This is information about the Earl and Lorene McClease family the family of my Wife Sherry. This paper was written by Alba Cunningham, Sherry's sister. it is published here with no editing.
Earl Albert McClease, my Father, was born October 20, 1903 at Schell City, Missouri. He was the third child of Pat & Chloe McClease. There were eight siblings in his family. His Father, Pat, was a construction laborer, along with being a farmer and other jobs. He was gone from home a lot, going where the work was, leaving Chloe and the children to fend for themselves. I never heard my Dad say anything bad about him and his wandering ways, but did get a few hints from my Aunts that my Granddad was sort of a gad-about and made life hard for the Family at home. I did hear Dad say that he and his older brother George, often hunted for rabbit or possum, and even squirrel, so the family would have meat to eat. I thought he was kidding me for a long time, but realized it was the truth.
My Dad was very much a Family person. He felt a lot of responsibility toward all of them. I feel sure that it was because of the way he was raised by his Mom, as he called her. She depended on the older children to assist her with the chores, and to help put meat on the table, and with the Family income.
Earl attended school on and off for eight years, and told me he went to the eighth grade three times. I am not certain, but I think it was because the high school was in another town, and he was needed at home and could not afford to go live away at that time. His outstanding class was math. He could figure out nearly any problem and arrive at the correct answer, even college Algebra. Sherry, my older sister, must have inherited some of that math ability, and I wish I had. Not sure about Darrell, our brother, but he was able to figure blueprints and bid jobs, so must have been pretty good at it, too.
Dad always talked a lot about his Grandma McClease, and seemed to think she was very special. He spent time with her, and she was a big influence in his life. Chloe's Mother had died when she was a girl, and she had lived with her Aunt Rose, so Ear; was not around her family much.
When Earl was fifteen, he and Velma (his older sister) and her husband Wilbur, and a girl cousin, all drove out to Oregon together to find work and adventure. He worked several different jobs, one was as a cook in a logging camp. Another job was on a big ranch. His cousin remained in Oregon, marrying a local man. Forty years later, Dad & Mom visited them. Dad sent most of his money home to his Mom, so when he decided to go home, he had just barely enough money for the trip and food; But did manage to buy a white silk shirt for himself. Velma & Wilbur had returned to Missouri previously, as she was pregnant and ill. He rode the train, and in a town somewhere in Kansas, while there was a lay over between trains, he ran into his Father. They visited awhile, and before they parted, Pat asked if he had any money, and took most of Dad's cash, leaving him little to eat on. Dad returned home, as George was also out West somewhere, and he was needed at home.
When Dad grew to a young man, his family moved to Springfield, MO. He got acquainted with some young men who were plasterers, and he learned the plastering trade. It was hard, heavy work, but Earl was good at it, and he became expert on the finish work. He became lifetime friends with Guy Jeffery. They worked and roomed together throughout Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and anyplace else they found work and adventure.
Dad was working in Oklahoma in 1927, and his Family was now living near Halltown, Missouri. It was there that he met Lorene Samuels. His two sisters, Ruby and Emogene, were attending high school and he went there to see them on one of his trips home, and Lorene spied him. Earl was 24 and Lorene was just 16 years old, but she knew the first time she saw him that he was the man for her, and she told her friend just that. They met, naturally, and when Earl came home for visits, they dated. Lorene's parents were strict with her, and understandably so, as he was eight years older and much more worldly. Her Mother was particularly uncertain of him, but her Father, Am, liked him immediately. After a fairly short courtship, they were married on December 24, 1927. They drove to Springfield, with her Dad and Guy & Eula Jeffery as witnesses, and married by a Justice of the Peace. They then returned to stay with her folks for the remainder of the Christmas Holiday, before moving to Oklahoma, where he had a job plastering.
They shared an apartment with Guy & Eula, and this suited Lorene fine, as she did not know the first thing about cooking, and Eula was a wonderful cook. They had some grand times, along with some lean and stormy ones, but survived in fine shape. Mom told of when they returned to Missouri for the first visit in three months, she talked and sang all the way home, and by the time they reached her folk's home, she had lost her voice, and could not talk at all.
During the courtship of Earl and Lorene, the McClease family had moved to a farm southwest of Hollister, Missouri. The farm belonged to Rose Bender, Chloe's Aunt. She made an agreement with them that if they would live and farm the place, and provide her with a home and care for the remainder of her life, the farm would be theirs. The farm was about five rocky, rough miles from Hollister, with barely trails to drive on, but it was their home from that time on. It was located in a small valley, with a creek running through it, and nice fields for cutting hay and raising crops, along with orchards and garden spots. I believe there were 200 acres or about in the farm. It was the end of Pat's wandering days, and Grandma Chloe loved the place. It was her first real permanent home since her early childhood.
Earl & Lorene lived in several places for the next year or so, and then the Depression and Darrell came along. Darrell was born in September 1931, at the YMCA Camp in Hollister, MO. Most of the family lived close, except for Okla, who had married Andy Shelton, and lived away, and Velma & Wilbur. I recall my Folks talking about when they lived with the McClease's during the Depression. Of course, the construction business had come to a halt, and Earl drove a truck to make a living. I asked my Mom about living with the whole family, and she loved it. The men would get out and do the chores, cut the wood for the heat and cooking, and the women would do the laundry together, cook plenty of food, but with all the garden food, fruit from the orchard, pork from the hogs butchered, the food was plentiful. They pooled their money for the things they could not grow, such as tobacco, coffee and sugar, etc. Gas and sugar was rationed, but they made do. They would play cards and games in the evenings and did not feel they were bad off at all.
When business started back up, Earl resumed plastering, and Lorene & Darrell went along to where ever he had to go to find work. Sherry was born in Miami, Oklahoma, March 19, 1937. Lorene developed yellow jaundice and was very sick for a long time. Earl moved her to Halltown, to be close to her family and they could help her with the children, and he would come home when he could to see them; Thus started the era of working away from home and just seeing the family occasionally.
Sometime during 1940, Earl and his family moved to California to work. When they returned home, Earl and George had a pottery business, located at George & Agnes' home, near the McClease home. Alba Lynn was born at George's home on August 1, 1941. The two families were living together at the time, until Earl completed the house he was building close to the two farms. Agnes had given birth to a son a few weeks earlier, and he was gravely ill. Mom always felt guilty about me being so healthy and loud, with the baby Larry, being so frail and sick. He died shortly after. They remained in the pottery business for several years, until George became sick and died suddenly with cancer of the brain. I don't know how much longer the business kept on, but Earl then went back into the plastering business.
Earl started working for D.C. Snead, a Plastering Contractor out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Soon he was named foreman and ran many jobs for Mr. Snead. In the early 50's, they became business partners, along with another man from Tulsa, OK, who ran the office. They did big buildings, such as hospitals, and the large oil buildings located in Tulsa, involving a year or more to complete.
Earl & Lorene borrowed money against their home at Hollister to be able to buy into the Plastering Corporation. Lorene was against it, but it soon was paid back and the money became good. Earl always liked to drive new automobiles, and bought two new ones soon after. An Oldsmobile and a Buick. He also renovated the four-room house into a three bedroom one, with large, airy rooms. The kitchen was very large, with windows all across the front, and he never wanted curtains on that window. He spent most of his time at home sitting in the kitchen, visiting with Lorene while she prepared meals, or playing cards with all of the family. Most weekends, we had company, either to play cards or for Sunday dinner. Dad never broke ties with his family, and our home was always a busy, fun place to be for his siblings and their families.
When Dad had jobs away from home, which they all were, he would drive home on Friday nights, and leave again on Sunday afternoons. He rented a small apartment or room, sometimes with my cousin, Pat McClease, George's son, who often worked for Earl as a plasterer. We had a barn and Lorene and Darrell milked cows, along with Earl, but they sold off the milk cows about the time I was 6 or 8, as it was quite a hassle for Darrell & Mom to milk, with Darrell going to school and being on the basketball team. I never learned to milk a cow, and don't regret that at all. We still had chickens, pigs, and some stock cows, and Darrell had a horse he named Fanny.
We never had a telephone the entire time we lived at Hollister, but if there was an emergency, people contacted Bob & Emogene Hulland and they would drive out and deliver the message. Mom did not drive much when I was small, but when Darrell turned 16 and got a car, she began to drive some, knowing that when Darrell was gone from home, she had to be able to get around.
During the summer months, after school was out, we often went with Dad and stayed until time to go back to school. We stayed in a trailer court in Vinita, Okla the year I turned 10, and that was the summer I will always think back to as a favorite one. I had other kids to play with, and I learned to ride a bicycle. I never owned one, as we lived on a curvy, hilly road, and Dad thought it was too dangerous, and he was probably right, but I always wanted one. I also had my first and only real birthday party that year. One summer, we lived at Benton, AR, another at Muskogee, OK, etc. We lived in Springfield, MO for a short part of my fourth grade, Sherry and I attended St. Agnes Catholic School, and we walked. We lived in an apartment house, on Elm Street. The rooms were very large, but it was a dimly lit, cold building, and I never felt at ease there. Lorene was sick then, and had a complete hysterectomy right after school was over, at Skaggs Hospital, Branson, MO. I was not allowed to see her for 10 days, as they did not allow children under 12 on the floor she was on, and back then, they kept patients much longer than they do now.
Dad taught Darrell the plastering trade, and he worked for a year or more after he graduated from Hollister School in 1949, then he joined the Air Force, as the Korean War broke out, and he chose to enlist rather than be drafted. He was stationed in West Texas during boot camp, and I remember we made several trips to see him, and Lavern Quick went with us, as Darrell and she had been dating since he was in high school. Darrell & Lavern were married in May, 1952, and lived at Albuquerque, NM, until he was sent overseas to Korea, and she was pregnant with their first child, Darra. Lavern spent a lot of time at our home before and after the baby was delivered, to all our joy.
My Granddad McClease died in 1953, of stomach cancer. He had surgery, but never did any good afterwards. I remember he was in bed most of the time, and I was too shy to go around him much. Dad was home at the time he died, and Mom was right there with him when he till the end. I missed him a lot, but I am sure it was devastating for Earl. He had to be gone so much, and now felt responsible for his Mom and Aunt Rose, too.
When I was about 5 years old, which would have been 1946; Dad started taking us three kids to the Catholic Church in Branson, MO. At first, Lorene refused to go, but after a time, began going with us. She was not comfortable about going to a Catholic Church, as she had always heard bad things about them. The Priest was Father Farrell, and he spent a lot of time at our house, giving us instructions and teaching us about the Catholic religion. We were all five baptized at the Lady of the Lake Church at the same time. Eventually, most of the McClease’s joined the Catholic Church too, but Velma didn't. When Earl died 45 years later, Father Farrell assisted at his Funeral Mass. He had long since retired from actively being a parish priest, but was always available for the McClease Family.
Earl was always a avid hunter and fisherman. He loved to fly fish on Long Creek, a few miles from home at Hollister, MO, until the Table Rock Dam covered it with lake water, and hunted deer in the Ozark hills, usually coming home with one or two, whatever the law allowed for that season. Darrell loved to hunt too, and usually was successful in bagging a deer. Earl and Lorene started going to Colorado during the deer and elk seasons, and went several years in a row, always coming home with wild game. He hunted squirrels, rabbits, and quail, and loved to hunt duck. Our meals were often venison, elk, squirrel, and quail. I never thought any more about sitting down to the wild meat than I did beef or pork. Earl bought a jeep and pulled it behind him to Colorado, often through snowy passes and steep drop-offs. They rented a cabin that was warmed with wood heat, and cooked on a wood stove, and enjoyed it all. Mom usually went out in the jeep with Earl, but never did carry a gun. They both talked about those trips often, and bad health was the only thing that prevented them from going later on.
When Clarence & Ruby Gentry opened up the White Elephant Motel and dance floor, Dad & Mom would go up there often. There was not any liquor allowed on the premises, but I am sure that they managed to drink, but they took me with them, and I was amazed to see my parents dance together. They danced together easily, and both loved it. Dad was a smooth dancer with great rhythm, and he taught me how to dance like him. He never seemed put out to dance with me, in fact, he seemed to be proud to dance with his daughters, as Sherry learned to dance from him, too. We all loved to see him do the' Charleston', as his long legs seemed to be rubbery.
Comment
Tracy a granddaughter
Tracy
Here are a few things I remember about Granddad Earl: the playful look in his eyes and that easy laugh; counting how many times he would sneeze in a row; he taught me how to shuffle cards and play solitaire; his homegrown cherry tomatoes; the pool table and him letting us just use our hands to roll the ball; peanut brittle; bird dogs; the duck decoys in the pool room; trout lines and the cabin; and he always seemed so happy with the ashtray I would buy him every year for Christmas with my baby sitting money - Grandma always got a punch bowl set. I loved being at their house and I loved them even more.
Tracy Pingel, Owner
Medic Transcription Services
6618 Lake Charlene Drive
Pensacola, FL 32506
Phone - 850-291-7508
Fax - 850-308-1061
tracypingel@cox.net
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