Through the Eyes of Two Sisters

By Jessie Mabrey and Jane Warren

Gypsy kids are running all over, moving from place to place often; not making any real friends.

But when an impulsive, careless, and questionable action leads to a horrific accident for one family, two sisters' lives will change forever.

Jane with her broken bones--leg and pelvis--and scars on her head and the loneliness she had on waiting and waiting while her sister Jessie laid unconscious for days.

Jessie Mohe and Jane Ann thought that they had a simple and easygoing life with their biological parents as they were always playing outside and only had a few responsibilities. As they would play with their other siblings, they would also perform several mischievous acts that would get them into some trouble. Their older immediate family seemed to almost always be around as these harmless schemes would happen, and they would get a good laugh from it all.

Where is everyone whom we know personally--our parents, Gpa Jess, Uncle Jerry, and Uncle Bernard--and we are closest to? It's cloudy, and we can't see no one. Where is our life that we knew? Our little brains were working and going around in circles and circles. Our trauma, the anger we had in separate ways.

After the accident, they would join their family with a new and very different lifestyle. They would experience new food, people, and unbelievable ways of life. The foster mother would push them to try new things, learn to be independent, and to be better people. As they go through new experiences, she would be right there to guide them.

In their adult life, they would figure out many unsolved mysteries in their family, while several would still remain unsolved.

The new beginnings of many activities and the challenges of life are still to come--the real happiness of life and what it is really about.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685171667

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Through the Eyes of Two Sisters

Jessie Mabrey and Jane Warren

ISBN 978-1-68517-165-0 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88540-994-0 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-68517-166-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Jessie Mabrey and Jane Warren

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Wanamaker Grade School, August 1967

Ups and Downs in Summer 1968 and Gardening through the Years

Odds and Ends Stories

Solved Mysteries

Unsolved Mysteries

Poems by that Jane Ann Lister Warren Wrote

About the Authors

In memory of:

Virgil Elden Lister Sr., Veletta Babe Andrella (Lister) Lister, our birth parents.

Elmer Howard Carter Sr., Ruby May (Tichenor) Carter graciously put us in their home.

Melissa Sue Sissy Daniel, Jessie's daughter

Mommy and Daddy wrote two letters to Grandma and Walter Dodds

3/13/67

907 N Van Buren

Dear Mom & Walt,

Just a few lines to hello. We are doing okay. I talked to Jennie the other day. I hope you are feeling better. I wrote to you but I guess I got the address wrong. 'Cause my letter came back. Well Mom, You are going to be Grandma again. Yes, we thought we would have one more before we finish. Little Virgil will be five in July. We don't never go see anyone. So, we don't know what or how they are doing. The girls go to Grant school. Next year all of them will be in school. It is almost time for them to get out now. It is 3:30. I just got back from the Doctor. he said I was doin just fine. Well Mom you are going to have to be more careful about taking care of yourself. You know of course you and Walt don't belong down there. Just as soon as we can get started, Babe is going to start a Small Nursing home for about 2 or 3 old ladies. She gave up working out. Sure, would like to have you and Walt come up. Stay with us, Well I guess this is all for now.

Love your Son Virgil Babe & Kids

May 9, 1967

905 N Van Buren Topeka Kans

PO Box 8125

Dear Mom & Walt,

Got your letter, Sure was glad to hear from you. Well, it was cold and raining up here. But it is nice now. The girls' school will be out the 26th of May. Boy will I ever be glad. They said to tell you hello for them. They are really looking forward to you coming up this summer, so have we. Do you know it has been almost ten years since we saw you. We have a 1954 Studebaker, I never cared much for that kind of car, not big enough. But I do like this one. It runs fair and we go all over hell's half acre on a $1.00 worth of gas. We are going to stay here for a while than try to get a better place in the country. That old place out at Silver Lake is almost ready to hit the ground. Can't think of much more to say except everyone said hello. We all love you. Jess was out with Francis, but he is back here now. Boy he has a pretty good car. A "57 Chevie, (6c) stick. He likes it pretty good. Well, I guess I'll sing off now. Will be looking for you to come up.

Love Always, Virgil, Babe & Kids

P.S. Mom, we live at 905 N. Van Buren. But our mailing address is Topeka, Kans. (PO Box 8125)

May 1967

May 26, 1967, on Friday, in Topeka, Kansas, and surrounding areas, there was a temperature of seventy-two degrees and SSW wind of fifteen miles per hour. What a beautiful day to end the school year. We three girls attended Grant Elementary School in North Topeka. Yay, school is over, and we can now play all summer. Dad told us that we were going to get up early in the morning and go to our cousin's place in Belvue, Pottawatomie County, Kansas. Our grandpa Jess would also be there waiting to see his grandkids while we picked sweet potatoes. We lived in a little yellow house; it consisted of one bedroom, which was Mommy and Daddy's room. We kids slept in the living room; a small bed there for us.

May 27, 1967

On Saturday morning, the temperature for the day was seventy-four degrees, which is still a beautiful day to be out with family and to take a small trip from Topeka and head onto Highway 24 toward Belvue. Grandpa Jess Lister and Alonzo and Angeline Lester were there at the house ready for our visit.

The trip from our house wasn't that long, perhaps just over a half-hour drive. We lived in North Topeka on 907 N. Van Buren, a small house next to a big gray house, which several families lived in; we also lived at the big gray house before. You remember Jane? The two different places we lived but next to each other? Yes, Mohe, I do.

There were many cornfields to see along the way and houses being built. Our parents were telling us, as we were going through the town of Silver Lake, that Grandma Grace was born somewhere out here in this little town. Hey, kids, Dad was saying. There is the house we just moved from. There on Hodges Road. We were going around a bend or two to reach the other town called Rossville, a small growing community where many of our families have lived and passed away. Somewhere Grandpa Jess would always visit. He was definitely a gypsy after he and Grandma Grace divorced.

The next town we come upon is St. Mary's, Kansas; our GFather Orville Legan and his mother Mildred Schooler Legan lived over on Fourth Street; the house isn't there anymore. Grandma Legan is buried at the Mount Calvary Cemetery, St. Mary's, Pottawatomie County. She came from the state of Kentucky and was born on February 14; it was declared a holiday back in 1537.

As we are driving down the road, I like to sing one of my favorite songs, especially if someone is bothering me, then I could tell them in a nice way that I didn't care what they said, because the words are in this song. Tricky, huh, laughing. I was singing the song lyrics, Jimmy crack corn and I don't care. And repeating it and repeating it; Jimmy crack corn and I don't care, Jimmy crack corn and I don't care, the master's gone away. I only sang the chorus to this song, all I knew and cared about, was I don't care.

Awe, there it is, we can and almost ready to enter the small town of Belvue to see our families. We were traveling west bound. My siblings and I and our parents all are very happy to see Grandpa Jess.

We are almost there, aren't we, Mommy? we said.

Yes, kids, settle down. You will see him in a few minutes.

Yeah! Yeah! We can't wait.

We were approaching Belvue, Kansas, and Dad was asking all of us a question. Yeah, yeah, said some of us kids. No, no, Dad, let's wait. The excitement running through us, We were all excited and pumped up.

The train whistleblowing, blowing and blowing. The train was getting close to the railroad crossing. Our eyes were on the house and saw our Grandpa Jess outside, waiting for us to get across that railroad track. We were almost there. Screeches…boom, boom, crash, crash. Dust clouds everywhere…silence…silence…

Our Family

Virgil Eldon Lister Sr. and Veletta Ramona Smith married at West Point, Mississippi.

Virgil Eldon Lister Sr. was a slim, six feet tall, black wavy-haired guy, who was born in Peru, Nemaha County, Nebraska, on October 2, 1930. Most of the time, he would wear a white T-shirt with his pack of cigarettes rolled up in his short sleeve. Daddy was the seventh child; had three sisters and five brothers. He was the son of Jesse Lister and Grace Elizabeth Carmichael.

Growing up we remember Mom telling us kids that her name was Veletta Ramona Smith, her birthday was July 15,1937 and she didn't know where she was born only in Kansas.

Veletta Andrella (Lister) Lister, our mom, was five feet one inch tall and had greenish eyes. When wanting to curl her long brown hair, she would pin them using bobby pins. On Mommy's birth certificate, it reads that she was born inside Lansing Prison in Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kansas, on August 15, 1935, at 7:15 a.m. She was the daughter of Chester Arthur Lister and Estelle Bell Legan. Another chapter…

March 20, 1958

Birth of their first daughter, Alma Mae Lister, who had brown, wavy hair. Our mom would occasionally part her hair to the side or bring it all back. She was born on March 20, 1958, in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, at St. Francis Hospital. She was named after our father's oldest sister, who passed away, at exactly two years old; her name was Alma Laverne Lister. Mom, Dad, and Alma all lived at 314 Kansas Avenue, Topeka, Kansas, when she was born.

January 4, 1959

Then comes me, Jessie Mohe Lister, who had and still has straight auburn hair. I like it when the sun shines on it, which adds a reddish tint to it. January 4, 1959, was born at Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas. We lived at 905 North Van Buren St., Topeka, Kansas, and I was named after my father's father, Jesse Lister, who we would call Grandpa Jess, and he had no middle name. I remember him as being a thin, bald-headed older guy who would always be smiling. My whole family would call me little Mohe, which comes from a little Indian girl in a song called The Little Mohee. When I started going to school, I remember Dad saying, Now you call her Jessie, that is her name.

I said out loud to Dad, Uh, Jessie, my name is Mohe. I don't want to be called Jessie. Mohe is my name.

Dad answered back, stating They are going to call you Jessie when you go to school and that's that.

I was not happy with that decision whatsoever.

Aunt Eva Mae Lister Meyers Saviago, she would sing this song to me.

The Little Mohee

As I was a walking for pleasure, one day,

In sweet recreation, I careless did stray:

As I sat amusing myself on the grass,

Oh, whom did I spy but a young Indian lass.

She came sat down beside me, took hold of my hand

And said, "You're a stranger and in a strange land;

My father's a chieftain, a chieftain is he,

I'm his only daughter, my name is Mohee.

And, if you will follow, you're welcome to come

And dwell in the wigwam which I call my home."

"O no, my dear maiden, that never can be!

I have a dear sweetheart and I know she loves me.

I will not forsake her; I know she loves me;

Her heart is as true as any Mohee."

It was early one morning, one morning in May;

I broke her fond heart by the words I did say.

Farewell, little Indian, she stood on the strand;

And, as my ship passed her, she waved me her hand.

Now, my friends and companions around me I see,

But none can compare with little Mohee.

The girl I had trusted proved untrue to me,

I turned my course backward far over the sea;

I turned my course backward, and backward did flee

To spend my last days with little Mohee.

I can to this day still hear my aunt Eva singing this song to me and hearing the music of the song as well. It is a smooth song that makes you want to swing your body back and forth slowly. I have looked and looked to see if we have any Indian blood in us, but as far as I can see, we have none.

July 24, 1960

Our sister, Stella Marie Lister, is the third daughter of Virgil and Veletta. She was born on the twenty-fourth of July 1960 at Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka. She died on December 20, 1960, at home of malnutrition, and her little butt was eaten away with sores. We cried and cried when we heard this and felt very sorry for her. Jane and I guessed Stella was a brownish blonde and a mixture of all of us. She was named after our mother's mother, Estella Bell Stella Legan, and her mother was Stella Mae Robinson. The Stella girls lived a short life. Her birth certificate says we lived at Route 5, Topeka, Kansas.

Obituary: Stella Lister, graveside service for Stella Lister, four-month-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Lister of Route 3, will be at 10:00 a.m., Thursday in Rochester Cemetery. The baby died Tuesday at her home. Besides her parents, survivors include two sisters, Alma Mae and Jessie Mohe Lister, both of the home; and her grandparents, Mrs. Grace Dodds of West Point, Mississippi, and Jess Lister, address unknown. The Davidson-Eslinger-Duff Funeral Home will announce arrangements.

From the Eslinger-Duff Funeral Home about our sister, Stella Marie Lister. July 24, 1960–December 20, 1960. The funeral home had paid for the burial, bought her a dress to wear, was buried in a wooden box, and the cost was $15, all paid by the funeral home.

GG Gma Stella Mae Robinson Legan passed away when she was only twenty-four years of age and left four children behind for others to care for them after her passing. She was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery, Jefferson County, Kansas. Gma Estella Bell left several children behind. At least three that we know names of, but we heard there were more. She was buried at Keene Cemetery, Keene, Wabaunsee County, Kansas.

June 25, 1961

Next was my blonde, curly-headed baby sister, Jane Ann Lister. She was the odd one, because she was the only one born out of Kansas but still was a cutie. She was born at the Mid-Columbia Medical Center in the Dalles, Wasco County, Oregon, on June 25, 1961.

We are guessing; one of the reasons they had Jane Ann up there in Oregon was because Dad had an uncle who lived in that area in Oregon. That was Grandpa's oldest brother. Sidenote, Mom and Dad