Pin Oak Research

I wrote this article a couple of months ago.

Friendship

Have you ever found an old picture and wondered who the person was and what kind of life they lived? I have.

Several years back, prior to 1998, my husband and I traveled to San Antonio, Texas to see his grandmother. While we were there, we drove across town to see my Uncle Malcolm Munson. He showed me an old photo album that belonged to his mother. Graciously, he allowed me to take it and get copies of the pictures made.

His father, Joseph Christopher “Kit” Munson have given the photo album to his wife, Eva 1904, as a Christmas gift. At the time they lived in Hope, Lavaca County, Texas.

There were a lot of family photos throughout the album. However, one particular photo caught my interest. It was of a beautiful young woman named Myrtle Thrift. I did not know whether she was family, or a friend of Eva’s. I was not able to find her among family, so I turned to friendship. Many years passed without knowing how she was connected with Eva Munson.

Over the years, I would take a chance at trying to find her several times, and then I would let it sit. While going through the album once again, I decided to take another look. I found a Myrtle Thrift in the 1900 census of Lavaca County, Texas. She had a marriage record from 1909 in Gonzales County, Texas. This was promising since I knew Eva Belle Airhart was born in Lavaca County, Texas. I pulled up the census document and located Myrtle Thrift. I took a chance and looked at the pages before and after, and sure enough I located Eva Belle Airhart and her family.

Eva Belle Airhart, 8 years old, was born August of 1892, and Myrtle Thrift, 7 years old, was born February of 1893. They were six months apart in age. Since Myrtle was in Eva’s photo album, I assume they were childhood friends. Unfortunately, my great grandmother, Eva Belle Munson passed away at the age of 36 on July 14, 1929.
Myrtle Thrift married Thomas Shelton Southerland White on May 26, 1909, in Gonzales County, Texas. They had one son, Hurst White. She later remarried, and passed away on October 26, 1973, in San Antonio, Texas as Myrtle T. Deviney.

Starting Life Under an Oak Tree

In 1932, Roy P. Stuckey came to town and saw this 14-year-old girl named Lela and fell in love. The girl did not feel the same way about him. He was fifteen years her senior and bargained with her mother to marry. She accepted that arrangement, not for love but to get away from babysitting her older siblings’ children. She had no life at home and was always on call to watch her nieces and nephews. Marriage seemed like a better proposition. Little did they know where life would lead them or how.
Times were so different. They married with no plans on where to live. After their wedding, they moved in under an oak tree and stayed there for several days before her older brother took them to his home. One morning an argument arose over an egg. There was just one egg, and her sister-in-law and her argued over whose husband would get it for breakfast. To this day, I do not know who got the egg, but afterwards Lela and Roy were living under the tree again. Adversity can bring people together. It was not long before Lela indeed fell in love with Roy. And from that first oak tree to many years later in their last house on Schley in San Antonio, Texas, they built an incredible life together. They had two boys and two girls. Each of the children raised large families themselves. Roy’s adventures in employment would include border patrol, prison guard, potato farming, campground superintendent, DOCTOR who also practiced as a veterinarian when needed, building a business in vending machines, and property rental. Lela worked cleaning houses, waitressing, and running her husband’s businesses. They lived from Austin to Mexico City and many destinations in between. Life was full. Life was good.
Life provided its shares of hardships too, and together they dealt with each one of them. During my senior year, their house burned down. It was tragic for the whole family. Roy, known as Popo, advanced in age, and did not fare well from that tragic loss. They would afterwards move to their final home, where a few years later, he would pass in 1990, suffering from dementia. Lela, known as Nana, moved beyond that loss, and kept busy in church, her ladies daily “phone” group, and being a beloved mother and grandmother to our family. She buried one son and two grandsons, which was difficult to overcome. In Lela’s later years, her girls moved her to Plano Texas to be near them until her death in 2006.
I remember her daily. Her furniture and photos fill my home. I cannot go into any room without feeling her there. My hope is that her legacy, and mine one day, will continue with those that follow behind us. Genealogy has been a huge gift to me for that very reason. To know about them is often as good as knowing them personally. That has proven true for many generations in my family tree. Our genealogy research has bred respect and knowledge for so many people that made me and mine. This knowledge reminds me daily that I am not alone, nor is my journey in life. It a continuation of many that have come before me.
I am blessed.

I will be posting another story and pics tomorrow. Sorry for the long absence. Life has been busy.

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