Mother's Day

Mothers Day 2010.  The picture above is a picture of my mothers senior picture which would have been roughly 1946.  Dorothy Elizabeth Snodgrass Ray passed away 5 years ago this summer and she was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother.


She was actually 19 in the picture above.  She did not miss a grade or get held back, but because she had to walk so far to go to school, my grandmother didn't let her start school until her younger brother Melvin, who was one year younger than her, was old enough to go.  So they walked several miles together, at the age of six, to go to school.


From that day on my mom went to school every year.  Upon her high school graduation she went directly to Stillwater to attend OSU with instructions that she could not come home until Thanksgiving.  She was certain that if she had been allowed to come home sooner, she would not have gone back.  She had never been away from home before and was homesick.


Her first year of college was the first year the young men came back from World War II and the campus was full.  My grandparents, who owned a farm, had worked many other outside jobs to save for my mom and her two brothers to go to college, but they were responsible for providing for themselves a place to live and to eat.  My mother lived with a couple and cooked and cleaned and watched their children to earn her keep.


Once when looking at her college transcript I saw that she had made a D in economics her first semester there.  When I laughed and asked her about it she admitted it.  She said it was so foreign to her and it was held in an auditorium with over a hundred other freshmen students.  Coming from a small town and from a farm, it was just not something she could relate to. But mostly she excelled at school and her grades were excellent.


Another story I remember is when she told of taking swimming class in the winter time and she had to walk all the way across campus afterwards to another class.  Back then they always wore dresses, no exception and she said by the time she had walked to her next class her slip would be frozen to her legs.


She eventually met my father, a WWII war veteran, left OSU and married him.  She finished her bachelors degree and masters degree in education at SWOSU in Stillwater without missing a day.  From her college graduation she immediately began teaching at Lookeba school, before it's consolidation to Lookeba-Sickles.  She taught there for 31 years with only summer breaks.


When I remember my mother I remember many more personal stories as well that speak of her dedication and love for her family.  I remember her and honor her memory on this day.

An early picture of my mom and dad.

My mothers birthday in 2004

The last picture I took with my mom

Nancy Jackson, daydreamer extraordinaire


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