Safeway Grocery Store - Stephenville, Texas 1956

This is a picture of the Safeway Grocery Store employees in Stephenville, Texas. My father, Leon Fremont Richards, is second from the left on the back row. My step-mom, Mildred Smith Hicks, is second from the left (first woman on left) in front row. This was taken before they were married, I believe, around the year 1956. They met while working for Safeway and each of them worked in the meat department.

They were married January 25, 1958 in Desdemona, Erath Co., Texas and spent 27 wonderful, happy years together. My father died of lung cancer on April 8, 1985 and Mildred died with Alzheimer's disease on May 4, 2001. She never remarried.

A Puckett cousin of mine wrote me the following, "That is neat, Judy! You know, we have a plaque on the office wall at the IGA grocery store where I work that says "You really can meet the man of your dreams at a Grocery Store!"

Looks like my step-mom did just that!

Spence with His Oliver 66

This is one of my favorite pictures.

WHO: William Spence Davis, Sr.
Father of William Spence, Jr., Marilee, and Suzanne
Husband of Mary Sue Delozier
Son of James Pinkney Davis and Sue Burns Davis

WHAT: Photograph taken on his farm at the foot of the Smokey Mountains in Maryville, Tennessee.

WHEN: Taken in the early 1950s by his daughter, Marilee.

WHERE: His grandson, Robert Allen "Bobby" Shubert remembered his mom going out into the cornfield and asking to take his picture. Bobby said "Grandpa said reluctantly, oh, alright!" He was cultivating the cornfield with his Oliver 66 tractor.

WHY: This is one of my favorites because my husband, Bobby, treasures it. He spent many summers working on the dairy farm with his grandpa, his uncle, cousins and little brother. He enjoyed those summers and has many stories about the times he and his brother spent there. Bobby drove that tractor, saying he spent many hours gazing at the Blue Ridge just over the rise, then looking back at the uneven rows of his plowing!

I enlarged this little 3 x 5 picture to an 8 x 10 for Shubert's Christmas present a year ago. He was so surprised he was nearly speechless. He proudly tells our visitors stories about the picture, the Oliver 66 and his time on the dairy.

9th Edition Smile for the Camera: Who are You?"

Who ARE You? I Really Want to Know?

When I posted a favorite picture of my grandmother, Edna Puckett Gailey, and wished that I could put her in my Christmas stocking, it caused a flurry of conversation between Greta Koehl and myself. Greta writes the blog, “Greta's Genealogy Bog“, and when she saw my picture she said she was given “a real jolt.”

Greta and I decided to do a joint entry in “9th Edition Smile for the Camera: Who are You?” since we are pursuing the same surnames. You can read her part of this post at "Greta's Genealogy Bog". When she thought my grandmother looked familiar she began searching through her mother’s old photos to find the one that she thought looked like her. I don’t know whether or not she’s found it, but we have been busy trying to tie our common surnames together.

For one thing, we both have the name Puckett and Roberts in our family. There are several coincidences that have intrigued us. As for the Pucketts, both apparently lived in various parts of Texas (mostly in the north-central area) and mine originated in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, just across the state line. The state of Tennessee plays a prominent role in our history as well as California. It’s all confusing but most interesting.

My great-grandmother, Alice Cook Roberts Puckett, was a widow with 3 children when she married my great-grandfather, Harvey Vandegar Puckett. As family legend goes, when they got married, Alice’s mother wouldn’t let her take the children with her to that marriage. I assume she had been helping her raise them and couldn’t bring herself to let them go. [As another coincidence quite unrelated to this tale, Edna did the same thing with 3 of her grandchildren – me and my sisters. She and Doc helped raise us and insisted we stay put when my daddy remarried.]

Anyway, back to my list of similarities. Family legend says that Alice became a widow when her husband had an accident on a farm tractor and was killed, leaving her with the 3 children. His name was Marion Roberts.

Greta’s mother married a man named Roberts and his brother, Lattie Monroe Roberts, fell off his tractor, which ran over him and killed him, leaving a widow and 3 children.

There are family names that are the same as well. On the Puckett side the name Chancey appears two or three times in my line as well as in Greta’s. We have found several photos of young girls or women in knit caps and we are trying to determine if any of our pictures are of the same person.

I decided on the photo above after finding it in Edna’s photo album. It only has a first name written on the back and I have no idea who she is. She may be a Puckett or a Roberts. Greta and I are hoping that some of our cousins will see these Mystery photographs and be able to identify someone. Greta, do you recognize this picture? Anyone?

Photo belonging to Edna Alice Puckett Gailey
Scrapbook in the possession of her granddaughter
Judith Richards Shubert

Grandma Gailey Made-Do

Grandma Edna Puckett Gailey
with two of her six grandchildren
Linda Kay Stone and Judy Richards

As kids we used to always go to "Seven Mile Park" for picnics. I remember when I was just a little girl the entire family would pack up in the car and drive the few miles south of town for a picnic and an Easter egg hunt. It was a beautiful place-full of rocks to climb and places to hide. There was a view to die for. I remember when I came back home after being married and living away in other states I was disappointed that the view that we had enjoyed was marred by taller trees and bushes, obscuring the wonderful Texas rolling hills that are so beautiful. I thought the least the Texas Department of Highways could do was to preserve that view! Guess I was wrong. You still can't see for miles like you could when I was a child.

Grandma used to pack up boxes with fried chicken, deviled eggs, potato salad, cakes and cupcakes. I don't remember what the picnic basket looked like, but I imagine it was a cardboard box, not a fancy whicker basket.

She made wonderful potato salad and I make it the same way-with pickle relish, celery, onions, pimento, boiled eggs, mayonnaise and mustard mixed into potatoes that have been creamed with milk and butter. Yum!

I hope I expressed to Grandma my gratitude for the food she always prepared for us as kids. She always had something good to eat when we came home from school and on the weekends. She didn't have a lot of money - but neither did a lot of people back in the early 50s. I remember many times when she would send me up to the corner store to buy 1 onion, or a can of tomatoes so she could make her wonderful vegetable soup. She didn't use meat. The soup was a make-do meal that she served with fantastic cornbread. (I still can't make that cornbread like she did.)

Anyway, I was remembering Grandma this morning and how she "made-do" and how we as Americans are learning a little more about that in this particular time in history.

Show your gratitude. Tell your parents and grandparents thank you! I wish I had done that more often.

Unidentified Family Members with Harvey & Alice Puckett

This picture was sent to me by that same cousin in Chickasha, Oklahoma whom I spoke of in the previous post. I was able to identify some of the family.

That is my great-grandfather, Harvey Vandegar Puckett, on the left and great-grandmother, Alice Cook Roberts Puckett standing to the right of him. That's my grandmother, Edna Alice Puckett Gailey, third from the right standing behind her twins, Vernelle and Maedelle. Her other daughter, Irene, MAY be the other little girl and I don't know who the little boy is.

My cousin wrote: Judy, I am so glad that you could identify all those others in the photo! Yes, I recognized Uncle Harve and Aunt Alice, but had no idea as to the others. Also, if I am not mistaken, they are all standing in front of "The Millsap House"!

Did you do the double enlargement on this picture?

When you do, it looks like the man second from the end on the right might be Ballard and even though it is very fuzzy and unclear the man on the end on the right may be William Jasper Puckett, who is Harvey Vandegar’s brother!

If the man second from the end is Ballard, then one of the unknown ladies might be Sadie Conley Puckett! Don't know for sure, but the man in the back center of the picture might be Uncle Rufe. Maybe this was a family get-together and, if that is so, then the other unknown lady could be Lula!

A granddaughter of William Jasper II, of Many, Louisiana wrote: “Judy, I can tell the first two men from the left are Puckett men, the last one does look like William Puckett, no. 2, but he died in 1934, I believe this picture was taken after that.

Judy: My mother, Vernelle, was born in 1921, and she doesn't look very old in this photo. So maybe the man on the end IS your grandfather, William Jasper Puckett II. Mother would have been 12 when he died. She's only 4 or 5, I would guess, in this picture.

Unidentified Family Members with Doc and Edna Gailey

I have recently discovered this photo again and realize that the man kneeling in the front is my grandfather, Doc Gailey, and my grandmother, Edna, is the woman standing beside the man in back on the right. My mother, Vernelle Gailey, is the little girl in front on right, her youngest sister, Irene Gailey, in Doc's lap and mother's twin, Maedelle Gailey, on the left.

I wonder if the other man and woman is Edna's uncle, Rufus Puckett and his wife, Lula Bennett Puckett, on the left. There is a picture of Lula with a hat on standing in front of an Indian blanket. The blanket is identified on the back in someone's cursive writing as being "Indian Blanket - Hot Pink, Tan, Brown." Dunno. It's posted in the Rufus Puckett picture album. Notice the child in back with same kind of hat?

My cousin in Chickasha, Oklahoma, wrote: “Judy, I think the man standing in the back is the same man as the one standing in the back center of the Puckett picture I sent you with Uncle Harve and Aunt Alice in it. Like you, I am wondering if he might be Uncle Rufe Puckett. If this is Uncle Rufe in the background, maybe the other children could be his children. Sure wish we could find one of their descendants to join our family page!”

I wanted to attach this picture of my mother, Vernelle, and her twin sister, Maedelle. It appears it was taken the same day as the first photo. Notice they had on the same shoes!

An Apology to Cindy

I want to apologize to Cindy for totally missing her awarding me the Proximidade back on December 22. Somehow I missed it. I truly appreciate her and her dedication to my blog and others.

Her email of this morning appears below.

Thanks you, Cindy!

Judy -

Congrats on the Proximidade award! I wonder if you even saw my note about it that I sent to you on Dec 22? I knew that the Holidays were upon us and many wouldn't be checking email - probably got lost in the shuffle. Looks like lots of folks have good taste in genea blogs! Anyway, glad you got it one way or another :-)

Happy New Year!!! I hope you have a great one!

Cindy

http://genealogybycindy.blogspot.com Everything's Relative - Researching Your Family History

The Proximidade Award

I received a nice surprise today when Kathryn Doyle of California Genealogical Society and Library and Cheryle Hoover Davis of Surnames and Hernames - A Genealogy Blog awarded my blogs, Genealogy Traces and The Graveyard Rabbit of the Covered Bridges, the Proximidade Award. Thanks so much, Kathryn and Cheryle! I'm honored.

The blogs who receive the Proximidade Award invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Here are eight blogs I've begun following and on whom I wish to bestow this award:
Bluebonnet Country Genealogy by Ruth Stephens
Gramma's House by Becky Jamison
Obituaries and the Stories They don't Tell by Linda Stienstra
Before My Time by TK Sand
Creative Gene by Jasia Smasha
Spence-Lowry Family History by A. Spence
I Dream of Genea(logy) by Amir Dekel
Amy's Genealogy, etc. Blog by Amy Johnson Crow
Gtownma's Genealogy by Tina Sansone

I'm leaving a note on each of their latest posts. If you haven't discovered these fantastic folks, now's your chance!