Bessie was the daughter of Isaac and Sarah Martha David Gustin. Bessie's earliest memories were of the family farm in Gentry Co. Missouri with fruit trees and a pond to splash in. After her mother's death, when Bessie was eight years old, she could no longer attend school because she had to keep house for her father and brothers.
Her father remarried in 1898 to a woman that Bessie disliked and the family moved to Thurston Co. Nebraska.
Bessie married Lot T. Jenkins August 14, 1902, in Rosalie, Nebraska.
She and Lot farmed near the Omaha/Ponca reservation where Charles, Harold, Gladys, Velma and Pauline were born. She recalled taking Charles and a loaded shotgun into a small room under the stairs while she nursed Harold. She learned to read, write, and "do sums" by helping Charles with his homework. She was a wonder at mental arithmatic, multiplying and dividing in her head (faster than with pencil and paper, as long as she thought of the numbers as dollars and cents). She taught herself to "chord" at the piano and played for dances. After her daughter, Pauline, drowned in the stocktank, she went into a "decline" and couldn't bear to live in the house where she could see the tank every day. Her silver-mounted sidesaddle was lost in the move to Osmond. 60 years later, she could describe the saddle in great detail.
In 1920, the family moved to a farm west of Fullerton, Nebraska, where Gordon and Donna were born.
After Lot's death, when the farm was lost to the bank, she spent a short time with Charles' family in Iowa, then moved to California near Harold, and worked in a defense plant. She returned to Nebraska, living in an apartment downtown and working as a housekeeper at Dodge County Hospital. In the early 1950's, she replaced a niece as manager of the one-room apartments above the Gamble Store in Fremont. Her living room overlooked a major intersection in downtown Fremont, and she loved to shop the sales, then return to her chair and watch the traffic and shoppers. She played bingo, canasta, pitch, and pinochle with determination and enthusiasm.
When the Gamble Store went out of business, she moved to a Senior Citizen's Housing apartment in Fremont, continuing her card-playing and church activities. Her eyesight failed in 1978 and she moved to Fullerton Manor.
Horse racing was a sin (her father had lost two claims in the Oklahoma Land Rush....ties for the claims were settled with a horse race and Isaac didn't have a fast enough horse] but dog races were great entertainment; poker and casino gambling were sins, but racehorse and 10-point pitch, pinochle, canasta and gin rummy were family traditions; dyeing hair was a sin but a wise woman combed a little cold tea through her hair after a certain age; she wouldn't watch a western because of the saloon fights and the shooting......she had enough of that in real life with her husband and his brothers and her brothers and she wasn't going to spend good money to see in on the screen .
Her father remarried in 1898 to a woman that Bessie disliked and the family moved to Thurston Co. Nebraska.
Bessie married Lot T. Jenkins August 14, 1902, in Rosalie, Nebraska.
She and Lot farmed near the Omaha/Ponca reservation where Charles, Harold, Gladys, Velma and Pauline were born. She recalled taking Charles and a loaded shotgun into a small room under the stairs while she nursed Harold. She learned to read, write, and "do sums" by helping Charles with his homework. She was a wonder at mental arithmatic, multiplying and dividing in her head (faster than with pencil and paper, as long as she thought of the numbers as dollars and cents). She taught herself to "chord" at the piano and played for dances. After her daughter, Pauline, drowned in the stocktank, she went into a "decline" and couldn't bear to live in the house where she could see the tank every day. Her silver-mounted sidesaddle was lost in the move to Osmond. 60 years later, she could describe the saddle in great detail.
In 1920, the family moved to a farm west of Fullerton, Nebraska, where Gordon and Donna were born.
After Lot's death, when the farm was lost to the bank, she spent a short time with Charles' family in Iowa, then moved to California near Harold, and worked in a defense plant. She returned to Nebraska, living in an apartment downtown and working as a housekeeper at Dodge County Hospital. In the early 1950's, she replaced a niece as manager of the one-room apartments above the Gamble Store in Fremont. Her living room overlooked a major intersection in downtown Fremont, and she loved to shop the sales, then return to her chair and watch the traffic and shoppers. She played bingo, canasta, pitch, and pinochle with determination and enthusiasm.
When the Gamble Store went out of business, she moved to a Senior Citizen's Housing apartment in Fremont, continuing her card-playing and church activities. Her eyesight failed in 1978 and she moved to Fullerton Manor.
Horse racing was a sin (her father had lost two claims in the Oklahoma Land Rush....ties for the claims were settled with a horse race and Isaac didn't have a fast enough horse] but dog races were great entertainment; poker and casino gambling were sins, but racehorse and 10-point pitch, pinochle, canasta and gin rummy were family traditions; dyeing hair was a sin but a wise woman combed a little cold tea through her hair after a certain age; she wouldn't watch a western because of the saloon fights and the shooting......she had enough of that in real life with her husband and his brothers and her brothers and she wasn't going to spend good money to see in on the screen .
Bessie was the daughter of Isaac and Sarah Martha David Gustin. Bessie's earliest memories were of the family farm in Gentry Co. Missouri with fruit trees and a pond to splash in. After her mother's death, when Bessie was eight years old, she could no longer attend school because she had to keep house for her father and brothers.
Her father remarried in 1898 to a woman that Bessie disliked and the family moved to Thurston Co. Nebraska.
Bessie married Lot T. Jenkins August 14, 1902, in Rosalie, Nebraska.
She and Lot farmed near the Omaha/Ponca reservation where Charles, Harold, Gladys, Velma and Pauline were born. She recalled taking Charles and a loaded shotgun into a small room under the stairs while she nursed Harold. She learned to read, write, and "do sums" by helping Charles with his homework. She was a wonder at mental arithmatic, multiplying and dividing in her head (faster than with pencil and paper, as long as she thought of the numbers as dollars and cents). She taught herself to "chord" at the piano and played for dances. After her daughter, Pauline, drowned in the stocktank, she went into a "decline" and couldn't bear to live in the house where she could see the tank every day. Her silver-mounted sidesaddle was lost in the move to Osmond. 60 years later, she could describe the saddle in great detail.
In 1920, the family moved to a farm west of Fullerton, Nebraska, where Gordon and Donna were born.
After Lot's death, when the farm was lost to the bank, she spent a short time with Charles' family in Iowa, then moved to California near Harold, and worked in a defense plant. She returned to Nebraska, living in an apartment downtown and working as a housekeeper at Dodge County Hospital. In the early 1950's, she replaced a niece as manager of the one-room apartments above the Gamble Store in Fremont. Her living room overlooked a major intersection in downtown Fremont, and she loved to shop the sales, then return to her chair and watch the traffic and shoppers. She played bingo, canasta, pitch, and pinochle with determination and enthusiasm.
When the Gamble Store went out of business, she moved to a Senior Citizen's Housing apartment in Fremont, continuing her card-playing and church activities. Her eyesight failed in 1978 and she moved to Fullerton Manor.
Horse racing was a sin (her father had lost two claims in the Oklahoma Land Rush....ties for the claims were settled with a horse race and Isaac didn't have a fast enough horse] but dog races were great entertainment; poker and casino gambling were sins, but racehorse and 10-point pitch, pinochle, canasta and gin rummy were family traditions; dyeing hair was a sin but a wise woman combed a little cold tea through her hair after a certain age; she wouldn't watch a western because of the saloon fights and the shooting......she had enough of that in real life with her husband and his brothers and her brothers and she wasn't going to spend good money to see in on the screen .
Her father remarried in 1898 to a woman that Bessie disliked and the family moved to Thurston Co. Nebraska.
Bessie married Lot T. Jenkins August 14, 1902, in Rosalie, Nebraska.
She and Lot farmed near the Omaha/Ponca reservation where Charles, Harold, Gladys, Velma and Pauline were born. She recalled taking Charles and a loaded shotgun into a small room under the stairs while she nursed Harold. She learned to read, write, and "do sums" by helping Charles with his homework. She was a wonder at mental arithmatic, multiplying and dividing in her head (faster than with pencil and paper, as long as she thought of the numbers as dollars and cents). She taught herself to "chord" at the piano and played for dances. After her daughter, Pauline, drowned in the stocktank, she went into a "decline" and couldn't bear to live in the house where she could see the tank every day. Her silver-mounted sidesaddle was lost in the move to Osmond. 60 years later, she could describe the saddle in great detail.
In 1920, the family moved to a farm west of Fullerton, Nebraska, where Gordon and Donna were born.
After Lot's death, when the farm was lost to the bank, she spent a short time with Charles' family in Iowa, then moved to California near Harold, and worked in a defense plant. She returned to Nebraska, living in an apartment downtown and working as a housekeeper at Dodge County Hospital. In the early 1950's, she replaced a niece as manager of the one-room apartments above the Gamble Store in Fremont. Her living room overlooked a major intersection in downtown Fremont, and she loved to shop the sales, then return to her chair and watch the traffic and shoppers. She played bingo, canasta, pitch, and pinochle with determination and enthusiasm.
When the Gamble Store went out of business, she moved to a Senior Citizen's Housing apartment in Fremont, continuing her card-playing and church activities. Her eyesight failed in 1978 and she moved to Fullerton Manor.
Horse racing was a sin (her father had lost two claims in the Oklahoma Land Rush....ties for the claims were settled with a horse race and Isaac didn't have a fast enough horse] but dog races were great entertainment; poker and casino gambling were sins, but racehorse and 10-point pitch, pinochle, canasta and gin rummy were family traditions; dyeing hair was a sin but a wise woman combed a little cold tea through her hair after a certain age; she wouldn't watch a western because of the saloon fights and the shooting......she had enough of that in real life with her husband and his brothers and her brothers and she wasn't going to spend good money to see in on the screen .
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