Candice Elaine in time out! She looks so sad,

wonder what she did to get there? No telling

I think she was about three years old in this

picture. Amoung my favorites. Of course to be

honest all my pictures of her were and are my

favorite. Just a Granny talking (smile)

Now she has a little one about that size.

Sister's
Since we were little girls we have been so very close. On December 28th, 2007 when Linda passed away part of me
died with her. We were not just sisters we were best friends and we talked on the phone pretty much every day for so many years. No matter where we lived we still talked on the phone and then on the computer and then cell phones. I never made a decision without first talking to her. We never fought at least not since we were little girls (smile) and then not much. We even had the same group of friends and still to this day do. Linda is buried at Lone Wolf and when it comes my time I will be buried right
next to her.(smile) That is only right and the way it should be.
I still catch myself going to the phone to call her just like I did for months after Katha died. It is just not right that they are not there for me to talk with but for some reason God has chosen for me to stay here for now and I am sure something for me left to do.

Sweet Little Kyleigh Marie Pate. Now is this not the most beautiful child in this world.

Ludella Pearl (Swafford and Owen Wesley McConnell

This story was written by Mary Frances (McConnell) Holbrook in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma. Given to her daughter Vernadine (Holbrook) Decker in 1968. This is copied by Janice (McConnell) Cowan in the exact words and spelling of Aunt Mary. Vernadine has the original in Aunt Mary’s handwriting. I love this because it was written by Aunt Mary just as if she were talkinig. I can hear her telling this story today in my memories.

Who? The McConnell’s
On a neat little farm at Garvin, Texas lived John Moses and Margret McConnell. To this world was born eight children, five girls and four boys. In six miles from this family lived the Issac Easley Swafford family. They were the Post Office Postmaster and Postmistress in 1909 at Keeter, Texas where my mother was born. In the McConnell family was one son Qwen Wesley who my mother met later on as they grew up together. Owen, as a young man taught singing school and it was his favorite job. At the Garvin and Keeter Church’s which were eight miles apart.
Later on as time passed they were engaged and were married at the Garvin Church, as it now stands in a most simple wedding. They rode up to the Church in a Buggy, the minister came to the Church steps with his Bible and preformed the ceremony simple but sacred. The lap robe neatly over their laps. Which was considered the style in those days in 1901.
They settled and moved to Annevile, Texas on a farm and were happily settled as my Aunt (Mrs) Charley Young lived in four miles of them. They visited a lot. And in 1905 C.L. my oldest brother (Clarence) was born and they visited back to their parents at Garvin and Keeter. My father was a farmer back in those days. Each family had a small farm and plowed with horses. In 1907 my youngest brother was born and all was well with them. My mother became very ill and Dr. Redford of Boyd, Texas pronounced her with Siatic-Rheumatism and my father became so frightened and framed their wagon and covered the wagon and left Anneville and traveled for her health. The children, C.L. was two and Leland a few months old. They traveled miles and miles my mother was on crutches and could not walk and had to have help with the boys. My father was good help. They soon traveled a month and reached Memphis, Texas, bought a farm and settled down. They loved the country and Church and he taught singing school here and joined modern Woodman’s and settled down. Was a successful farmer. As time went on and passed my mother’s health improved and in 1911 a baby girl came - Mary Frances. My father named the birls, mine after my Grandmother Swafford the Mary and the Frances after my Grandmother McConnell. And I was the only girl so they decided for four since her health improved. So in 1909 Anna Pearl was added to the family.
We had an ideal family, boys and girls. All was well and happy and we all became very ill in April 1913. We called the doctor and in those days they made house calls. So my father took very ill. The doctor came at once and he told my mother, "where did we get our drinking water?". She said from a cistern. He had the water tested and we all had typhoid fever. All in bed. The neighbors all came to our aid. My father got some better and was up and around and went walking to the barn to check his houses and plows and put out hay for the horses and water. He started back to our house and fell and hemorrhaged at the yard and was carried to the bed. Passes away suddenly. Sad and a shock. Plans were the Modern Woodman’s helped with burial plans and located us at Boyd, Texas between both is parents and my mothers parents. We bought a home and grew up to school age on insurance check and farm my mother used it sparingly. My mother lived a sad life but enjoyed us children. Doing her best toward us. We all went to Boyd school and was taught to help our parents. My mother she helped us and we all shared our home. We grew older and married and went our separate ways. My mother passed away in 1945 and CL passed away in 1966.

Since this was given to me many years ago: All the McConnell children born to Owen & Ludella McConnell have since passed away.

Memory trip back in time to Hobart, Oklahoma
By: Mari (Nance) Zinn
A trip in memory time goes back to Hobart, Oklahoma population 4,023. For years I watched that sign from the back seat of various cars; but , then it read 5,186! Then there were two to three families on every section of land, often more. Now the old farm houses - all brick and landscaped but they are few and far between.
No school building remains from my 17 years - not Fairview, Prospect View or Emerson or the two story High School at the end of Main Street. Little is the same on Main Street - only Booth Drug occupies the same place and location. Gone too are the distinguished Mr. Booth, crabby Newt Guthrie and Louis Webber. The fountain remains. Next door, the empty shell of the gathering place Gains Drug - gives little evidence of the wondrous place it was to us. Where Mrs. Gaines and Mrs. Snodgrass ran their separate worlds of prescriptions and cosmetics. Neither was of much concern to us. The fountain was - with its stools where we waited for Walking Sundaes - ice cream in a paper cup swimming in chocolate syrup and pecans all for 10 cents. Best al all were the tall dark wood booths in the back alcove where we gathered for cokes and fun. The tables were carved with initials and names not ours of course. Here was our private teenage world the Sonic of our day. No adults usurped our place for there were only 3 precious spots. If Mrs. Gaines ever frowned on our being there we never knew it. I never remember being frowned on by towns people but other than laughter and talk there was no reason to be. Good behavior was just simply the norm, no imposed or restricted, just the way things were.
Men gathered in two’s and three’s on the Kiowa show block of town to visit and discuss farm news for these were all farmers come to town on Saturday, the day you bought groceries, ate a hamburger or plate lunch and watched people. The parking places on Main from Booth’s to Spot’s Grocery were the choice ones with the half block from the Barber shop, Kiowa, Baker’s News Stand, Anthony’s, the Pool Hall, Nye’s Bakery, a once exclusive café, the Bon Ton, the stairway to Dr. Braun’s office and Booth’s to the corner. There were prime spots for which we arrive early or double park to wait for some one to leave. In my earliest childhood people often sat in anyone’s car. It was nothing unusual to come back to the car and find a family sitting in it watching the people go by. Usually we would know them but that was not important. We never rolled up a window or locked a door. The north block on Main was a little more exclusive, more uptown. First National Bank held down the corner next to the Dixie Store. The Slaners our Jewish family, had a quality Department Store. You instantly knew this as you came in the tiny white/black tiled entrance with the unusual center show window flanked by two angle windows leading in to the big double doors. Just outside stood the huge weight machine with its fortunes and weights for a penny. The smell of well oiled floors and hushed sounds invited you in with reserve. Women’s on the south, men’s on the north, Earl Ream’s shoe department two steps up in the back. Here, too, in the south side back past materials and hosiery was an elevator! (The only one in town) Upstairs was ladies’ wear where Nellie and I bought Easter dresses. I remember mine so well - blue and white print, dropped fitted waist, soft like silk hardly like the closets of clothes of today’s girls.
Next to the Dixie was Grinnell’s Drug and Jewelry Store with its gift section in the rear. Then the most important store of my childhood, Gosslin’s which become the TG&Y. What wonderful things in all the little divided spots on the counter. Among the beckoning trinkets I longed for a necklace. I finally got one for my birthday, a tiny heart locket. Daddy got it for me and it may not have cost more than a dime but certainly no more than 98 cents at the most which would have been $1.00 even. It might have cost a thousand, I could not have been more thrilled and it wouldn’t have been harder to come by than the dime in the thirties. Here too I came with my quarter to get "my" Christmas tree which I always put on the library table and, oh, yes the Evening in Paris blue bottle of perfume for Aunt Eula.
Next came the Office Supply where the tables of new books waited each fall for the beginning of school. Oh, the smell and excitement of those books. It never seemed to be contagious to the Linn Boleses who solemnly sold these treasures.
The last real "store" that counted was the Oklahoman show ruled over by Mrs. James who knew no one’s name but everyone’s age. Dare not try to pass off young, she knew! This stern lady must have liked somebody, she was aunt to the Mahones, but she never betrayed the secret. Here the A movies showed, Mrs. Miniver; Gone With The Wind and Saturdays spent with Dan Daily and Betty Grable. The Kiowa had a Saturday night preview which started at 10 at night. Saturdays were filled with double features and cowboy shows, the Little Rascals, the Three Stooges and Our Eye on the World News Reels giving the latest war news.
How sad to see boarded up buildings that used to throb with community. And how could the Democrat Chief be in a hole in the wall on Main instead of the free standing yellow brick on 2nd street between Washington and Broadway. It held magic on election night when huge tally boards ere mounted on truck beds and new numbers put up as people gathered and stayed until the returns were in.
As I look back there were two Hobarts, the one occupied by the residents and the one visited by the outlying farm families. All the memories written here were through the eyes of a little tenant farmer girl. A self convinced college history professor shocked my world by his teachings about the oppressive tenant farmer conditions. Nothing could have been further from our truth. We were privileged to live on and operate the farm of Mrs. W.W. Rowland and Miss Stella, her daughter. IT was Mrs. Roland’s goal that each of her renters be able to own his own land which is precisely what we did.
How could it be 50 years gone? But still the church remains. And we are even recognized by some who shared the ties. When I can see Joe Hancock and D.B.Burns and the twinkle in Eva Brooks, dancing eyes, I have only to close my eyes to be again in a warm, friendly town a community where I grew up - Hobart, Oklahoma pop 5,186.

PS: Aunt Mari is so special in my life and she has helped me with this book for years. She has a special talent for writing and make the story seem so real as it is. Love You Aunt Mari

Wylie Potts Zinn was born February 1, 1879 in Tarrant County, Texas. Wylie was one of seven children born to Rev. Jacob Albert Zinn III and Cornelia Ann (Walker) Zinn. Cornelia and her infant child died in October 1883 leaving Jacob with seven children to raise. In August on 1887 Jacob married Emma Morrison where she became stepmother to his seven children. She was a good mother and all the children loved her. She died in April 1911 and is buried by her husband in Warren, Oklahoma.
Wylie came to Oklahoma at a early age and lived in the Warren Community with his parents. Both Wylie and Rosa were native of Texas. Rosa came with her parents from Montague County in old Greet County in 1902. Wylie came to Old Greer County as a young boy of 11 in 1890 with his parents from Young County, Texas. Wylie and Rosa were married in 1904 in Mangum, Oklahoma in Greer County.
After their marriage they filed on a claim in Beaver County in the Oklahoma Panhandle and lived there intil 1915 when they came to Hobart where Wylie worked for a number of years as a drayman for Antrim Lumber Company. He later would farm and in 1928 he went to work as the custodian of the Methodist Church in Hobart, Oklahoma. He would serve at this job for 30 years. Wylie retired only two years before his death.
In the later years of his life he had a Lawn Mower Repair shop at his home.
As young children we loved to visit our grandparents in Hobart, Oklahoma which was just a few miles from where we lived in Lone Wolf. I spent one summer staying with them while I worked at Gains Drug Store. This was exciting for me I thought I was really grown up getting to stay there for the summer.
Wylie and Rosa have nine children two of who preceded them in death as young children.
There were some pretty good memories coming from that little white frame house on Broadway Street in Hobart, Oklahoma. They lived right down the road from the Hobart Park and we spent many summer days playing at that park. Especially Linda and I we love going to Grandma and Grandpa Zinn's home. Memories That Last Forever.

Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year to all my friends and family.

Here it is Christmas Day 2008 and I want each one to know that I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Blessed Year to come. As everyone knows this has been a pretty rough year for our family. I am sad to tell you that may not know that all four of my sisters have passed away.
We lost Katha in June 2007, Linda in December 2007, Arlene in June 2008 and Doris November 2008. Then I also lost a nephew Mark Stephen Johnson December 2008. Last year we also
lost a cousin Vernard Holbrook . All three of my brothers have passed away in the past years. One might just wonder how this can be or why in my case was I left the only McConnell child in our family. I don't know and have to just do what I have always done and that is to put my trust and faith in the Lord and He is in control. I will be waiting to see what He has left for me to do in this life time. I have no doubt that there is something left for me to do.
God Bless You All
Janice

Clarence LeGrande and Nellie Juanita McConnell

Parents of eight children

Lloyd Wayne - Kenneth Owen - Doris June

Katha Faye - John Milton - Juanita Arlene

Janice Elaine - Linda LuJean

This picture is of the next two McConnell Children

Juanita Arlene & John Milton

this bring the count up to six McConnell children

The first four children of Shug and Nellie(Zinn)McConnell

The top row would my two older brothers:

Lloyd Wayne and Kenneth Owen

The front row would be two of my older sisters:

Doris June and Katha Faye

This being four of the eight Mcconnell children

Post Cards From The Past
By: Janice (McConnell) Cowan

For many years I have had this collection of postcards that Mother has kept since she was a little girl. Most of them are dated in 1910 and 1911. They are from an assortment of family and friends. I can remember looking at these cards since I was a little girl. I thought it would be a good story for my book of memories.
I read a story in a book about post cards and thought I would just share the memory of these with everyone. The cards reveal a part of the past that is really exciting and tells some of how things were in those days. I can just think back in my imagination as to what was going on in her life in those days. She would have been a small little girl of four or five years old when they were written. Life was so simple back then. They were from her Papa (our Grandfather Wylie Zinn) and from cousins and friends as well. (These are some of the cards )
Just looking at these old cards showing both comical illustrations as well as patriotic symbols and cards for all occasions. I decided that I would just do a little research about such cards and found that the post card originated in Austria in 1869. The first card sent in the United States was around 1873. The postal department required one entire side of the card to be used for the address leaving only a small part of the card for the actual message. Then the front of the card was the greeting. They were so colorful and had such really cute pictures on them. Unfortunately the first boom in postcard production ended with the start of World War I. It was shortly after then when greeting cards came along. People also begin to take snapshots with their new found cameras to send to friends and family.
One of the most special cards that I found in this collection of about 50 cards was one that mother had received from her Papa. I can just make it out. The card is a real pretty color of green in the background and has a little girl with long blonde hair standing at a door and she has a bouquet of red flowers and a little dog at her feet that has a basket of flowers in his mouth. The says "Best Wishes" and under that in his handwriting it has Nellie Zinn. On the back of the card is written:
Hobart, Okla. Hello Sister, Papa wood (spelled just that way) like awful well to see you to and Mama. Papa was awful tired when he got here, we come awful slow when we was in the wagon. But when we got on the train we went "toot toot". Stella wanted to know about you why you didn’t come with me.
From your Papa to Nellie Zinn.
This card was sent to Nellie Zinn from Edna Cox:
I am picking cotton and the most I have picked in a day
was 120 pounds. Walk 3 miles a day get your eats and dinner.
There is a really cute little card form Aunt Dennie
The card has a little girl sitting under a tree with a large white rabbit in her lap and a small one beside her with a hat full of Easter eggs and little chicks. It says Loving Easter Greetings. On this card was a little poem:
I Love You Little
I Love You Big
I Love You Like A Little Pig
From your Aunt Dennie Ward to
Little Nellie Zinn
I have enjoyed just looking at these cards and reading the names of who all sent them to mother. There were cards from Grandpa Zinn, Grandmother Ward, Aunt Arlie Ward, Aunt Dennie Ward, Uncle Texas Ward, Uncle Bud Lee, Gladys Cox, Uncle Charley, Nettie Price,
In today’s busy life we just email or pick up the phone and call which is nice but the cards from the past are so special because one can enjoy them many times over and just think about how simple and uncluttered the lives of our ancestors must have been. Not that times were not hard I am sure they were but also times were meaningful and that is really special to remember and most of all "Memories That Last Forever".

In my life I have met a lot of people and have had a lot of friends. I have in all these years never met anyone with a heart as big as his. I doubt he can even remember or would tell you how many people he has helped in his life because that is who he is but to me and my family I do know.
Merle is a special friend and I would not be able to tell you how much he has heled me. I know I can never tell him enough how much I appreciate him.
I wish everyone could see his flowers. He is so good with flowers and then also his Koi fish ponds. Just walking through his greenhouse you would just not want to leave. He can make anything grow, I tell you he can put a leave in a pot and grow something beautiful. Just in the short time I lived in Florida just being around him I have learned so much about the beautiful flowers he grows. Now the names of them I can't tell you but I grant you he can and he knows the name of every flower in this world (smile) I think. I dont mean just the name we know the flower to be but the name the really long names. (smile) I would say that his life is his flowers and his beautiful yard where he spends most of his time. This is just s peek into the life of this really special man. This time I have spent in Floridsa will be memories to add to the rest of my
memories that will last forever. Florida is really beautiful and like being on a vacation but I miss Oklahoma and hope to be back there soon.

Christmas Memories Past
Written by: Janice (McConnell) Cowan
My memories of Christmas have to go back to the days in Lone Wolf and the family Christmas times we spent together. I think way back to when I was just very small and the Christmas tree always decorated right after Thanksgiving. Under the tree was always a box of oranges and apples that Daddy always put there. We always had plenty of Christmas candy which consist of chocolate drops and peanut- brittle in little squares and always candy canes. Always nuts to eat as well. Mother always made fruit cakes and pumpkin and pecan pies. Her pies were always the very best. I think of her making pies every time that I make a pie I think of how wonderful her pies were. Our mother was the best cook that ever walked on this earth.
Linda and I always tried to find out where our presents were hidden. We would never find them tho. Some of the things I remember so well getting for Christmas were: Katha Faye bought me a set of dishes that look just like real dishes. She had started working at the Telephone Company in Wictha Falls, Texas. I still to this day have one of the pieces from that set. Doris bought me a bride doll and she had clothes and a pair of roller skates as well. I still have this doll today just not dressed in the brides dress. I remember my last doll that Daddy bought me and believe it or not I was in high school.
I remember the breakfast of homemade biscuits and ham, bacon and eggs. Mother always made biscuits that would melt in your mouth and I remember them each and every time that I make biscuits. I was taught by the master. Everyone who ever ate her biscuits will never forget them.
I guess the other thing about Christmas that I remember would be the activities at Church. Lone Wolf Methodist Church where we spent a lot of time and always in the Christmas parties and plays. I remember the little brown bags full of candy and fruit that we would get at the church and at school. Those same chocolate drop candies and peanut brittle squares. Those seem to be the going candy in those days. Our MYF youth group would go caroling around to the shut-in where we would have hot chocolate and cookies. Christmas music was always a big part of the holidays. I loved singing then and now. There are no prettier songs in the world than the songs of Christmas. Singing songs of Christ’s birth was and is always special. These are songs that most everyone knows and can take part in. It was a special gift that we were given as children, the chance to attend Church and Sunday School. This is something that has stayed with me all my life both as a child and into my adult years and today. Some of my best memories are from those very times in my life as a child. This again is where I sy that"Memories Last Forever".
We would also spend some of our Christmas time at Grandma and Grandpa Zinn’s house in Hobart. There we would see our cousins and there was always the big giant peppermint stick that Grandpa Zinn always had for us. I remember so many Christmas times that were really good memories that last forever.
Of course the Christmas’s that we have today are so much different than the ones we had when I was growing up. We were so happy just to receive a couple of gifts that we had put on our list. It was just as exciting if not more than today when the kids get far more than they need. Ours was a simple time and really makes for good memories of the Christmas past and memories that last forever. Then of course when the family grew there were lots of grandchildren around. That is one of the sad parts of life, that when the parents pass away it is not always easy to get together as a family. But we do have our Memories, always.

Growing up in a large family of eight children was quite different than the small families of
today. Our Mother and Father worked very hard to put all eight of us through school and I
really dont remember ever wanting for much. I know the older kids might have had it a little
harder because of the times but Linda and I came along in later years and things were a little
different for us. The older kids always said that we were spoiled and I guess we were.
Growing up in this large house was also pretty neat. Lots of rooms but in this large house
can you just imagine only one bathroom. Yes for eight kids and two adults. Mother lived in this big house until her later years and it was to large for her to care for so she moved to a smaller place. Daddy passed away at a early age of 56 but Mother lived there a long time after we all grew up and moved away. She had a stroke and passed away at the age of 89.
This big old white house has lots of memories for us all.
Memories Last Forever

This is one of my very favorite pictures of the thousands of pictures I have. Our father passed away at a very young age so we really dont have a lot of pictures of him. This does not mean that we don't have many memories. This picture is so sweet and even in the little dress he is a very handsome beautiful baby. (smile) It is memories like this that keep me going day to day. I really think that just taking a look at these from time to time brings it all back. I hope you all enjoy the memories with me. Memories Last Forever

The three of us!
The three of us have been best friends for so many years. We went to school together and did everything together. So many wonderful memories for so long. All the ballgames we went to and the many times we "drug main" in Sandy's Daddys Rambler. Thinking back to how all those years Sandy was dating Paul and it was all we heard, Paul this and Paul that. She had their life planned out all those years ago even down to how many kids they would have. They were to have two kids - one boy and one girl and she even had the names picked out, Paul and Paula. Yes! you guessed it that is just what they did. (smile)

We each had a little sister, Sandra had Joyce, Sandy, Letitia and me Linda. When they were old enough they would tag along with us and it then became the six of us. Oh so many memories we had and so much fun together for a lot of years. We are still good friends today and I talk with Sandra and Sandy a lot. Of course Linda passed away in December of 2007 and that of course was so sad for us all.

It is so good to have friends but friends that have lasted through all these years well as I say,
"Memories Last Forever".

Kyleigh is the Sunshine of my Heart! You can just look in those big brown eyes and see how sweet she is. She just turned two and she is on the go all the time. She is so smart she can already count and knows her shapes and colors and can even read one of her little books. Does this sound like a proud Great Grandmother?

Can't think of a better picture to start with than that of my sweet little Kyleigh Marie. Candice and Josh's little girl. She is just as sweet at this picture shows her to be. This will be the first of many many pictures that I will be posting of our Sweet Little Kyleigh Marie Pate by her Granny.

I am so proud of Candice and she is such a good little mother.

My First Blog December 21st 2008

Well I have had a web page for many years and I have been writing a book for many years. Through my web page I met a cousin that I had not seen in so many years I dont like to remember. (smile) Well we have become very close and I enjoy her company on the web so much. During this really hard year that I have had losing all of my sisters and moving to Florida and realising that it was not really what I wanted to do. If it had not been for Tonia and her encouragement I would really be a basket case. Just getting to know her has been such a special part of my life. Pictures and stories and memories have always been important to me but now to have someone to share then with that thinks like I do and appreciates the family memories like I do. We have shared back and forth and she has taught me a lot of things that this old lady did not know. I have learned a lot and now she has given me for a Christmas gift this blog that she has designed for me. I wanted to try my hand at blogging and she has made that possible and she will continue to teach me and this blog will grow better and better as time goes by.
I want everyone to enjoy this and my favorite saying and the title of the book I wrote is "Memories Last Forever".
Enjoy and check back from time to time because I will be typing my little fingers to the bone.
(smile) Thanks Tonia !