My dad, Nelson O’Rear, prepared a family history of his parents in 2009. It includes beautiful vignettes and insights into the day-to-day lives of a midwestern family spanning nearly all of the 20th century. Thanks, Dad!
Doyle Russell O’Rear & Myrtle Marie Boyd O’Rear Family History
By Nelson O’Rear, 2009
Doyle Russell O’Rear was born February 13, 1914, on a farm near Foster,Missouri, to Robert ‘Dick’ Sumner O’Rear and Mary Edna Kinion O’Rear and died onJuly 11, 2001, in Iowa City, Iowa, where his grave is in Memorial Gardens Cemetery.He was the fourth of their eight children (Velma, Delores, Floyd, Mildred, Doyle, Cecil,Virgil, and Francis ‘Bill’, in order). Their family doctor drove a horse and buggy througha snowstorm to the farm to assist with his birth.
His father, Dick (born June 5, 1887 in Johnstown, Missouri; died in September1965), was one of eight children born to his parents: Elias (Elijah) and Luticia (Lutissa orLutia) Branack (or Brannock) O’Rear. Dick’s mother Luticia was his father’s secondwife and was very short, less than 5 feet tall according to Doyle. Doyle’s mother, Edna(born August 23, 1889 in Bethany, Missouri; died in 1961), was one of five children(Oval, Mary ‘Edna’, Vera, Claude, and Bessie) born to Samuel N. (Nelson) and SarahAnn Fail Kinion (also spelled Kenyon in some documents). Dick and Edna married onNovember 24, 1905.
Nelson Kinion was about 80 when he died, circa 1940. Although he ownedseveral farms and made a lot of money by buying rundown farms, fixing them up, andselling them, the Depression left him nearly penniless. He lost most of his money whenthe banks closed and lost his farms when he did not have the money to pay the taxes onthem. When he died, $383 was all that he left for his wife Sarah. His ancestors camefrom England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Sarah’s father, Mr. Fail, died when he was99. Doyle remembers him playing football with the boys when he was 98, saying thatMr. Fail could really kick the football. His ambition had been to live to be 100, but hedidn’t quite make it.
Doyle attended Old Walnut School, a one-room country school, for grades 1through 8. At the time, 54 students attended that school, sitting as many as three at eachdesk. He always liked school and was at the top of his class, along with two girls. Hisfavorite subjects were mathematics and English. The school was about half a mile fromtheir house. At school and whenever he and his brothers got together with neighbors,they always played baseball. He never heard of football until he was grown. He, Cecil,and a friend once played hooky from school, hopped the train to Pleasanton, Kansas, togo to the fair, and hopped the train back that evening. His father insisted that he work onthe farm and not attend high school when he discovered that one of the reasons Doylewanted to attend was because of a pretty girl.
He got spanked mostly for teasing and fighting with his younger brother, Cecil.Their favorite games were hide-and-seek, black man, and ante over. They ice skated withtheir brothers and neighbor boys on a creek—where they also swam in the summer—neartheir house. Although he had few toys that belonged to just him, he had a hoop (an ironring from a wagon wheel) that he guided with a thin board, with another tacked across theend. While he said that no fuss was made over an individual’s birthday in his family, hedid remember getting birthday spankings from his older siblings. His family had noradio, but he remembers going to a neighbor’s who had one of the first radios in the area.Since it required headphones to hear, they put the headphones in a wash basin to amplifythe sounds so that more people could hear it.
They occasionally made their own ice cream, but Doyle remembered that theycould buy candy for a penny and an ice cream cone in town for a nickel. Although theydid not have sodas to drink, they sometimes had lemonade. Mostly, they drank waterfrom their well. Since they had no electricity, they used kerosene lamps with a glasschimney to keep the flame from being blown out. He remembered having to turn thewashing machine by hand and bringing in wood and kindling for their wood-burningstoves. Having no electricity also meant that they had no fans to cool them in thesummer, so they slept in the yard when the house became too hot. Although they had noattic or basement, they had a cellar whose double purpose was to store potatoes and hismother’s canned vegetables, and to provide shelter from storms—particularly tornadoes.Since their house burned down when he was a boy, they lost all their family pictures, aswell as an organ.
Their family, typical of farmers at that time, never took a vacation. (His firstvacation was after he was married and not living on the farm. The company providedone week vacation a year.) He remembered going by train with his brother Cecil andsister Mildred to visit their Grandma and Grandpa Kinion, 18 miles away. Their fare was24 cents each. He said that they had fun! He also remembered going to Kansas City, 70miles away, with his cousin Wesley Martin in his car. Although they had six flat tires onthe trip, Doyle thought that the trip was wonderful. His family never had a car. Theyusually went to the fairs in Butler, Missouri, and Pleasanton, Kansas, each fall.While growing up, Doyle worked on the family farm, as well as on neighbors’farms, generally plowing, disking, cultivating, harrowing, milking, cutting wood, andwhatever else needed doing. His first paying job was working on a farm for Mr. AndyTickle. He received 25 cents a day for his work. He would often stay at the farm wherehe was working away from home for three to four days at a time. When he was 10 or 11,he worked and stayed at his sister Velma’s sister-in-law’s farm near Kansas City allsummer. He and two others milked 105 cows by hand twice a day, as well as feedingthem, getting them to and from the pasture, and generally caring for them. His handswould get so stiff that he had to pour milk on them and massage them before eachmilking. He was paid $25 each month.
After graduating from Old Walnut School, Doyle generally worked on the familyfarm, later renting land from and turning over all profits to his father. The summer thathe was 17 or 18, he and Cecil also cut hedge trees for fence posts to earn enough moneyto jointly buy a used 1929 or 1930 Ford Touring car that he said was in really goodcondition. He couldn’t recall whether they paid $75 or $175 for that car. Unfortunately,friends ran into the car and totally demolished it after they had owned it only about 60days. That’s when they discovered that these people were not really very good friendssince they never paid a cent to either Doyle or Cecil for that car.He, Cecil, and Floyd all worked in the coal fields, with the latter two using picksand shovels along the high walls that the steam shovel could not reach to recover the coalthere. In later years, their father, Dick, leased the coal rights to his farm for severalthousand dollars and later sold the farm and moved to Butler (probably around 1950).In 1934, Doyle bought a 3.5 ton, single axle Indiana dump truck and used it tohaul gravel and coal to, in, and around Little Rock, Arkansas, and Harrisonville,Missouri, in addition to farming, to earn money. The only work available for truckingwas from the WPA (Work Project Agency), which paid $1.10 an hour for the driver andtruck. Doyle said that this money was just enough to keep half a step ahead of starvation.Six months later (11:30, November 8th), he married Myrtle Marie Boyd, and theybegan their married life living with his parents in their home. Doyle recalled that theyhad met when she was helping Doyle’s married sister Mildred’s family after Mildred hadgiven birth to their first son, Carl Ross Mullies west of Foster, Missouri. Marie recalledthat they met at her sister’s house while Doyle was visiting his sister (Marie’s sister’sneighbor). She was then 22 and said that she forgot about all other guys when she methim. Her parents liked Doyle the first time they met him. Doyle and Marie attendedchurch together at the Old Walnut school house, sometimes went to movies, and oftenjust stayed at Marie’s house while they were courting. Later, when he went to Arkansasto work for a short while, he wrote her a letter, and he didn’t often write letters. After hisreturn, he went to see her one evening, they went for a ride, and he asked her to marryhim. Marie taught in a nearby one-room country school (Greenview, she thought). Shewalked to the school, except that when it rained, Dick O’Rear would take her in a wagonpulled by his team of horses. After finishing that school year, she became a stay-at-homewife at Doyle’s request.
Marie was born on a farm near Metz, Missouri, on January 25, 1911, to JohnFranklin Boyd (November 16, 1877 – March 22, 1949) and Magdalena ‘Lena’ ElizabethBingel Boyd (October 12, 1882 – May 18, 1970). (Metz is about 21 miles by road southof Foster, Missouri.) She was the fourth of their nine children (Clarence, Edward Alva,Ethel May, Myrtle Marie, Karl Franklin, Lena Elizabeth, Robert Julius ‘Dick’, LucillePearl, and Lola Alene, in order). Myrtle Marie was named after an uncle’s girlfriendbecause he liked the name. Although she always used her middle name, friendssometimes also called her Mertie. Her father was from Indiana. He, the son of JohnHenry Boyd and Sarah Elizabeth Haycock Boyd (married to each other on August 2,1860, in Switzerland County, Indiana), was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, movedat the age of 15 with his parents to Seneca, Missouri, from Indiana, and worked for therailroad for many years. (Interestingly, Daniel Haycock married Mary Ann Boyd onNovember 18, 1858, in Switzerland County, Indiana, which probably means that abrother from each family married a sister from the other.) Marie’s father is buried in theIndependence Cemetery, near Hume, Missouri. He had a brother Lon who was withinvisiting distance. Her mother immigrated with her family from Germany when she was 9years old (1891), landing at Baltimore, Maryland, and going to Missouri because theyhad heard they could get work there. Her grandparents, Philip and Julia Ann TueroBingel (she was born in Mamorack, Austria-Hungary, in 1856), married in 1874 and laterlived in Metz, Missouri. Julia Bingel died in 1924, at the age of 68, and is buried inPryor Creek Cemetery in Missouri. Marie said that her mother was one of eight children[Kate, Phillip, Nicholas ‘Nick’, Augustus ‘Gus’, Julie (died at age 15), Lena, andSedonia], with only Sedonia born in the US. (Julia Bingel’s obituary also listed threeother children, who predeceased her.) Nick worked for the railroad, and the others beingimmigrants had menial jobs on local farms. Lena married John on July 31, 1898, whenshe was 15. His pet name for her was Susie.
Marie attended White Rock School, a one-room country school for grades 1through 6, about two and a half miles from their farm with approximately 20 otherchildren. Since her father was a tenant farmer, she lived in six different houses growingup. Because her family moved, she completed grades 7 and 8 at Rocky Point, anotherone-room country school. She walked the two and a half miles both ways each day in allkinds of weather. Her favorite subjects were reading, spelling, and mathematics. Sheloved school and was third in her class. Neither she nor Doyle had homework assignedsince they had chores to do on the farm and went to bed early. Their parents objected tonight-time study since it would interfere with their chores. For sports, Marie playedbasketball at school but it had no organized teams to compete with other schools.Although they generally lived in a big house with a second floor, she shared abedroom with three sisters, sleeping two to a bed. During winters, they used woodburningstoves in the rooms to keep warm, and they got cold at night when the fireburned low. The houses did not have indoor bathrooms, and they bathed in a metal tub inthe kitchen. Her mother also used the tub to wash their clothes. Since they had noelectricity, they used oil-burning lamps at night, and the light was rather dim. They had abig screened porch on their house where they ate when it was warm. They also sat thereon warm evenings, and she sometimes slept there on the floor. Her jobs around the housewhile growing up included washing and drying the dinner dishes with her sister Ethel.They also gathered eggs from their henhouse and carried wood in for the stove. Mariehelped a lot in the kitchen when she was quite young. She also set the table, cleared it,swept the floor, and took out the trash. Her mother patiently taught her how to cook. Shecooked her first meal when she was 10, while her mother was sewing her a dress.Although the first thing she remembers making is gravy, her favorite was making applepie. Her family’s favorite dessert was pie. (After they were married, Marie said thatalthough Doyle liked to eat almost everything that she cooked, his favorites were steak, abaked potato, vegetable, and a salad—finishing with apple pie.) Since her family alwaysraised a large garden, they canned beans, beets, corn, cucumbers, and tomatoes, and madesauerkraut. She helped in all of this, as well as with canning two bushels of peaches.Sometimes, they swapped work with their neighbors to help each other out and just keepcompany.
They played hide and seek, tag, and marbles while growing up. She and her sisterEthel liked playing dolls. Later, she also liked skipping rope. Marie recalled that theyoccasionally skated on the icy ponds near their house, but that got them in troublebecause it was hard on their shoes. They had no ice skates. She recalls spankings,mostly for disobeying her parents. She didn’t even know that sodas to drink existed untilshe was grown.
For Christmas each year, in their family, each child got an orange and a piece ofcandy in her stocking, as well as one present under the tree. Marie always got a doll.They decorated their tree with strings of popcorn and cranberries, as well as paper chains.Their big Christmas dinner always included a goose. Since they lived in the country andtheir neighbors were not near, they did not trick or treat during Halloween. Instead, theypopped corn and drank apple cider at home after having a party at school. No one woremasks or costumes. On the Fourth of July, their family took the children in a wagondrawn by two horses to Rich Hill for a celebration. There were games and rides, and lotsof friends to see. Each child got a dime to spend. Their mother always took a picniclunch for the family to eat.
While their family never took a family vacation, they periodically had fish fries—which the children really enjoyed—on the river banks with three neighboring families.The fathers caught the fish, the mothers cooked them over an open fire, and the childrenplayed. When Marie was three, her father and mother took her and Ethel to Kansas Cityto visit their Aunt Sedonia. It was Marie’s first trip to a city, and she was thrilled. Shesaw her first street car there. When Marie was six, she remembers her mother taking herwith Ethel, Karl, and Dick by train to visit her mother’s parents in Hollister, Missouri, fora week. All the children thought it was a great treat.
Marie was the first child in her family to attend high school. (Lucille and Lolawere the only others from her family who also graduated from high school.) Whileattendance is common-place today, it was rather uncommon for children living on farmsthen because most high schools were in towns and routinely traveling more than a fewmiles was prohibitive with the transportation means then available—few cars or pavedroads. She lived in Metz, a town about 5 miles from the farm with two different families,working for them while she attended high school. She later lived in Warrensburg,Missouri, to attend Missouri State Teachers College (now Central Missouri StateUniversity) for two summers so that she could teach. She stayed there with an elderlycouple whom her teacher friend Miss Blake recommended. A bank near her home loanedher $500—something not normally done then—to attend college. Miss Blake drove herto Warrensburg. Marie was the only one of the Boyd children to attend college. Afterher second summer at college, she taught four terms in a one-room country school,Standish School, near her home. Her family had their first radio after she got a job andbought it.
Doyle and Marie went to their minister’s (Pete Spears) house in Johnstown,Missouri, to get married. The Spears’ neighbor came down to witness the wedding.Afterwards, Mrs. Spears insisted that they stay for dinner, so they did. Mrs. Spears wasalso feeding hired men and introduced them as Mr. and Mrs. O’Rear. Marie was thrilledat hearing that. Although the meal was very good, she ate very little. Their first home,after having lived with Doyle’s parents, was a small three-room house on a hill in thesouthwest part of Foster, Missouri. They thought it was great. They didn’t have moneyfor a honeymoon after their wedding and couldn’t afford to miss work until 1949 whenthey took Nelson and Lyda with them on a week-long trip to New York, including a ferryride to Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty, and Niagara Falls on the way home.Al Star in Rich Hill, Missouri, had a couple of trailers and hauled corn from Iowato Neosho, Missouri. Doyle took the bed off his dump truck, replaced it with a fifthwheel, and hauled corn for two winters. He said he’s not sure why he didn’t have anaccident since he drove through so much snow and ice then. Marie accompanied Doyleon these trips, almost freezing her feet on several occasions. The truck’s heater did notwork, and Doyle did not have enough money to get it fixed. Later, Doyle also drove toDenver and Chicago without a heater. Marie went on some of these trips. He said thatwhat he remembers most from the trips is how cold it got in the truck. At one point, hethought that he might literally freeze. Doyle said that they didn’t make much money onthese trips and felt that they got cheated out of some that they should have received.Those paying sometimes claimed that the mileage for the trip was much less than thatactually driven.
In 1937, they went to Sledge, Mississippi, to use his dump truck for a roadbuilding project. Earl Nelson O’Rear was born there at a hospital in Marks at a cost of$50. Nelson’s first name was the name of the banker who loaned Marie the moneynecessary to attend college. His middle name was for his great-grandfather Kinion.Heavy rains caused the river to get so high that work had to be suspended for sixweeks. With no income, they had to rely on the good graces of a local grocer to extendthem credit for food. When the construction project was to be moved to a distant sitebecause of the extended delay, Doyle got an advance so that he could awaken the grocerat 11:00 p.m. to pay him before they left. It took them two years to have enough moneyto pay the $50 hospital bill. Later, when those running the construction project realizedthat it couldn’t break even financially, everyone left. Doyle, Marie, and Nelson returnedto Missouri.
In Missouri, Doyle again hauled coal and gravel. Lyda Arlene O’Rear was bornon March 3, 1939, in the Butler, Missouri, hospital. Total cost for her delivery was $35.Lyda was named after a young woman who had lived with Doyle’s Grandmother SarahKinion. He thought that she was one of the nicest women he had ever known.Doyle drove to Omaha with Troy Harbison with prospects to drive for WatsonBrothers (which years later became Yellow Line), Omaha to Chicago; however, the runsproved not to be regular, so Troy did not stay. Doyle moved his family to Omaha, wherethey initially lived above a tavern while awaiting an apartment. They later moved to halfa duplex, and Lucille Boyd joined them.
Good neighbors they recall from Omaha were Homer and Hazel Riggs, as well asMarvel Henry with her two little boys, from the apartment house. Also, their duplexneighbors were Willard and Minnie Mann.
Doyle and Marie moved their family to Iowa City in the spring of 1943 since thatlocation was better situated for Doyle for his truck run. He drove each night from RockIsland, Illinois, to Des Moines, Iowa, roundtrip and stopped in Iowa City each way.Although the roundtrip distance is about 310 miles, the speed limit for trucks was initially25 mph and later was raised to 35 mph on the 2-lane highways.
Doyle later drove out of Chicago for a year to Sioux City and Des Moines, 319miles each way, staying overnight in the destination city. He began buying additionaltrucks, which he hired other drivers to drive for Watson Brothers. In 1945 or 1946, heowned five or six K-7 International trucks. Unfortunately, each time things beganlooking good financially, one of the drivers would have an accident. Although he hadinsurance to repair the trucks, the lost income during the down time kept their finances onthe edge, until he decided to get rid of the other trucks and just to keep his. Occasionally,he tried again, but usually with only one additional truck.
The American Trucking Associations, Inc recognized Doyle as the NationalDriver of the Year for 1948. This award followed his pulling three people from a burningcar, following a wreck near Grinnell, Iowa. He had by then driven more than one millionmiles, accident-free.
In 1949, Doyle worked as a mechanic for Watson Brothers in Iowa City so that hecould be at home more. That lasted about a year and ended after they realized that thisemployment could not provide sufficient money to support them. Subsequently, he drovefrom Iowa City to St. Paul, Minnesota, each night and stayed in the terminating city at theend of each night’s drive. This was a relay trip between Peoria, Illinois, and St. Paul.Doyle later, as an independent trucker, hauled eggs to Florida and fruit back to theMidwest. During at least part of this time, he owned a second truck, which his brotherBill drove. This lasted approximately two and a half years. During the summer of 1958,Nelson accompanied him on a portion of one of these trips to load eggs. After they hadloaded the entire trailer with eggs, in spite of being in very good physical shape, Nelsonwas embarrassed that he could hardly straighten up. Doyle was accustomed to thisactivity and felt no such ill effects.
Independent trucking proved to be barely profitable, so Doyle was quite happy tobegin hauling for CRST (Cedar Rapids Steel) with two trucks, Omaha to Chicago, onewayeach night in 1958. He then paid $50 monthly—including rent, heat, and lighting—to use an empty building (formerly used by Eldon Miller Transportation) on RiversideDrive in Iowa City to service his trucks. He had always religiously practiced scheduledpreventive maintenance to avoid expensive breakdowns and establish and keep hishallmark of dependable on-time deliveries. That is how he obtained the regular CRST runs, which proved instrumental in his later financial success. His attention to details andknowledge of all his expenses were also key factors.
When told that he would no longer be able to use these facilities for his vehiclemaintenance, Doyle decided to put up a steel Butler building. He bought the landthrough Don Williams and put up the building for a total of $33,360 in the CoralvilleIndustrial Park, conveniently just off I-80. Two and a half years later, he put up a secondbuilding for a frame shop, which he rented to Bill O’Rear, followed by a third building touse for his expanding fleet of trucks and trailers. After completing the third building, heleased the first to UPS (United Parcel Service), rented half of the second building toBekins Transfer and Storage, and rented part of the third building to a sign builder, BobGaskill. Eventually, he put up five buildings—the last one costing $99,000 in 1970 or1971, and after collecting considerable rent, sold them all, one at a time. Nelson boughtthe first, and Lyda bought the second. After UPS ended their lease in 1999, Nelson soldthat building to Bud Good. Lyda sold the frame shop building in 2003 to the City ofCoralville after they decided to make that area into a park by the river.
As mentioned earlier, Doyle and Marie’s financial fortunes improvedconsiderably, beginning with the regular runs provided by CRST. Their fleet grew to 16trucks (four Diamond Ts and 12 Kenworths) and 20 trailers. Five ran between Chicago,Peoria, Galesburg, and Danville; one ran between Chicago and Waterloo; five ranbetween Joliet and Grand Island; and five ran for Arrow Freightlines. Doyle alsoemployed a full-time truck engine mechanic, who additionally worked on others’ truckswhen time allowed. When Doyle and Marie retired in 1976, they sold their trucks andtrailers to their drivers with no money down, as well as the building that they used tomaintain their trucks to a driver, Ted Kline.
During Doyle’s entire trucking career, Marie kept the financial books for theiroperations. In 1973, Lyda also became a mainstay in their operation, working in theoffice that they had built into the building that they used to maintain their trucks.Marie was a Girl Scout Leader for 25 years in Iowa City, and for part of that timewas the president of the Cardinal Council for the Girl Souts. (The girls camped at CampCardinal each year.) Her involvement in Scouting began as a Den Leader for CubScouts for four or five years. While Nelson and Lyda were in school, she rarely missed aPTA (Parent Teachers’ Association) meeting so that she always knew what her childrenwere doing in school.
After retiring, Doyle and Marie went to Florida one winter, to Texas for a coupleof winters, and to Arizona for a couple of winters. After deciding that Arizona bestsuited them, they bought a house in Mesa where they wintered for the next 19 years.Several friends being there—Bill and Maxine Gray, and Herb and DoloresGoodenough—helped with the decision. Nothing pleased them more than havingcompany there. They took visitors to see many sights. They also traveled to Hawaii,Ireland and the United Kingdom, toured Mexico, and took nice trips to Canada threetimes—taking Kevin O’Rear, Mike Brown, and Gary Panzer with them in a camper onone of those trips. In 1998, they decided for health reasons to sell the Mesa house andlive in Iowa.
The O’Rears and Bingels (Marie’s mother’s family) began having annual familyreunions in the 1950s. They were well attended but then almost stopped. A few keptthem going, and they have become annual affairs in Butler, Missouri, since the 1970s.Marie and Doyle rarely missed a family reunion and attended several other nationalO’Rear family reunions in Alabama and Tennessee. Marie acted as the secretary for theButler reunions for many years. They loved family.
They achieved good financial success and were generous to others, regularlycontributing to an orphanage for more than 20 years and gave substantial amounts to theChurch of Christ in Iowa City. Even when they had little, Doyle loaned money to others.When they bought a new 1949 Chevrolet, he said that he could have paid cash if thosewho owed him had repaid their loans. Many never did. They also gave considerablemoney to each of their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren over the years,providing each of the grandchildren money to help buy a house when they married, inaddition to other monies at different times. They never talked about any of thesecontributions. We often learned of them by chance.
In 2007, they had two children (Earl Nelson who married Theresa ‘Teri’ Joan Billick in 1961, and Lyda Arlene O’Rear Brown, who married William ‘Bill’ G. Brown in 1957) six grandchildren (Lori Brown Miller, Diane Marie Brown Hutt, and Michael Brown; and Kevin Doyle O’Rear, Brian Patrick O’Rear, and Maura Kathleen O’RearGates). They also had 21 great-grandchildren (Nicholas and Brandon Miller; Traci Marie Anderson Massey, Jessie Anderson Byrum, and Troy Anderson; Heidi, Sarah, and MaxBrown; Patrick, Mary Cate, Connor Doyle, Margaret ‘Mollie’, Bridget, and MichaelNelson O’Rear; Megan Maura, Christopher, Collin, and Sydney O’Rear; and Michael, Sean, and Elizabeth Gates). Additionally, they had four great-great grandchildren(Bradley, Jackson, Ruby, and Lyda Mae).
Following Lucille Boyd VeDepo’s 1940s divorce from her husband Bill in Iowa,she and her three children (William Laverne, Robert Charles, and Karen Yvonne) livedwith Doyle and Marie. So that her ex-husband would not be able to gain custody of thesethree children in the event anything happened to Lucille, Doyle and Marie legallyadopted them. Therefore, although these children were born as nephews and a niece,they became adopted children. In reality, Lucille continued to be their mother. Lucillelater married Bill Mackey, and they moved to Frankfort, Kentucky, after Karen graduatedfrom high school in Iowa.
Marie died on January 5, 2008, in Iowa City, Iowa. Her grave is in MemorialGardens Cemetery, next to Doyle’s.
Vignettes
When he was about 6 or 7 years old, Doyle accidentally hit Cecil in the head with an axas he drew back to swing it downwards while cutting wood. He bribed Cecil with anIndian-head penny to not tell; however, the blood told the story. Doyle and Cecil werebest friends growing up.
From the time he was 9 years old, Doyle had to buy his own shoes. One day, his wetshoes ended up in the oven or on the stove, the fire got too hot, and his shoes were ruined.Biscuits and gravy, as well as cornbread were common fare for meals. Doyle said that heremembers when some of them were so tired that they literally fell asleep at the table,with their heads falling into their plates of food. Naturally, they then went to bed.Their normal childhood gift for Christmas was an orange—and it was considered a treat.In the mid-1930s, Doyle was offered a job shocking wheat for $1.25 a day, from sunriseto sunset. Since he knew that he would wear out a pair of gloves (costing him 75 cents toa dollar) each day, he declined. His brothers thought he was lazy for turning it down.Doyle said that during the 1930s, you could tell how hard the times were by countinghow many people were chasing each rabbit.
When he was about 10, Doyle used their Airedale dog, Bum, to catch 78 rabbits in threedays. He cleaned them and hung them on the clothes line outside where they remainedfrozen until his mother fed them for lunch to those who worked in the coal fields. Sheprepared them lunch daily to earn money for the family—35 cents for each lunch. Doylesaid that they really appreciated her cooking.
Marie said that their treat when it was their birthday was that their mother let themchoose what kind of meat to have, and they always had a cake and home-made ice cream.One of the first pies that Marie made after they were married turned out so bad that sheburied it in the yard so that Doyle would not know about it.
Marie loved to stay up late reading, sometimes until 2:00 a.m.
Marie’s granddaughter Lori Brown Miller recalled that when she was small, Marie tookher to the church building to clean the windows. Afterwards, Marie told Lori, “If anyonesays how nice the windows look, you simply agree. Don’t tell anyone that we did them.”This typified Marie’s desire to serve the needs of others without recognition.They were a devoted couple and never raised their voices to each other. In later years,each had his/her own recliner in which they spent most of their evenings; however,before going to bed for the night, they would sit together on their couch and hold hands.
Oft-heard sayings (from Doyle)
I don’t think that I’m any better than anyone else, but I don’t think I’m any worse either.
People who say that they want a helping hand only have to look at the end of their arms.
Dad gummit!
(From his family)
Sakes alive!
My land!
Land o’ Goshen!
Dad blame it!
What in the Sam Hill?!!
My stars!
Well, I’ll swan!
What in tarnation?!!