Martha Pearl was born on 9 Dec 1888 in Wise County, Texas, to Sidney Emit Counts and Ida Jane Peters. She was the second of ten children in this farming family of German heritage. In 1898, when she was nine, she moved with her family to Washita County in western Oklahoma Territory. They claimed a homestead south of Canute that may have been as large as 320 acres.

At the age of 19, Pearl, as she preferred to be called, married John Berry "Bud" Blakemore on 1 Sep 1908, the year after Oklahoma became a state. They bought 80 acres near her family. Later, they also bought 160 acres across the road from "the eighty". Cotton was the main crop grown in that red Oklahoma sand. They survived the drought years of the 1930's with their farm intact because they were on the edge of the "Dust Bowl" rather than in it.

Pearl and Bud raised six children, three boys and three girls, all of whom lived into late adulthood and had families of their own. Bud died in 1947 at the age of 64 after being struck by a car as he was crossing Route 66 that ran through Canute. Pearl lived a healthy, independent life to the age of 90. She died of a stroke on 28 Oct 1979 in Tisdale Hospital in nearby Elk City, Oklahoma.

Source: Granddaughter Carole Courtney

Martha Pearl was born on 9 Dec 1888 in Wise County, Texas, to Sidney Emit Counts and Ida Jane Peters. She was the second of ten children in this farming family of German heritage. In 1898, when she was nine, she moved with her family to Washita County in western Oklahoma Territory. They claimed a homestead south of Canute that may have been as large as 320 acres.

At the age of 19, Pearl, as she preferred to be called, married John Berry "Bud" Blakemore on 1 Sep 1908, the year after Oklahoma became a state. They bought 80 acres near her family. Later, they also bought 160 acres across the road from "the eighty". Cotton was the main crop grown in that red Oklahoma sand. They survived the drought years of the 1930's with their farm intact because they were on the edge of the "Dust Bowl" rather than in it.

Pearl and Bud raised six children, three boys and three girls, all of whom lived into late adulthood and had families of their own. Bud died in 1947 at the age of 64 after being struck by a car as he was crossing Route 66 that ran through Canute. Pearl lived a healthy, independent life to the age of 90. She died of a stroke on 28 Oct 1979 in Tisdale Hospital in nearby Elk City, Oklahoma.

Source: Granddaughter Carole Courtney

Bio by: Lesa Pfrommer