Tag: Foy and Odela

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Day 3 Legacy of Foy and Odela

Todays missive comes to you from my mothers cousin Joe Kee and his wife Mary. The story they tell is one of childhood and then one of my dad in adulthood. The one from adulthood is one I have never heard but it fits with my dads personality and sense of Christ. I hope you enjoy it.’

Jan. 3, 1984

Joe and Mary Kee

Odella was Joe Kee’s cousin and Foy had lived close by since Joe was a small boy, when all would come over to play at Uncle Toms house. Uncle Tom Allen lived close to Monroe Kee with their wives being sisters.

Us kids had some good times and gave others some bad times. What one couldn’t think of one of the rest of us was bound to. In later years we all moved to Amber. Joe took Rhoda, his sister to practice on a play and he stayed at Bob Allens home. Jess and Joe decided to scare all of the other boys in the house. They tied a string above the window in the bedroom and down to the castor bean stalk in Linnies garden. Joe put rosum on the string. Jess and Joe told the others they were going into town and of course there is always someone else wanting to go it was Tom. Finally when they couldn’t talk Tom out of going, they let him in on to what they were going to do. They said “now Tom you get the shells out of that gun of Ralphs or he will shoot us.” Tom played the French harp and he was good. About dark he was playing that harp and we hit that string and it made a terrible racket. We could see them open the bedroom door and peep into the room. They couldn’t see anything so they went back, a few minutes we hit that thing again and back they came and would peep around and look all over the room. Finally they came peeped out the door but they wouldn’t come out. That line did make a terrible racket and was enough to scare you. We decided that they were too scared to come out so Jess sneaked down to the hen house and got an old hen and he would grab a feather behind that old hens head and pull it out and of all the swaking that hen would do it. Ralph got his gun and stuck out the door. He didn’t even come out where he could see he just put it around the corner. Jess took off and I could hear him running plop plop plop,. He sounded like a herd of cows., Ralph hollored again, “stop or I will shoot”. We started to laugh and he said you are mighty lucky I could of shot you. We said oh you didn’t even have any shells, he said “I always have shells.” He looked and the gun was empty,

I remember after Mary and I married they came to our house at Stonewall and stayed the night. Mary started to fix the meal and had no bacon.. Odella went out into the car and got some and Mary has always remembered that visit. They had to bring their own food but that wasn’t the only reason we remembered that visit,. Foy told of a man in his church that he really had got to the point of not being to worship at church because of. He could hardly stand the man, so bad was his dislike for the man he could hardly worship, One day the Pastor had them all knell in prayer at church and Foy said he started to pray for that man and then Foy said, “I found myself praying for old Floy and when I got up and looked at that man he looked so different”, Mary and I talked about that many times since and I think he taught us what the parable in the Bible meant to first cast out the beam in your own eye, Foy and Odella taught many people things, I was around them all my life in growing up and I never heard them or their family ever say a bad word, we love Odella and Foy and hope they feel our love through out all of the years to come.

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Day 2 of Valentines with Foy and Odela

Yesterday’s note was chosen by choice, todays was random. This one is from Al and Grace Wimberly, Sister Grace (I’m Freewill Baptist, that’s how we refer to each other) was one of my favorite Sunday school teachers. I am going to tell a little story that my dad told me about the Wimberly’s. They have both gone to their heavenly home, so I know they won’t mind me revealing this fact about them.

They were not native Owassoans, they actually chose Owasso to retire to, not really sure how that happened, but they did. They were big couponers before it was a thing. The money they saved in coupons went into a jar, every June they would take that money to Brother Pirtle (the preacher of our church) and give it to him to pay for children who would not be able to afford it otherwise, to go to camp. Here is their note to my parents:

Al and Grace Wimberly

Jan. 12, 1982

A Tribute To Foy and Odella Testerman On Their 50th Wedding Anniversary

Foy’s smile – Prayers in the Church – Comments in adult Sunday school Class. In 1982 they read through the Bible and we had wonderful discussions on Friday when we where grocery shopping at Safeway. Odella’s pecan pies at birthday suppers and when the Ladies Auxillary took food into bereaved families. The positive testimony for Christ and the Free Will Baptist Church in the community. “Do you know the Testerman’s they go there?” Was the question asked by people when they found out where we went to church.

What a pleasant time to go their place. The walk down the hill to the huge garden. Those big beautiful potatoes. The bucket of turnips that we where given. Foy’s willingness to share his knowledge about gardening. Odella’s story of the rabbits in their first garden. She carried a gun to the garden instead of a hoe. The raccoon’s that ate their corn. Odella’s beautiful sewing.

The crowning point of taking Angie in and giving her a christian home atmosphere. Our prayers are that God will still use that act of mercy to His glory. Wish to God there were more Testerman’s in this world and in the churches,. We love you Foy and Odella and thank you for letting us share your anniversary.

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Foy and Odela Legacy of Love

This week is Valentines week, the day of love, as it were, there are many different kinds of love. As everyone who knows me, knows, that my parents are my favorite love story. On their 50th wedding anniversary we had a surprise party for them. In the invitation we included a blank piece of paper and a self-addressed envelope. We asked everyone to write their favorite memory of our parents. We then made a book of all of the memories and presented it to them at their party. My mom and dad both said it was the best present they had ever gotten. I have that book of memories. I was telling my BBFF about it and he suggested that I share one of those memories each day of Valentines week. A brilliant idea from a brilliant friend, putting that Rice education to use. So I shall share a memory each day, I am going to start with my brother Jesse, since he is in heaven with them now it seems fitting. I hope you enjoy these memories as much as they did. I am also not correcting grammar, punctuation or spelling as I believe they are all charming the way they were written.

Date: Today

Name: Mine

Once upon a time there was a family. Mom, dad, Jim, Nell, Jesse, later, much later in life there came Angie. This family was the most and goodest for Jesse because he was the youngest of all the original three kids.

I have written this at least a hundred times fifty in my head and fifty on paper.

Memories well I wrote those once and it filled too many pages. I rember the times in the spring we would have boiled eggs and fried potatoes cooked over a fire on the creek bank not all moms would do that. I rember the trips to calif. and the stories told by dad of things before I began to remember. The memories of those long trips just our family are great.

Today I sit and look at my family and see our family of today in each day and action by each member

Memories I am living them through Robby, Ricky and Rhonda. I see every day what we kids did and I hope that the memories I treasure from my childhood one day will be exibited by my childern.

I look back now and say thank you for making me go to church. Showing me this non-nondescript mission on main street in Owasso. What I sometimes wonder is what in the world were we doing in Owasso when we lived in Vera, well I guess that is the way God works. To try to write what I really feel or remember.

I guess it is like Robby said if I write I love you in the middle of a sheet of paper it would really say what needs to be said.

Thank you for haveing a place of refuge for my new family while I was in the Navy. Knowing that they were in good hands enabled me to sleep well, when they would let me, and have peace of mind. Thanks for giving my wife and kids the love and guidance they have received in this last twenty years of my life. I will admit that it is much easier to live at home and depend on others for decisions (mom/dad may I) and finances than it ever has been sence Sept. 6, 1963.

In closing I just want to say mom, dad I do love you both more than can be written. Hope for another fifty

Jesse R. Testerman

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The Story of Foy and Odela

It’s that time again, yes, my parents anniversary, it always makes me smile, to think of them in their youth, just starting out, so much in love with the whole world at their feet.
My mom loved to tell their story, it is such a great story, so I am going to tell everyone here, I have a selfish motive, I want their story to live on forever, and it is such a great love story.
Odela was 5 years old when she opened the door to see a 7 year old Foy standing there, he said saw some boys come in here yesterday I know they live here can they come out and play? Five year old Odela stood and stared, she knew in that instant this was going to be the boy she would marry one day. It seemed like an eternity until she could find her voice; she finally stuttered “they’re here.” Her brothers came running to play with the twins Foy and Roy.
Odela and her best friend Joyce immediately fell for the twins, however, they had a big decision to make, who would get whom. Odela waited with baited breath to see who Joyce would choose, she chose Roy. Odela was relieved; she could still be friends with Joyce.
The years went by, Odela never revealed her feelings for Foy, once when she was 7; she was sitting in a tree singing, to the tune of Bring Back My Bonnie to Me, Bring Back My Foy to me. She heard a noise, looked down, and to her horror, there were her brothers and Foy. She kept very quiet so they wouldn’t see her. She just knew that they had heard her; she didn’t want to go home to face the ridicule of her older brothers. They never said a word, she was in the clear, no one had heard her.
When she was still in school, Foy left, he hopped a freight train to California to find work, as many young men were doing during the depression. Her brother told her she needed to move on, Foy wasn’t coming back, and she needed to find a husband. She stared at him, how did he know she asked, he said everyone knew.
She moved on, she started dating a local boy, she became engaged to him, her heart wasn’t there, she really didn’t want to, however she needed to move on. One evening, after they had been on a date, he drove down to the local pond and parked. He began to put the moves on her, as they say. She asked what he thought he was doing; he told her his mother said that if Odela loved him she would do certain things. She said she was not that kind of girl and he said well a man expects things, she said Foy wouldn’t. He said well Foy isn’t here, she said take me home and gave him back his ring.
Her brother said, he isn’t coming back, you need to find someone, you can’t be a spinster. She began dating another boy, one nicer, then it happened, her brother ran into house saying Foy was back. It was a Wednesday and they were all going to church that evening. Odela went into her bedroom sat on her bed and didn’t come out. Her brother came into the room and said come on, we’re going to church, she said she didn’t feel good and didn’t want to go. He said I know what’s wrong with you, get dressed let’s go.
So, she did the only thing she could, she got dressed and went to church, all during the service she was sandwiched between the boy she was dating and Foy. She began to pray, Lord, just take me now, open the floor, open the ceiling, whatever You need to do, just take me. He did not, He had other plans. Her boyfriend took her home; at the door she said I can’t see you anymore. He said I figured as much, I hope it all works out.
The next morning Foy came to the door, Odela answered, she said I’ll get my brother, he said, I came for you. The words she had been waiting to hear since she was 5 years old, she thought she had misheard, what, she said. He said it again, I came for you, I don’t think I like you going with any other boys, she said ok, well who should I go with.
He said me, she said well ok then.
They were married shortly after that, within a few weeks, on a Friday the 13th and they did live very happily ever after.
Romeo and Juliette was not a love story, Bonnie and Clyde was not a love story, Cleopatra and Marc Antony was not a love story. Foy and Odela, now there is a love story for the ages.