Letters from Miss Edna: 1925-1975

By Patsy Johnson Spurrier Hallman

The II5 letters in this book were written by a woman whose life spanned the center of the twentieth century. Hers is a story of ordinary people - how they lived and loved and worked and died - during a period of extraordinary change. As Miss Ednas life unfolds, she is caught up in the abnormal rate of change that moved the world through the century. Her experiences move from slates to computers, from travel in buggies to airplanes, from homes with wood cook stoves to modern electric facilities. Read about the trials of The Great Depression, the tragedies of World War II, the horror of death by cancer. Feel the love of family and the value of friendships.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 23, 2005
• ISBN: 9781456725945

Patsy Johnson Spurrier Hallman

Patsy Johnson Hallman is Retiring Dean, College of Education, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas. She served as a university administrator for eleven years and earlier taught at all levels, kindergarten through graduate school. She became interested in the “Miss Edna” letters when she realized that they were written by a teacher and showed a clear picture of life lived by ordinary people throughout the twentieth century.   Hallman and her husband, Dr. Leon Hallman, have lived in the beauty of the Deep East Texas Pine Forest for many years. They have five adult children.   Dr. Hallman is also the author of I HAD A TEACHER and the soon to be published; I HAD A TEACHER, TOO.

Book preview

Preface

The l15 letters found in this book were written by a woman whose life spanned most of the twentieth century. Born in l908, Miss Edna’s letters begin in l925 when she went away to college. They end at her death in l975. Hers is a story of ordinary people – how they lived and loved and worked and died – during a period of extraordinary change in the world. Like the majority of Americans who were born before World War II, Miss Edna was reared in a rural community. Her family lived in the sandy land of North East Texas - in the area where the sands are so deep, that, in her early days, before hard-surfaced roads, wagons and cars often stuck in the powdery stuff as they moved down the narrow country roads. Her ancestors, like the majority of people in the United States, at the time, were English and Irish, with one great-grandmother from an American Indian Family. She was one of the first women in her family to have the opportunity for high education. And, like so many of her time, she died an untimely death from a radical cancer.

As Miss Edna’s life unfolds, she is caught up in the abnormal changes that moved the world through the twentieth century. The reader sees the drama of the century by reading these simple and private letters of a young woman who wrote first to her parents, then to her lover, to the parents of her students, to friends, and finally to her own grown children. The letters often describe processes that are a part of by-gone days – travel by buggy, picking cotton, making hominy – even making mattresses as a part of one of President Roosevelt’s WPA programs. They show a progression of life from travel in buggies and farm wagons to travel in early cars, then by airplane. In schools she moves from slates to computers and in her home she moves from wood cook stoves to electric kitchens! Her life spans World War I, World War II, Korea and Viet Nam.

She was known for 50 years as Miss Edna because a generation of school children called her by that title. When all those children became adults they continued to use that title of respect for her. After she married, she and her husband were referred to by everyone in the community as Don and Miss Edna.

Miss Edna’s practice was to write letters every Sunday afternoon. Over the years she wrote hundreds of letters, although, with the exception of the love letters, only samples of them are shown here. The letters are edited where words and sentences are no longer clear on the fading stationery. In cases where no letter remains the reconstructed letter is based on interviews with family and community members. In some cases, stories that Miss Edna shared with Patsy have been formatted into letters. Facsimiles are shown for interest and authenticity. Don Johnson’s love letters to Miss Edna are included for clarity and to more clearly tell Miss Edna’s story.

Acknowledgements

My special thanks to all who contributed letters, memories, and photos for this book. The nucleus of the letters is the love letters that have been in my possession since the Johnson Family belongings were divided in l995. For years, my parents had kept them stored first in Mother’s trunk, then later in the top drawer of the chest in their bedroom. My brothers, Coy and Lynn, contributed letters, photos and information. Mother’s sisters, Faye Gilley and Margaret Mills, had some letters and many good memories to share. My Johnson cousins, Jim and Mary Burns, and Peggy Burns Rorher shared information and photos for reconstructed letters. The late Freeman Johnson gave me the story of the baptism of the kittens several years ago. My Smith cousin, Charlotte Smith McDowell, shared letters from her father and from our Grandmother Smith as well as the story of Great-Grandfather Smith’s death in the watermelon wagon.

I am indebted to the people at Authorhouse for believing that this book holds interest for people outside the family and the local community, and thus agreed to publish. A special thanks to Janet Simon for scanning photos and facsimiles!

I have an extra measure of love for my children, Bethany Spurrier and Dave and Kelley Spurrier, who urged me to finish the project. And, as always, to my husband, Dr. Leon Hallman, I give thanks for his unceasing encouragement. But, of course, I want to give most credit to Don and Miss Edna for living the life of which good memories are made.

PJH

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Relationship of the Various Recipients of the Letters

Away At College

1925

Teaching in Miller Grove

1926/27

Love and Marriage

Getting Through the Depression

1929-1939

Starting A Family

1935

War !!!

1941

After the War

1946

Change, Change, Change

Retirement

1974

Miss Edna’s Last Letter

Epilogue

Appendix

About the Author

Relationship of the Various Recipients of the Letters

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A SECTION OF A TEXAS MAP SHOWING THE

COMMUNITY WHERE MISS EDNA WAS BORN, WHERE SHE ATTENDED COLLEGE AND WHERE SHE LIVED DURING HER ADULT YEARS

missing image file

The train to Commerce

Away At College

1925

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…..I saw my first football game!

(circa) September 15, 1925

East Texas State Teachers College

Commerce, Texas

Dear Mama and Papa and All at Home,

Here I am at Aunt Jenny’s boarding house, all set to register and start classes tomorrow. By the time I got here, all the rooms in the house were rented to paying students so I am to share a room with Cousin Lucille. My trunk fits at the foot of her double bed, so there is plenty of space for both of us.

The train was late getting into the Commerce Station, but Aunt Jenny had told Gordon to wait for me and he did. After he finished his classes today, then made his rounds for the ice company, he arranged to keep the ice truck overnight so he would have it to get my trunk to Aunt Jenny’s.

By the time we got here everyone had already eaten supper. I said I didn’t need anything, but Aunt Jenny gave me a big glass of sweet milk with chunks of her crispy cornbread. It was so good. Now I have to unpack my new dresses and get ready for tomorrow. I am really glad you let me come to school. Brother, I wish you had come, too. And Howard and Faye, in a few years it will be your turn. Kiss the baby for me.

Love,

Edna

P. S. Papa, you told me to write a note to Mr. White for you. I am sending it to him today. This is what I wrote to him:

Dear Mr. White:

Papa asked me to write to say that we will repay the $75 we borrowed from you for my college expenses. As you and he agreed, we will begin the payments on a monthly basis, paying $10.00 each month, after I begin a teaching job next year.

Mr. White, you have always been a good neighbor, and we thank you for trusting us and for helping me to go to school.

Yours truly,

Edna Smith

NOTES BY THE EDITOR

With this first one, Miss Edna’s letters begin. She has moved from the family home in Liberty, Texas, (Hopkins County) to Commerce, Texas. Commerce is the location of the nearest teacher’s college.

In this period of time, rural communities did not have high schools. Rather their schools were usually first through eighth grades. If a rural family (and ¾ of all American families were in rural areas) wished their children to have a high school education there were only two options for them. They could move their children into a nearby town where they could attend high school, or they could send them to a college that had a high school program. If they chose the town option, the family usually made arrangements for their child to board with a family while they attended high school.

The Smith Family chose the college option. In this way, Edna could live in Commerce and attend a two-year program known as sub-college in order to complete requirements for high school. Then she could move right into college level work. Many of the courses could be used for dual credit; i. e., the courses could count for completion of high school and also for college credit.

One attractive feature of this college option was that with only one year of sub-college, a person could get a one-year teacher’s certificate and begin a teaching career. People who choose this option returned every summer to college until they received a B. S. degree, all the while teaching during the falls and winters. In Texas, it would be after the end of WWII in l945, before school teachers were required to have a B. S. degree.

September 23, l925

Commerce, Texas

Dear Mama, Papa, Brother, Howard, Faye, and Margaret Joe,

Classes are well under way. I have Mr. Cowling for math, and he really knows how to teach so that we can learn. A very young man, named Mr. Broun (pronounced Brown) teaches geography. Sarah Garvin is my English teacher and she also teaches penmanship. My education class is taught by Miss Vera English, and the way she teaches makes me anxious to get my own class of little fellows. Of course, the class I love most is art. Miss Drasser teaches that. And finally there is physical education with Miss Rogers.

Most of my classes are in the Main Building, but I do have one in the Education Building. P. E. is in the Gym. Of course I have no classes in the other building – the Industrial Building. We do go often into the Women’s Building to visit our friends who live in the dorm.

There are lots of social activities – I’ve joined the Hopkins County Club, and of course I go to the Baptist Church on Sunday. Our first Pep Rally is scheduled for the 25th. The college had a nice get-acquainted party for all girls last evening. The college calendar shows regular assemblies with various faculty giving addresses. I think we are required to go to all those.

Papa and Mama, Aunt Jenny sends her best. She is very busy.

Love,

Edna

October 1, 1925

Commerce, Texas

Dear Folks,

What a week this has been. I took my first college test and saw my first football game! I will hear next week what I made on the test, but I’ll tell you now about the game. I know none of you has seen football, so I will do my best to describe it.

Since it was the first game of the season, there was a big celebration before the playing began. All of us students met in front of Old Main at 5:30. When everyone had gathered, we formed