My Wonderful Tucker Grandparents

*  *  *  * *

A Story of the Lives of Earl and Dicie Tucker

of  Halliday, Greene County, Arkansas

By W. Ross Berry

 

Visitors to Earl and Dicie Tucker’s home (east of Halliday, Arkansas) were always greeted, before they ever entered the house.  Hands were shaken and necks were hugged as visitors embarked from their car, and they were escorted into the house with smiles and laughter and happy talk.  When those visitors left, they were accompanied to their vehicle with words like: "Why do you all have to go so soon?" or, "Looks like you would stay longer!" and, "Be sure and come back real soon!"  Then Grandma and Grandpa would yell goodbye and wave until that car was completely out of sight.

Few visitors ever left their home without eating a meal or at least having some dessert, or coffee, or iced tea. Generally, they’d also take some gifts home with them, like a jar of homemade buttermilk, or some fresh tomatoes, or newly-pulled corn, or a "mess" of turnip greens (usually after a trip to the garden with Dicie).  Sometimes it would be a freshly cut bouquet, or a just-dug plant of some kind, wrapped in a wet cloth inside a folded newspaper.  On occasion there might be a letter from some of the kinsfolk that the visitor would take home to read, or maybe it was an apron or a crocheted  doily that Dicie had made.  Perhaps there was a jar of jelly or jam, or some of her famous fried pies, or a piece or two of a scrumptious cake, which they could eat later, when they got home.  Grandma Tucker was a good cook whose table was always piled high with good things to eat.  And her generosity was renowned!

Grandpa was a robust man and liked to eat.  He especially enjoyed blackberry cobbler with "Hot dip" (which was a cooked mixture of sugar, cream, butter, cinnamon and vanilla flavoring).  He liked pies and cakes and anything else that was sweet, and he would eat his dessert as a prelude to his main meal, at times.  After the meal was over he’d usually have another helping of dessert.  In his last years he had attacks of what he called "sugar headaches", and would take an Alka-Seltzer tablet, or two, after eating such a meal.  He had several strokes during his late 60’s and he died of hardening of the arteries, at age 70.  I have often thought that his love for sweets and other rich foods might have been his downfall.

"THE BEST PART"

When I lived at their place, near Halliday, Arkansas, in 1958 and 1959, he would sometimes rebuke me for not eating the fat on a  piece of ham.  He said I was wasting "the best part", and he’d take it from my plate, and would eat it, savoring every bite!

Grandma was always hale and hearty looking.  I used to think she was a rather tall woman, when I was very young.  When I grew up, I realized that she was actually less than five feet in height.  In her later years she lost much weight due to illness, and became quite thin, but on her farm in Greene County, Arkansas she always looked well fed!

A BOUNTIFUL TABLE

At her table there were always, large tea glasses "filled to the brim" with rich creamy sweet milk or delicious buttermilk, and a full gallon jug, or two, sitting nearby to refill any glass that fell below the half-way mark.  She always had fresh biscuits or cornbread (or both), and sometimes store-bought "light bread".  Usually there was a dessert or two, like a pile of fried pies, or a pan pie, or a fruit cobbler, or maybe a coconut cake or a chocolate cake.  

Grandma made pies with names like "Chess Pie" and "Hypocrite Pie" and "Vinegar Pie" and "Mock-Apple Pie", and all of them were delicious.  Now, I don’t mean to say that Grandma ate all of these by herself! In fact, when she had company she bounced up and down, so much, trying to be the perfect hostess, that I doubt that she had her sufficiency of food, on those occasions. In the summertime, there were always serving bowls full of black-eyed or purple-hull peas, or corn, cut off the cob and fried or baked; okra, stewed or fried in cornmeal; salt-pork meat or port chops, or chicken and gravy . . . . and always a big platter of sliced red tomatoes!

Breakfasts were usually big ones with fried or scrambled eggs, with bacon, ham, or home-made sausages.  Sometimes she would even fry a chicken!  There was usually some sorghum molasses to be eaten with hot biscuits and butter.  As a rule, there was white gravy to ladle over the biscuits. Dicie sure made good biscuits!  The wood stove made the best ones, but those baked in her electric oven were also very tasty.

GRANDPA DIPPED SNUFF

Grandpa didn’t smoke or drink, but he did use tobacco in the form of snuff.  He was fond of Garret brand snuff, or Rooster snuff, and he bought it by the case.  It came in glass containers that could be used as drinking glasses, when the snuff was gone.  When I think of Grandpa’s and Grandma’s house, I think of how it always smelled like snuff. Grandpa would carry an empty Maxwell House coffee can around with him, when he was in the house, and would set it down on the linoleum floor, by his big chair, in the living room.  He had a small metal tin in his pocket, filled with a supply of snuff that he had filled from one of those glasses.  When he desired a dip of snuff, he would take the tin from his pocket and open it and pour a dab into the lid, and then he would place the edge of the lid onto his lower lip, and tap a pinch of snuff into the space between his lower lip and his lower front teeth.  Then he would place the tip of his tongue so that his lower lip cavity would poke out.  He’d hold the snuff there for several minutes, and then he’d pick up the Maxwell House can and spit the liquid snuff into it.  Then later, he would repeat the whole process.  All the while he could carry on a conversation, as long as his part in the conversation was just a word or two.  If he wanted to say a lot, he would first have to spit into the can and wipe his mouth with a handkerchief.  (He always had a large blue or red handkerchief). Grandpa had dipped so much snuff, that he had furrows on each side of his mouth, running down to his chin.  These would fill up with snuff juice, at times, and he’d have to be constantly wiping his chin.  His teeth were worn off badly, as if they had been filed down.  This was apparently due to his long use of snuff.

GRANDPA WAS IN DEEP TROUBLE!

I was witness t the time he turned over his spittoon on the living room floor.  He was in deep trouble, because Grandma also saw him do it.  She was so angry that she threatened to wallop him with a broom handle!  She was mad, and meant business!  He was quick to mop the mess up, and very apologetic!  Grandma detested that snuff!  It was so displeasing to her that she would only allow him to kiss her on the back of her neck--- not on her face, nor her lips (at least when I was present). Grandma and Grandpa Tucker had worked hard all of their lives.  They were farmers, and had always been involved in farming, as were their ancestors.  

GRANDMA WAS A WORKER

Grandma was always busy at something.  She was usually in the kitchen, or else she was cleaning her house, when she was not out in the fields, or barnyard, or doing the laundry, or working in the vegetable garden, or with her flowers. Grandpa worked hard too, but he liked to pace himself.  He’d do his chores, and then he’d relax awhile.  He took frequent breaks to dip his snuff, or to cool himself, by sitting and fanning, or by turning on his small electric fan, if he was indoors. He liked to sit under the multi-pollard trees in his backyard with his feet soaking in a pan of cold water.  He also liked to sit in his porch-swing, on the front porch.

GRANDPA WOULD STAY ON HIS TRACTOR FOR HOURS

I have a mental picture of him out in his cow-lot, near the house, with his pudgy cracked hands atop the metal wheel on the side of his tractor engine, applying his strength to turn it, so as to start it.  When would finally get it started, he would climb aboard and proceed to break his fields, or plow his crops, or haul in the harvest.  When it was plowing time, he would stay on the tractor for hours, with only short breaks, if any.  His tractor was a John Deere, which he purchased new, in the early 1940s.

Grandpa used to whistle or sing while he worked.  His favorite tune, always, was "My Blue Heaven".  When he was hot, or had exerted himself too much, he had a noise he would make that was kind of a whistling-puffing noise.  It sounded like, "Whish-ticky- boo-boo!"  He would repeat that trademark sound of his several times in succession, and several times a day.

IT WAS GRANDMA WHO DID THE MILKING

He’d do his chores every morning and evening, everything except the actual milking of the cow, or cows.  He would mix up the feed, and would put the mixture into the trough, but it was Grandma who did the milking.  She also washed the buckets and the cow’s udder.  She also strained the milk after he took the full buckets to the house for her.  She would pour the milk up into jugs, and put it into one of the refrigerators.  Grandpa would make the cow-feed from corn that he had grown and  picked and shelled.  He’d mix the corn with cotton seed, from the cotton he had grown, and that he had retrieved from the ginner.  He then combined the corn and cotton seed with "sweet-feed", which was a molasses compound that he had purchased at a feed store.

Ordinarily, it was Grandma who fed and watered the chickens and gathered the eggs from the nests in the henhouse.  She, was usually the one who fed the cats and dog.  He slopped the hogs, drew the water for the cows and hogs, and the drinking water for the house.  He cut the kindling wood, and all the fire-wood for the wood cook-stove, and for the living room heater.

MAKING BUTTER

Grandma made lots of butter, from the milk that her cows produced.  They would eat some of it and sell some of it. She would put the rich cream into a churn and sit it aside to "turn".  In the winter-time she would put the churn behind the living room heater.  After it had been there for several hours, she would stand or sit behind the churn and pound the dasher up and down for about twenty minutes until the butter "made".  When that happened the butter would all collect in a fatty mass at the top of the churn.  Grandma would take the lid off and with a wooden butter paddle, she would dip it out into a pan and then she’d knead it with the paddle to work out the excess water and the air.  Then she’d press it into rectangular, wooden butter molds, and put them into the refrigerator to harden.  Eventually, the butter would come out of those molds as solid one-pound chunks.  These she’d wrap in waxed paper and return to the refrigerator for later use or sale.  The buttermilk would now be poured into wide-mouth glass gallon jugs, and then  put into the refrigerator.  She always had to do  a lot of washing and sterilizing of jars, pans, ladles, paddles, spoons, and straining cloths and dishcloths, etc.  Then the tables and counters would have to be washed, and the floor swept and scrubbed!

Another facet of Dicie Tucker’s life, was her quilt-making. Her mother, Belle (Sinclair) Burch Petty, was an expert in sewing close-stitched quilts, with a multitude of postage-stamp-sized pieces.  She lived with Dicie and Earl Tucker there in Greene County, for many years, prior to her death in 1956, and the two of them would make one or two quilts, each winter.Dicie was also adept at making house dresses, aprons, bonnets, pillow cases, and dresser scarves (which she decorated with artistic embroidery).  Not only could she sew beautiful things, but she is known to have used her stitching abilities in sewing up injured animals and chickens, on occasion.

A TRIP TO THE CARNIVAL WITH GRANDPA AND GRANDMA

I remember going to the carnival in Paragould, Arkansas, when I was a child, where I rode the Ferris wheel with Grandma. We children wanted to go see the show in the big circus tent, but Grandpa said it was too expensive.  We sat down outside the tent and Grandpa raised a flap and told us to stick our heads under it; and in that way we got to see the circus. Some of the carnival employees saw what we were doing, but they didn’t try to stop us.  It was an exciting adventure. Once when several of the relatives were visiting from Michigan, all the men and boys went to a "swimming hole" in a field between Halliday and Paragould. There was a diving board there, made of a rough plank, anchored by a heavy log.  We boys stepped down in the dark, muddy water and began swimming around.  Then we looked up and saw a sight! Grandpa was there on the diving board, jumping up and down without a stitch of clothing on!  Then he jumped into the water, feet first.  He shocked us all . . . not only because he was nude, but because he dared to jump into the water, at his age!

THE COW FINDS HER CALF

At other times he was very reserved, almost shy, like the time his cow was about to give birth.  Then he came into my bedroom, and awakened me, by whispering so that Grandma couldn’t hear: "Did you say you wanted to know it when Daisy finds her calf?"  I replied that I did.  Then he told me to get dressed and come on out to the barnyard, "because it’s about to happen!"  He wouldn’t use a plainer expression than "find her calf".  To his way of thinking, any other way of discussing what was about to happen, would have been "vulgar", and he would never want to be vulgar.  Also, any talk of pregnancy or sex, was never spoken by him or Grandma.

CATCHING RABBITS

Grandpa was neither a fisherman, nor a hunter, but he hated wild rabbits that ate the soy beans that he had planted.  He would set traps for them and would mark a slash on his big "Black Draught" calendar to record every rabbit that he caught.  He made long narrow, wooden boxes, with trap doors, and he baited his trap with apples.  He would set those home-made traps at the ends of the soy bean rows and he’d check on them regularly.  He caught lots of rabbits that way. He would kill them but he would not dare eat them because wild rabbits had "woofs", a disease caused by a worm that burrows under the skin. Grandma did like to go fishing.  I went with her once and I caught a good-sized fish.  She told me to throw it back.  She said, "That’s an ole worthless Grennel!  Why, Grennels are not even fit for the cats to eat!"

A DOG NAMED BUTCHERKNIFE

They always had a dog of some kind, and also several cats. They were partial to the little spunky type of dog, which they referred to as "Fiests".  These were somewhat like a rat terrier or a fox terrier.  One dog they had was called "Butcherknife"  or "Butch".  He was a real rat killer, and once killed something like fifty or sixty rats in a few minutes time.  These rats lived in the corn crib, and when he found one,  he would grab it  and shake it, and sling it down and run after another one, and do the same thing to it.  Then he would go after another . . . until he eradicated the whole bunch.  Grandma and Grandpa were really proud of that dog, and bragged about his exploits to everyone they knew.  They taught all their dogs to do tricks, like lay down and roll over, or stand and beg, or fetch a stick.  And they took delight in having the current dog perform for visitors. The last dog they owned was "Pug".   Grandpa would let Pug get up in his easy chair with him, and sit next to him.  He and Grandma gave Pug cheese for a treat, at times.  They referred to cheese as "cheeses", saying, for example: "Give Pug some of them cheeses".

GATHERING CORN

I helped Grandpa Tucker gather corn in the fall of 1958, and he was stung by a wasp that had taken refuge from the cold beneath the husks of an ear that Grandpa pulled.  He shook the wasp off and stomped it, and said, "Dadburnit! That smarts!"  Then he stuck his finger in his mouth and saturated it with moist snuff.  It soon eased the pain, and Grandpa continued to pull corn, as if nothing had happened.

PEDDLING MILK, AND THE AUCTION BARN

They would go to Paragould twice a week to take butter, buttermilk, eggs, and sweet milk to their regular customers. Sometimes they’d also take some fresh tomatoes or corn from their garden.  After the distribution was made, they usually went to a little grocery store on the outskirts of Paragould, and would park under a shade tree and enjoy an impromptu picnic.  This picnic was, ordinarily, bologna , "light" bread, and soda pop. Another thing that Grandpa enjoyed , whenever he would go to Paragould by himself, or with another man, or boy, was a trip to the auction barn, where livestock was sold.  This was a small arena where the all-male audience would sit on bleachers, looking down on the cows and other livestock, and would bid on the ones they wanted to buy. Grandpa went to watch, not to buy.  It was a place to watch amusing characters that were drawn to the spectacle.  It was also fun to watch the herders step swiftly, in order to miss the horns and hooves of a terrified cow or calf! When Grandma and Grandpa Tucker went to Paragould to go shopping, he would usually go in one direction, and she would go in another, and they would meet back at the car at a specified time.  Grandma says that  if he went shopping with her, he would always nag her to hurry up.  As a result, she’d seldom go shopping unless she really had to have something.  Grandma said that if they were to go in the same direction, he’d seldom ever walk with her. He’d usually walk about six or seven yards ahead of her.  Grandma liked to go places and especially enjoyed it when her daughter, Sibyl or her daughter-in-law, Jewell would visit from Michigan, and she could go shopping with them.

Grandpa did all the driving.  He had a truck, back in the early 1940s, and various cars in later years.  The last automobile they owned was a green Plymouth.  I have heard that Grandma tried to learn how to drive on the dirt roads near her country home, but that Grandpa was afraid she’d wreck his car, and that he discouraged her from trying to learn, so she gave up the idea.He always drove at a slow speed, and his grandkids would snicker about that (to themselves).  He never saw any reason to hurry when he was driving, and so he would always leave plenty early, so he could get to his destination, and not be late.  He never drove on any long trips.  For instance, he never drove to Michigan to see his children and their families.

GRANDPA WOULDN’T GO ANYWHERE AFTER DARK

He made trips to the little grocery in Halliday, or to the town of Paragould.  He sometimes drove north to Marmaduke, or to the larger town of Rector --- but that was about it.  He always wanted to be home before dark, and would not go to the religious meetings at the Kingdom Hall in Paragould with Grandma, if the meeting was at night.  He said that folks had "no business going places after dark."  He liked to go to bed early, usually about nine o’clock.  He also wanted Grandma to go to bed when he did.  I think it was for this reason that he seemed to resent it when I lived with them, and I would take Grandma to the Kingdom Hall with me, on Thursday nights. I guess he was lonesome while we were gone.  But he was stubborn, and there was no way to convince him to go with us, even though we held a faith in common. He liked to watch television, and was fond of the "Today" show, which came on every week-day morning.  At the time I lived with them, the show starred Dave Garroway and Jack Lescoulie and Frank Blair.  He would also listen to his battery-powered radio, mostly for news, weather, and crop reports.  He would only listen for fifteen minutes or so, for fear that he would run the power down in the battery.  I’ve seen him jump up and abruptly cut the radio off, if a song came on that he didn’t like, and there were several songs he hated.  He didn’t like anything by Frank Sinatra, and especially hated to hear him sing, "Old Black Magic" and "I’ve Got You Under My Skin".

MAKING ICE CREAM

Among my fondest memories are those of the family get-togethers we used to have at Earl’s and Dicie’s home (in rural Greene County, Arkansas), in the 1950’s.  In the summertime the women would mix up a recipe of ice cream, and the men folk would take turns, turning the crank on the ice-cream maker.  Ice would continually be added to the outside of the metal ice cream canister, which was set down in the wooden churn.  Salt would be put on top of the ice to cause the ice to become colder.  Everybody sure enjoyed the ice cream when all the cranking was done!  We’d all sit outside under a shade tree when we were turning the crank, and that’s where we would eat it.  It sure was good! Grandpa used to tell about the time, when he was young, and he was visiting some of his friends.  He says they kept encouraging him to eat more, like hospitable people used to do. He said there was some cooked cabbage, left over from a previous meal, and they said, "You might as well eat it.  If you don’t, it will just spoil!"  So he ate it.  Then he’d say: "And do you know what?"  And we’d say, "What?"  And he would say: "It all spoiled anyway!"  Then we’d all have a good laugh. Speaking of eating:  He told me one of his favorite memories from his youth, was when he’d go to Russellville (in Pope County), on rare occasions, and would go to a restaurant that served chili and hot tamales.  He spoke of that food as if it had been especially delicious, and the meal only cost him a few cents.

CYCLONES

Earl Tucker experienced some awful tornadoes in his day.  He called tornadoes, "cyclones".  Some of his people had died in cyclones, and others had been terribly injured.  As a result, every time a black cloud appeared, he headed for an underground shelter.  He would never move into a house, unless there was a storm shelter close by. When I lived with them, in 1958 and 1959 he had a shelter under his smoke-house, which was directly behind the house.  Sometimes he would go to the shelter and stay for several hours. Grandma would usually go with him, even though her fear was not as great as his.  She usually went just to pacify him.  If she decided not to go with him, he went anyway. In the cellar they kept potatoes, apples, turnips, etc.  It was a musty damp, dark place.  But there was a light bulb hanging from a cord, and one little window, about a foot square.  Cobwebs hung in the corners.  I went there with him a few times, and was always glad when the storm was over, so we could emerge from that depressing den.  If I didn’t go with Grandpa, he would be angry for several hours, so it was often better to go with him than to risk his displeasure.  Of course, there were times when he didn’t have to beg me, for Arkansas is notorious for it’s menacing weather, and I had been in a few tornadoes myself.

GRANDPA’S COIN PURSE

Grandpa carried a large coin purse with a two-pronged snap.It was two-thirds the size of a man’s hand, and it was kidney-shaped.  He kept it stuffed with bills and change. Larger amounts of money were put into a cloth tobacco sack, which Grandma hid, by pinning it inside her bra.  When I lived with them, and worked at the Emerson Electric Motor Factory, in Paragould, I would hand my money over to Grandma and she’d put it into another tobacco sack and pin it next to Grandpa’s stash.  I was saving to buy a car, and she saved $1500 of my money, in that way.  They didn’t trust banks, because they lived during the Great Depression, and had seen many banks go out of business, and had known people who had lost their life’s savings in those banks.

CURIOUS EATING HABITS

Grandpa had a curious eating habit.  He always ate his green peas (the English peas), with his knife.  What I mean is, that he would use his fork or spoon to push the peas onto his knife blade, and he would put the tip of the knife blade on his lower lip, and would tilt the handle upward so that the peas would roll down the knife blade into his mouth.  I always thought he did that, perhaps, as a way of amusing onlookers, but since then I have read that this was a proper way of eating peas in medieval times in England. This custom was, apparently, handed down through his ancestors, to him.  I never saw him use his knife in that manner for any other food items.  He never ate black-eyed peas or beans with his knife. Then there was "Soakie" . . . biscuits crumbled into his coffee with a few teaspoons of sugar sprinkled on top.  He would eat this mixture with a spoon.  Incidentally, when he drank coffee, he never drank from a cup.  He would pour the coffee from the cup into a saucer, and drink it from the saucer. Earl and Dicie Tucker were known for their jolly dispositions, and for their hospitality to visitors, and for their caring concern for friends and neighbors in need.  I miss Grandpa a lot, even though he has been gone since 1964.  

MORE ABOUT EARL AND DICIE (BURCH) TUCKER

When Earl and Dicie Tucker and their children got to Jackson County, Arkansas in 1922 they lived in a little town called Arnold.  They stayed there about a year and made a crop there.  Then they moved to a red house near Possum Trot. This is where they were living when their daughter Sibyl started to school.The family next moved to a farm home in Woodruff County, not far from where they lived in Jackson County.  The children had to walk to DeView School, which was about one and a half miles each way.  They walked through a woods where a big bull ran loose.  They were wary of that bull!  They went to school there through the sixth grade, and then rode the bus to their next school, the McCrory School, in McCrory, Arkansas.

THE BIG CYCLONE OF 1927

In 1927 the big tornado came.  This tornado touched down, only a few miles from where the Earl Tucker family lived.  In fact, it hit the home of Earl’s brother, Reuben Tucker and his family.  They lived right in the path of the storm, and suffered much destruction and the loss of their home. Reuben’s mother-in-law was killed outright, and Reuben’s wife Pearl had six ribs broken.  A large splinter pierced through one of Reuben’s lips, and their oldest little girl, lay unconscious for several days.  Their other daughter, age two, received a badly twisted leg.  Many other people in the community died, or were injured, or lost their homes and possessions.

THE DROUGHT OF 1932

In 1932 the family suffered through a severe drought there in Woodruff County.  These were Depression days, and the going was rough, economically.  A crop failure was imminent, so they loaded up their possessions into a truck and moved to northeastern Arkansas, where they knew the farming was good. They sojourned in Mississippi County, where Reuben and Pearl had already moved, to take part in the annual cotton harvest. Here, the crops were thriving, and the planters needed workers to help bring in the harvest.

GRANDPA’S KINDNESS

To show what kindness Grandpa had in his heart, I might tell you this story that concerned a  boyhood friend of mine, named Phil Coker: When I lived with Grandpa and Grandma, in 1958, this friend  came to visit me and decided to get a job and stay there at Grandpa and Grandma’s with me.  He stayed several weeks while working at Rob Ward’s mechanic shop in Paragould, and finally Grandpa indicated to him that he would like for him to try to find another place to live, as he felt another boarder was too much for Grandma (who did the washing and cooking for us).So, Phil left there and got a small apartment in Paragould, on the second or third floor of an old store building on Pruett Street.  Phil told me, years later, that Grandpa’s conscience began to bother him, and he went to see about Phil, unbeknownst to Grandma and I.  He drove to town and hunted Phil up at his apartment to try to soften the blow a little bit.  He didn’t like what he saw, as he felt the place was a fire-trap.  So, he went out and bought a long, strong rope and took it back to give to Phil. He told Phil that should the place ever catch fire, that he should  tie the rope to the bedpost and climb to safety out the window.

*   *   *   *   *

A WONDERFUL PAIR

David Earl Tucker and Dicie May (Burch) Tucker were a wonderful pair, who, although they were not rich in a material way, were rich in kindness and goodness for other people, and for one another. Earl lived for 70 years, and Dicie for 98 years.  He had been born in Pope County, Arkansas (on Crooked Branch, northwest of Dover) on March 5, 1894.  She was born near Scottsville, in the same county, on March 8, 1897.

THEIR ANCESTORS

His parents were Robert Alexander "Bob" Tucker, Jr. and Margaret Ann (Ross) Tucker.  His grandparents were Robert A. Tucker, Sr. and Frances Jane Erwin; and Thomas H. Ross and Lucy Jane Arthur. (All of Pope County, Arkansas) Her parents were Samuel H. "Sam" Burch, Jr. and Mattie Belle (Sinclair) Burch.  (Belle married Robert "Buck" Petty after Sam’s death). Dicie’s grandparents were Samuel Houston "Huse" Burch, Sr. and Phoebe Simmons; and William Henry Sinclair and Mary "Mollie" Beaks. (All of Pope Co., AR)

Dicie and Earl had been married in Scottsville, Arkansas on October 17, 1914, and were married for 50 years.  They had two children: Doyn Ray, born in 1915; and Sibyl Loriene (Berry), born in 1918.

They were born in Pope County, Arkansas and moved to Jackson County by covered wagon in 1922.  A year later they moved to Woodruff County and lived near McCrory and Gregory.  In the early 1940s they moved to Greene County and lived on the Bertig Farm southeast of Paragould.  Later they bought a farm east of Halliday, on a Marmaduke mailing route, and lived there until 1963.  Because of Earl’s failing health they moved to Michigan that year, to live near their children and grandchildren. Earl Tucker died at his home near Pontiac, Michigan (in what is now Rochester Hills) on November 26, 1964.  He is buried at Crescent Hills Cemetery in Waterford, Michigan.   Dicie lived for more than 30 years after Earl’s death, and died on July 22, 1995 at the Bloomfield Hills Nursing Center (In Bloomfield Hills, Michigan).  She also, is buried at Crescent Hills Cemetery. Earl and Dicie Tucker were my wonderful Greene County, Arkansas grandparents!

******************

I want to thank Ross for the insight of his family and the way things were at that time. It's always nice to have such wonderful memories.