Altus Times (Altus, Okla.), Vol. 107, No. 260, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 5, 2006 Page: 16 of 26
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ALTUS TIMES
Burns
Our last deposit would be
were special company.”
she daily drove Jun's buggy Grandparents are
to school. After completing
business school, Thelma
worked at Altus City Hall.
On Dec. 18, 1920, she
Chloe Madison Hill
turned 1 year old on
Jan. 29, 2006. She is
the daughter of
Shawn Hill and Juliet
Benitez of Altus.
Grandparents are
Luis and Ruth
Benitez of Altus,
Jimmie Hill of
Amarillo, Texas and
Linda Valdez of Altus.
Kennedy Kerr turned
six years old on Feb.
4. She is the daugh-
ter of Rodger and
Tamra Kerr of Altus.
Ethan Curtis
Hastings is 5 years
old today. He is the
son of Jeff and Kathy
Hastings of Altus.
Grandparents are
Ruth Hastings of
Moore and Linda
James of Oklahoma
City.
ABANDONED WELL SITES
Robbie Kerr and the
late Bob Kerr of Altus
and Mary Lou Spear
and the late Ray
Spear of Oklahoma
City.
The oil and natural gas industry of Oklahoma has cleane
up more than 6,000 abandoned sites. We want your site to
be next. At absolutely no cost to you.To recommend a site
for free cleanup, call or log on.
married Edgar Burns (1901-
1949) at the Baptist Church
parsonage. “After we were
married about a year, the
City Council fired me
because my husband had a
Continued from page 1B
we could ride him or play
around him; if, however, he
got aggravated at us he
would try to bite us and we
stayed out of his way.”
In 1916, the family
2B • SUNDAY, FEB. 6. 2006
1-800-664-1301 OERI. com
moved to old Warren-1
mile east of current-day
Warren. The Cottonwood
and Warren school districts
consolidated in a new brick
building and Thelma lived 1
mile away. Although impos-
sible to attend the nearest
high school in Altus,
Thelma's father let her room
with a friend, Dama
Hambelton, at age 17 to
attend business school in
Altus. Later, she lived with
a sister, Tula, and husband
Jim Watson, 3 miles north-
east of Altus. Thelma’s
father furnished a horse and
The church used the about nine at night 1
Cottonwood school for wor- worked at night a lot with-
ship services. “When we out extra pay. The office
went to church, Mother would get very cold at night,
would have us all looking so 1 worked with my coat on
good, although the little and my feet were frost bit-
bovs would be barefoot,” ten.”
Thelma wrote. “1 remember She worked as assistant
a pretty white flour-sack bookkeeper and stenograph-
dress she made for me, and er for another wholesale
she always had my hair company before the birth of
hanging in long curls. She William Edgar Burns on
would have dinner com- Oct. 23, 1924 also her
pletely cooked on the wood father’s birthday. “1 think
stove and the table set with a this was the happiest time of
white tablecloth spread over our married life, especially
it. When we returned from Ed,” Thelma wrote. "When
church, all she had to do the baby was 3 weeks old,
was remove the cloth and we took him to see my
dinner was ready.” father who had been sick for
In late 1918, the family some time and couldn't see
moved back to the job and there were so many
Cottonwood District-2 single girls wanting to
miles north and half mile work,” Thelma wrote,
west of Warren. In 1918, “They did not think it was
Thelma's brother, Edgar, right for one family to have
and neighbors, Hershel two jobs.”
Brazell and Bill Markum. So, Thelma clerked at
entered the Army at Camp A.B. Gosselin Wholesale
Cody, New Mex.; but World and Retail Variety Store,
War 1 ended and they were making about $9 a week;
discharged. “We gave a big she later worked as
party at our house when the Gosselin's stenographer for
bovs returned home and a $15 a week and eventually
large crow d came,” Thelma did all the office work.
wrote. “In the fall of 1922, Altus
“1 had the greatest par- was in a huge economic
ents, so patient and kind to boom." Thelma wrote. "I
all of us. We always had have never seen people buy
hard times, went through the so much; the store was
war and so many depres- crowded from early till late
sions and crop failures, yet every day. I emptied the
they went right on, never cash registers three times a
complaining about any- day and had a bodyguard
thing. When travelers came, wearing a gun to escort me
my father always took them through the aisles to the
in, gave them a good bed cash registers and to the
and fed them just like they bank to make the deposits.
well. He ran his hand over dear friend, G.H. Stacy, “I had a chance to sell the the avy Reserve and
the baby and said he would argued in my defense, trying store,” Thelma wrote. ‘ I attende a nomi
grow to be a great person. I to make them understand knew we should sell, but Ed College (now . . in
don't think he missed on that we were supporting two begged so hard to keep it; he Stillwater core tie avy
that prediction." families." just knew he was going to called him into active duty.
Thelma’s father died two Then, Ed Burn’s employ- get well. It was sad to take While receiving officer
months later, and her sister er declared bankruptcy but the business away from him training at Norman, nc.com
Ethel lost her husband in a Ed kept working without but I knew it had to be done, pleted a chemical engineer
traffic accident soon there- pay. "He was not about to and I went back to work at ing degree. After atten ing
after. During the same year, give up his job; they were City Hall." the Navy midshipmenis
a separate car wreck left too hard to get," Thelma Thelma next worked for school at Notre Dame, he
Ethel paralyzed. So, Thelma wrote. “We almost lost our the Jackson County clerk was commissioned an ofti
and Ed moved Ethel and her home, but Ed begged the until retirement in 1964, cer and scived about one
three little girls into their Loan Company agent to then as part-time secretary year in the Pacific on a
home on North Hightower, give us more time. A new at the Church of Christ at minesweeper.
where Thelma nursed and loan with smaller payments Hudson and Elm streets. In After the war. William
cared for Ethel. She died 8 stretched the payments out 1989, she sold her home of Edgar returned home in
years later at age 40. another 10 years. The com- 64 years and moved into a 1946 and that year married
In 1928, Thelma began pany finally recovered and retirement center. On her Geraldine McCarty. The
cashiering at Russell’s paid all of Ed’s back pay.” 90th birthday, her children, couple had five children:
Department Store. Business John Phillip Burns grandchildren and great- David, Edgar. Molly. Gail
was slow, so a year later Mr. arrived Jan. 15, 1938, and grandchildren held a recep- and James (Altus chiroprac-
Russell agreed when the Thelma stayed home with tion in the Altus Rotary tor).
citv of Altus asked for her new baby. In 1941, Center, attended by many John Phillip Burns gradu-
Thelma's help. By 1933 the Thelma and Ed purchased a friends and family mem- ated from Altus High
depression worsened, so the nearby neighborhood gro- bers. Thelma credited her School in 1956, Alter work-
Street Department made cery store, when the owner good health to her grandson, ing on the Houston ship
work for people who badly was called back into the Dr. James Burns of Altus, channel to earn money for
needed it. "We would pay Navy after Pearl Harbor, “who gives me treatments college, he attended the
them every day so they Business boomed as many and keeps me feeling good." University of Oklahoma and
could buy a few groceries; it people moved to Altus to Thelma and Ed are buried in graduated in 1960 with a
was my job to hand out the build Altus Air Force Base, the Altus City Cemetery, degree in geology After a
checks," Thelma wrote. In 1947, Ed experienced William Edgar Burns tour of duty in the Army,
"In the next election, all headaches and grew pro- graduated from Altus High John married Joan
the city officials got defeat- gressively weaker, but he School in 1942. He worked Whitehead in 1963, They
ed 1 verybody that was out continued working until in construction at Camp lived two years in Corpus
wanted everybody that was 1948. At Scott and White Maxie, Paris, Texas, and Christi and moved to
in to be out." Thelma wrote. Clinic in Temple, Texas, the also at the new Altus Al B. Houston; they now reside in
"So, 1 was fired again doctors found a brain tumor earning money for college. Spring, Texas. They have
because I had a husband After 2 years of X-ray treat- After one semester at Altus three children, Joy. Andy
with a job. To no avail, a ments, he died at age 49. Junior College, he joined and Andrea.
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Bush, Michael. Altus Times (Altus, Okla.), Vol. 107, No. 260, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 5, 2006, newspaper, February 5, 2006; Altus, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2181875/m1/16/: accessed July 17, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.