Children:
1. Alice Antoinette Martin b.1913
2. Marguerite Lucile Martin b.1916
3. Clarence Walter Martin, Jr. b.1918
4. Nolan Lavelle Martin b.1920
5. Gayln Earl Martin b.1922
6. Melvin Merrill Martin b.1924
7. Doris Vanita Martin b.1926
8. Ramona Evella Martin b.1929
9. Laveda Gaynelle Martin b.1932
Taken from Doris Martin Welch bio, "My Saga" published in 2007.
A. MOM (Mary Evella Tanner Martin, born 09 July 1892, Wamego, Kansas). Mom was born in Wamego and had so many relatives in that area, one small town was named Tannerville after them. She was from a family of five (Beverly, Mom, Leona, Gladys, and Violet). Due to her family’s poor financial status, when she was only about 10 years of age, she went to live with Dr. Tower and his family, working for her room and board by cooking, cleaning, and helping with the children. She had to rise very early to get her chores done, which included milking the cow and helping to dress and feed the children, and then walking two miles to school. (Later this family moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. where my folks often contacted them.) When Mother was only about 15, her father left them for another woman with two small children, whom he had met on his milk route. I don’t think my mother ever got over this, even though she knew her Mom had a terrible temper (once in anger she threw the iron-in those days heated over the wood stove-clear across the room at her, luckily missing. Also she sometimes shut her up in a dark closet for punishment--Mom would imagine all sorts of bad things. She vowed if she ever had children, she would never use such tactics.) When her father left, her older brother, Beverly, left also for whereabouts unknown. (Later A. Leona tracked him down. In later years he visited Mom and moved with his wife Ann, to Okeechobee. Also a half-brother Cecil Tanner of South Bend, Ind. visited in Nov. ’67). Mom, being the oldest at home, completed her grammar school education (1909) and returned home to help support the family. She found work in the Oakland Woolen Mill and later at the H. H. Hackney Flour Mill. She had to catch a train to her job and it was the policy of the mill to see that the girls were safely escorted to the train station when they got off work (it being dark and located in a bad section of town). Thus Dad, a foreman in her department, escorted her to the station and a budding romance was in the making.
Mom dated before the time of autos, so you went everywhere by horse and buggy. She said one night she was riding home with a boy friend and was all bundled up against the cold when she dozed off to sleep. She suddenly was awakened with a jolt-the buggy had gone off the dirt road into a ditch. She said after that, when she was traveling, she never took her eyes off the road. Mom related a few amusing tales: she had gone with Dad to a fair (not knowing his parents yet, nor realizing they were also there). They were in a boat going under a small bridge when his father was on the bridge trying to get Dad’s attention. She said to Dad, “Look at the old fool up there trying to flirt with me.” He replied, “That’s Father.” She was so embarrassed!
Once Dad gave Mom a ring to wear, intending it to be an engagement ring, but he, being very bashful, had not told her so. She then went on another date and the boy asked to wear her ring. She slipped it off her finger and handed it to him. She never saw him or the ring again. Needless to say, Dad was very upset and never in her lifetime gave her another one. Dad and his family all moved to Florida for his father’s health, and they all got school teaching positions. Dad sent for Mom and she arrived in Dade City on a Sunday morning, Dec. 23, 1912. As she stepped off the train, there was Dad grinning from ear to ear. Mom said he had a front tooth missing and looked so hideous that if she had had the fare, she would have taken a returning train to Kansas. (Dad said in those days, he could put his hands around Mom’s waist and his fingers would meet-due in part to the tight-fitting corset she wore.) They were to wed in the Baptist Church that evening, hoping to surprise everyone with their after-service ceremony, and had so arranged with the pastor and a friend. They walked to the church to dodge notice, Mom wearing a light coat over her wedding gown, listened to the sermon, and after the service, the pastor went right from the benediction on into the wedding service. By then, a large number of people began coming into the church. Their ceremonies took place and they then hurried to the front door where at the entrance was a long line of soldiers drawn up in double file. As the couple went down the walk, the trumpeter fell in behind with the soldiers following, and the bugler blew every step of the way back to Mom’s hotel. (Some of the other churches learned about the wedding and let out early.) Mom and Dad quickly left for their farm get-away. Mom and Dad bore 10 children, losing three, with seven of us growing up together.
1. LAUNDRY BUSINESS: To help make ends meet, Mom started washing clothes for a few friends. Before she knew it, others wanted her services, and her extra activity turned into a business which she pursued most of her married life. During the depression, Dad also helped with this, their main customers being the rich folks who spent their winters in Florida. Dad went to Mountain Lake, a gated and guarded community surrounding the Bok Singing Tower, to pick up or deliver laundries. Mom was very meticulous about others’ clothes. She charged by the pound for local customers, and by the piece for the wealthy. As she received the clothes, after weighing (if appropriate), she checked each item on her listing (by name), and then sorted by color or dirtiness. Some required lye water boiling in her big wash pot in the back yard, some pre-soaking, (she used only Maytag washers). After washing, the clothes went through three rinse waters (the third containing bluing for whiteness). They were then rung out, and sorted onto a table. After wiping off the clotheslines, she hung them up. After drying, they were sprinkled and rolled into towels for ironing. Mom used a mangle for the larger pieces (sheets, tablecloths, pillow slips), and hired black women to help with the ironing. I could help with all but the ironing, which she would not entrust to me. Her day started about 4:30 each morning and sometimes lasted well into the night.
2. CHURCH: Mom attended the First Baptist Church in Lake Wales until about 1937 when the Nazarene church held a tent revival in town. She was there converted under the preaching of (big) Rev. R. J. Rogers. This small nucleus of believers united to build a church. Mom wanted to join, but Dad, having always been a Baptist, at first rejected changing denominations. To keep the family together, however, he and Mom both joined the church. Nolan died in 1938 about this time, and Ramona and I were converted and also joined the church. Mom was very active in the Missionary Society, taught Sunday School many years, and enjoyed serving Sunday dinner to our pastor, visiting ministers, missionaries, and other church families. Often Mom would pledge for various causes, wondering how she would fulfill her pledge. Somehow, the Lord always provided and she honored her commitment. On Mother’s Day, her greatest present was having her family sit with her in the church services.
3. WW II: When war was declared, the boys from our town were all signing up for the service. Gayln and Merrill joined the Navy. Mom proudly displayed the cardboard poster in our front window with two big stars on it (for her two boys). She supported the boys stationed nearby by inviting them over for Sunday dinners and entertainment.
Mom gave gifts for birthdays and Christmas even when funds were low. One year Ramona made stockings for each grandchild, which Mom filled with candies and gifts. Her HOME REMEDIES: For a cough, a tablespoon of sugar with kerosene soaked into it, or salt placed beside our bed to put on our tongue to relieve the throat tickle, red mercurochrome put onto a cotton swab to paint our sore throat, pine oil on open cuts, an ice cube on the back of the neck to stop nosebleeds, a pipe-smoking neighbor to blow into our ear for earaches, a notch cut into a stick which was then buried, to remove warts; vinegar patted on sunburn or mosquito bites, soda on burns, etc.
Mom was a great cook and we were brought up on her homemade bread. She spent all day on Saturday baking the week’s supply. She won 3rd prize on her bread at the Farmers Union Picnic, Wamego (1924). When I got into high school, I was ashamed of my homemade peanut butter sandwiches-I didn’t know how lucky I was! When we vacationed in Lake Wales, we could always count on fresh bread for while we were there, as well as a fresh loaf for our return trip home. Mother made guava jelly or butter, loved having a hen setting or being followed around the place with her brook of chicks, she would wring the necks of chickens for our Sunday dinners. She usually always had a pet cat to keep her company and spoil. When she had time, she made tatting for the baby’s clothes, hemstitching for her dresser scarves, and pinafores or slips from feed sacks for us girls.
Mom taught us that cleanliness is next to Godliness. She said if her Mom found a dirty dish in the cabinet after being washed, she made them rewash all the dishes. Our house was scrubbed clean, dusted, and waxed on Saturday, and we were all bathed and shampooed that night in preparation for church on Sunday. Our big dinner of the week was on Sunday, and often included other family or friends, an afternoon of singing around the piano, visiting, and ending the day with snacks after the church service.
Mom and Dad celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on December 23, 1962 with many of the townspeople and her sisters attending.
After Dad’s death in Feb., she made her last trip to Kansas (July 1964), sold road frontage for a new road in Sept. ’64, then in Aug. ’66, bought the Windsor property next door ($6,500, rented out for $25/mo) and the 144 E. Johnson Avenue house for herself.
Mom loved working in the yard and she and Dad had beautiful flowers and plants. People even stopped and asked to take pictures beside the big bougainvillea growing up the side of her house, children asked for flowers to take to their teachers, and local restaurants bought flowers for their tables. In 1937 she won 3rd prize in the Better Yards contest, for the yard showing most improvement. Once Mom worked so much in the yard, she had a lumbago attack, and often it exhausted her so, she got sick. She and Dad won many ribbons for their beautiful flower arrangements, and she always provided flowers for the church services.
Major health problems started in 1964: shingles, irregular heart, gallstones, kidney infections, slight diabetes, high blood pressure; bursitis, pus on her kidneys, pneumonia, and black outs. After being in the nursing home, a Mrs. West stayed with her (2 months), then to Laveda’s (6 weeks), then back to her home alone (2 mos.), then to Laveda’s to baby sit in September. She died October 19, 1968 in Lakeland, Florida after a coma induced by a brain tumor. Mom was a wonderful example to us all-always sacrificing to provide for her family, friends, and the church. Her death was not only a great loss to us, but also to the community, church, friends, and especially her children.
1. Alice Antoinette Martin b.1913
2. Marguerite Lucile Martin b.1916
3. Clarence Walter Martin, Jr. b.1918
4. Nolan Lavelle Martin b.1920
5. Gayln Earl Martin b.1922
6. Melvin Merrill Martin b.1924
7. Doris Vanita Martin b.1926
8. Ramona Evella Martin b.1929
9. Laveda Gaynelle Martin b.1932
Taken from Doris Martin Welch bio, "My Saga" published in 2007.
A. MOM (Mary Evella Tanner Martin, born 09 July 1892, Wamego, Kansas). Mom was born in Wamego and had so many relatives in that area, one small town was named Tannerville after them. She was from a family of five (Beverly, Mom, Leona, Gladys, and Violet). Due to her family’s poor financial status, when she was only about 10 years of age, she went to live with Dr. Tower and his family, working for her room and board by cooking, cleaning, and helping with the children. She had to rise very early to get her chores done, which included milking the cow and helping to dress and feed the children, and then walking two miles to school. (Later this family moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. where my folks often contacted them.) When Mother was only about 15, her father left them for another woman with two small children, whom he had met on his milk route. I don’t think my mother ever got over this, even though she knew her Mom had a terrible temper (once in anger she threw the iron-in those days heated over the wood stove-clear across the room at her, luckily missing. Also she sometimes shut her up in a dark closet for punishment--Mom would imagine all sorts of bad things. She vowed if she ever had children, she would never use such tactics.) When her father left, her older brother, Beverly, left also for whereabouts unknown. (Later A. Leona tracked him down. In later years he visited Mom and moved with his wife Ann, to Okeechobee. Also a half-brother Cecil Tanner of South Bend, Ind. visited in Nov. ’67). Mom, being the oldest at home, completed her grammar school education (1909) and returned home to help support the family. She found work in the Oakland Woolen Mill and later at the H. H. Hackney Flour Mill. She had to catch a train to her job and it was the policy of the mill to see that the girls were safely escorted to the train station when they got off work (it being dark and located in a bad section of town). Thus Dad, a foreman in her department, escorted her to the station and a budding romance was in the making.
Mom dated before the time of autos, so you went everywhere by horse and buggy. She said one night she was riding home with a boy friend and was all bundled up against the cold when she dozed off to sleep. She suddenly was awakened with a jolt-the buggy had gone off the dirt road into a ditch. She said after that, when she was traveling, she never took her eyes off the road. Mom related a few amusing tales: she had gone with Dad to a fair (not knowing his parents yet, nor realizing they were also there). They were in a boat going under a small bridge when his father was on the bridge trying to get Dad’s attention. She said to Dad, “Look at the old fool up there trying to flirt with me.” He replied, “That’s Father.” She was so embarrassed!
Once Dad gave Mom a ring to wear, intending it to be an engagement ring, but he, being very bashful, had not told her so. She then went on another date and the boy asked to wear her ring. She slipped it off her finger and handed it to him. She never saw him or the ring again. Needless to say, Dad was very upset and never in her lifetime gave her another one. Dad and his family all moved to Florida for his father’s health, and they all got school teaching positions. Dad sent for Mom and she arrived in Dade City on a Sunday morning, Dec. 23, 1912. As she stepped off the train, there was Dad grinning from ear to ear. Mom said he had a front tooth missing and looked so hideous that if she had had the fare, she would have taken a returning train to Kansas. (Dad said in those days, he could put his hands around Mom’s waist and his fingers would meet-due in part to the tight-fitting corset she wore.) They were to wed in the Baptist Church that evening, hoping to surprise everyone with their after-service ceremony, and had so arranged with the pastor and a friend. They walked to the church to dodge notice, Mom wearing a light coat over her wedding gown, listened to the sermon, and after the service, the pastor went right from the benediction on into the wedding service. By then, a large number of people began coming into the church. Their ceremonies took place and they then hurried to the front door where at the entrance was a long line of soldiers drawn up in double file. As the couple went down the walk, the trumpeter fell in behind with the soldiers following, and the bugler blew every step of the way back to Mom’s hotel. (Some of the other churches learned about the wedding and let out early.) Mom and Dad quickly left for their farm get-away. Mom and Dad bore 10 children, losing three, with seven of us growing up together.
1. LAUNDRY BUSINESS: To help make ends meet, Mom started washing clothes for a few friends. Before she knew it, others wanted her services, and her extra activity turned into a business which she pursued most of her married life. During the depression, Dad also helped with this, their main customers being the rich folks who spent their winters in Florida. Dad went to Mountain Lake, a gated and guarded community surrounding the Bok Singing Tower, to pick up or deliver laundries. Mom was very meticulous about others’ clothes. She charged by the pound for local customers, and by the piece for the wealthy. As she received the clothes, after weighing (if appropriate), she checked each item on her listing (by name), and then sorted by color or dirtiness. Some required lye water boiling in her big wash pot in the back yard, some pre-soaking, (she used only Maytag washers). After washing, the clothes went through three rinse waters (the third containing bluing for whiteness). They were then rung out, and sorted onto a table. After wiping off the clotheslines, she hung them up. After drying, they were sprinkled and rolled into towels for ironing. Mom used a mangle for the larger pieces (sheets, tablecloths, pillow slips), and hired black women to help with the ironing. I could help with all but the ironing, which she would not entrust to me. Her day started about 4:30 each morning and sometimes lasted well into the night.
2. CHURCH: Mom attended the First Baptist Church in Lake Wales until about 1937 when the Nazarene church held a tent revival in town. She was there converted under the preaching of (big) Rev. R. J. Rogers. This small nucleus of believers united to build a church. Mom wanted to join, but Dad, having always been a Baptist, at first rejected changing denominations. To keep the family together, however, he and Mom both joined the church. Nolan died in 1938 about this time, and Ramona and I were converted and also joined the church. Mom was very active in the Missionary Society, taught Sunday School many years, and enjoyed serving Sunday dinner to our pastor, visiting ministers, missionaries, and other church families. Often Mom would pledge for various causes, wondering how she would fulfill her pledge. Somehow, the Lord always provided and she honored her commitment. On Mother’s Day, her greatest present was having her family sit with her in the church services.
3. WW II: When war was declared, the boys from our town were all signing up for the service. Gayln and Merrill joined the Navy. Mom proudly displayed the cardboard poster in our front window with two big stars on it (for her two boys). She supported the boys stationed nearby by inviting them over for Sunday dinners and entertainment.
Mom gave gifts for birthdays and Christmas even when funds were low. One year Ramona made stockings for each grandchild, which Mom filled with candies and gifts. Her HOME REMEDIES: For a cough, a tablespoon of sugar with kerosene soaked into it, or salt placed beside our bed to put on our tongue to relieve the throat tickle, red mercurochrome put onto a cotton swab to paint our sore throat, pine oil on open cuts, an ice cube on the back of the neck to stop nosebleeds, a pipe-smoking neighbor to blow into our ear for earaches, a notch cut into a stick which was then buried, to remove warts; vinegar patted on sunburn or mosquito bites, soda on burns, etc.
Mom was a great cook and we were brought up on her homemade bread. She spent all day on Saturday baking the week’s supply. She won 3rd prize on her bread at the Farmers Union Picnic, Wamego (1924). When I got into high school, I was ashamed of my homemade peanut butter sandwiches-I didn’t know how lucky I was! When we vacationed in Lake Wales, we could always count on fresh bread for while we were there, as well as a fresh loaf for our return trip home. Mother made guava jelly or butter, loved having a hen setting or being followed around the place with her brook of chicks, she would wring the necks of chickens for our Sunday dinners. She usually always had a pet cat to keep her company and spoil. When she had time, she made tatting for the baby’s clothes, hemstitching for her dresser scarves, and pinafores or slips from feed sacks for us girls.
Mom taught us that cleanliness is next to Godliness. She said if her Mom found a dirty dish in the cabinet after being washed, she made them rewash all the dishes. Our house was scrubbed clean, dusted, and waxed on Saturday, and we were all bathed and shampooed that night in preparation for church on Sunday. Our big dinner of the week was on Sunday, and often included other family or friends, an afternoon of singing around the piano, visiting, and ending the day with snacks after the church service.
Mom and Dad celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on December 23, 1962 with many of the townspeople and her sisters attending.
After Dad’s death in Feb., she made her last trip to Kansas (July 1964), sold road frontage for a new road in Sept. ’64, then in Aug. ’66, bought the Windsor property next door ($6,500, rented out for $25/mo) and the 144 E. Johnson Avenue house for herself.
Mom loved working in the yard and she and Dad had beautiful flowers and plants. People even stopped and asked to take pictures beside the big bougainvillea growing up the side of her house, children asked for flowers to take to their teachers, and local restaurants bought flowers for their tables. In 1937 she won 3rd prize in the Better Yards contest, for the yard showing most improvement. Once Mom worked so much in the yard, she had a lumbago attack, and often it exhausted her so, she got sick. She and Dad won many ribbons for their beautiful flower arrangements, and she always provided flowers for the church services.
Major health problems started in 1964: shingles, irregular heart, gallstones, kidney infections, slight diabetes, high blood pressure; bursitis, pus on her kidneys, pneumonia, and black outs. After being in the nursing home, a Mrs. West stayed with her (2 months), then to Laveda’s (6 weeks), then back to her home alone (2 mos.), then to Laveda’s to baby sit in September. She died October 19, 1968 in Lakeland, Florida after a coma induced by a brain tumor. Mom was a wonderful example to us all-always sacrificing to provide for her family, friends, and the church. Her death was not only a great loss to us, but also to the community, church, friends, and especially her children.
Children:
1. Alice Antoinette Martin b.1913
2. Marguerite Lucile Martin b.1916
3. Clarence Walter Martin, Jr. b.1918
4. Nolan Lavelle Martin b.1920
5. Gayln Earl Martin b.1922
6. Melvin Merrill Martin b.1924
7. Doris Vanita Martin b.1926
8. Ramona Evella Martin b.1929
9. Laveda Gaynelle Martin b.1932
Taken from Doris Martin Welch bio, "My Saga" published in 2007.
A. MOM (Mary Evella Tanner Martin, born 09 July 1892, Wamego, Kansas). Mom was born in Wamego and had so many relatives in that area, one small town was named Tannerville after them. She was from a family of five (Beverly, Mom, Leona, Gladys, and Violet). Due to her family’s poor financial status, when she was only about 10 years of age, she went to live with Dr. Tower and his family, working for her room and board by cooking, cleaning, and helping with the children. She had to rise very early to get her chores done, which included milking the cow and helping to dress and feed the children, and then walking two miles to school. (Later this family moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. where my folks often contacted them.) When Mother was only about 15, her father left them for another woman with two small children, whom he had met on his milk route. I don’t think my mother ever got over this, even though she knew her Mom had a terrible temper (once in anger she threw the iron-in those days heated over the wood stove-clear across the room at her, luckily missing. Also she sometimes shut her up in a dark closet for punishment--Mom would imagine all sorts of bad things. She vowed if she ever had children, she would never use such tactics.) When her father left, her older brother, Beverly, left also for whereabouts unknown. (Later A. Leona tracked him down. In later years he visited Mom and moved with his wife Ann, to Okeechobee. Also a half-brother Cecil Tanner of South Bend, Ind. visited in Nov. ’67). Mom, being the oldest at home, completed her grammar school education (1909) and returned home to help support the family. She found work in the Oakland Woolen Mill and later at the H. H. Hackney Flour Mill. She had to catch a train to her job and it was the policy of the mill to see that the girls were safely escorted to the train station when they got off work (it being dark and located in a bad section of town). Thus Dad, a foreman in her department, escorted her to the station and a budding romance was in the making.
Mom dated before the time of autos, so you went everywhere by horse and buggy. She said one night she was riding home with a boy friend and was all bundled up against the cold when she dozed off to sleep. She suddenly was awakened with a jolt-the buggy had gone off the dirt road into a ditch. She said after that, when she was traveling, she never took her eyes off the road. Mom related a few amusing tales: she had gone with Dad to a fair (not knowing his parents yet, nor realizing they were also there). They were in a boat going under a small bridge when his father was on the bridge trying to get Dad’s attention. She said to Dad, “Look at the old fool up there trying to flirt with me.” He replied, “That’s Father.” She was so embarrassed!
Once Dad gave Mom a ring to wear, intending it to be an engagement ring, but he, being very bashful, had not told her so. She then went on another date and the boy asked to wear her ring. She slipped it off her finger and handed it to him. She never saw him or the ring again. Needless to say, Dad was very upset and never in her lifetime gave her another one. Dad and his family all moved to Florida for his father’s health, and they all got school teaching positions. Dad sent for Mom and she arrived in Dade City on a Sunday morning, Dec. 23, 1912. As she stepped off the train, there was Dad grinning from ear to ear. Mom said he had a front tooth missing and looked so hideous that if she had had the fare, she would have taken a returning train to Kansas. (Dad said in those days, he could put his hands around Mom’s waist and his fingers would meet-due in part to the tight-fitting corset she wore.) They were to wed in the Baptist Church that evening, hoping to surprise everyone with their after-service ceremony, and had so arranged with the pastor and a friend. They walked to the church to dodge notice, Mom wearing a light coat over her wedding gown, listened to the sermon, and after the service, the pastor went right from the benediction on into the wedding service. By then, a large number of people began coming into the church. Their ceremonies took place and they then hurried to the front door where at the entrance was a long line of soldiers drawn up in double file. As the couple went down the walk, the trumpeter fell in behind with the soldiers following, and the bugler blew every step of the way back to Mom’s hotel. (Some of the other churches learned about the wedding and let out early.) Mom and Dad quickly left for their farm get-away. Mom and Dad bore 10 children, losing three, with seven of us growing up together.
1. LAUNDRY BUSINESS: To help make ends meet, Mom started washing clothes for a few friends. Before she knew it, others wanted her services, and her extra activity turned into a business which she pursued most of her married life. During the depression, Dad also helped with this, their main customers being the rich folks who spent their winters in Florida. Dad went to Mountain Lake, a gated and guarded community surrounding the Bok Singing Tower, to pick up or deliver laundries. Mom was very meticulous about others’ clothes. She charged by the pound for local customers, and by the piece for the wealthy. As she received the clothes, after weighing (if appropriate), she checked each item on her listing (by name), and then sorted by color or dirtiness. Some required lye water boiling in her big wash pot in the back yard, some pre-soaking, (she used only Maytag washers). After washing, the clothes went through three rinse waters (the third containing bluing for whiteness). They were then rung out, and sorted onto a table. After wiping off the clotheslines, she hung them up. After drying, they were sprinkled and rolled into towels for ironing. Mom used a mangle for the larger pieces (sheets, tablecloths, pillow slips), and hired black women to help with the ironing. I could help with all but the ironing, which she would not entrust to me. Her day started about 4:30 each morning and sometimes lasted well into the night.
2. CHURCH: Mom attended the First Baptist Church in Lake Wales until about 1937 when the Nazarene church held a tent revival in town. She was there converted under the preaching of (big) Rev. R. J. Rogers. This small nucleus of believers united to build a church. Mom wanted to join, but Dad, having always been a Baptist, at first rejected changing denominations. To keep the family together, however, he and Mom both joined the church. Nolan died in 1938 about this time, and Ramona and I were converted and also joined the church. Mom was very active in the Missionary Society, taught Sunday School many years, and enjoyed serving Sunday dinner to our pastor, visiting ministers, missionaries, and other church families. Often Mom would pledge for various causes, wondering how she would fulfill her pledge. Somehow, the Lord always provided and she honored her commitment. On Mother’s Day, her greatest present was having her family sit with her in the church services.
3. WW II: When war was declared, the boys from our town were all signing up for the service. Gayln and Merrill joined the Navy. Mom proudly displayed the cardboard poster in our front window with two big stars on it (for her two boys). She supported the boys stationed nearby by inviting them over for Sunday dinners and entertainment.
Mom gave gifts for birthdays and Christmas even when funds were low. One year Ramona made stockings for each grandchild, which Mom filled with candies and gifts. Her HOME REMEDIES: For a cough, a tablespoon of sugar with kerosene soaked into it, or salt placed beside our bed to put on our tongue to relieve the throat tickle, red mercurochrome put onto a cotton swab to paint our sore throat, pine oil on open cuts, an ice cube on the back of the neck to stop nosebleeds, a pipe-smoking neighbor to blow into our ear for earaches, a notch cut into a stick which was then buried, to remove warts; vinegar patted on sunburn or mosquito bites, soda on burns, etc.
Mom was a great cook and we were brought up on her homemade bread. She spent all day on Saturday baking the week’s supply. She won 3rd prize on her bread at the Farmers Union Picnic, Wamego (1924). When I got into high school, I was ashamed of my homemade peanut butter sandwiches-I didn’t know how lucky I was! When we vacationed in Lake Wales, we could always count on fresh bread for while we were there, as well as a fresh loaf for our return trip home. Mother made guava jelly or butter, loved having a hen setting or being followed around the place with her brook of chicks, she would wring the necks of chickens for our Sunday dinners. She usually always had a pet cat to keep her company and spoil. When she had time, she made tatting for the baby’s clothes, hemstitching for her dresser scarves, and pinafores or slips from feed sacks for us girls.
Mom taught us that cleanliness is next to Godliness. She said if her Mom found a dirty dish in the cabinet after being washed, she made them rewash all the dishes. Our house was scrubbed clean, dusted, and waxed on Saturday, and we were all bathed and shampooed that night in preparation for church on Sunday. Our big dinner of the week was on Sunday, and often included other family or friends, an afternoon of singing around the piano, visiting, and ending the day with snacks after the church service.
Mom and Dad celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on December 23, 1962 with many of the townspeople and her sisters attending.
After Dad’s death in Feb., she made her last trip to Kansas (July 1964), sold road frontage for a new road in Sept. ’64, then in Aug. ’66, bought the Windsor property next door ($6,500, rented out for $25/mo) and the 144 E. Johnson Avenue house for herself.
Mom loved working in the yard and she and Dad had beautiful flowers and plants. People even stopped and asked to take pictures beside the big bougainvillea growing up the side of her house, children asked for flowers to take to their teachers, and local restaurants bought flowers for their tables. In 1937 she won 3rd prize in the Better Yards contest, for the yard showing most improvement. Once Mom worked so much in the yard, she had a lumbago attack, and often it exhausted her so, she got sick. She and Dad won many ribbons for their beautiful flower arrangements, and she always provided flowers for the church services.
Major health problems started in 1964: shingles, irregular heart, gallstones, kidney infections, slight diabetes, high blood pressure; bursitis, pus on her kidneys, pneumonia, and black outs. After being in the nursing home, a Mrs. West stayed with her (2 months), then to Laveda’s (6 weeks), then back to her home alone (2 mos.), then to Laveda’s to baby sit in September. She died October 19, 1968 in Lakeland, Florida after a coma induced by a brain tumor. Mom was a wonderful example to us all-always sacrificing to provide for her family, friends, and the church. Her death was not only a great loss to us, but also to the community, church, friends, and especially her children.
1. Alice Antoinette Martin b.1913
2. Marguerite Lucile Martin b.1916
3. Clarence Walter Martin, Jr. b.1918
4. Nolan Lavelle Martin b.1920
5. Gayln Earl Martin b.1922
6. Melvin Merrill Martin b.1924
7. Doris Vanita Martin b.1926
8. Ramona Evella Martin b.1929
9. Laveda Gaynelle Martin b.1932
Taken from Doris Martin Welch bio, "My Saga" published in 2007.
A. MOM (Mary Evella Tanner Martin, born 09 July 1892, Wamego, Kansas). Mom was born in Wamego and had so many relatives in that area, one small town was named Tannerville after them. She was from a family of five (Beverly, Mom, Leona, Gladys, and Violet). Due to her family’s poor financial status, when she was only about 10 years of age, she went to live with Dr. Tower and his family, working for her room and board by cooking, cleaning, and helping with the children. She had to rise very early to get her chores done, which included milking the cow and helping to dress and feed the children, and then walking two miles to school. (Later this family moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. where my folks often contacted them.) When Mother was only about 15, her father left them for another woman with two small children, whom he had met on his milk route. I don’t think my mother ever got over this, even though she knew her Mom had a terrible temper (once in anger she threw the iron-in those days heated over the wood stove-clear across the room at her, luckily missing. Also she sometimes shut her up in a dark closet for punishment--Mom would imagine all sorts of bad things. She vowed if she ever had children, she would never use such tactics.) When her father left, her older brother, Beverly, left also for whereabouts unknown. (Later A. Leona tracked him down. In later years he visited Mom and moved with his wife Ann, to Okeechobee. Also a half-brother Cecil Tanner of South Bend, Ind. visited in Nov. ’67). Mom, being the oldest at home, completed her grammar school education (1909) and returned home to help support the family. She found work in the Oakland Woolen Mill and later at the H. H. Hackney Flour Mill. She had to catch a train to her job and it was the policy of the mill to see that the girls were safely escorted to the train station when they got off work (it being dark and located in a bad section of town). Thus Dad, a foreman in her department, escorted her to the station and a budding romance was in the making.
Mom dated before the time of autos, so you went everywhere by horse and buggy. She said one night she was riding home with a boy friend and was all bundled up against the cold when she dozed off to sleep. She suddenly was awakened with a jolt-the buggy had gone off the dirt road into a ditch. She said after that, when she was traveling, she never took her eyes off the road. Mom related a few amusing tales: she had gone with Dad to a fair (not knowing his parents yet, nor realizing they were also there). They were in a boat going under a small bridge when his father was on the bridge trying to get Dad’s attention. She said to Dad, “Look at the old fool up there trying to flirt with me.” He replied, “That’s Father.” She was so embarrassed!
Once Dad gave Mom a ring to wear, intending it to be an engagement ring, but he, being very bashful, had not told her so. She then went on another date and the boy asked to wear her ring. She slipped it off her finger and handed it to him. She never saw him or the ring again. Needless to say, Dad was very upset and never in her lifetime gave her another one. Dad and his family all moved to Florida for his father’s health, and they all got school teaching positions. Dad sent for Mom and she arrived in Dade City on a Sunday morning, Dec. 23, 1912. As she stepped off the train, there was Dad grinning from ear to ear. Mom said he had a front tooth missing and looked so hideous that if she had had the fare, she would have taken a returning train to Kansas. (Dad said in those days, he could put his hands around Mom’s waist and his fingers would meet-due in part to the tight-fitting corset she wore.) They were to wed in the Baptist Church that evening, hoping to surprise everyone with their after-service ceremony, and had so arranged with the pastor and a friend. They walked to the church to dodge notice, Mom wearing a light coat over her wedding gown, listened to the sermon, and after the service, the pastor went right from the benediction on into the wedding service. By then, a large number of people began coming into the church. Their ceremonies took place and they then hurried to the front door where at the entrance was a long line of soldiers drawn up in double file. As the couple went down the walk, the trumpeter fell in behind with the soldiers following, and the bugler blew every step of the way back to Mom’s hotel. (Some of the other churches learned about the wedding and let out early.) Mom and Dad quickly left for their farm get-away. Mom and Dad bore 10 children, losing three, with seven of us growing up together.
1. LAUNDRY BUSINESS: To help make ends meet, Mom started washing clothes for a few friends. Before she knew it, others wanted her services, and her extra activity turned into a business which she pursued most of her married life. During the depression, Dad also helped with this, their main customers being the rich folks who spent their winters in Florida. Dad went to Mountain Lake, a gated and guarded community surrounding the Bok Singing Tower, to pick up or deliver laundries. Mom was very meticulous about others’ clothes. She charged by the pound for local customers, and by the piece for the wealthy. As she received the clothes, after weighing (if appropriate), she checked each item on her listing (by name), and then sorted by color or dirtiness. Some required lye water boiling in her big wash pot in the back yard, some pre-soaking, (she used only Maytag washers). After washing, the clothes went through three rinse waters (the third containing bluing for whiteness). They were then rung out, and sorted onto a table. After wiping off the clotheslines, she hung them up. After drying, they were sprinkled and rolled into towels for ironing. Mom used a mangle for the larger pieces (sheets, tablecloths, pillow slips), and hired black women to help with the ironing. I could help with all but the ironing, which she would not entrust to me. Her day started about 4:30 each morning and sometimes lasted well into the night.
2. CHURCH: Mom attended the First Baptist Church in Lake Wales until about 1937 when the Nazarene church held a tent revival in town. She was there converted under the preaching of (big) Rev. R. J. Rogers. This small nucleus of believers united to build a church. Mom wanted to join, but Dad, having always been a Baptist, at first rejected changing denominations. To keep the family together, however, he and Mom both joined the church. Nolan died in 1938 about this time, and Ramona and I were converted and also joined the church. Mom was very active in the Missionary Society, taught Sunday School many years, and enjoyed serving Sunday dinner to our pastor, visiting ministers, missionaries, and other church families. Often Mom would pledge for various causes, wondering how she would fulfill her pledge. Somehow, the Lord always provided and she honored her commitment. On Mother’s Day, her greatest present was having her family sit with her in the church services.
3. WW II: When war was declared, the boys from our town were all signing up for the service. Gayln and Merrill joined the Navy. Mom proudly displayed the cardboard poster in our front window with two big stars on it (for her two boys). She supported the boys stationed nearby by inviting them over for Sunday dinners and entertainment.
Mom gave gifts for birthdays and Christmas even when funds were low. One year Ramona made stockings for each grandchild, which Mom filled with candies and gifts. Her HOME REMEDIES: For a cough, a tablespoon of sugar with kerosene soaked into it, or salt placed beside our bed to put on our tongue to relieve the throat tickle, red mercurochrome put onto a cotton swab to paint our sore throat, pine oil on open cuts, an ice cube on the back of the neck to stop nosebleeds, a pipe-smoking neighbor to blow into our ear for earaches, a notch cut into a stick which was then buried, to remove warts; vinegar patted on sunburn or mosquito bites, soda on burns, etc.
Mom was a great cook and we were brought up on her homemade bread. She spent all day on Saturday baking the week’s supply. She won 3rd prize on her bread at the Farmers Union Picnic, Wamego (1924). When I got into high school, I was ashamed of my homemade peanut butter sandwiches-I didn’t know how lucky I was! When we vacationed in Lake Wales, we could always count on fresh bread for while we were there, as well as a fresh loaf for our return trip home. Mother made guava jelly or butter, loved having a hen setting or being followed around the place with her brook of chicks, she would wring the necks of chickens for our Sunday dinners. She usually always had a pet cat to keep her company and spoil. When she had time, she made tatting for the baby’s clothes, hemstitching for her dresser scarves, and pinafores or slips from feed sacks for us girls.
Mom taught us that cleanliness is next to Godliness. She said if her Mom found a dirty dish in the cabinet after being washed, she made them rewash all the dishes. Our house was scrubbed clean, dusted, and waxed on Saturday, and we were all bathed and shampooed that night in preparation for church on Sunday. Our big dinner of the week was on Sunday, and often included other family or friends, an afternoon of singing around the piano, visiting, and ending the day with snacks after the church service.
Mom and Dad celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on December 23, 1962 with many of the townspeople and her sisters attending.
After Dad’s death in Feb., she made her last trip to Kansas (July 1964), sold road frontage for a new road in Sept. ’64, then in Aug. ’66, bought the Windsor property next door ($6,500, rented out for $25/mo) and the 144 E. Johnson Avenue house for herself.
Mom loved working in the yard and she and Dad had beautiful flowers and plants. People even stopped and asked to take pictures beside the big bougainvillea growing up the side of her house, children asked for flowers to take to their teachers, and local restaurants bought flowers for their tables. In 1937 she won 3rd prize in the Better Yards contest, for the yard showing most improvement. Once Mom worked so much in the yard, she had a lumbago attack, and often it exhausted her so, she got sick. She and Dad won many ribbons for their beautiful flower arrangements, and she always provided flowers for the church services.
Major health problems started in 1964: shingles, irregular heart, gallstones, kidney infections, slight diabetes, high blood pressure; bursitis, pus on her kidneys, pneumonia, and black outs. After being in the nursing home, a Mrs. West stayed with her (2 months), then to Laveda’s (6 weeks), then back to her home alone (2 mos.), then to Laveda’s to baby sit in September. She died October 19, 1968 in Lakeland, Florida after a coma induced by a brain tumor. Mom was a wonderful example to us all-always sacrificing to provide for her family, friends, and the church. Her death was not only a great loss to us, but also to the community, church, friends, and especially her children.
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