother had passed away.