Story of Gracie Hall Beetch, from the Journal of the Cherokee Strip, volume 12, September 1970
Unpredictable, rambunctious (as her daughters-in-law describe her), active, capable, and independent, with a curious, alert mind, and absolutely without caution,-- that's Gracie Hall Beetch (Mrs. Bernard Beetch), as she is today to her family and neighbors. At 91, she continues to live in her old family home of 50 years on her 16 acres on Hwy. 81, in North Enid. I visited her on the day she celebrated her 91st birthday, June 22nd (which happened to be my birthday, also), and, later I enjoyed a piece of her delicious birthday cake.
Until three years ago, when her youngest son, Bill, bought a mobile home, and placed it next to hers, she lived out there alone, watched over by her neighbors. One day, a neighbor phoned Bill, at his downtown Beauty School: 'Come home at once, your mother is on her roof nailing down some shingles.' So Bill and his wife, Evelyn, moved out to be near her and to look after her. She spends her days working on her large sunporch filled with all sorts of luxuriant plants. However, when she showed them to me, she murmured 'they don't look so good just now. I've been doing a lot of crocheting and I forgot to water 'em.' And she chuckled, and showed me the yards and yards of intricate crocheting she had been doing for edging for pillowslips. She loves to crochet, and just now, that seems to be her chief interest.
She insists every day on going for the mail to the mailbox across the highway, and her daughter-in-law watches in consternation as Gracie crosses Hwy. 81 to collect the mail, putting it under one arm as she returns and starts to read her mail as she comes up her gravelled driveway. Sometimes, some letters slip from under her arm and go flying off in the breeze.
Gracie Hall Beetch was born June 22, 1879, in Gypsum, Kansas, to Elithan Davis Hall and Annie Jane Gosso Hall. She was a premature baby, and, never having heard of incubators, her grandmother Gosso, the local midwife, wrapped the new baby in cotton, where she lived the first two months of her life. One day, when the two months were over, the baby opened her eyes and began to look her world over. Her mother, Annie, became very frightened, but her mother calmned her down and remarked 'she's just wakin' up.' Gracie was the first of 4 children born to Elithan and Annie, her three brothers being Arthur (still living), Alonzo, and Carl. When Gracie was 14, the Cherokee Strip was opened and her father decided to make the Run for land, from Kansas, and join his wife's father, Aaron Gosso (of French Canadian stock), and his two sons, Fred and Verne, who, two years before the Opening, had settled near Ringwood on Stauffer's Lake, and built homes there. In Gypsum, Elithan operated a Butcher Shop and he left this for his wife and children to operate. But, after he settled near Ringwood, the family went down often to visit him, where he had opened a General Store, including a butcher shop.
In the meantime, romance blossomed back in Gypsum. Right next to the Hall Butcher Shop was the Beetch Barber Shop, operated by handsome young Bernard Beetch. It wasn't long before Gracie was being escorted home every night from the butcher shop by Bernard, the young barber.
Unpredictable, rambunctious (as her daughters-in-law describe her), active, capable, and independent, with a curious, alert mind, and absolutely without caution,-- that's Gracie Hall Beetch (Mrs. Bernard Beetch), as she is today to her family and neighbors. At 91, she continues to live in her old family home of 50 years on her 16 acres on Hwy. 81, in North Enid. I visited her on the day she celebrated her 91st birthday, June 22nd (which happened to be my birthday, also), and, later I enjoyed a piece of her delicious birthday cake.
Until three years ago, when her youngest son, Bill, bought a mobile home, and placed it next to hers, she lived out there alone, watched over by her neighbors. One day, a neighbor phoned Bill, at his downtown Beauty School: 'Come home at once, your mother is on her roof nailing down some shingles.' So Bill and his wife, Evelyn, moved out to be near her and to look after her. She spends her days working on her large sunporch filled with all sorts of luxuriant plants. However, when she showed them to me, she murmured 'they don't look so good just now. I've been doing a lot of crocheting and I forgot to water 'em.' And she chuckled, and showed me the yards and yards of intricate crocheting she had been doing for edging for pillowslips. She loves to crochet, and just now, that seems to be her chief interest.
She insists every day on going for the mail to the mailbox across the highway, and her daughter-in-law watches in consternation as Gracie crosses Hwy. 81 to collect the mail, putting it under one arm as she returns and starts to read her mail as she comes up her gravelled driveway. Sometimes, some letters slip from under her arm and go flying off in the breeze.
Gracie Hall Beetch was born June 22, 1879, in Gypsum, Kansas, to Elithan Davis Hall and Annie Jane Gosso Hall. She was a premature baby, and, never having heard of incubators, her grandmother Gosso, the local midwife, wrapped the new baby in cotton, where she lived the first two months of her life. One day, when the two months were over, the baby opened her eyes and began to look her world over. Her mother, Annie, became very frightened, but her mother calmned her down and remarked 'she's just wakin' up.' Gracie was the first of 4 children born to Elithan and Annie, her three brothers being Arthur (still living), Alonzo, and Carl. When Gracie was 14, the Cherokee Strip was opened and her father decided to make the Run for land, from Kansas, and join his wife's father, Aaron Gosso (of French Canadian stock), and his two sons, Fred and Verne, who, two years before the Opening, had settled near Ringwood on Stauffer's Lake, and built homes there. In Gypsum, Elithan operated a Butcher Shop and he left this for his wife and children to operate. But, after he settled near Ringwood, the family went down often to visit him, where he had opened a General Store, including a butcher shop.
In the meantime, romance blossomed back in Gypsum. Right next to the Hall Butcher Shop was the Beetch Barber Shop, operated by handsome young Bernard Beetch. It wasn't long before Gracie was being escorted home every night from the butcher shop by Bernard, the young barber.
Story of Gracie Hall Beetch, from the Journal of the Cherokee Strip, volume 12, September 1970
Unpredictable, rambunctious (as her daughters-in-law describe her), active, capable, and independent, with a curious, alert mind, and absolutely without caution,-- that's Gracie Hall Beetch (Mrs. Bernard Beetch), as she is today to her family and neighbors. At 91, she continues to live in her old family home of 50 years on her 16 acres on Hwy. 81, in North Enid. I visited her on the day she celebrated her 91st birthday, June 22nd (which happened to be my birthday, also), and, later I enjoyed a piece of her delicious birthday cake.
Until three years ago, when her youngest son, Bill, bought a mobile home, and placed it next to hers, she lived out there alone, watched over by her neighbors. One day, a neighbor phoned Bill, at his downtown Beauty School: 'Come home at once, your mother is on her roof nailing down some shingles.' So Bill and his wife, Evelyn, moved out to be near her and to look after her. She spends her days working on her large sunporch filled with all sorts of luxuriant plants. However, when she showed them to me, she murmured 'they don't look so good just now. I've been doing a lot of crocheting and I forgot to water 'em.' And she chuckled, and showed me the yards and yards of intricate crocheting she had been doing for edging for pillowslips. She loves to crochet, and just now, that seems to be her chief interest.
She insists every day on going for the mail to the mailbox across the highway, and her daughter-in-law watches in consternation as Gracie crosses Hwy. 81 to collect the mail, putting it under one arm as she returns and starts to read her mail as she comes up her gravelled driveway. Sometimes, some letters slip from under her arm and go flying off in the breeze.
Gracie Hall Beetch was born June 22, 1879, in Gypsum, Kansas, to Elithan Davis Hall and Annie Jane Gosso Hall. She was a premature baby, and, never having heard of incubators, her grandmother Gosso, the local midwife, wrapped the new baby in cotton, where she lived the first two months of her life. One day, when the two months were over, the baby opened her eyes and began to look her world over. Her mother, Annie, became very frightened, but her mother calmned her down and remarked 'she's just wakin' up.' Gracie was the first of 4 children born to Elithan and Annie, her three brothers being Arthur (still living), Alonzo, and Carl. When Gracie was 14, the Cherokee Strip was opened and her father decided to make the Run for land, from Kansas, and join his wife's father, Aaron Gosso (of French Canadian stock), and his two sons, Fred and Verne, who, two years before the Opening, had settled near Ringwood on Stauffer's Lake, and built homes there. In Gypsum, Elithan operated a Butcher Shop and he left this for his wife and children to operate. But, after he settled near Ringwood, the family went down often to visit him, where he had opened a General Store, including a butcher shop.
In the meantime, romance blossomed back in Gypsum. Right next to the Hall Butcher Shop was the Beetch Barber Shop, operated by handsome young Bernard Beetch. It wasn't long before Gracie was being escorted home every night from the butcher shop by Bernard, the young barber.
Unpredictable, rambunctious (as her daughters-in-law describe her), active, capable, and independent, with a curious, alert mind, and absolutely without caution,-- that's Gracie Hall Beetch (Mrs. Bernard Beetch), as she is today to her family and neighbors. At 91, she continues to live in her old family home of 50 years on her 16 acres on Hwy. 81, in North Enid. I visited her on the day she celebrated her 91st birthday, June 22nd (which happened to be my birthday, also), and, later I enjoyed a piece of her delicious birthday cake.
Until three years ago, when her youngest son, Bill, bought a mobile home, and placed it next to hers, she lived out there alone, watched over by her neighbors. One day, a neighbor phoned Bill, at his downtown Beauty School: 'Come home at once, your mother is on her roof nailing down some shingles.' So Bill and his wife, Evelyn, moved out to be near her and to look after her. She spends her days working on her large sunporch filled with all sorts of luxuriant plants. However, when she showed them to me, she murmured 'they don't look so good just now. I've been doing a lot of crocheting and I forgot to water 'em.' And she chuckled, and showed me the yards and yards of intricate crocheting she had been doing for edging for pillowslips. She loves to crochet, and just now, that seems to be her chief interest.
She insists every day on going for the mail to the mailbox across the highway, and her daughter-in-law watches in consternation as Gracie crosses Hwy. 81 to collect the mail, putting it under one arm as she returns and starts to read her mail as she comes up her gravelled driveway. Sometimes, some letters slip from under her arm and go flying off in the breeze.
Gracie Hall Beetch was born June 22, 1879, in Gypsum, Kansas, to Elithan Davis Hall and Annie Jane Gosso Hall. She was a premature baby, and, never having heard of incubators, her grandmother Gosso, the local midwife, wrapped the new baby in cotton, where she lived the first two months of her life. One day, when the two months were over, the baby opened her eyes and began to look her world over. Her mother, Annie, became very frightened, but her mother calmned her down and remarked 'she's just wakin' up.' Gracie was the first of 4 children born to Elithan and Annie, her three brothers being Arthur (still living), Alonzo, and Carl. When Gracie was 14, the Cherokee Strip was opened and her father decided to make the Run for land, from Kansas, and join his wife's father, Aaron Gosso (of French Canadian stock), and his two sons, Fred and Verne, who, two years before the Opening, had settled near Ringwood on Stauffer's Lake, and built homes there. In Gypsum, Elithan operated a Butcher Shop and he left this for his wife and children to operate. But, after he settled near Ringwood, the family went down often to visit him, where he had opened a General Store, including a butcher shop.
In the meantime, romance blossomed back in Gypsum. Right next to the Hall Butcher Shop was the Beetch Barber Shop, operated by handsome young Bernard Beetch. It wasn't long before Gracie was being escorted home every night from the butcher shop by Bernard, the young barber.
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