Betty Buce Youngblood

News article source:
Photocopied and submitted by Hazel Sharpe Kennicutt. She writes: This is the lady I visited. She has since died. Sheet attached is all info she knew. (See end of article)

Betty Buce Youngblood

Photo caption: Osho and Geegee Marie share their favorite spot to rest - on the lap of Betty Youngblood. They share her time with two cockateels who also reside in the Youngblood home.

Headline:
Reporting the news since 1919

By Martha Campbell (published in The Herald-Leader, Siloam Springs, Arkansas, Wednesday, September 7, 1994)

Betty Youngblood of West Siloam Springs (Arkansas) will celebrate her 90th birthday on March 30, 1995, and is still going strong. One of the reasons for her longevity may be her lifelong practice of staying active and busy and her attitude toward life.

As a child and youth, she helped on her family's home place and held several jobs as a preteen and teenager. Youngblood began writing for the Herald-Democrat when she was 14 years old. She has continued over the years when she lived in the area and currently writes a popular column, West Siloam Springs news, for The Herald Leader.

Born in 1905 at Shawnee, Okla., Betty Buce (Youngblood) first lived in dugout that was partially constructed of wood. The daughter of Charlie and Nannie Buce, she had two brothers and three sisters. Her father was a carpenter.

While still a young child, the family moved to California, where her father worked as a travelling carpenter on the Santa Fe Railroad.

They moved to Siloam Springs when she was nine years old. They lived on a small farm and Betty attended school and helped with the many chores that needed to be done. When Betty was 12-years old, her Aunt Lou Mooney was a cook at the Lakeside Hotel (now known as the Crown Hotel in downtown Siloam Springs), Betty's sister made the beds and Betty stood on a box and washed dishes in the hotel's kitchen.

At the time she worked there, the rock walls on Sager Creek had not been constructed and the creek followed a more natural course; in some places spreading out past the natural banks.
The hotel was a popular place and the railroad men who came into the area stayed there overnight and then picked up their train the next morning.

Betty said one of the high points of the summer was June 23 and 24, when the town celebrated with a big picnic and carnival rides were set-up on the downtown streets.

Downtown Siloam Springs was full of fun and activity at that time. Betty said her family often attended musicals and church services in the underground amphitheater, the Chatauqua Building, that stood where the lower level of the Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital is now located.

In 1918, influenza swept across the United States, killing many people. Betty said the flu hit this area hard. Most of the sick people were treated by Dr. Gullidge, who traveled to his patients' homes in a horse and buggy. She caught the flue and worsened, developing double pneumonia. Although she had been treated by the doctor, she was near death when her father took the wagon to town, gathered together some of the people with whom they attended church and brought them home to pray for her.

Youngblood said their prayers were heard and she recovered right away. The next day when Dr. Gullidge came over to see how she was doing, he was surprised to see her so improved. Betty said she told him "God's medicine has made me well."

Her father built or helped to build many of the early buildings in Siloam Springs. Betty said he helped to build the three-story brick building that stood where the American Legion Community building now stands. The fire department occupied the first floor of the building, with the library on the second floor and the hospital on the third floor.

When she was 14 years old, Betty helped out for a time at the hospital. That's where her love of nursing was born. She came back at age 16 and worked there. She later became a nurse and worked in that career over a 30-year period.

When Betty's family eventually moved to a farm located between Twin Oaks and Oaks, Okla., they didn't call a moving van, but loaded their furniture and belongings on wagons and took off across the countryside. Betty said her father and brother had gone ahead to get the new place ready. In order to help the rest of the family find the new place, her father and brother had blazed or marked trees. The rest of the family followed with the furniture, household goods and animals.

Betty made the trip on a horse and kept the cattle herded between the two wagons.

They camped overnight at Rattlesnake Springs and then finished the move the next day. Betty said they located their new home when her mare heard the family dogs.

When the family made a trip back to Siloam Springs to buy groceries and supplies, they rode all day in the wagon and then spent the night with family members living in Siloam Springs. The next morning, they purchased their supplies and headed for home. Betty said they would usually arrive back home late in the afternoon.
Betty attended several schools. The last one she attended before finishing was the Beaver Springs School. All the students were taught in the one-room school house. They took their lunches and carried drinking water from Beaver Spring. Betty said the spring has since been polluted and can't be used. The school house is still standing and is now being used by a salvage yard.

The family's first car was 'sporty looking' with a mother-in-law seat at the back. Although Betty couldn't remember the make or model of the car, she said she would never forget its name - "Have to." It was given this name because 'to get it to go, you would have to push it," Youngblood said.

She got married in 1923 and her daughter Opal Lavon was born in 1925. She and her husband were divorced in 1928 and she returned to her parents' home with her child. She said her parents helped her raise her child.

She remarried in 1938 to Edgar Youngblood and two boys were born; Kenneth and Eddie. The family bought a farm near Konawa, Okla. and Edgar farmed and worked in the oil field.

He later worked at Tinker Air Force Base and Betty worked as a nurse at Mission Hill in Shawnee.

During their time in that area, Betty also worked for two years as a nurse at the State Industrial School for Girls at Tecumseh, Okla. and as a matron in the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office.

The family returned to Siloam Springs and have been here since that time.

Betty and Edgar were active in the community and are life members in the Colcord Disabled American Veterans, Post 70; the Westville Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 3698; and the Watts American Legion, Post 104.

She and Edgar spent a lot of time serving as officers and working in the groups to benefit all veterans and their families. Youngblood said her life-time practice of staying busy helped her with two recent tragedies in her life. Her daughter Lavon died a year ago last February and Youngblood's husband, Edgar, died a year ago August. Youngblood said she has outlived her parents and brothers and sisters.

Although she has outlived some family members, Youngblood said she still is blessed with a good family. She has two sons living, several grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren.

Her religious beliefs, her family and friends and determination have helped her continue on. Youngblood does her own cooking, housework, canning and making pickles.

Although she no longer has big vegetable and flower gardens, she raises peppers and a few flowers in her flower bed.
(END ARTICLE)


Attached to this article were notes regarding Betty's family. All data listed is given & spelled as written.

Charles A. Buce & Nancy Eliz. Hammack
Children
1. Lissie Lou
2. John
3. Charley
4. Betty Jane - Edgar Youngblood
5. Cora May
6. Bertha Olive

Brothers & sisters
1. Charles A. Buce
2. Lou - 1) John Mooney 2) Bob Henry
3. Lillie - Olenhouse - Shawnee, OK
4. Sarah - Ferguson
5. Cornellous -

Betty Jane Buce & Edgar Youngbood
Children
1. LaVon Orocesca - died Feb 1993
2. Kennith - (hard to read) Tuceesueska, OK.
3. Edgar Jr. - Siloam Spg

Betty Jane Youngblood
Rt. 4, Box 145
Colcord, OK 74338
(remember note at beginning of this document, saying Youngblood has since died)


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