My father, Orville Lee Jenkins, was born in Mountain View (Mt. View), Oklahoma in 10 April 1912.  He later lived as a child in Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, where his father was the town Marshall.  My grandparents later moved to Chickasha, Oklahoma.

Chickasha
Joseph Asa Jenkins (called by grandchildren Pappa Joe) and Julia Virginia (Terry) Jenkins (Mama Jennie) continued to live in their same house on 20th Street, all my life until they had to move to special care.  This was the house where my father had lived as a teenager.  He recuperated in this house for 4-5 years after a terrible case of osteomyelitis, which left him crippled, with only his left arm, immobile hips and stiff knees.

From this house, he learned electronics and radio technology, thorugh a correspondence course.  With this as a start, he began repairing radio sets, even during his learning stages of the course.  This led to his own radio sales and repair business.  Dad began getting up and around again only at age 19.

Business Foundations
Dad told me stories of his experiences and adventures from that time.  He attempted to return to high school, but his business demands made his schedule so erratic, his principle was concerned about his attendance.  Finally the strictures of required attendance became a hindrance that too far outweighed the benefits of continuing his formal high school education at that time.  My father told us he quit school to focus on his already very successful business.

He proceeded in various business ventures, hiring assistants for his radio service business.  He shared the business premises with his brother Bud (Arthur Carthel), selling Maytag appliances.  Dad finally sold his interest in the appliance business when he moved to Quanah, Texas, in early 1951, where he opened a radio station, which was my childhood context.

My Grandparents' House
The children kept that house on 20th Street during the time Pappa Joe was in the rest home.  I cannot remember if Mama Jennie went into that rest home during that time or later.  Pappa Joe died in 1962.

For some years before that, I recall that in-home care had been provided for Joe and Jennie.  At some point after her husband died, Julia Virginia was moved from her long-time home in Chickasha to a rest home in Anadarko, where my dad's older brother Thomas Asa (Uncle Asa) and his wife Nova Bernice Grubbs lived till their death.  She was there till she died in 1966.

On a couple of trips back to Chickasha in recent years, I have driven over the sections of town renewing memories and explaining to my wife and children about the experiences I remember there.  I remember having difficulty on the first couple of trips finding the house where my grandparents had lived and where I had so many memories, which to my memory covered so many years of my life.

I finally identified the old house I remembered on 20th street on a trip there in 2005.  It was still much the same, though the garage was gone, and it was apparently no longer in use.

Family
My mother was Lou Ila Gregory, of Lindsay, Oklahoma.  She is the daughter of Andy Gregory (no second name) and Alpharetta Mae Green.  Lindsay is in Garvin County, the next county east from Grady County, where Chickasha is located.  My father met my mother when she worked in the Grady County Hospital kitchen.  They were married in Chickasha in September 1946.  I was born in Chickasha in July 1948.

Quanah
Not long after we moved to Quanah, Texas, my brother Gregory Wayne was born in May 1951.  We lived in a small house on 14th street, which I still have memories of.  After we moved into a larger country house on south of town, my brother Gary Lynn was born in August 1952.  We lived in that house till the summer after I finished first grade.

Highway 287
We moved into town, at 909 West 11th Street.  Eleventh Street in Quanah was US Highway 287, so we had a very busy street, especially after they widened that major East-Route business route to four lanes, taking off a lot of our frontage.  This was our home till I was 15, till Dad turned his eyes to Arkansas.

I hope to add more about our family history, telling about our radio business, later move to Arkansas, our parent's divorce, and more, including later sisters.

For more about my life and interests, and some family information, see my web site Orville Jenkins Ideas and Interests.

Orville Boyd Jenkins
boydorville@gmail.com

Compiled September 2006
Last edited 29 May 2007