The Burba family was in Kentucky during the mid-1800's and Georgetta "Etta" Burba was said to have been born in that state before the family moved to Texas. She may have been living in Dallas with her parents and siblings when she met Harris Mackey and they got married. Harris and Etta had three children, a son named Harris Mackey, Jr. then a daughter named Evie (Mackey) Butcher, and another daughter named Charity (Mackey) Johnson. Opportunities north of the Red River in the Indian Territory where looking good and multiple land rushes had already transpired by this time and so the Harris & Etta decided to move from Dallas to Altus, Oklahoma probably around 1902. Their youngest daughter, Charity, had heard that they were moving into Indian Territory and was excited about the move. Harris & Etta acquired a small farm there either in or near Altus and proceeded to do their best to work it such that its income would pay its mortgage. They worked at it for more than a decade and then decided it was best to move again. This time they moved from Altus, which is in the southwest corner of Oklahoma to a town named Miami, very close to Commerce, Oklahoma, in the far northeast part of the state. Etta's husband, Harris, Sr. got a job as an accountant for a mining company that specialized in mining copper. One day in 1918, there was a tragic explosion in the mine and Harris, Sr. was killed while working in the mining office that was next to the mine. Etta's husband was buried there in the local cemetery in Miami and Etta lived the rest of her life for the next 30 years as a widow, known affectionately as "Momma Mackey". The following year, in the summer of 1919, her future son-in-law, Herbert Elton Johnson, came back home from the Great War in France and proposed to Etta's youngest daughter, Charity, whom he had initially met while the Mackey family lived in Altus on their small farm. Herbert and Charity got married and moved to McAlester, Oklahoma where he got a job working for Purina. There was really no reason for Etta to remain in Miami, Oklahoma, and so she began the habit of moving into the homes of relatives, like those of her sister's and those of her children...Harris, Jr., Evie, and Charity. She would stay with one of them for a while and then move to another.

Momma Mackey lived with Herbert & Charity while they lived in McAlester and then again later when they lived in Ada, Oklahoma. Eventually, poor Momma Mackey fell one day tripping over a crack in a side walk in Holbert, Oklahoma. This landed her in a recovery center but she passed away in 1958, 30 years after she lost her dear husband, Harris Mackey, Sr. in that mining explosion. The family made special arrangements for her body to be transferred to Miami, Oklahoma to be buried next to him. My name is Mark Johnson and I am but one of her great grand children. Her youngest daughter, Charity, is my dear grandmother.

Submitted by 49712793 Mark Johnson