I recently came across an Instagram
photo challenge offered up by
@genealogyphoto and since my sister-in-law over at
Days of Our Lives has been trying to get me to start blogging again, I figured I would combine the two. So with each photo I post on Instagram I intend to come over here and type out a little something. While writing yesterday's
post and linking stories to various ancestors mentioned, I realized I didn't have a post about my great grandmother, Bondell Bynum. She married my great grandfather Obie Zearl Melson on 04 Dec 1933. They are the parents of my maternal grandfather, Leroy.
The picture below is how I best remember her. This would've been taken in 1983 for their 50th wedding anniversary. I was only three at the time. Grandma only lived another 6 years after this picture was taken and not much changed about her in that time frame. The little crocheted dolls hanging behind her really stand out to me. There's not a lot I remember but two things that I remember most are her sitting in her chair crocheting and stacked beside that chair were always piles of TV guides. She would always do the crossword in the back and I would always take two consecutive issues and double check her answers. I remember her kitchen and the way it smelled. I remember the deep freeze pictured behind her and how it held Little Debbie snack cakes. I remember she always grew a garden. I remember her home seemed simple. I remember she was always doing something. Even if it was just crocheting while watching a TV program. I remember she had a finger that always stayed bent. I never knew why and just assumed it was arthritis but turns out it had been cut so badly it "drew up" and healed that way.
I remember her death was my first experience of losing someone close to me.
Since I don't have many detailed memories I put out a request to family to see what they remembered. My mom was the first to respond saying that my Dad, Steve, loved grandma's home cooked food. She said if you were to ever show up around meal time, grandma would be happy to feed you a home cooked meal. I can remember dad telling of how he was amazed by her watermelon rind jelly. He didn't know you could make jelly out of such a thing.
Mom also shared,
"We ran around with them a lot and spent lots of nights. She would take us to the grocery store and ask what we wanted. We always said SpaghettiOs® and a jar of pimento cheese. When we ran around she took a water jug and kept a plastic fold up cup for our drink. I have her sewing bench. She taught us how to knit, crochet and embroider."
When I told the
story last year of my mom falling on broken glass when she was about 3, I believe it was Grandma Bondell's house that my Aunt Diane ran to. They lived in Oark, Johnson County, Arkansas. Going back and reading that story reminded me of a conversation I had with my Great Uncle Tooter one time. He spoke fondly of Grandma Bondell and said she worked hard - physically - in the fields and garden. He really admired her. I always remembered thinking grandma towered over my great grandpa OZ. It may have just been that he was hunched over in his old age because looking at the above picture she is taller but not as tall as I imagined. It's funny the way a young mind remembers things.
My Aunt Diane said "Granny made the sweetest tea on earth in a white ceramic pitcher." and her daughter, my cousin, Christy, remembers playing with the fake horses her family would bring back to give Grandma from their vacations and sitting in the sun-room listening to wind-chimes, she also remembered the crocheted dolls saying "She had a doll toilet paper holder that was crocheted. I always played with it."
Now for the facts. Grandma Bondell was born 14 Dec 1918 in the community of Spadra, Johnson County, AR. She was the second child born to Kinchen Leroy Bynum and Ludia Belle Moore. Her older sister, Beatrice was just a year older than her. When Bondell was not yet two years old her mother died during complications giving birth to a baby girl that also didn't make it. They both died 02 Sept 1920 Sebastian County, Arkansas. Kinchen eventually remarried when Grandma was five. My grandma Reba thinks that before that, Beatrice and Bondell were raised by their grandmother Minnie Ora Moore. Kinchen's second wife was named Margaret. I'm not certain of her maiden name because
her mother was always called Grandma Young, but Kinchen and Margaret's marriage license gives Margaret's last name as Welch, and in the 1930 census when they were living in Tulsa, Margaret said her age at her first marriage was 19 meaning she would've had to have gotten married sometime around 1917. I suspect Kinchen was her second marriage in 1923.
Here are a few pictures of Beatrice and Bondell when they were young.
And below is a picture of Grandma with her childhood friend Blanche Blaylock in Fort Smith 1928 and a portrait of just her when she was younger.
According to the 1920 and 1930 census records, Grandma grew up the daughter of a furniture man, and a beautician. In 1917, on his WWI draft registration, Kinchen gave his place of employment at the
Ballman Cummings Furniture Company. On the 1920 census, Kinchen's employment is given as a laborer for a furniture factory and in 1930 living in Tulsa he's a shipping clerk at a furniture factory.
As stated earlier, Bondell married O.Z. Melson 04 Dec 1933 and her sister Beatrice married Dennis Vaught a few weeks later on Christmas Day.
I'm not sure what led to the next moment in Bondell's life but weeks after she and her sister married and left home, Kinchen filed for a divorce on 13 Jan 1934 it was granted a month later 12 February.
An interesting fact is that Grandma Bondell's marriage license said she 18. She was really only 14.
After a year and a half of marriage Bondell gave birth to a daughter, Betty June, born Tuesday, 6 Aug 1935. News made way to her dad Kinchen and on Saturday he was on his way to go see his first grandchild. Little did anyone know that tragedy would strike. Below is a transcription of the news article.
"Roy. K. Bynum of Hagerville, a farmer, 42 years old, was killed instantly last Saturday morning about eight o’clock, when a lumber truck ran over him on the Hagarville road about eight miles northeast of here.
Injuries suffered by Bynum included a fractured skull, broken neck, crushed chest and internal injuries, any of which would have caused death, Dr. James M. Kolb of this city, Johnson County Coroner, said the accident was unavoidable.
Dr. Kolb said he learned that Bynum had attempted to climb aboard the moving truck, when he fell and was crushed by the wheels. Two other men also boarded the truck, but escaped injury.
The driver, Carlton Hixon of Russelville, employed by the Birkhead Company, said he saw Bynum and the two other men as he passed, but did not know they attempted to get on the truck. He said he heard and felt a bump and stopped as he believed a tire might have gone flat or some part was broken. It was then that he discovered Bynum.
The body of Bynum was brought here by the Griffin Funeral Home.
Funeral services were conducted Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock at the Lone Pine Cemetery. Rev. L.C. Tedford, pastor of the First Baptist Church of this city, officiated. Burial was made in Lone Pine Cemetery, with Griffin Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Bynum is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Beatrice Vaught and Mrs. Bondell Melson, both of Oark; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Bynum of Hagarville; one sister Mrs. Tom King, of Huntsville; and two brothers, Sidney Bynum of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and John Bynum of Oklahoma.
Pallbearers were Hebert Bean, Allie King, Benson Frost, Everett Pttts, H.P. Johnson, and H.F. Blackburn.”
The newspapers sure didn't leave much to the imagination back then. I was really surprised at the details given.
A year and a half later Bondell gave birth to my grandpa Leroy. He and Betty June are the only children I am aware of Bondell and OZ having.
Here is a set of school pictures of the two taken in 1947:
The 1940 census shows that Grandma Bondell completed one year of High School while Grandpa OZ only made it to 6th grade. Grandpa grew up in a very rural area, whereas Grandma lived closer to big cities like Fort Smith and Tulsa. I wonder if she was very "country" at all before she became married.
Even though her father and step-mother divorced, Bondell remained close to Margaret. I even have copies of a few "generational photos" that have Margaret and
her mother in them.
Below is one of those pictures. On the far left is Margaret's mother, Nettie Young, then Margaret, Grandma Bondell, Grandpa Leroy, and my Aunt Diane circa 1957.
Sometime after the death of Kinchen, Margaret married a man named Earl Thompson. Whenever my family refers to "Grandma Thompson" they're speaking of Margaret.
When her children were young Bondell would work in the fields, milk cows, and cut pulpwood. Grandma Reba also shared a story of when my Aunt Michelle was a baby,
"We lived on the mountain (near Oark) and it came a deep snow. They couldn't get to work and couldn't get Shell's formula so Papa milked the cow every morning and brought it to us and we didn't buy formula again."
Grandma Bondell and Grandpa OZ also raised chickens for Tyson. Mom recalls they had about 3 or 4 houses when they lived in the Baptist Ford community near Greenland. Grandma Reba (Bondell's daughter-in-law) shared that Bondell also worked at Priebe and Sons, a chicken processing plant, in Clarksville up until they closed in January 1962. She and my Grandpa Leroy would ride to work together.
After they lost their job, a friend of my Grandpa Leroy's helped him get a job at the University farm and they all moved to Prairie Grove. Grandpa Leroy and his parents lived right next door to each other all my childhood, up until Grandma Bondell passed away. Later on Grandpa OZ remarried and moved about 10 miiles away to Strickler, AR with his second wife, Virginia. The old house place is still there. I should go and take pictures when the weather cools down so I don't have to worry about snakes or wasps. It's not in the best shape and will be gone before we know it.
I'll close with Grandma's obituary and include a picture of a few of us from the day of the funeral.
The Graphic, Clarksville, Arkansas, Wednesday, 5 April 1989
Mrs. Bondell Melson, age 70, of Prairie Grove died March 29, 1989 at her home.
She was a former resident of Johnson County and a Protestant.
Surviving are her husband, O.Z. Melson; one son, Leroy Melson of Prairie Grove; one daughter Betty June Young of Fayetteville; one sister, Beatrice Vaught of Clarksville; three grandchildren, Diane Walls of Hot Springs, Reine Moore of Siloam Springs and Michelle Smith of Prairie Grove; and six great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 30, at Roller-Cox Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Amos Pledger officiating. Burial was in Oark Cemetery.
Pallbearers were Vince Walls, Steve Moore, Willie Smith, Stanley Vaught, Harold Hyler and Alfred Bently.”
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| Left to Right: My mom, Reine, her sisters Michelle and Diane. My cousin Brad, me, Christy and Preston. |
Did I forget to mention that my sister-in-law is joining me in this challenge. I am so excited about that. While she's not on Instagram, yet, she is adding a little bit of her own style to this challenge by having clever little themes. She's done
Salvation Sunday,
Medical Monday, and yesterday
Tracts of Land Tuesday. She is a great writer and so clever. Be sure to click over there and check it out!
