August 1959

August 1

Sat.

August 2

Sunday.  Sunday School & church and Letty’s party.  Ate in my summer house.  Grandma and Maude stayed for few days.

August 3

We spent night at Letty’s.

Guess you are never too old for a sleep-over!

August 4

Clare and children & Mrs. Burleson had lunch with us in summer house.

Mrs. Burleson was my Aunt Clare's mother - she lived directly across from the Washington Elementary School in Fayetteville.

August 5

My Dad’s birthday

John Jefferson Hays had died in 1950.

August 7   [Actually August 6 – she’s off a day]

Thurs. [Friday]  I took Grandma & Maude home.  Spent night with Ira & Minnie.

They would have been going down that two-lane treacherous stretch of the old Highway 71 and over Mount Gaylor.  I can almost see every curve in that road!

August 8

Friday. [Saturday]  Dinner at Nora’s.

Nora Rainwater

August 9

Sunday.  Sunday School & church.  Supper at Maude’s.

How she must have enjoyed being back in Van Buren.  I never thought of that at the time.

August 10

Monday.  Came Home.

August 11

Tues.  Stayed with McKim children

August 12

Wed.  At home.  Getting ready for trip to Tahlequah

Now she's off to see her sister Mattie.

August 13

Thus.  Had hair set.  Club luncheon at Mrs. Parsons.  5:30 PM – caught bus for Tahlequah.  Mattie, Winnie and Karen met me.

Winnie & Karen were Mattie's daughter and granddaughter.  They had all been over to see Mammaw a couple of months earlier.

August 14

Friday.  Having visit with Mattie’s family.  John’s family came about 9 PM

John Hays King was Mattie's son.  He was born in 1913 - so a little older than my Mom. John died in January of 1960, only a few months after this visit.  John and family lived in Hayti, Missouri, where he managed what had been one of his Uncle Arthur's businesses. The last contact I had with family, grandchildren of John still worked in some of those stores.  Hayti is in the Missouri bootheel just across the Missouri/Arkansas line from Blytheville and several of the stores were located in this area.

August 15

Saturday.  Had fried chicken dinner.

August 16

Sunday.  Mattie’s family together.  Sad reunion because of John’s illness.  Ira & Minnie brought me home and stayed over night.

John King had cancer - Hodgkin's Disease.

August 17

Monday.  Catching up on things at home

August 18

Tues.  CWF 9 O’clock meeting at church.  Stayed at JoEllen’s rest of the day.

Christian Women's Fellowship

August 19

Wed.  Supper at JoEllen’s.

August 20

Thurs.  A.M. canned apples & peaches at church.  Busted my finger in car door.  Went to hospital & had stitiches taken.  P.M. Went calling with Mrs. Elmore

I remember when this happened.  JoEllen slammed her Mom’s hand in the car door in our driveway. I had just arrived.  Mammaw in great pain, Mom sick from what she'd just done.

August 21

Friday.  Worked in yard with Jimmy & washed.  P.M. Grocery shopped.

I think this was Jimmy Hight that helped Mammaw.  His dad Walter went to our church and had worked for my Dad for several years.

August 22

Saturday.  Mattie Came.

August 24

Monday.  Ira & Minnie took Mattie & me to Sarah Grove Cemetery – also to Dripping Springs Church where Mattie first saw Dave.  We bought material for skirts.

Sarah Grove Cemetery is outside Uniontown, north of Van Buren,;the Dripping Springs Church a few miles away where Mattie met her future husband, David King.  Little Sarah Woolsey, age 7, was the first person to be buried in this cemetery - her brother William, who died from wounds he received at the Battle of Prairie Grove in the Civil War, is buried near her.  My great, great grandparents, Elias and Martha Frances (Crutcher) Hays are buried in this cemetery as are two of their children, and a baby of Aunt Mattie's that died when he was less than a month old in 1905 - his name was Arvil Edmond King.  Elias and Martha were Mammaw and Aunt Mattie's paternal grandparents.  Elias died of consumption (tuberculosis) likely contracted during the Civil War, in 1979 before they were even born, so they never knew this grandfather. Martha died in 1896 when Aunt Mattie was about 14, Mammaw about age 9.

The church at Dripping Springs is now a residence - and there is a cemetery on the hill behind.  There are Kings buried there - probably David's kin.  Another set of great, great grandparetns rest here - Joseph Christopher Wood and wife, Letitia Ann Mayberry - Mom remembered them because they lived long lives. Letitia "Tisha" died in 1926, age 81, Joe Wood died in 1927, age 86.  Joe Wood's mother is also buried at Dripping Springs - hers one of the earliest graves.  His mother, Nancy (Winkler) Wood, had died soon after the family came to Crawford County in 1853 when he was twelve.  Some of his half-siblings that died young are buried nearby.  His father, William Wood and stepmother, Manda Biswell, are buried in another Crawford County cemetery.

August 25

Tues.  Mattie & I drove home.  Made pictures at Cemetery on way home.

This would have been at Grace Lawn Cemetery in Van Buren where Mammaw and Kenney, his parents, Ira and Minnie, and many of the Comstocks rest in peace.

August 26

Wednesday.  Went to town to shop & get medicine

August 27

Thurs.

August 28

Friday.  Mattie gave me towels.  Had supper at JoEllen’s.

Wonder if when Aunt Mattie was visiting, she noticed a few threadbare towels - Mammaw used everything until the last possible moment.

August 29

Saturday.  LaVonne fixed mine & Mattie’s hair.  Baked cake & grocery shopped.

August 30

Sunday.  K.M.’s family and McKims had dinner in Summer house with Mattie & me.

August 31

Monday.  Mattie went home.  I spent the day getting ready for Missionary Circle.

I think this must have been a wonderful visit with her sister!