PROLOGUE
My name is cut into the sidewalk on the campus of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. I am pleased and proud to say that other members of our family can say the same. When I graduated with a degree in engineering I went to work for a defense contractor with headquarters in Orange County, California. It wasn’t by luck that I went there. I had joined the military during the war with Korea and I spent a week or so in the area on my way to Korea. I discovered the moderate summer temperatures and low humidity and vowed to return after I got my education. So, there I was. As my company was a defense contractor, there were projects all over the country as well as business with sub-contractors all over the country. Family guys viewed these required trips away from family sometimes for a week or two as a hardship. However, being single I had no such reservations; in fact I sought these trips out, especially the longer ones. That way I could take a few days of vacation going to and from the business and drive. I would take one route to the work and another route returning to the plant. I was seeing the world. A sheltered young man from Arkansas was having his horizons expanded. This was Cold War time and we were awarded the contract to design, manufacture and install an air defense system for NATO to protect the West from a hostile air attack from the Soviet Bloc. Now there were opportunities to travel to Europe. I jumped at the chance. My horizons were really expanding now. I was now in European countries as often as I was at the plant in California. Flying back and forth gave me the opportunity to take a few days enroute to and from and visit Arkansas. On these trips my home base would always be at my grandmother’s house in Hope, Arkansas; but I would always spend some time with my mother and sister and her wonderful family in the Hampton, Arkansas area. This was the life – wonderful, enjoyable, adventurous, fun with ever expanding knowledge and possibilities. After 25 years with the company I retired. My wife and I settled first in Europe, then to California, then to Colorado, then to Utah, then to Nevada where we are now. I did not forget my roots, my home, during all this time and continued to visit my Grandmother, Ruth Gunter Johnston; my mother, Mary Frances Johnston McLeod Weisinger; and my sister, Frankie Lou Weisinger Means and her family. These wonderful visits home continued until my health wouldn’t support it any more. My sister, Frankie, and I continued our connection by telephone for quite a long time. Finally we reverted to the USPS, which is where we are now. It was during these letter correspondences that we began to discuss our mother, Mary. In a letter quite a few years ago, Frankie posed the question “I wonder what made our mother so mean and hateful.” I agreed with her assessment, but said that it would take a lot of thought to reach a conclusion. Both Frankie and I agreed that we should have asked both Ruth and Mary a lot of family questions that we did not. Now all the people who know the details are gone and our memories of that time over 80 years ago are fuzzy to say the least. We would have to concentrate on that long ago period and commit to paper whenever some memory was revealed. Then we would have to analyze the information and identify scenarios that could have happened, and then with research and deduction decide the most logical and reasonable scenario that we think could have and most likely did happen. We mulled that around in our minds for several years. Last year, 2019, Frankie and I began to put it all together on paper. That’s the following narrative, THE MARY STORY. Most of the story takes place at locations on this map.
I want to clearly identify the principle people named in this essay. The contributors to this narrative are John Charles McLeod, Frankie Lou Weisinger Means, children of Mary Frances Johnston McLeod Weisinger and Melissa Mohon Papineau, daughter of Vivian Jane Johnston Jackson Mohon. Ruth Gunter Johnston was one of ten children of James Henry Gunter and Martha Frances William Buffington who were prosperous farmers in College Hill, Arkansas. This was a sparsely settled area devoted to farming. Many family members, including James and Martha, are buried in Shiloh Cemetery, not far from College Hill. They provided their children with a good education, including arts and culture. Ruth was an accomplished pianist.
She was teaching at Henderson – Brown University, as it was named then, in Arkadelphia, Arkansas when she married Medical Doctor Charles Bennet Johnston of Warren, Arkansas. They married in 1909 when Ruth was 23 years old and CB was 34. They settled in Harrell, Arkansas probably where CB already had an established MD practice. In 1912 they had their first child, Mary Frances. In 1917 they had their second child, TJ. Vivian Jane was born in 1921. Probably CB began to notice the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in about 1928 or 1929 and he succumbed to the disease in November 1932.
Alice Ann is mentioned on Page 13. Alice Ann is the first child of Frankie Lou and Allison Means. Cindy is mentioned on Page 15. Cindy is the fourth of seven children by Frankie and Allison. Ryan and Ty, also mentioned on Page 15, are Cindy’s children. RE is first mentioned on Page 20. RE is the second husband of Vivian Jane and is the father of Melissa. Cindy and Melinda are pictured on Page 30. Melinda is the fifth child of Frankie and Allison. Frankie Lou and Allison’s seven children in order of birth are Alice Ann, Martha Kaye, Thom Allison, Margaret Lucinda, Melinda, Russell Paul, and Kevin Bradford. All except Russell are pictured on Page 32.
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THE MARY STORY
Let me start this off by stating what is officially recorded in my birth certificate and what we think to be true. When I was born on 21 September 1931 Frank McLeod was 40 years old and Mary was 19. Frank listed his residence as Banks and Mary listed her residence as Harrell. The doctor who completed the birth certificate was Dr. J.E. Rhine of Thornton. The birth certificate was registered by Ruth Johnston on 24 September 1931. Frank’s trade was listed as ‘ginner.’ Mary’s trade was listed as ‘housekeeper.’ The birth was listed as ‘legitimate,’ which should mean they were married at the time of my birth.
During a summer visit to Mary and Frank Weisinger when I was in school I asked Mary if she knew where Frank McLeod was. She replied “you have waited too long for that. He is dead now.” I asked her how life was with Frank and she replied “wonderful.”
I asked her where they lived. She said “in the hotel” or maybe she said “in hotels.” I’m not clear on that point. I asked Mary didn’t he want to contact me, to see the kind of person I am? Mary replied “no contact. That was part of the agreement. He never broke it.”
I saw some pictures of Mary and me with Mary in her school graduation cap and gown. I was a toddler. I could walk. The top of my head was about up to her waist. I was maybe 2 or 3?
These pictures were taken at the Johnston home in Harrell, Arkansas in 1934 on the occasion of Mary’s Artesian High School graduation.
On 21 September 1931, Ruth Johnston was 45, CB Johnston was 56, Frank McLeod was 40, Mary was 19, TJ was 14, Vivian was 10, Frank Weisinger was 19. CB Johnston died on 22 November 1932. The Great Stock Market Crash occurred on 29 October 1929. The country was in the Great Depression with 30% of the work force unemployed until the beginning of WWII in 1941. Mary and Frank Weisinger had their first child, Frankie Lou on 24 February 1935.
So, on 21 September 1931, Ruth’s husband was dying, Mary was delivering John, TJ was 14 and Vivian was 10. The country was in the Great Depression with 30% of the work force unemployed.
Those pictures and words are the facts as we think we know them now. I will now raise rhetorical questions, make comments and do analytical research in an effort to determine what the most probable, most reasonable, most logical situation existed at that time.
Frank was 40, Mary was 19. This fact immediately raises a line of questioning that would be entirely different, if, say, they were both 19. OK? Was Frank married? Divorced? Widowed? Single? We don’t know the answer to any of that and a yes to any one of the four possibilities raises a different set of new questions. How did Mary and Frank meet? Frank was a ginner, the operator of a cotton gin. I don’t recall a cotton gin in Harrell. However, there was a railroad with a depot in Harrell. This would have been convenient for shipping bales of cotton. I do not recall seeing cotton bales at the Harrell depot. The depot was about 150 yards from our house. I searched the Internet for cotton gin locations in Arkansas and found very minimal information. I do know for a fact that there was a gin in Hampton. At that time cotton was transported to the gin in a horse drawn wagon. It was depression time and farmers were still in the horse drawn age for both transportation and work. In 1931 trucks were not a viable alternative. Railroads were needed to transport cotton to the textile mills of the north. Therefore, Harrell could very well have been a hub for shipping cotton. Harrell is 4.7 miles from Hampton. A horse drawn wagon’s average speed is about 4 mph. Therefore, a wagon full of ginned cotton bales could be transported from Hampton to Harrell in 1.5 hours. I notice on the birth certificate that two people using two different pens entered information on the certificate. One person was Dr Rhine. The information entered by the second person is the name of the child, the trade of the father, the middle initial of the mother, the name of the Registrar (Ruth Johnston) and the date the certificate was filed. Perhaps this second person was not familiar with cotton processing and knew only that Frank worked in the cotton business. He could have been in management at the cotton gin in Hampton and traveled to the Harrell Depot to organize and supervise the shipment of the cotton bales to the customers. It could be that travel to customer locations in large cities would be part of the job. The birth certificate lists his residence as Banks, Arkansas. Did he own a home there, or did he live there with relatives (such as mother and father) when there was no cotton to be ginned? How long did Mary and Frank live together? Were they living together during cotton harvesting season as well as winter and cotton planting season? Where did they live together? Mary told me they lived in hotels or a hotel. How old was Mary when she began living with Frank? According to the Internet the average female in the 1930s was 5’6” and 124 pounds. I remember Mary as that, not small, not tall. So, if we say 5”6” and the top of my head is at her waist in the photo; then I would be about 2’9” in the photo. According to the Internet the average height of a 2 year old boy is 2’10”. So we can say that I am about 2 years old in the photo. (From analysis later in this essay, I am most likely 2¾ years old and Mary is unmarried and pregnant with Frankie Lou in these photos.) There is the nine months of pregnancy, one to two years for nursing inasmuch as formula was not widely introduced until the 1940s. After that Mary could then return to school to graduate, which is what we see in the photo. Her age on the birth certificate is 19. According to the Internet the average age of high school juniors is 16 or 17 and seniors 17 or 18. I was born on 21 September 1931; therefore, I was conceived in January 1931. Cotton is planted in early spring, depending on the weather and is harvested in August and September in this area. Assuming that Frank and Mary met during the harvesting season at the Harrell depot, they probably met in August-September of 1930. This would most likely have been prior to Mary’s senior year in high school. They could have been together from that time through January of 1931 and Mary could have returned home visibly pregnant about June-July 1931. Where did they live during this time? Mary said that they lived in hotels or in a hotel. But where? An alternative time frame would be from August-September 1929. This would mean prior to Mary’s junior year in high school, meaning that she had two years of school to graduate and about a year and a half living with Frank. I think this scenario is less likely. So if they met in August-September of 1930, prior to Mary’s senior year in high school, she would have been most likely 17 or just barely 18. Perhaps she had just turned 18, an adult, and thought she could do as she pleased. Mary said that life with Frank was “wonderful.” She also said that there was an agreement and part of the agreement was no contact from Frank. This tells me that there was a conflict and that the resolution was more or less dictated by someone against the wishes of Mary. If both Frank and Mary were in love, why didn’t they marry and live happily every after? I conclude that Mary was in love, Frank was not. When she became visibly pregnant, he most likely sent her home to have the baby. I think Ruth threatened him with possible incarceration and dictated the terms of the “agreement.” Some of the terms being to marry Mary prior to the birth of the child and cease all contact with Mary or the child. I think he quickly agreed to these terms and went happily on his way. I also think this disappointed and in fact infuriated Mary. She probably wanted Ruth to force Frank to marry her and to live with her. Her dream of life with Frank traveling the world as she knew it was shattered. When I finally got sense enough to ask about Frank, maybe in my teen years, she quickly replied with his status, meaning that she had at least maintained knowledge of Frank all those years.
So, what do we think we know as fact? Mary dropped out of school and left home with Frank McLeod. She returned home pregnant. She and Frank were married prior to the birth. Frank agreed not to contact Mary or the child. Mary enjoyed her life with Frank and was happy during that time. Mary returned to high school and graduated. That brief summary can be embellished in many, many ways.
If cotton was shipped from Harrell on the rail road to market, the bales would not have accumulated on the station platform. Therefore they would not have been obvious to me. The bales would have been stored in a rail road car on a side rail until the car was full and ready for shipment. With the depot so close to the house and with lax supervision due to Ruth’s situation, it would have been easy for Mary to go over to the depot to observe the activity. Ruth was very busy caring for a dying husband, doing all the housework, cooking the meals and therefore attention to three children would most likely have suffered somewhat. The connection between Mary and Frank at the depot could have begun with a simple question such as “where does all that cotton go?” It could have culminated with “come with me and I’ll show you the world.” Or, “take me with you.” An unattached man of that age would have been flattered to have the attention of a young, pretty girl. And we know now that there was a promiscuous element to Mary’s psyche. If this scenario, or one similar to it, was true there would have had to be a great disagreement between Mary and Ruth about leaving. Otherwise, there would have been missing person reports, or even possibilities of kidnapping. When Mary became pregnant, especially visibility pregnant, Frank most likely explained that family life was not for him and that Mary would have to return to Harrell and to Ruth’s care. If this or something similar was the case, Frank would most likely have been elated to agree to marry to give the child a legitimacy with no further contact and no further responsibility. If this scenario or something similar is true, Ruth’s responsibilities and anxieties, cited previously, would have limited her analytical parenting. Therefore, in this case there would most likely have been harsh words at the time Mary left to live unmarried with Frank and at the time she returned still unmarried with Frank’s child. This surely would have been the source of conflict between mother and daughter for the remainder of their lives, and we have evidence that there was conflict. Vivian told me that Charles B. Johnston died of Parkinson’s disease. This disease is a progressive, untreatable, incurable nervous system disorder manifested with movement disorders, autonomic dysfunction, neuropsychiatric problems among others. The end stage of Parkinson’s is an extremely distressing situation. Today hospice takes over at that point. Family cannot provide or endure care at that point. CB probably suffered with incontinence, insomnia, dementia, hallucinations, severe posture issues with back, neck, hips and was surely bedridden. Just think of a bedridden heavy man, drooling, urinating uncontrollably, with diarrhea, depressed, and demented. It would have been impossible for Ruth to have cared for CB alone. However inexpensive, inexperienced assistance could have been available from the black community. Surely Ruth would have expected assistance from her children – Vivian 9 or 10, TJ 13 or 14 and Mary 16 or 17. The situation in CB’s room must have been hell. And probably smelled that way, too. Hell at that point and the future very bleak. The country was in the midst of the depression with 30% of the work force unemployed. Is this the reason that Mary dropped out of school, abandoned her family and ran away with Frank McLeod? What about family loyalty, personal responsibility, conscience? What did Ruth think when her oldest daughter abandoned her in the time of most need? Yes, abandoned. Fled. That’s the way it looks to me. Yes, living with Frank would have been “wonderful” compared to the hell that existed in the Johnston household. Had she stayed with Frank, as it turned out, it would have been a blessing for Ruth. But rather than escape from it, Mary returned just in time to add to that hell and responsibility for Ruth. I was born on 21 September 1931. CB was in the last, tortured year of his life. He died on 22 November 1932. So, in summary, the situation for Ruth at the return of pregnant Mary was: caring for CB in the direst and most demanding period of his declining health, supervising untrained CB care givers, caring for two high school children, managing a household, managing the family finances, and now Ruth has to organize the care of Mary and the child, deal with Frank McLeod and through legal or other coercion convince him to legitimize the child by marrying Mary. This situation would surely have overwhelmed a lesser person. That house in Harrell, still standing in 2020 (Page 25), is a small one and could not physically accommodate all the activity thrust upon Ruth. So, Ruth organized an unknown benefactor in Artesian, Arkansas (Map Pages 33, 34) to take in pregnant Mary and care for her and her child. Ruth organized for Dr. J. E. Rhine of Thornton, Arkansas to deliver the child. Today unmarried mothers is a common situation. In those days there was an immense stigma associated with this. Even divorce carried a stigma. Was the Artesian relocation for Mary to relieve her of the humiliation by her classmates, and perhaps relieve Ruth of the humiliation by her peers in Harrell? I don’t think so. I think it was just a byproduct of the situation; that the relocation was dictated by the turmoil in the Johnston household at the time. It was life and death “crunch time” in the Johnston household and Ruth did not have time for social contemplations. Probably Ruth did not have the time or the inclination to convince Mary that this was the best course of action. She probably just informed Mary that this is what we are going to do and it is not open for discussion. If this is the way it was, and this supposition is logical in this circumstance, then it very well could have been another point of contention and resentment Mary had for Ruth.
John was born in September 1931, most likely conceived in January 1931. Mary most likely returned to the Johnston household obviously pregnant in June – July 1931 time frame. Mary was then most likely relocated to Artesian in July – August 1931 to the home of the unknown benefactor. After the birth of the baby, there is the timeline between then and the time the baby returned to the Johnston household in Harrell. After puzzling over this time line for quite some time, the most logical (at least to me) scenario I could come up with has Mary nursing me for nearly two years in Artesian living with the benefactor. The reason I have her nursing me for nearly two years is this: The scientific study of the human biology indicates that the human body is geared to a weaning time of 2½ to 7 years. In 1931 baby food had just been invented and was not commercially available on a large scale. When it came time to integrate “baby food” with mother’s milk, the baby food was made at home. At that time meat and solid foods were considered damaging to a child’s digestive system. Also, fruits and vegetables were avoided until about age four out of fear of disease. The World Health Organization advocates at least two years of breast feeding. UNICEF also recommends this. So, in 1931 with no commercial formula and no commercial baby food, two years or more of breast feeding for newborns would most likely be normal. So, I chose nearly two years for our timeline. Inasmuch as both Frankie Lou and I have good, strong systems within our bodies – good cardio vascular systems, good immune systems, etc., I conclude that both Frankie Lou and I were most likely breast fed for about two years. And immune systems are key here because biological science indicates that a strong immune system needs prolonged breast feeding. (I think that depending on formula rather than prolonged breast feeding has created so many people with all sorts of allergies in today’s society.) Here is the time line that makes the most sense to me:
July – August 1931 – Mary is relocated to Artesian to the care of the benefactor.
September 1931 – John is born.
The unknown benefactor in Artesian could have been a midwife. We just don’t know, but are grateful. The Johnston Harrell household just could not accommodate the needs of Mary and John with Dr. CB in the horrible Parkinson’s disease end of life period as well as all the other responsibilities being born by Ruth at this time.
September 1932 – John is still in the nursing phase and one year old.
Late summer 1933 – John is relocated to Harrell and to the care of Big. Perhaps this is done to allow Mary to be free to concentrate on her final year in high school in Artesian. Mary told me that I could not stop crying when they took me away.
I wonder if this separation had any effect on my psyche that I don’t realize even now in 2020.
September 1933 – Mary enters Artesian High School for her senior year. She meets Frank Weisinger and begins to have casual sex with him. Frank was the most handsome guy in the class. I saw a photo of the Artesian school class that Mary had.
Frankie Lou had this photo for awhile after Mary died. There were about ten people in this photograph.
May 1934 – Mary conceives Frankie Lou.
June 1934 – Mary and Frank graduate from high school. We have the photos of Mary in her graduation cap and gown in Harrell with John which were shown earlier in this essay. Mary is pregnant with Frankie Lou in these pictures. John would be two years and nine months old at this time. Mary would be about 21 years, 10 months old. The most logical and reasonable scenario has Mary returning to Harrell to join the Johnston household and to be the mother of John. She soon discovers that she is pregnant. She goes to the Witherington farm to find Frank and to determine if he would marry her.
July 1934 – Mary goes to the field to notify Frank that she is pregnant. Frank’s older sister, Molly, told Frankie Lou that Frank was working in the field and Mary came there to give Frank the news. Here is the reason that I think that Mary and Frank were having casual sex. If they were in a loving relationship, making plans for the future, Mary would have waited for a more intimate moment to give her lover the good news. However, going into the field to disclose the situation, means to me that Mary has just determined that she is pregnant and is alarmed and distraught, knowing that she is in big trouble if Frank will not agree to marry her. Frank does the honorable thing and they marry and move into a little two room house across the creek from the Oscar Witherington field where he is working and where he and Mary would spend their lives working.
February 5, 1935 – Frankie is born. Mary, Frank and Frankie Lou live in the little two room house for several years and until the four room house on Highway 167 next to the Oscar Witherington farm land is vacated. This is where Frankie Lou grew up and where I came to visit on my summer vacations. Why wasn’t John returned to the care of Mary after Mary and Frank married? This is an interesting question and I have no answer for it. I have no regrets regarding my life with Big. I have had a wonderful life. I just wonder why the situation was that I lived with Big and spent school summers with Mary, Frank and Frankie Lou? I suppose we’ll never know.
What was life like for Mary and Frank working the Oscar Witherington 80 acre farm and living in the little four room house on Highway 167?
Both Mary and Frank worked hard making their situation as good as it could be. Mary was much more than just a good and hard farm worker. She was smart, clever, intelligent. She really had a talent as an artist which became known late in her life. Her paintings were becoming commercial quality. She never smoked or drank alcohol except for one instance that Frankie recalls. Frankie and I can be thankful for the good health and good genes she passed on to us. What contributed to her attitude that dominated her late life? I do not recall anything negative during my pre-teen and teen summer visits with Mary, Frank and Frankie Lou. I enjoyed those visits and had fun. I know I was a burden to both of them. I recall four errors that I made and Frank just laughed them off. I carelessly contaminated a large bin of picked cotton, I nearly wrecked the tractor, I started a forest fire and I flooded a part of a cotton field. They never complained and never criticized me for my errors. They were farming and farm life in that era was very hard. Frank plowed with a mule and horses for most of the time. Tractors came into the picture late. Cotton was the money crop. Picking cotton is hard work. I tried it. They produced all they needed to subsist. They grew fruits and vegetables. Mary maintained a beautiful vegetable garden. They raised animals – chickens, pigs, cattle. They produced food for the animals. They had a small barn for animal food storage. They had a smoke house for preserving food for winter. They slaughtered animals and preserved them in the smoke house. Mary canned and preserved food for winter consumption. They cooked on a wood stove. The house had no plumbing and no electricity. Nighttime illumination was by oil lamp. Water was brought in from the nearby well for cooking and bathing. We bathed once a week. Even a pump for the well came in late. Clothes were washed in a big, black, iron pot in the back yard and hung to dry on clothes lines in the back yard. Frank’s very dirty working clothes were boiled in the pot with a very harsh soap. The pot was heated by a wood fire. The toilet was in the usual small house about 100 yards from the home. Toilet paper was a Montgomery Ward catalog. Mary gave birth to me at 19. She gave birth to Frankie at 23, four years later. There was a nine year gap and then she had Barry Lynn in 1944 who lived six months and Kenneth Wayne in 1945 who was stillborn. Frankie was told that if they had carried Barry Lynn to the doctor immediately when he got sick, that he very well could have survived his illness. Perhaps they didn’t for financial reasons. We just don’t know. The little house was a ‘shotgun house’ with four rooms – a kitchen and living room on one side of the open ‘hallway’ and two bedrooms on the other side with one bedroom actually being the enclosed back porch. Heating was from a fireplace in the living room and from the kitchen stove. Those bedrooms could be very cold even in non-winter times. This was a hard and difficult life. But as I recall during the period of my summer visits there was a very positive, friendly, wholesome atmosphere in this household that was full of work by Mary and Frank every day. Of course I was only there during my school summer vacation. Frankie Lou experienced a side of Mary and Frank, especially Mary, that I never suspected.
Here is what she says about that surprising (to me) experience:
“During the time when I was from about 12 to 16 years old mama and daddy worked the farm all the year except the winter. During the winter daddy worked in construction and mama worked in town. Daddy would be gone all week and returned home for the weekends. I remember a man named Henderson who would come to the house and pick up mama and me and we would go to El Dorado. They would put me in a double feature movie and would return in about 4 hours. He was not from Hampton. Later on she became less secretive about seeing other men. When mama was working at the Drug Store she began to see Gerald Cook. I would wait in the truck while they would go into the bushes south of town. I remember one time we went to a dance in Harrell and mama got drunk. This was the only time that happened. It got really bad when she was working at Clanton’s Café. She would stay out all night somewhere leaving me at home alone. She was gone a lot. When daddy did not come home on the weekend, she did as she pleased and would be gone. One time there was a big snowfall and you couldn’t travel on the roads. Mama did not come home for four days. Thankfully there was butane for heating, but by the end of the four days the food was almost gone. This was scary. All this came to a point one weekend. One time daddy said that he would not be coming home on the next weekend. Mama told me she had to go to Hope to see about Big who was very sick. But daddy did come home and wanted to know where mama was. I told him what mama had told me. He had me call Hope to find out. They said that Big was OK and they had not seen mama. Daddy beat me really bad thinking that I was lying to cover up for mama. My friend Mary Lou Means called me and I told her about the beating. She had her brother, Allison, come and get me. I stayed with Mary Lou then. The police came to investigate, but I didn’t press charges. Mama did not try to see me or to get in touch with me. Allison asked me to marry him and we married in 1951. We moved to Warren where he was employed as a surveyor. We had a good marriage and he provided well for us. Mama or daddy didn’t contact me. I don’t know why mama thought she was so much above the Means but she did. By then we had a baby girl who was Alice Ann. This was in May of 1952. Finally I went to see them and we got along for awhile. Then daddy got sick and he lived for about a year. During the time he was sick and especially near the end, I helped as much as I could. Mama was so hateful and bitter and after daddy died she told me she hated me. I asked her why and she said she didn’t know why, that she just did. I just let it go and still went to see her and drive her places. She told some terrible lies to people that I learned about after she had passed away. Daddy never said a word to me about what he did to me. And to this day I still have a dream about it. I thought he told mama he beat me but she said he did not. I’ve never got over it. I am sorry to say that I do not look back with love for my parents. It has been a hard thing to live with. It seems I was not wanted and you were not either.”
Now that I know the story, I vaguely recall a couple of hints to this activity that I experienced during my summer visits:
One summer I looked in the magazine rack that was in the living room and was shocked and astounded to find several magazines with naked people in social situations. I was so stunned that I quickly put them back into the rack and never said anything about it. Thinking about it now, probably they were nudist colony magazines.
Another time on one of my summer visits, we had all just retired for bed and sleeping. Mary said in a voice loud enough for everyone in or near the little house to hear “Oh, Frank!! Your hand is so cold!”
The indiscretion by Mary is a real shocker to me. I never imagined such a thing was going on. And I am really surprised, shocked and dismayed that Frank abused Frankie Lou. I always thought Frank was a very hard worker but an equally gentle person. Maybe Frank was just discovering that Mary was unfaithful and that he was losing her. That sort of thing can drive a loving husband to irrational actions that are out of character and reason. His resort to violence, even out of anger and despair, is deplorable. And against his own child!
Late in my high school years I came to the farm for my summer vacation and Frankie was not there. Mary tried to explain why Frankie was absent. She had a story about a skating rink in Hampton where kids gathered after school. Mary said that she told Frankie not to go there and not to mix with the older boys. She said that Allison Means was one of the older boys who frequented the place. We know now that Mary did not know at that time about Frank’s abuse of Frankie causing Frankie to leave home. Mary just told me that Frankie ran away with Allison, a boy 10 years older than Frankie. Mary ran away from home with a man who was 21 years older than she was. Frankie was born on 5 February 1935. She and Allison married on 3 June 1951. Frankie was 16 at that time. Eleven months later on 2 May 1952 they had their first child, Alice Ann.
After Frankie left home and married Allison, Mary and Frank continued to work the Witherington farm for quite a while. At this time Frank knew that Mary had not been faithful. Whether Mary continued with her infidelity or had a change of heart is not known. Finally growing cotton on an 80 acre farm was insufficient as a principal cash crop. As I recall, TJ helped Frank get a job in construction with Brown & Root in Texas. Mary also worked in town in the winter. The next significant event was the death of Mr. Oscar Witherington, the owner of the farm and all the property associated with it. It is not known if he had a will, but it is known that Frank received the 80 acre farm, the little house on the highway and all its associated buildings. Thomas, Frank’s brother, received the Oscar vehicles and some money. Oscar’s wife, Clara, received the big house on the hill and half the big barn and the associated property . She sold her interests and moved to Hampton to live with her sister. Finally Frank and Mary gave up farming as a livelihood. Frank took a job at Calion Lumber Co. and Mary began to work in Hampton. They also began to raise cattle as another income. This life style continued until Frank began to suffer severe head aches. After suffering for quite a while, he finally was diagnosed with a brain tumor. There was surgery to remove it, but it was malignant and Frank was given six months to a year to live. Mary kept this information from Frank and he thought that he would recover. I did not agree with that decision but did not violate it. It was about one year later that the cancer returned as hundreds of mini tumors throughout his brain. As he lay terminal in the little house by the highway he remarked to me “John, I thought I was going to get well,” and fell into a coma from which he never recovered.
After Frank died Mary continued to live alone in the little house for several years. Frankie Lou and I exchanged a lot of letters over many months trying to jog our memories about these events, most of which happened about seventy years ago. Here is part of a letter I wrote to Frankie in this regard:
‘I have some questions concerning the situation during and after the time we were young and Mary and Frank were living in the little house on the highway. How is it that Mary and Frank ended up with the 80 acre farm and property that we had always lived in and half of the big barn at Mr. Oscar’s place? It seems that Mr. Oscar’s house and half his big barn and the property it was all on went to someone, and the rest went to Mary and Frank. Was it in the Oscar will? Or was Frank a relative of Mr. Oscar and the land and property went to Frank in that way? The division of the property must have been contentious because as I recall there was a line or fence down the center of Mr. Oscar’s barn meaning that half the barn went to Frank and half went to other family members. Do you know or recall anything about that?’
And here is part of Frankie’s reply to that letter.
‘You asked about Uncle Oscar. There is a story there. He had an affair with daddy’s mother and she got pregnant with daddy and then Uncle Tom. Her husband, Onnye Weisinger finally caught on and left her. So daddy and Uncle Tom were really Witheringtons instead of Weisingers. It was a well kept secret. I did not know it until after daddy passed away. More on this saga later.’
Frankie wrote the continuation of the Witherington – Weisinger saga over several letters. I paraphrase Frankie’s information and combine the several letters into this one paragraph. Frankie provided the information in her letters to me in 2020. It also repeats previously included information.
‘Oscar Witherington was a gentleman farmer, meaning he was the owner of the land and he had other people work the land and derive a profit from it. His wife was named Clara. They lived in what was a big house in those days on top of the hill with a big barn adjoining. Onnye and Margaret Lucinda Weisinger lived in the area. We know now that the Weisinger family consisted of the Father and Mother and the children, Bernice, Gladys, Lucille, Mollie, Frank and Thomas. We now know that Margaret gave birth to Frank and Thomas, but Oscar was the father. Onnye discovered Margaret’s indiscretion and left her. It is not known if Clara knew about the indiscretion. Margaret died when Frank was about nine years old. Mollie and Jim Grant, who did not have children of their own, then raised Frank and Thomas. This could have been with the assistance of Oscar and Clara. Oscar and Clara did not have any children. There is much we don’t know here, but we do know that as an adult Frank was working on the Witherington farm and most likely still living with Mollie and Jim. Mary came to the field where Frank was working to inform Frank that she was pregnant (with Frankie Lou). Frank did the honorable thing and they married. At first they lived in a small two room house across the creek from the Oscar farm where Mary delivered Frankie Lou. They eventually moved into the little four room house on the highway bordering the Witherington property when it became available and were the principal workers/managers of the Witherington property. When Oscar died the 80 acre farm and the little four room house and associated buildings went to Frank and Mary. Clara had the big house on the hill and half of the Oscar barn, which she sold and went to Hampton to live with her sister. Thomas and his wife, Dorothy, received the Oscar vehicles and some money. Cotton lost its value as a subsistence crop and both Frank and Mary began other work. Frank began to complain of severe headaches and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. There was surgery, but the tumor was malignant and Frank was given six months to a year to live. In about one year Frank’s brain became riddled with hundreds of mini-tumors and he died at the age of 58. Mary continued to live alone in the little house on the highway for many years. Finally Frank’s half-sister, Dorothy, convinced Mary to move into the Cove Apartments in Hampton. She was living there when she died of a stroke on 31 July 2000 at age 88.
Cindy, Frankie’s daughter, lived in the house with Ryan and Ty for a short time, but the deterioration in the house became so severe that repair was unfeasible and they moved out leaving the little house vacant. The repair and expansion of Highway 167 spelled doom for the little house and its associated buildings. All buildings near the highway like that had to be eliminated. So, finally it and all the buildings associated with it were destroyed. Now there doesn’t seem to be a trace of the joys and sorrows, sadness and happiness, and difficult lives lived in the little house by the highway.’
I don’t know when it started, but Mary developed a very serious negative attitude about most everything later in her life. She could find something negative to say about most everyone and everything. There was a contrary side to her nature which we noted first in this narrative when she didn’t go to Mary Lou Means’ house to discuss Frankie Lou’s situation. She sent the police over there. She never went herself. I encountered a similar contrary attitude, not as serious as this, but certainly contrary. I was just out of high school, one semester in college, when I joined the Air Force and went to the Korean War. This was my first time away from home. I was lonesome and homesick. I wrote Mary weekly with my news and at first asking, then pleading for her to answer with her news. This went on for quite a while and finally I wrote that if I didn’t hear from her I would conclude that she didn’t want to correspond and that I would stop writing. She didn’t write, so I stopped writing. She did not write to me, but wrote to the base commander and complained that I was not writing my mother and got me in a lot of trouble. Also, after graduating from college and traveling the world, I would often send Mary a postcard with my news and return address hoping to hear from her; but I never did. I don’t recall a negative attitude from Mary when I was visiting on my summer vacations. However after I relocated to the US from living in Europe for many years, I would take a trip back to Texas, Arkansas and Kansas every year including an open ended stay with her in her little house on Highway 167 and it was then when this attitude really manifested itself. The visit would be very enjoyable for both of us for several days, but soon she would begin to say negative and derogatory things about people we knew and some I didn’t know. This would also include news events and even news trivia. She would most often start off with Allison, Frankie’s husband. She never had anything positive to say about Allison and would not accept anything positive about him. I reminded her about the time she was in the contested and rotting Oscar barn and fell through the rotted upstairs floor onto the ground below. Allison found her and got her to the hospital. She would not give him credit for helping her, perhaps saving her life. She just said, “well, I would have finally got out.” Mary had some very good friends, Betty Jo (Stringfellow) and Rodney, who lived in a little prefabricated house nearby. For many of my summer visits we enjoyed an evening or two with Betty Jo and Rodney chatting around the kitchen table. It was fun. Finally she gave her thoughts on them directly to Betty Jo rather than behind the back to me – that was the end of that friendship. During my visits, finally her derogatory remarks would get around to me. I would listen to what she had to say and the next day I would be on my way.
Again, I never noticed this attitude when I was a youngster on my summer school vacations with her, Frank and Frankie. There was an emotional conflict between Mary and her mother, Ruth, that lasted their entire lives probably beginning with Mary’s runaway from home in 1930. There is clear evidence that this conflict existed, but it was from Mary toward Big. Big never indicated anything other than love and care for her daughter, Mary. The first time I became aware of this conflict was after we (Ruth, TJ, Vivian and me) had relocated from Harrell to Hope and a new life for all of us. Mary, Frank and Frankie lived on the farm.
It was a Sunday morning. Ruth, Vivian, TJ and I were living in the Hope house. Ruth was very active in her church, Garrett Memorial Baptist. Ruth played the piano during the service and taught a Sunday School Class. It would be an inconvenience for many people for her not to attend Sunday service. Ruth, Vivian and I attended that Sunday. TJ was not around on that Sunday for some reason. The front door of the house was always left unlocked in those days. We returned home from church services and on the front door was a note. As I recall Ruth uttered a mournful statement and sobbed a bit. We went inside. Later I asked Vivian what had happened. Vivian said that Mary and Frank were coming to visit that Sunday and when Ruth was not there to meet them, they wrote an unpleasant note and left. Vivian also said that they knew Ruth was very active in her church. Vivian also said that they could have and should have just went in, made coffee or something and waited for services to end. Later on, maybe next day, I asked Ruth why we didn’t call Mary and ask why they didn’t wait. Ruth replied something like “ Ooooh! She has a temper!!” I never experienced in person Mary’s temper. Maybe she had it only for Ruth.
Big was in the nursing home in Hampton. I was visiting from Europe.
There had been a very big disagreement between Vivian, Mary and TJ. I had always thought that it was over the ownership and disposition of the Hope house. However, now that we have been thinking and contemplating about all of this stuff, I think there was more to it than that. Anyway, Ruth was no longer able to take care of herself after suffering the second stroke. So for someone legally to take care of her and her finances, she had to be declared incompetent by the court. The court put Vivian in charge of her finances and put Mary in charge of the person (Ruth). Mary moved her out of the Hope nursing home where she had her church people often visiting her as well as her brothers and sisters and their children. When I heard about the move, I thought it was a mistake, but I had no say in the matter and besides it was done when I heard about it. Mary and I were sitting in her flower shop in Hampton, waiting for closing time with Big in the nursing home. Mary said to me “I told Big ‘you have ruled the roost for these many years. Now you are going to do like somebody else says.’”
On another visit, I found Big without her dentures. I asked Mary about it. She said that Big wasn’t careful with them and they probably were carried out when the sheets were changed. That didn’t sound very likely to me, but I didn’t contradict her. I said “Let’s get in touch with the dentist who made those dentures. He surely has the mold for the dentures and can make another set.”
I asked what a normal set of dentures would cost and gave Mary a check for that amount with the request that she get those dentures for Big. When I was there about a year later I noticed that Big had no dentures. I asked Mary about it. She said “well I didn’t get them. She would have just lost them like the others.” She had the check in her purse and handed it to me. I told Mary “you cash that check and use it to get Big whatever she needs to be more comfortable.”
On another visit, Mary and I were in her flower shop waiting on closing time. Mary was behind the counter. I was sitting on a stool on the customer’s side of the counter. Mary said to me “I told Big that you told me that she taught you not to love me.” The statement hurled me off the stool. I shouted “That’s impossible!! Such a thought has never entered my mind!! That’s a lie!!” Mary drew back her hand to slap me, but didn’t follow through. She just said “well, it’s your word against mine.” I said that I was going over to the nursing home. Mary said that they wouldn’t let me in because it was past visiting time. I said that I would get in and I did. Big was still awake. I tried, in an indirect way, to communicate to Big what had happened. All she said was “She’s my daughter and I love her.” That night Mary had her vehicle and I had mine. I drove to the little house on the highway, collected my things and went on my way. I continued to visit, of course; but that was all that I could take on that visit.
MARY, MARY, QUITE CONTRARY
At one point in our family narrative, the Harrell property was owned by me, Vivian and Mary. This came to be in the following way. Big had a stroke which put her in a nursing home in Hope (briefly discussed on Page 18). In order to take care of Big and Big’s property she had to be declared incompetent by the court and people designated by the court to take care of all that. There was contention regarding the real and legal ownership of the Hope house and this created severe animosity between TJ, Vivian and Mary – especially between TJ and Vivian. The court put Vivian in charge of the estate and Mary in charge of the person. TJ had paid for the house. The house deed was in Ruth’s name. The court declared that the house was part of Ruth’s estate. Vivian put the house up for sale to pay Ruth’s bills. TJ bought it because that was where he was living, effectively paying for it twice. That is at least one of the contentious points. The Harrell property was by law owned equally by the three children. TJ gave his one third title to me, saying that he did not want to have any further dealings with Vivian. We took turns paying the property taxes due each year, Vivian, Mary and me. One year Mary announced that she no longer would pay her share. Neither Vivian nor I could convince Mary that someone had to pay the taxes or we could lose the property. Finally, Mary gave her one third share to me. So, at that point I owned two thirds and Vivian one third. Events occurred that caused Vivian to want to sell the Harrell house. TJ agreed. We asked him even though he had no legal say in the matter. Mary was vehemently opposed to selling. We offered to give the house to Mary if she would live in it, but she ridiculed the offer and continued vehement opposition to selling. Logic, reason and circumstances would not budge her. Vivian and I owned, so we sold the house and the lot the house was on, retaining the remainder of the property. This was a very contentious point between Vivian and Mary. I wanted to sell all of the property. We had what I thought was a decent offer. However, completely closing the Harrell chapter of her life was too much for Vivian and we retained the remaining property. After the sale was complete in Harrell, Vivian and I got a cool drink at a fast food place there in Harrell and sat on a bench in the shade nearby. Vivian began talking about Mary and suddenly she began to cry and just could not stop. Finally the emotion was overcome and we returned to Hope. I think reflecting on all the difficulties she had had with Mary and the emotion of selling her childhood home just overwhelmed her.
Some years later, Mary told me on one of my visits that the USPS had inquired about purchasing the lot on Main Street on which Dr CB’s office had stood. At that point RE was the one third owner, so I contacted RE to see if he would agree to selling. He thought we should keep the entire package together to obtain the best price. So I gave a negative reply to the USPS.
Later Mary criticized and ridiculed me for not selling. She said that she thought it would be nice to sell with the stipulation of placing a plaque or notice of some sort that Dr. C. B. Johnston’s medical office had been on that site. I said “You should have said something at the time. I think that’s a great idea. I’ll contact USPS immediately.” She said that it was too late now. She was right. It was too late. They had all the land that they needed.
Finally after paying the taxes all those years on the property, RE and I decided to sell. We had great difficulty finding a buyer, but finally did and sold. Regretfully we did not even get enough to cover the property tax and insurance payments that we had made and a survey of the property which the buyer required. When Mary heard about the sale, she demanded one third share in the sale. I told her the sale did not begin to cover the taxes and other expenses that we had paid over the years. She still insisted on a one third payment. So, I gave her a bill for the taxes and insurance she didn’t pay and one third of the survey cost and told her that when I received her check for that I would send her a one third share of the sale. She wrote me a really nasty letter following that. I replied that if she had something positive to say, I would reply, but that I was not going to reply to any correspondence of that nature. I also asked Frankie to relay the message to her in person. I never heard from her again and never saw her again.
Mary and Vivian traveled together to the site for the wedding of Melissa and Bill. After getting there and helping in the wedding preparation, Mary refused to attend the wedding ceremony. This behavior is bizarre and it distressed Vivian. Melissa recalls Mary complaining about Bill’s ‘bachelor party’ prior to the wedding and a dish Melissa prepared. This shows pettiness as well as contrariness.
RE was upset with Mary for coming to visit Vivian only once when Vivian was terminal with cancer. Surely RE thought this was not proper conduct for a loving sister. I would speculate that this supports the theory that their relationship had become strained. Could the sister’s alienation stem from Mary’s treatment of their mother after the court’s decision to name Mary as the “guardian of the person?” At this stage of Mary’s life she could always find something negative to say about anyone and everyone and nearly everything, as well.
The Gunter family wanted to bury Big in Shilo Cemetary at Lamartine, Arkansas where the mother, father are buried. They said they had a plot for Big, putting the family in a row. Mary buried Big in Dickerson Cemetery near Harrell, Arkansas beside her husband, CB. I was there at the cemetery once with Vivian and Mary when we noticed a mistake with the date on one of the headstones. It was decided to leave it as it was. Both Vivian and Mary seemed satisfied and in agreement with this location for Big.
CONCLUSIONS
Melissa: She was probably a negative person, ready to take offense at anything or anyone. She was probably more cooperative and likeable with non-family people. It is suspected that she had at least major depression recurring. She most likely had a mental illness.
Frankie Lou: She was hateful and bitter. She told me that she hated me. She told many lies about me that I discovered only after she died.
John: I would agree with hateful and bitter and add mean. She was definitely hateful and mean to her mother in the nursing home as if seeking revenge.
FURTHER COMMENTS
While Big was in the Hampton nursing home I tried several times to comment to Big about negative comments and negative actions Mary (the court appointed guardian) had made or taken regarding Big, but Big always cut me short with the simple phrase “She is my daughter and I love her.” I never actually realized and accepted the fact that this wonderful, loving, compassionate woman was tormented by her own daughter in those final times. This makes me so very sad. Big accepted and accomplished without complaint the extremely difficult task of care giving in the final stages of both her husband and her mother. For her to have to endure what she did in her own final stages is a tremendous injustice. One I cannot forgive or forget now that I have thought the entire situation out. I fault myself for not recognizing the situation when it was active and at least trying to do something, although it would have been difficult with Mary having legal guardianship. Did CB and Ruth have big plans for Mary? She was the first born. Ruth’s mother was named Martha Frances. Ruth named her first daughter Mary Frances. So she was Mary Frances Johnston McLeod Weisinger.
Did Mary have redeeming qualities? She was smart, clever, intelligent. She really had a talent as an artist. Her paintings were becoming commercial quality. She never smoked or drank alcohol except for one time which Frankie recalls. Frankie and I can be thankful for the good health and good genes she passed on to us. What contributed to her attitude that dominated her late life? I do not recall anything negative during my pre-teen and teen summer visits with Mary, Frank and Frankie. I enjoyed those visits and had fun. I know I was a burden to both of them. I made errors and mistakes that required extra work by them, but they never complained and never criticized me for my faults. They were farming and especially in that period, farming was a hard and difficult life.
There is no question that Mary could be a very difficult person late in her life, ostensibly after Frank and Frankie were gone leaving her alone in the little house by the highway. But as I previously said, I recall during the period of my summer visits there was a very positive, friendly, wholesome atmosphere in the household that was full of hard and difficult work by Mary and Frank every day.
After both Frank and Frankie Lou were gone and Mary had time to contemplate, rather than being thankful for the wonderful family that she had through Frankie Lou, did she ponder what life could have been if she had not fled the hell in the Johnston household back around 1930? Of course both Frankie Lou and I (and a lot of other people) are glad that it transpired as it did, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. But did she ever think about what life could have been for her if she had pitched in and worked with Big in that household rather than fleeing with Frank McLeod? Surely she did. And what could that have been? In 1939 she and the rest of the family would have been on their way to Hope where many new avenues could have opened up. Would medical school for Mary have been one of the avenues? She was the oldest and that usually meant the greatest opportunity. Could she have become a doctor? Was that what Dr. CB and Prof. Ruth envisioned for her? Vivian did become a registered nurse and had a very successful career. TJ became a saw filer which was the top sawmill technical job. Yes, surely she did contemplate this sort of thing. Did this possible sort of contemplation affect her mentality? What about her promiscuity? Seeking some undefined, illusive happiness? We’ll never know. A lot of this essay is purely speculation. I do not hold any animosity or hate for my dear mother. I see her as a tragic figure, tragic in her own making. Of course, I cannot forget or forgive her for what she did to Big, but I do not hate her for it. I am just so sad and disappointed that it happened. I am also sad and disappointed that Mary could never bring herself to reconcile with Frankie Lou. Mary told Frankie Lou that she hated her. What a terrible statement. Mary also hated her brother, TJ. Part of this could stem from the very contentious situation between Mary, Vivian and TJ revolving around the Big incompetence hearing. On another occasion, I don’t recall the situation, but I do recall TJ’s remarking to Mary “….if you knew how to keep your pants on.” That remark infuriated Mary. Mary also hated Frank’s sisters, probably because they knew too much about her. I seemed to get along with her better than any other member of the family although we had our contentious moments and our relationship did not end well. I recall one time Mary and I were in the field between the Oscar barn and Mary’s house, Mary gave a grand sweep of her arm and said “Some day all this will be yours.” I replied “I don’t want it. Give it to Frankie Lou.” She was stunned and shocked. It showed on her face. As I recall, at her death, she did not have a will and had my name as beneficiary on some of the estate and the rest of it was divided between Frankie and me by law. I signed all my interests over to Frankie. So, finally that loop was closed back to Frankie. I felt that she had earned it. She had lived right there at the Lion’s mouth all those years. So, in the end, it did come back to my dear, little sister, Frankie Lou. Yes, she earned it. Our dear mother, Mary, did suffer. Life on that farm with Frank was extremely difficult. Surely far from what she envisioned for herself before running away with Frank McLeod. I suppose another way it could be said is that Mary suffered so that we could prosper.
John and Mary in the little house by the highway, Mary in later life, Ruth as a young person.
The Johnston Family home in Harrell, Arkansas as it is today. Note the blue and white ‘Johnston Avenue’ street sign.
The Johnston Family home in Harrell, Arkansas as it was in the 1935 to 1939 period. Note the disrepair of the front steps leading onto the porch. This appears to be from years of neglect, attesting to the family financial situation in that period. This is significant. With labor cheap and available, still funds could not be committed to this repair. Times were indeed dire in the Johnston household. The people in the photo are Ruth, Vivian and John. The woman with the hat is unknown.
This is the Johnston family home in Hope, Arkansas. The family moved here in 1939 from Harrell with the aid of Ruth’s brothers. This was then the home of Ruth until she was placed in a Hope nursing home after having her first stroke. She was subsequently moved to a nursing home in Hampton, Arkansas where she died at the age of 93. This continued to be the ‘family’ home until the death of TJ in 1983.
In the top left photo are Ruth, Vivian, Melissa and Ruth Ann in the front yard of the Hope house after returning home from church. In the top right photo are Ruth, Ruth Ann and John inside the Hope house. In the bottom left photo are Mary, Vivian, Ruth and Melissa in Vivian’s home in Emmet, Arkansas. In the bottom right is John taking a bath in the front yard of the Harrell house about 1933. Yes, in those days everyone took a bath in a tub like that, only not in the front yard. Frankie Lou, John, Mary and Frank, in that order, took a bath in a tub like that in the kitchen of the little house on the highway, all in the same water! Yes. Water had to be brought in from the well and heated on the kitchen stove. No plumbing or electricity at that time in that house.
Mary was 87 years old, to be 88 on 7 September 2000. She was returning to her apartment in Hampton early in the evening of 9 July 2000 when she suffered a cerebral thrombosis near her front door where she fell striking her head on the concrete sidewalk, injuring her head but not fracturing her skull. She bled profusely from the wound. She lay there undiscovered until about five the next morning. She was rushed to the hospital where she was experiencing paralysis on the right side, had a blank stare in her eyes, could not talk, did not recognize anyone or anything. I do not know when she regained consciousness, but she was conscious at the hospital, but unresponsive. She did not require life support systems, other than the round-the-clock personal care. There was swelling of the brain, but no surgery was done to relieve the swelling. She did take nourishment in the form of food similar to baby food that was spoon-fed to her. She required help with elimination. After a few days she sometimes would slightly move her head to one side (only one side) in response to sound or speech from that side and would sometimes slightly squeeze one’s finger on request.
The type of stroke that Mary had was a cerebral thrombosis where a clot, or thrombosis, forms in the artery of the brain blocking the blood flow to a portion of the brain. A stroke of this type sometimes begins with a sudden loss of consciousness. This is probably what happened to Mary and she fell to the sidewalk like a rag doll. Probably the head struck the sidewalk in this situation with a whip-like force, making the contact the most severe possible. In the case of a stroke if emergency aid is administered in the first thirty minutes to one hour and if the stroke is not too severe, a high degree of recovery is achieved in about 90% of cases. Otherwise the recovery rate is very low. It is necessary to administer clot breaking drugs and blood thinners in those crucial early minutes to restore blood flow to the deprived brain area. Of course Mary’s treatment was about 9 to 10 hours after the fact and the trauma to her brain was extensive and severe.
The true extent of damage to Mary’s brain is unknown to me and family; but it is known that brain swelling occurred, she was partially paralyzed, she had to be hand fed and helped with elimination, but she was capable of breathing without support. She was not connected to any life support machines. Her level of responsiveness was very low.
On 18 July, after nine days in the hospital at El Dorado, Mary was moved to the nursing home in Hampton. She continued therapy which was begun in the hospital. The brain may have begun to recover some of its alertness and responsiveness. Also this “recovery” could have been only wishful thinking on the part of the family and care-givers. No clinical repeatable tests and analysis over time to measure this were attempted. It was thought that she would sometimes give a slight smile, a slight curve of the corner of the mouth to something that was said in the room. She also continued to sometimes turn her head in one direction toward sound or speech from that direction, and also continued to sometimes slightly squeeze a finger on request. However, she continued to have to be spoon fed and helped with elimination.
On Sunday afternoon 31 July 2000 Mary’s lungs filled with fluid and she could not breath. This was a pulmonary edema. The Funeral was on Wednesday 2 August 2000. She is buried in Pickett Cemetery in Calhoun County not far from the little house on the highway with Frank and the two infants.
Mary Frances Johnston McLeod Weisinger, 7 September 1912 – 31 July 2000, is buried with her husband, Frank W. Weisinger, 5 November 1912 – 7 February 1979, in Pickett Cemetery near Hampton, Arkansas. Their two infant boys are also buried there; Barry Lynn, 9 October 1943 – 9 April 1944, and Kenneth Wayne, 27 August 1945, stillborn. The cemetery is located 7 miles south of Hampton, West of Highway 167 at the junction of Roads 146 and 27. Antioch Church is nearby.
This is a photograph of many of the family members on the occasion of the 90th birthday of Ruth (Big). The photo is taken in Big’s family home in Hope. From the left: Ruth, Vivian, Mary, Kristie in front of Vivian & Mary, TJ, Melissa, Cindy, Melinda, Frankie Lou, Ruth Ann, Amy in front of Ruth Ann. Melissa and Ruth Ann are the daughters of Vivian. Frankie Lou is Mary’s daughter. Cindy and Melinda are Frankie Lou’s daughters. Kristie and Amy are Ruth Ann’s daughters.
Some of the Means Family is celebrating a Special Occasion with Mary. Pictured left to right standing are: Tory Walker, Jimmy Wilson, Shannon Means, Melinda Means Wilson, Frankie Lou Means, Alice Ann Means Hicks, Ashleigh Ann Means, Winkie Temple, Margaret Cindy Means Franklin, Kevin Bee Means, Terri Johnson Means. Pictured left to right kneeling or sitting are: Kaye Means Hurst, Derrick Means, Mary Frances Johnston McLeod Weisinger, Andy Jo Hurst, Bradley Cole Means, Thom Means.
