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392 Chronicles of Oklahoma
JESSIE ELIZABETH RANDOLPH MOORE
OF THE CHICKASAW NATION
By Muriel 1. Wright
Oklahoma has lost one of its best loved and revered pioneer
women in the passing of Mrs. Jessie It. Moore. Proud of her Chicka-
saw ancestry and the people of the Indian Territory that was her
birthplace eight-five years ago, Mrs. Moore was known far and
wide over the state for her devotion and her contributions to the
history of Oklahoma, which all hold in high regard. By chance, this
issue of The Chronicles of Oklahoma commemorates her life since it
still carries her name among the officers and members of the Board
of Directors of the Oklahoma IHistorical Society, her name and title,
"Mirs. Jessie R. Moore, Treasurer," having appeared in every issue
of The Chronicles since the second number of Volume 1 published
in October, 1921, a period of exactly thirty-five years to the time of
her passing ot October 7, 1956. This is a unique record in the annals
of Oklahoma, now beginning its Semi-Centennial of Statehood, for
her contributions to public life made her one of this State's lead-
ing women in its development as well as a guiding spirit in the
attainments and the growth of the Oklahoma Historical Society.
These words in review merely indicate the fine executive ability
and staunch loyalty that were hers yet her talents lay in her incisive
mind and her choice of words in expressing her thoughts.
Mrs. Moore was a poet at heart, even her recent contribution
"The Five Great Indian Nations," the part played by the Chitka-
saw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole and Creek in behalf of the Con-
federacy in the War between the States, that appeared in The
Chronicles (Autumn, 1951) was poetic expression its summary.
Her "Lines Written on an2 Indian Face" will long be remembered
as a prose poem with these words in a closing paragraph: "Your
face has given me a message of Old Indian Territory-the glory of
her days, a breath of the past from across the river of Lethe-of
sorrow, and joy, and sweet life."
Jessie Elizabeth Randolph Moore, a daughter of William Col-
ville Randolph and his wife, Sarah Ann (Nee Tyson) Randolph was
born in Panola County, Chickasaw Nation, near the home of her
grandmother, Mrs. Charlotte Love Tyson Coffee, in the Coffee's
Bend country in what is now Southwestern Bryan County, Oklahoma.
Mrs. Coffee (ne9 Charlotte Love) was of the prominent Chickasaw
family of Loves for whom Love County was named at the time of the
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention; and was the daughter of Henry
and Sarah (or Sally) Love, the great grandparents of Mrs. Moore,