Page 64 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2020- Online Magazine
P. 64

HONORING SENIORS





                                                                       Evelyn Dickey Roberts



                                                                            100









                                                                        and Counting







                                                                           by Brad Hays






                  hat does 100 years look     up and went to school. While she was   to southwest Lubbock county, where
                  like? Before widespread     performing as the lead in a high school   W.O. farmed and they lived for the
         Wadoption of electricity,            play, she caught the eye of a student   next 35 years.
         telephones and automobiles, and just   from nearby Roosevelt High School
         as World War I was ending, along     who, even before he met her, told his   During that time, farms were almost
         came the “Greatest Generation”. Life   friend, “I’m going to marry that girl.”   exclusively dryland farms, as modern
         expectancy was 54 years at that time.   His name was W.O.                              irrigation had not yet
         The date was November 3, 1919, when   Roberts, and he was                              been widely adopted.
         Evelyn Dickey was born in Montague   determined to do just                             Thus, depending on
         County, Texas.                       that. Having many                                 the weather, there
                                              options for dates,                                were years of plenty
         When Evelyn was a young child,       Evelyn was asked out                              and years of leanness.
         her family headed west in a covered   by two different boys                            Having herself grown
         wagon toward West Texas as her       for the same Saturday                             up in a very modest
         father, a farmer, was looking for better   night. Her response                         environment, Evelyn
         opportunities. The family settled near   was that she’d go out                         learned to be very
         New Deal, and that is where she grew   with whoever got there                          industrious and was
                                              first. W.O. (who went                             a hard worker. She
                                              by Ordell) showed up                              used those skills as
                                              at 4:30 that Saturday                             she and W.O. raised
                                              and began the 65+                                 their family.
                                              year-long love affair                             She was in every
                                              that was to follow.
                                                                                                sense a true
                                              They married on October 31, 1936,   “homemaker.” Evelyn was an
                                              in Plainview, Texas. Two daughters,   excellent seamstress and, during their
                                              Melva (Flournoy) and Jeanette       visits to town on Saturdays, could
                                              (Pair) soon came along and added    see an outfit in a store window that
                                              to the young couple’s happiness as   she liked and go home and make it
                                              family was the most important thing   for herself or the girls. Among her
                                              in Evelyn’s life.  The family first   chores on the farm, she tended to the
                                              moved to Shallowater and, in 1944,   chickens and hogs and even milked




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