Margaret Karoline LEE was born at home on July 27, 1914 near Marble City in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. She was the youngest of eight children born to Felix and Allie (née DAVIS) LEE. Her mother nicknamed her "Little Maggie"; a name Margaret loved because she felt the nickname "Maggie" sounded happy and friendly. Her seven siblings were: "baby girl" LEE (given name unknown; she died on the third day following her birth), Lucilla Lillian, Myrtle Mildred, Felix Helen (a.k.a. Helen Marie), Kate Clifton (a.k.a. Virginia and as "Cliff"), Bertha Alice (a.k.a. Barbara and as "Bertin"), and Cornelius (a.k.a. Jack Leroy and as "Bud").
Before moving to Kansas City, Missouri in the summer of 1929 to live with her sister Helen and attend East High School, Maggie attended Sequoyah High School in Marble City. In her last semester at Sequoyah High School, she was designated as the school's "Honor Graduate" and received a Certificate for Excellency of Scholarship on April 10, 1929 for having achieved the highest general average on the school's final examinations.
The Great Depression hit the United States hard during Maggie's first semester at East High School; so many people, including the sister and brother-in-law she was staying with, lost their jobs and homes as a result of the difficult times. The gravity of their situation confronted her brother-in-law, sister, their small children, and Maggie on a Saturday morning as they returned to their apartment after buying a few groceries. Upon their return home, they found their apartment door padlocked by the landlord with an eviction notice posted. They were locked out and could not enter the apartment to get any of their possessions. The landlord had the right to keep their personal property since they were behind on their rent and had no money to pay him. They lost everything. Among the items locked in the apartment were Maggie's textbooks; without them she could not return to her high school classes. Despite their pleas for ONLY the textbooks from the apartment, the landlord stood firm in refusing to let them have the school books.
Upon hearing of their desperate circumstances, another LEE sister and her husband living in Kansas City took them into their home, but this sister and her family were close to being in the same situation (no jobs and eviction). Jobs were scarce, and even though she wasn't quite fifteen and a half, Maggie wanted to help her family by getting a job to help with expenses. When she applied at the American Tobacco Company, they asked if she was eighteen. She was aware they wouldn't hire her if they knew she was underage, so she managed to look the interviewer in the eye and say with conviction that she was eighteen.
She was employed by the American Tobacco Company for about two and a half years in a piecework unit where she worked at making cigars with three other girls. The standard pay earned by an employee while they were being trained was $9.50 a week. After the training period was completed, the rate of pay was based on the piecework done by the employee. Maggie learned the job quickly and by her second week at work, she was earning over $20 a week. She and the other three girls in the unit decided to work as a unified team to produce as many cigars as they could to earn as much pay as possible; their team was successful at increasing their pay and they became one of the best piecework units in the company.
Maggie left the company, at age eighteen, to return home to Oklahoma. While living with her parents, she received a letter from the American Tobacco Company stating they were closing their Kansas City plant to relocate to Virginia and they offered her a position at their new plant. She considered the job, but decided that she didn't want to be that far away from her family.
During the late fall of 1932, she was hired by Montgomery Ward in Kansas City to work in their order processing department. It had been in the early spring of that same year that Maggie met her future husband, Jim ABRAHAM. They met at a dance she was attending with friends in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
When asked how she met Jim, Maggie would recall looking across the room at the dance and meeting the gaze of a very handsome, young man. He was wearing a Siloam Springs High School letter jacket with a red letter "S" on the front (he was a quarterback for the high school football team) -- that was her first memory of Jim ABRAHAM; a memory she always recalled with a sparkle in her eye and a smile on her face. Jim and Maggie were married before a Justice of the Peace on December 30, 1933 in Stilwell, Adair County, Oklahoma with her first cousin Jim Elkins and his wife, Bell, serving as witnesses.
Maggie and Jim lived in Siloam Springs before moving, in 1937, to Kansas City, Missouri where she returned to her former job at Montgomery Ward. By the end of 1941, she was employed at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in northeastern Independence, Missouri. The plant was a U.S. government-owned, contractor-operated facility established by Remington Arms in 1941 to manufacture and test small caliber ammunition for the U.S. Army. She worked in munitions where her job involved making .50 caliber rounds for use by the American armed forces serving during World War II.
During the war, Fruehauf Trailer Company began manufacturing radar equipment and trailers on which machine guns were mounted, and in 1942, she went to work for Fruehauf and wired radar equipment in the cockpit of military aircraft. Maggie worked for Fruehauf until the close of the war when she, like most of the women who had stepped forward to fill the wartime labor shortage, was dismissed from employment in order to open job opportunities for returning servicemen.
In the fall of 1946, Jim and Maggie moved south from Kansas City to Noel in McDonald County, Missouri near the Arkansas state line. They raised four children, two girls and two boys, in McDonald County.
Jim and Maggie were both hard workers and they were always busy. Until retirement, Jim was self-employed as a contractor, and he operated a small farm for several years south of Noel with the help of Maggie and the children. Maggie was also self-employed for many years (she operated Mt. Shira Lodge, Beach, and Campground north of Noel from 1947-1952, and Maggie's Noel Novelty Shop on the Main Street of Noel from 1963-1968). In addition to her own business endeavors, she was employed at a variety of jobs through the years at area businesses. She was willing to tackle any job because she enjoyed the independence of earning her own money as well as being able to help her family by contributing to the household income.
Maggie was a remarkable person. She managed the family and farm when her husband, Jim, was away for long stretches of time at construction jobs in Florida. After having her educational opportunities cut short during the Great Depression, she returned to school in her late 40's to attend a business college in Kansas City, Missouri and graduated with a high GPA. Like her mother and father had done for their children, she passed on to her children guidance and values to live by. I had firsthand opportunities to experience her conviction and strength to defy injustices when she saw people being confronted with the prejudices of others. My dear mother had many qualities I admired. She taught me so much that gave me strength in my life and enabled me to stand on my own, I was fortunate to have had her as my mother.
Following are some of my treasured memories of my mother: Mom bringing home a puppy and allowing me to keep it in my room at night with strict instructions to leave it in its box to sleep but not getting upset when she checked in on me during that night, and the nights which followed, to find the puppy in my bed cuddled in my arms -- she never moved it; the walks with her down our country road to go for summer swims in Butler Creek; coming home from school to my favorite treat of cinnamon rolls made from pie crust, butter, sugar, and cinnamon; the nights I was frightened from a bad dream and would get up from my bed and go to her and ask if I could sleep with her -- she always made room; the loving attentive care she provided when I was sick or injured; the morning her gifted intuition saved my life when a horse had kick me at age seventeen to the ground and was ready to deliver a final deadly blow with her front feet and Mom appeared with our dogs because she had a overwhelming "feeling" I was in trouble. She had walked through two dew soaked fields divided by a dusty dirt road in her floor length robe, nightgown, and house shoes to save me based on a "feeling". When she saw from a distance the horse rear up over me as I lay injured on the ground from the blows already delivered from the horse's hind feet to my head and left side, she commanded our dogs to chase the horse away. As the dogs ran at lightning speed on my mother's command, the horse began turning its body to run away, her front hooves came down about six inches from my head splattering mud in my eyes. Had my mother not trusted her heart and immediately left the house to find me, I would not have survived. These memories and so many others are just part of the loving thoughts that hold her close in my heart.
__________________________________
Biography contributed to Find A Grave by L. ABRAHAM, child of James H. and Margaret (LEE) ABRAHAM.
Before moving to Kansas City, Missouri in the summer of 1929 to live with her sister Helen and attend East High School, Maggie attended Sequoyah High School in Marble City. In her last semester at Sequoyah High School, she was designated as the school's "Honor Graduate" and received a Certificate for Excellency of Scholarship on April 10, 1929 for having achieved the highest general average on the school's final examinations.
The Great Depression hit the United States hard during Maggie's first semester at East High School; so many people, including the sister and brother-in-law she was staying with, lost their jobs and homes as a result of the difficult times. The gravity of their situation confronted her brother-in-law, sister, their small children, and Maggie on a Saturday morning as they returned to their apartment after buying a few groceries. Upon their return home, they found their apartment door padlocked by the landlord with an eviction notice posted. They were locked out and could not enter the apartment to get any of their possessions. The landlord had the right to keep their personal property since they were behind on their rent and had no money to pay him. They lost everything. Among the items locked in the apartment were Maggie's textbooks; without them she could not return to her high school classes. Despite their pleas for ONLY the textbooks from the apartment, the landlord stood firm in refusing to let them have the school books.
Upon hearing of their desperate circumstances, another LEE sister and her husband living in Kansas City took them into their home, but this sister and her family were close to being in the same situation (no jobs and eviction). Jobs were scarce, and even though she wasn't quite fifteen and a half, Maggie wanted to help her family by getting a job to help with expenses. When she applied at the American Tobacco Company, they asked if she was eighteen. She was aware they wouldn't hire her if they knew she was underage, so she managed to look the interviewer in the eye and say with conviction that she was eighteen.
She was employed by the American Tobacco Company for about two and a half years in a piecework unit where she worked at making cigars with three other girls. The standard pay earned by an employee while they were being trained was $9.50 a week. After the training period was completed, the rate of pay was based on the piecework done by the employee. Maggie learned the job quickly and by her second week at work, she was earning over $20 a week. She and the other three girls in the unit decided to work as a unified team to produce as many cigars as they could to earn as much pay as possible; their team was successful at increasing their pay and they became one of the best piecework units in the company.
Maggie left the company, at age eighteen, to return home to Oklahoma. While living with her parents, she received a letter from the American Tobacco Company stating they were closing their Kansas City plant to relocate to Virginia and they offered her a position at their new plant. She considered the job, but decided that she didn't want to be that far away from her family.
During the late fall of 1932, she was hired by Montgomery Ward in Kansas City to work in their order processing department. It had been in the early spring of that same year that Maggie met her future husband, Jim ABRAHAM. They met at a dance she was attending with friends in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
When asked how she met Jim, Maggie would recall looking across the room at the dance and meeting the gaze of a very handsome, young man. He was wearing a Siloam Springs High School letter jacket with a red letter "S" on the front (he was a quarterback for the high school football team) -- that was her first memory of Jim ABRAHAM; a memory she always recalled with a sparkle in her eye and a smile on her face. Jim and Maggie were married before a Justice of the Peace on December 30, 1933 in Stilwell, Adair County, Oklahoma with her first cousin Jim Elkins and his wife, Bell, serving as witnesses.
Maggie and Jim lived in Siloam Springs before moving, in 1937, to Kansas City, Missouri where she returned to her former job at Montgomery Ward. By the end of 1941, she was employed at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in northeastern Independence, Missouri. The plant was a U.S. government-owned, contractor-operated facility established by Remington Arms in 1941 to manufacture and test small caliber ammunition for the U.S. Army. She worked in munitions where her job involved making .50 caliber rounds for use by the American armed forces serving during World War II.
During the war, Fruehauf Trailer Company began manufacturing radar equipment and trailers on which machine guns were mounted, and in 1942, she went to work for Fruehauf and wired radar equipment in the cockpit of military aircraft. Maggie worked for Fruehauf until the close of the war when she, like most of the women who had stepped forward to fill the wartime labor shortage, was dismissed from employment in order to open job opportunities for returning servicemen.
In the fall of 1946, Jim and Maggie moved south from Kansas City to Noel in McDonald County, Missouri near the Arkansas state line. They raised four children, two girls and two boys, in McDonald County.
Jim and Maggie were both hard workers and they were always busy. Until retirement, Jim was self-employed as a contractor, and he operated a small farm for several years south of Noel with the help of Maggie and the children. Maggie was also self-employed for many years (she operated Mt. Shira Lodge, Beach, and Campground north of Noel from 1947-1952, and Maggie's Noel Novelty Shop on the Main Street of Noel from 1963-1968). In addition to her own business endeavors, she was employed at a variety of jobs through the years at area businesses. She was willing to tackle any job because she enjoyed the independence of earning her own money as well as being able to help her family by contributing to the household income.
Maggie was a remarkable person. She managed the family and farm when her husband, Jim, was away for long stretches of time at construction jobs in Florida. After having her educational opportunities cut short during the Great Depression, she returned to school in her late 40's to attend a business college in Kansas City, Missouri and graduated with a high GPA. Like her mother and father had done for their children, she passed on to her children guidance and values to live by. I had firsthand opportunities to experience her conviction and strength to defy injustices when she saw people being confronted with the prejudices of others. My dear mother had many qualities I admired. She taught me so much that gave me strength in my life and enabled me to stand on my own, I was fortunate to have had her as my mother.
Following are some of my treasured memories of my mother: Mom bringing home a puppy and allowing me to keep it in my room at night with strict instructions to leave it in its box to sleep but not getting upset when she checked in on me during that night, and the nights which followed, to find the puppy in my bed cuddled in my arms -- she never moved it; the walks with her down our country road to go for summer swims in Butler Creek; coming home from school to my favorite treat of cinnamon rolls made from pie crust, butter, sugar, and cinnamon; the nights I was frightened from a bad dream and would get up from my bed and go to her and ask if I could sleep with her -- she always made room; the loving attentive care she provided when I was sick or injured; the morning her gifted intuition saved my life when a horse had kick me at age seventeen to the ground and was ready to deliver a final deadly blow with her front feet and Mom appeared with our dogs because she had a overwhelming "feeling" I was in trouble. She had walked through two dew soaked fields divided by a dusty dirt road in her floor length robe, nightgown, and house shoes to save me based on a "feeling". When she saw from a distance the horse rear up over me as I lay injured on the ground from the blows already delivered from the horse's hind feet to my head and left side, she commanded our dogs to chase the horse away. As the dogs ran at lightning speed on my mother's command, the horse began turning its body to run away, her front hooves came down about six inches from my head splattering mud in my eyes. Had my mother not trusted her heart and immediately left the house to find me, I would not have survived. These memories and so many others are just part of the loving thoughts that hold her close in my heart.
__________________________________
Biography contributed to Find A Grave by L. ABRAHAM, child of James H. and Margaret (LEE) ABRAHAM.
Margaret Karoline LEE was born at home on July 27, 1914 near Marble City in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. She was the youngest of eight children born to Felix and Allie (née DAVIS) LEE. Her mother nicknamed her "Little Maggie"; a name Margaret loved because she felt the nickname "Maggie" sounded happy and friendly. Her seven siblings were: "baby girl" LEE (given name unknown; she died on the third day following her birth), Lucilla Lillian, Myrtle Mildred, Felix Helen (a.k.a. Helen Marie), Kate Clifton (a.k.a. Virginia and as "Cliff"), Bertha Alice (a.k.a. Barbara and as "Bertin"), and Cornelius (a.k.a. Jack Leroy and as "Bud").
Before moving to Kansas City, Missouri in the summer of 1929 to live with her sister Helen and attend East High School, Maggie attended Sequoyah High School in Marble City. In her last semester at Sequoyah High School, she was designated as the school's "Honor Graduate" and received a Certificate for Excellency of Scholarship on April 10, 1929 for having achieved the highest general average on the school's final examinations.
The Great Depression hit the United States hard during Maggie's first semester at East High School; so many people, including the sister and brother-in-law she was staying with, lost their jobs and homes as a result of the difficult times. The gravity of their situation confronted her brother-in-law, sister, their small children, and Maggie on a Saturday morning as they returned to their apartment after buying a few groceries. Upon their return home, they found their apartment door padlocked by the landlord with an eviction notice posted. They were locked out and could not enter the apartment to get any of their possessions. The landlord had the right to keep their personal property since they were behind on their rent and had no money to pay him. They lost everything. Among the items locked in the apartment were Maggie's textbooks; without them she could not return to her high school classes. Despite their pleas for ONLY the textbooks from the apartment, the landlord stood firm in refusing to let them have the school books.
Upon hearing of their desperate circumstances, another LEE sister and her husband living in Kansas City took them into their home, but this sister and her family were close to being in the same situation (no jobs and eviction). Jobs were scarce, and even though she wasn't quite fifteen and a half, Maggie wanted to help her family by getting a job to help with expenses. When she applied at the American Tobacco Company, they asked if she was eighteen. She was aware they wouldn't hire her if they knew she was underage, so she managed to look the interviewer in the eye and say with conviction that she was eighteen.
She was employed by the American Tobacco Company for about two and a half years in a piecework unit where she worked at making cigars with three other girls. The standard pay earned by an employee while they were being trained was $9.50 a week. After the training period was completed, the rate of pay was based on the piecework done by the employee. Maggie learned the job quickly and by her second week at work, she was earning over $20 a week. She and the other three girls in the unit decided to work as a unified team to produce as many cigars as they could to earn as much pay as possible; their team was successful at increasing their pay and they became one of the best piecework units in the company.
Maggie left the company, at age eighteen, to return home to Oklahoma. While living with her parents, she received a letter from the American Tobacco Company stating they were closing their Kansas City plant to relocate to Virginia and they offered her a position at their new plant. She considered the job, but decided that she didn't want to be that far away from her family.
During the late fall of 1932, she was hired by Montgomery Ward in Kansas City to work in their order processing department. It had been in the early spring of that same year that Maggie met her future husband, Jim ABRAHAM. They met at a dance she was attending with friends in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
When asked how she met Jim, Maggie would recall looking across the room at the dance and meeting the gaze of a very handsome, young man. He was wearing a Siloam Springs High School letter jacket with a red letter "S" on the front (he was a quarterback for the high school football team) -- that was her first memory of Jim ABRAHAM; a memory she always recalled with a sparkle in her eye and a smile on her face. Jim and Maggie were married before a Justice of the Peace on December 30, 1933 in Stilwell, Adair County, Oklahoma with her first cousin Jim Elkins and his wife, Bell, serving as witnesses.
Maggie and Jim lived in Siloam Springs before moving, in 1937, to Kansas City, Missouri where she returned to her former job at Montgomery Ward. By the end of 1941, she was employed at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in northeastern Independence, Missouri. The plant was a U.S. government-owned, contractor-operated facility established by Remington Arms in 1941 to manufacture and test small caliber ammunition for the U.S. Army. She worked in munitions where her job involved making .50 caliber rounds for use by the American armed forces serving during World War II.
During the war, Fruehauf Trailer Company began manufacturing radar equipment and trailers on which machine guns were mounted, and in 1942, she went to work for Fruehauf and wired radar equipment in the cockpit of military aircraft. Maggie worked for Fruehauf until the close of the war when she, like most of the women who had stepped forward to fill the wartime labor shortage, was dismissed from employment in order to open job opportunities for returning servicemen.
In the fall of 1946, Jim and Maggie moved south from Kansas City to Noel in McDonald County, Missouri near the Arkansas state line. They raised four children, two girls and two boys, in McDonald County.
Jim and Maggie were both hard workers and they were always busy. Until retirement, Jim was self-employed as a contractor, and he operated a small farm for several years south of Noel with the help of Maggie and the children. Maggie was also self-employed for many years (she operated Mt. Shira Lodge, Beach, and Campground north of Noel from 1947-1952, and Maggie's Noel Novelty Shop on the Main Street of Noel from 1963-1968). In addition to her own business endeavors, she was employed at a variety of jobs through the years at area businesses. She was willing to tackle any job because she enjoyed the independence of earning her own money as well as being able to help her family by contributing to the household income.
Maggie was a remarkable person. She managed the family and farm when her husband, Jim, was away for long stretches of time at construction jobs in Florida. After having her educational opportunities cut short during the Great Depression, she returned to school in her late 40's to attend a business college in Kansas City, Missouri and graduated with a high GPA. Like her mother and father had done for their children, she passed on to her children guidance and values to live by. I had firsthand opportunities to experience her conviction and strength to defy injustices when she saw people being confronted with the prejudices of others. My dear mother had many qualities I admired. She taught me so much that gave me strength in my life and enabled me to stand on my own, I was fortunate to have had her as my mother.
Following are some of my treasured memories of my mother: Mom bringing home a puppy and allowing me to keep it in my room at night with strict instructions to leave it in its box to sleep but not getting upset when she checked in on me during that night, and the nights which followed, to find the puppy in my bed cuddled in my arms -- she never moved it; the walks with her down our country road to go for summer swims in Butler Creek; coming home from school to my favorite treat of cinnamon rolls made from pie crust, butter, sugar, and cinnamon; the nights I was frightened from a bad dream and would get up from my bed and go to her and ask if I could sleep with her -- she always made room; the loving attentive care she provided when I was sick or injured; the morning her gifted intuition saved my life when a horse had kick me at age seventeen to the ground and was ready to deliver a final deadly blow with her front feet and Mom appeared with our dogs because she had a overwhelming "feeling" I was in trouble. She had walked through two dew soaked fields divided by a dusty dirt road in her floor length robe, nightgown, and house shoes to save me based on a "feeling". When she saw from a distance the horse rear up over me as I lay injured on the ground from the blows already delivered from the horse's hind feet to my head and left side, she commanded our dogs to chase the horse away. As the dogs ran at lightning speed on my mother's command, the horse began turning its body to run away, her front hooves came down about six inches from my head splattering mud in my eyes. Had my mother not trusted her heart and immediately left the house to find me, I would not have survived. These memories and so many others are just part of the loving thoughts that hold her close in my heart.
__________________________________
Biography contributed to Find A Grave by L. ABRAHAM, child of James H. and Margaret (LEE) ABRAHAM.
Before moving to Kansas City, Missouri in the summer of 1929 to live with her sister Helen and attend East High School, Maggie attended Sequoyah High School in Marble City. In her last semester at Sequoyah High School, she was designated as the school's "Honor Graduate" and received a Certificate for Excellency of Scholarship on April 10, 1929 for having achieved the highest general average on the school's final examinations.
The Great Depression hit the United States hard during Maggie's first semester at East High School; so many people, including the sister and brother-in-law she was staying with, lost their jobs and homes as a result of the difficult times. The gravity of their situation confronted her brother-in-law, sister, their small children, and Maggie on a Saturday morning as they returned to their apartment after buying a few groceries. Upon their return home, they found their apartment door padlocked by the landlord with an eviction notice posted. They were locked out and could not enter the apartment to get any of their possessions. The landlord had the right to keep their personal property since they were behind on their rent and had no money to pay him. They lost everything. Among the items locked in the apartment were Maggie's textbooks; without them she could not return to her high school classes. Despite their pleas for ONLY the textbooks from the apartment, the landlord stood firm in refusing to let them have the school books.
Upon hearing of their desperate circumstances, another LEE sister and her husband living in Kansas City took them into their home, but this sister and her family were close to being in the same situation (no jobs and eviction). Jobs were scarce, and even though she wasn't quite fifteen and a half, Maggie wanted to help her family by getting a job to help with expenses. When she applied at the American Tobacco Company, they asked if she was eighteen. She was aware they wouldn't hire her if they knew she was underage, so she managed to look the interviewer in the eye and say with conviction that she was eighteen.
She was employed by the American Tobacco Company for about two and a half years in a piecework unit where she worked at making cigars with three other girls. The standard pay earned by an employee while they were being trained was $9.50 a week. After the training period was completed, the rate of pay was based on the piecework done by the employee. Maggie learned the job quickly and by her second week at work, she was earning over $20 a week. She and the other three girls in the unit decided to work as a unified team to produce as many cigars as they could to earn as much pay as possible; their team was successful at increasing their pay and they became one of the best piecework units in the company.
Maggie left the company, at age eighteen, to return home to Oklahoma. While living with her parents, she received a letter from the American Tobacco Company stating they were closing their Kansas City plant to relocate to Virginia and they offered her a position at their new plant. She considered the job, but decided that she didn't want to be that far away from her family.
During the late fall of 1932, she was hired by Montgomery Ward in Kansas City to work in their order processing department. It had been in the early spring of that same year that Maggie met her future husband, Jim ABRAHAM. They met at a dance she was attending with friends in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
When asked how she met Jim, Maggie would recall looking across the room at the dance and meeting the gaze of a very handsome, young man. He was wearing a Siloam Springs High School letter jacket with a red letter "S" on the front (he was a quarterback for the high school football team) -- that was her first memory of Jim ABRAHAM; a memory she always recalled with a sparkle in her eye and a smile on her face. Jim and Maggie were married before a Justice of the Peace on December 30, 1933 in Stilwell, Adair County, Oklahoma with her first cousin Jim Elkins and his wife, Bell, serving as witnesses.
Maggie and Jim lived in Siloam Springs before moving, in 1937, to Kansas City, Missouri where she returned to her former job at Montgomery Ward. By the end of 1941, she was employed at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in northeastern Independence, Missouri. The plant was a U.S. government-owned, contractor-operated facility established by Remington Arms in 1941 to manufacture and test small caliber ammunition for the U.S. Army. She worked in munitions where her job involved making .50 caliber rounds for use by the American armed forces serving during World War II.
During the war, Fruehauf Trailer Company began manufacturing radar equipment and trailers on which machine guns were mounted, and in 1942, she went to work for Fruehauf and wired radar equipment in the cockpit of military aircraft. Maggie worked for Fruehauf until the close of the war when she, like most of the women who had stepped forward to fill the wartime labor shortage, was dismissed from employment in order to open job opportunities for returning servicemen.
In the fall of 1946, Jim and Maggie moved south from Kansas City to Noel in McDonald County, Missouri near the Arkansas state line. They raised four children, two girls and two boys, in McDonald County.
Jim and Maggie were both hard workers and they were always busy. Until retirement, Jim was self-employed as a contractor, and he operated a small farm for several years south of Noel with the help of Maggie and the children. Maggie was also self-employed for many years (she operated Mt. Shira Lodge, Beach, and Campground north of Noel from 1947-1952, and Maggie's Noel Novelty Shop on the Main Street of Noel from 1963-1968). In addition to her own business endeavors, she was employed at a variety of jobs through the years at area businesses. She was willing to tackle any job because she enjoyed the independence of earning her own money as well as being able to help her family by contributing to the household income.
Maggie was a remarkable person. She managed the family and farm when her husband, Jim, was away for long stretches of time at construction jobs in Florida. After having her educational opportunities cut short during the Great Depression, she returned to school in her late 40's to attend a business college in Kansas City, Missouri and graduated with a high GPA. Like her mother and father had done for their children, she passed on to her children guidance and values to live by. I had firsthand opportunities to experience her conviction and strength to defy injustices when she saw people being confronted with the prejudices of others. My dear mother had many qualities I admired. She taught me so much that gave me strength in my life and enabled me to stand on my own, I was fortunate to have had her as my mother.
Following are some of my treasured memories of my mother: Mom bringing home a puppy and allowing me to keep it in my room at night with strict instructions to leave it in its box to sleep but not getting upset when she checked in on me during that night, and the nights which followed, to find the puppy in my bed cuddled in my arms -- she never moved it; the walks with her down our country road to go for summer swims in Butler Creek; coming home from school to my favorite treat of cinnamon rolls made from pie crust, butter, sugar, and cinnamon; the nights I was frightened from a bad dream and would get up from my bed and go to her and ask if I could sleep with her -- she always made room; the loving attentive care she provided when I was sick or injured; the morning her gifted intuition saved my life when a horse had kick me at age seventeen to the ground and was ready to deliver a final deadly blow with her front feet and Mom appeared with our dogs because she had a overwhelming "feeling" I was in trouble. She had walked through two dew soaked fields divided by a dusty dirt road in her floor length robe, nightgown, and house shoes to save me based on a "feeling". When she saw from a distance the horse rear up over me as I lay injured on the ground from the blows already delivered from the horse's hind feet to my head and left side, she commanded our dogs to chase the horse away. As the dogs ran at lightning speed on my mother's command, the horse began turning its body to run away, her front hooves came down about six inches from my head splattering mud in my eyes. Had my mother not trusted her heart and immediately left the house to find me, I would not have survived. These memories and so many others are just part of the loving thoughts that hold her close in my heart.
__________________________________
Biography contributed to Find A Grave by L. ABRAHAM, child of James H. and Margaret (LEE) ABRAHAM.
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