Clarence remembers his aunts telling him about how Herman had left Alabama with his cousins, William and Aaron Osborn, to seek work in the oil fields of Oklahoma. Herman was involved in an oil field fire and badly burned. His father took a train from Alabama to Oklahoma and brought Herman home, where his mother nursed him back to health.

However, the burns were not severe enough to prevent him from recovering and returning to Oklahoma. By that time, Herman did not have much of a taste for the oil fields so that is when he enlisted in the U.S. Army.

According to his enlistment record Herman (S/N 6225915) enlisted in the U.S. Army on December 6, 1922, at Fort Reno, Oklahoma (just west of the town of El Reno, Oklahoma). At the time of his enlistment Herman was 21 years old. Herman enlisted in a Calvary unit; however, his discharge papers states: "Horsemanship: Dismounted." Herman's honorable discharge states that before his enlistment he occupation was a stove miller. While Herman was in the service, he was a cook, and he attended the School for Bakers and Cooks at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He was discharged from the Army on December 23, 1925, at Kelly Field, Texas. It was at Kelly Field where he had met and married his first wife Orville Charlotte Gentry on 1 Aug 1925.

Herman's sister, Pauline, would tell how Herman and his wife Orville returned to Hartselle, Alabama and lived with his parents, after his discharge from the Army.

It was at Hartsell that their son Raymond Leanord Atkins was born on July 30, 1927. Raymond died on January 29, 1974, in San Antonio, Texas.

Alabama was not to Orville's liking, what with her being from the wide-open plains of Texas. Herman's son Raymond was born in Hartselle in 1927. As the story goes, about 1929, Herman gave Orville some money and sent her into town to buy some supplies. Orville took a horse drawn wagon into town and instead of buying the supplies she bought a wagon load of watermelons. She had intended to sell the watermelons and make a profit; however, Herman did not take kindly to that idea. By that time Herman had decided that he had enough of the farming business and he wanted more out of life. Shortly after that, Herman and his sister Pauline, took Orville and his son, Raymond, to the train depot and sent them packing back to her parents in Texas. Herman then took a train to Los Angeles where he took a job as a cook in a café.

Memorial services for Herman A. Atkins will be at 3:30 P.M. Saturday at the chapel of Jennings Funeral Home with the Rev. Allen Holbrook officiating. Interment will follow at Crossroads Cemetery, Taylorsville.

Mr. Atkins, 90, of 1345 Redmond Road, died Monday at a Rome health care center.

He was born, March 30, 1904, in Bartow County, son of the late Joel Atkins and Bessie Mae Dobbs Atkins. He was a resident of California for 30 years, having returned to Floyd County in 1953. Prior to his retirement, he was employed by Independent Life Insurance Company as an agent. He was of the Baptist faith. He was preceded in death by his wife, Alma Schneider Atkins. Herman was an inpatient at Creswell Convalescent Center in Rome, Floyd County, Georgia, prior to death." (The Rome News-Tribune - Friday, May 27, 1994)