By about one in the morning I woke up Purnie, and she helped me to the bath room were I had to regurgitate. She went back to bed, leaving me in the bath room and I passed out. I must have gone out of my mind due to the pain because the next thing I remember, I was crawling down the hall. I was admitted to the hospital the next morning.
     The doctor diagnosed my condition as inflammatory rheumatism, which really was polio. It was unknown at the time and I had to stay in the hospital about a month. My left leg and foot were placed in a steel case because my foot began to turn to the inside. It was days before Mom and Daddy knew about it, because they had no telephone and they were unable to get word to them. I stayed in the hospital about a month and then went home, still in the cast. Before going home I had complained about my foot being in so much pain, but the doctor would not do anything about it. After a few days at home I couldn’t stand the pain any longer and Daddy took me back to the hospital were they removed the cast and found a large blister on my heel, swollen and full of fluid. Had it gone much longer, it could have turned into blood poisoning. I had to learn to walk all over again.
     After about another month, I was getting better and Elmo’s mother invited me to spend the night with them. We went to bed and I slept with her. It turned out that the only reason that she invited me over was to talk me out of marrying Elmo. Because of my condition, she thought there would be a lot of hospital and doctor bills and she didn’t think that Elmo deserved to start a new life with a burden like that. The next morning Elmo walked me home and I told him about it and that was the end of my love affair with him. Had it not been for this incident I probably would have been his wife to this day, on a farm in Powderly washing, cooking and keeping house all my life as my mother had done so. I felt a lot of guilt about the bills that would have to be paid by my parents because of me and wanted to get away so they wouldn’t have that kind of burden. I didn’t know at the time but all of the bills were paid by the county.
     The newest fad of the day was the washaterias being installed all over Paris. We could wash a load of clothes for ten cents. We would then take them back home and hang them on the fence to dry. They didn’t have automatic dryers yet. World War Two had broken out and soldiers were being trucked through Paris constantly. One day Mother and I were at the washateria and a convoy of trucks filled with soldiers came by. Several of them whistled at me and threw their addresses out. Mother warned me not to write to any of them. I disobeyed her and sent several cards out. One letter I got back really impressed me so I continued to write this one soldier.
     We exchanged pictures and then he sent me a gold watch with the initials ‘B E N ’ engraved on the back. He then asked me to marry him in a letter and I accepted. He was stationed at Junction City, Kansas at the time and insisted on sending me money for my bus fare.  So Mother and Daddy agreed and put me on the bus for Kansas about 9 a.m. of the morning of March 11th.  It was a long ride and my first time to travel by bus.  I had plenty of time to think back over the life I had, too late, but I began to wonder if this was the right thing to do.  I knew I would miss Mother, Daddy and all the kids, but I needed to start a life of my own sometime.  The bus was crowded and there was no place to sleep.  We traveled all night until about 3 p.m. the next day. My eyes remained open the whole trip.  We arrived at Junction City, Kansas and the man I was to marry, William (Bill) Nagreen was there waiting for me.  We went to one of his friend's home, ate supper, got dressed, then went to a nearby chapel and were married at 6 p.m. 
     I wasn't to stay there very long.  We rented a house with another couple and then shortly thereafter, Bill was sent overseas.  So back to the farm I went, where I stayed until I found a job in Paris in a cafe.  Later, one of my friends named Hazel, got a job in Houston, Texas in a toy factory.  Toys had to be made of wood at the time because all metal and rubber were saved for the war effort.  Meat, sugar, flour, canned goods and gasoline were rationed.  We were issued tokens for food and stamps for gas.  Everything became expensive and salaries were low except in the war factories.  I remained in Houston until Bill returned to the states.  Bill was in the service almost 5 years, 2 1/2 of them, overseas and the remainder, in different parts of the United States.
     After the war ended, we went to Dallas where we worked and lived until his death.  I received a degree from the State Board of Vocational Education in Food And Health on October 11, 1949.  I taught sewing on an early television program on station KRLD in Dallas.  The program was titled "A Stitch In Time".  On one occasion my little sister, Sharon appeared as one of the models.  I later attended Oak Cliff Business College and International Business Machines Computer School to prepare me for work in banking which I remained for many years.  Also while in Dallas I joined the Rebecca Lodge. 
     My youngest sister, Sharon, was to marry Michael Doyal in Powderly on July 8, 1967.  Buddy came in from California and stayed with Bill and I, and together we attended the wedding.  We returned home to Dallas the same night and was to go to Six Flags Over Texas Amusement Park the next day.  I got up early the next morning and put on a load of clothes in the washer, made coffee and took a cup to give to Bill in his bedroom.  I found him lying on the floor next to his bed.  He had died of a massive heart attack sometime during the night. 
     I then moved to Paris in 1968.  While I was trying to buy a house in Paris I became acquainted with a real estate agent named Norman Lollar.  He wanted to become more than just friends with me and we dated a little.  He owned a lot of property and was a pilot and had his own small aircraft.  I did not buy a home from him but we remained friends after I moved to Briarwood Street.
     I was working at McCuistion Hospital.  One day a man came to the hospital to pick up his son's payroll check.  His name was James Howard Bean.  I refused to give it to him because I didn't know him and his son Mike, had not left word that he was supposed to pick it up.  I told him the check was in the vault and was locked up and that he should come back the next day.  He did, the next day, and the next, and the next, until it seemed he was in the hospital everyday wanting to talk to me.
     One evening I invited a friend, Tina Prior, to the house to watch the Miss Universe Pageant on television with myself and Auntie.  While we were watching the program, she got up and went into the next room to use the phone.  The next thing I knew she was calling me to the phone.  I took the receiver from her and said hello.  I didn't know at the time, but the person she had called was Jim Bean and she hadn't even spoken to him, so it appeared that I had called him.  I said, "hello, who is this?"  He asked me who I was without telling me who he was, and this kind of questioning went on for a few minutes until I finally figured out what was going on.  From then on I had two men after me.  Later I found that Jim had been visiting the construction site of the home next door pretending to be selling paint for his job at Sherwin Williams, just so he could catch me outside to say hello.  As time went on, we became better acquainted.  One day both Jim and Norman called the hospital, trying to pry out of me which one of them I was going to marry.  I was on the line to one, then answering for the hospital, then talking to the other.  This craziness went on for a while until I got them to hang up.  On another occasion Jim was at the house visiting, and an airplane flew over the house very close to the ground.  After a few passes, Jim asked me if I knew why that plane was flying so low and I told him it was Norman.  He asked me if I had a gun and I told him I did.  He then wanted me to give it to him, saying he was going to shout at that guy the next time he flew over.  I refused to give it to him because he was really serious.  Finally, for better or worse, I decided on Jim and we married on April 12, 1970.  Jim moved into my home which we have redecorated many times over the years.  He had two children from his previous marriage, Mike and Karen Bean.  Today we have 6 grand children with one deceased.  We enjoy gardening, music, arts and crafts.
     In May 1982 a tornado struck our home.  We saw it coming and ran to a nearby ditch about four homes down the street.  We were soaked in the torrential downpour of rain and hail.  The twister moved in a path from west to east through more than half of the city of Paris.  It's main path was not over our home, but instead, was on the two streets south of the house.  By some strange coincidence it reached over from it's main path, and took off the roof our house, laying parts of it in the back yard and the field to the south.  Except for minor wind damage and broken glass, none of the other homes on our block were damaged.  We escaped serious injury, if not death, by running to the ditch.  The twister continued for about a mile east of our block before returning into the clouds. 
     
On the same stone with William Marshall Nagreen.