| Notes |
- Williams or Willie as he was called had to take the responsibility of helping
care of his family (mother,3 brothers, and sister) when his father died.
Willie was only a boy of 13 or 14 at the time. Sometime later his mother
remarried to a Mr. Jones. When Willie married his brothers Bertie and Alvie
lived with him while his other brother and sister stayed with their mother.
(Mr. Jones is buried near the Praytors at Orrs Chapel Cem. near Telephone,
Fannin Co., Tx.)
This is a story told by Betty Jo, one of his children:
We lived in Telephone, Tx. and all 8 children were born there.
When Billy and I were 4 yrs. old we moved to Oklahoma, near Boehler.
We crossed the Red River on the Ferry Boat run on a cable.
My dad didn't have much use for Indians, mon said thats the reason she wore
bonnets and bleach cream to keep her complexion light.
Dad served as a member of the Shool Board for serveral years at Atoka, Okla.
and was burned very badly in an accident.
One night he had just renewed a contract with a teacher when they heard that
Pearl Harbor had just been attacked. The teacher left and ran out of gas a
short distance from the house, he returned to get dad to take him to get gas.
Dad had just filled up his new truck and said he would take him back to his
car and they could just cypher some out. They used a kerosene lantern to see
while they were doing this and the gas exploded and burned Mr.Neil, the
teacher and dad very badly. Mr. Neil took pneumonia and died, dad was put in a
death cell to die at the Durant Hospital, he lay uncousnious for 3 weeks,
finally they shipped him to Okal. City to the University Burn Center. He was
there for over 2 months. He had skin grafts all over his left side and lost
one ear. Dad said "I will never go to hell because I've done been there.
Mother stayed by his bedside until she fell one day after she saw he was going
to live, I guess when she relaxed from the idea that dad was going to make it,
she just collasped.
Mon raised us in church, the nearest church was Assembly of God, which was 3
miles from our house. I am a christian, we go to Life Christian Center.
After the disaster of the burns dad got, he took the Custodian and Jailers job
at Atoka, Okla.
Our parents told us many ghost stories, not to my remberance much of our
ancestors. Dad said the moved to Texas from Louisiana somewhere, that was
about it.
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