Jewel Moore Gresham's High School Years in Oklahoma, 1929-1932

Sometime before she died in 1994, my mother-in-law, Jewel Moore Gresham (born in 1914), either wrote down or dictated some memories.  This is the fifth part of those memories, from her high school years in the Marlow, Oklahoma, area, 1929-1932.

Here are links to the other parts:

Part one (Texas, 1914-1918) - Part two (near Bray, Oklahoma, 1919-1922) - Part three (near Marlow, Oklahoma, 1922-1926) - Part four - (Junior high school years, near Marlow, Oklahoma, 1926-1929) 

Jewel Moore Gresham's Marlow (Oklahoma) High School diploma, May 19, 1932

The tenth grade was fine.  I could not understand algebra, but I loved geometry.  Made good grades.  Mabel¹ graduated from senior high in 1929, and by Christmas of that year, she was in Corpus Christi in nursing school.²  Then Papa³ let Audie⁴ and I take the car⁵ to school.  We even went home for lunch. I really can't remember too much about school -- it was just routine, and nothing bad happened.  

Audie graduated in 1930.  She went off to college at Stillwater, Oklahoma⁶ for one semester.  I guess there was no money for her to go back, for by 1930, the Depression was pretty bad.  We always had food, and I really didn't know that there was anyone who was hungry.  By that time, Audie, who took sewing at college, was sewing dresses for us, and I learned to sew from her.  We took a weekly paper, The Kansas City Star.  It had patterns in it -- they cost 15 cents.  So we would order a pattern, and after we used it, we would loan it to other girls in the area, and they would loan us theirs.

Above:  [The Weekly] Kansas City Star Mail Order 1655 [sewing pattern]; postmarked 1925; Ladies' One-Piece Apron / anne8865 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Below:  pages 94-95 from The Saturday Evening Post of December 12, 1925, with color version of page 95 from 1926 Ford Model T (USA) /  Michael / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Click on image for a larger view.  The story on the left is typical of the types of stories in this era that Jewel, her family, and her neighbor liked.  The car in the ad might be similar to the 1926 Ford Model T Jewel's father bought for $485.

We also took The Saturday Evening Post.  It came every week, and it had wonderful stories in it.  When we had read it, we would pass it along to our neighbor, M. C. Hallmark⁷.  He loved to read.

My last two years in school were uneventful.  The high school principal one day told me that if I kept my grades up, I would graduate with honors.  His name was Mr. Teakell⁸.  He also taught history.  He chose me to be his office girl.  At the end of the 11th grade, the juniors always gave the seniors a banquet.  The local churches would bid on the meal, and the lowest bid got the job.  It was a gala occasion.  When we became seniors, we had the same function provided by the junior class.  

I graduated in 1932, and was salutatorian.  And I made a speech on graduation night.  The valedictorian was Glenn Rubendall.  After school was over, it was field work.  By this time, the Depression was going strong.  I can't say our lives changed too much.  When you don't have anything much, you don't miss doing without a few more things.  

Above:  Program for Jewel Moore Gresham's May 19, 1932, Marlow (Oklahoma) High School commencement.

Below:  one of Jewel Moore Gresham's calling cards from high school.  She used only one L in her first name the rest of her life, but her name was spelled with two Ls on junior high and high school documents.

NOTES

1.  Mabel is Jewel's older sister, Beulah Mabel "Mabel" Moore, 1910-1932.

2.  Papa is Jewel's father, Tandy Clayton "Clayton" Moore, 1878-1964.

3.  Mabel (and her older sister Ivis Moore Mew, 1905-2004, then single) trained as nurses at Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas.  On the 1930 US Census, they are living in a large house with other student nurses and the Catholic sisters who trained them and ran the hospital, at 1436 Third Street.

4.  Audie is Jewel's older sister, Audie Ruth Moore Cook, 1911-1969.

5.  Clayton used $485 of his $1,000 inheritance from his parents in 1926 to buy a 1926 Ford Model T to drive to his Aunt Sue Moore Dinkins Robertson's funeral that year.

6.  At that time, the only college in Stillwater, Oklahoma, was Oklahoma A&M College, the forerunner to today's Oklahoma State University.

7.  Marion C. (M. C.) Hallmark (1905-1997) and family are listed just after empty-nesters Tandy C. and Nannie Moore (Jewel's mother, Nancy "Nannie" Flora Jones Moore, 1882-1969) in Wall Township, Stephens County, Oklahoma, on the 1940 US Census.  However, that census also indicates they were living in Grady County, Oklahoma, on April 1, 1935, (which is also where they were on the 1930 US Census), so this memory would be sometime after March 1935.

8.  Leonard Lester Teakell (1902-1970) is listed as a high school principal on the 1930 US Census for the city of Marlow, Oklahoma.  He was still a high school principal on the 1940 US Census for that city. 

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