She Was Just Deanne's Sister to People Around Here

Vonette Zachary Bright evoked admiration and respect in many circles the world over. Some people may have never had the privilege of meeting her. Hopefully, this short account will give a glimpse into the godly woman she was.

The Life-Long Impact of a One-Time Meeting

                I have played for countless weddings over the years. Rehearsals preceded most of those nuptials. Rehearsal dinners featured foods ranging from donuts with coffee, barbeque, a traditional Osage meal, heavy hors d’oeuvres, family-style Italian, to an assortment of other delicious food accompanied by uplifting conversation. One of these events inspired a remembrance.

                I don’t recall the specifics about the food, just that it was good. We dined at a sit-down meal in the basement of the Ralston Bible Church. Lots of laughter filled the evening the night before the marriage of Gaylynn Rice and Michael Treat on April 2, 1988.

                The one happening of the evening most memorable to me was the blessing by the bride’s aunt, Vonette Zachary Bright. I knew who she was – the co-founder of CRU (At its inception, it was called Campus Crusade for Christ.) with her husband, Bill. My involvement in CRU during my first year at Oklahoma State University provided the stability and support needed for me to successfully navigate my transition.
               My grandmother, Gladys Rainey Smith, admired Vonette Bright’s commitment to serve the Lord. She delighted in discussing Mrs. Bright and her husband’s work with her great-nephew, Bob Rice. Of course, Vonette Bright was Bob’s sister-in-law! Vonette and my grandma would want you to see this:
http://www.4laws.com/laws/englishkgp/default.htm

Zachary Family Photo from Deanne Rice's Collection. Seated: Roy and Mary
Margaret Zachary with their youngest daughter, Deanne. Standing: Glenn Zachary,
Curtis Zachary, and Vonette Zachary Bright.
Vonette was thirteen years old when I was born so you can imagine how thrilled
 she was to have another girl in the family as well as to have a baby sister to dress 
up and play with. Mother gave her a lot of responsibility with me so she was 
my 'second' mother.  I didn't know where one started and the other left off.
- a quote by Deanne Zachary Rice

                At the rehearsal dinner, prior to our meal, Vonette stood and spoke to Gaylynn and Mike about the principles  needed for them to have a successful marriage. Vonette presented, with skill and beauty, a concise message of the love of Jesus and how each of us could and should have meaningful lives as followers of Jesus. What a profound impression Vonette’s few sentences had on me! No other rehearsal dinner impacted my memory as that one in April of 1988.

Bob and Deanne Zachary Rice with Vonette and Bill Bright
- photograph from Deanne Zachary Rice's collection
Through out my whole life she has mentored me and has had a profound
influence on me. She was the perfect big sister. She always made a big deal
out of birthdays and family get togethers. Everyone always felt special and
deeply loved.  She carried that into her ministry with Cru. Staff members
were like her children and family.She knew them by name, prayed for them
individually, and helped them adjust to their calling in the ministry.
- a quote by Deanne Zachary Rice

                On January 8, 2016, Mother and I were able to view online the memorial service for Vonette Zachary Bright. Over a hundred people posted online the positive way she had influenced their lives. Beautiful music, powerful tributes, and encouraging scriptures seamlessly wove themselves into an uplifting worship experience.

                Kay Arthur used four points to honor Vonette Bright based on the life of the judge, Deborah, in the book of Judges from the Bible. She drew the comparison between Deborah and Vonette with these:

1.       They both listened to God. (Am I daily reading God’s word so I too can listen to Him?)

2.       They both enlisted others. (Do I seek to find as many others as possible to work with to accomplish God’s work?)

3.       Neither Vonette or Deborah cared who got the glory for their work. (Oh how I want to be exactly like them!)

4.       Both women experienced and handled grief. (I want to be like them, experiencing a loss, grieving the loss, but finding purpose in the grief.)

Deanne Zachary Rice, the only sister of Vonette Bright, has encouraged me as she serves at funeral dinners and opens her home to host women’s Bible studies. Deanne’s commitment to support selflessly her husband, children and grandchildren enriches their lives and undergirds them as they seek to impact all they meet.

Deanne and I laughed about how this photograph from the early 1940s
indicated the humble beginnings of Vonette in Coweta, Oklahoma. 
Only God knew she would minister and touch lives all over the world.
She is second from the right on the upper row. Deanne is the first VBS
student in the front row. (Photo from Deanne Zachary Rice's collection)
She served a big God and she trusted Him for big things, therefore
she encouraged people to go beyond their own limits to God's limits
and she would always be there to get you started. She was a "Why
Can't We?" type of person. - a quote by Deanne Zachary Rice

To learn more about Vonette Zachary Bright go to:
https://www.cru.org/us/en/about/vonette-bright.html

Some Weddings Aren't Perfect

February 26 will be the 105th wedding anniversary of Daisy Dean Rainey and  Ernest E. Rice. The wedding day was a bit shaky, but the marriage proved to be solid as a rock. What a model for young men and young women of today determining to enter into the covenant of marital commitment!
The Wedding Disaster

                According to the United States Census Records of 1910, my great grandparents, William Marion and Mary Rosetta Rainey were living in Konawa, Oklahoma. They had six children ranging in age from 6  to 16 years. Daisy Dean was the oldest.

                 Daisy, my grandmother’s oldest sister, often recalled, when visiting with us, the good days when growing up in Konawa. She took piano lessons while the family lived in Seminole County in the early days of Oklahoma. Aunt Daisy spoke wistfully about the enjoyment of attending high school as a teenager in 1910.

                Then her father, William Marion Rainey, became enamored with moving the family north. After seeing railroad cars loaded with corn on a trip to the areas inhabited by the Osage and Pawnee Indian Nations, Bill Rainey knew that part of the new state must be the promise land for his family.

                Rosa, his wife, interpreted the corn-ladened rail cars as a negative sign about these northern counties. She asked, “Bill, why are they shipping corn into good farming land?”

                He spouted his typical response, “Rosie, you’re a good worker but no manager.” The Rainey family had relocated to Pawnee County by 1911.

                Aunt Daisy lamented this move as long as I knew her. She regretted leaving that area of the new state of Oklahoma. Aunt Daisy always reminisced sorrowfully to her sister, Gladys, how those who bought their homestead near Konawa struck oil! My grandma, Gladys Rainey Smith, usually brushed off her big sister’s remorse over black gold.

                Even though Bill Rainey convinced Rosie to move north, much to Daisy’s dismay, not all was lost. On February 26, 1911, seventeen- year -old Daisy pledged her lifelong devotion to the young man who had stolen her heart, Ernest Rice. (Ironically, on the same 1910 census page as the Rainey family entry was the record for Jim and Minnie Rice and his brother, Ernest who also lived in the Konawa area. Ernest was 22 years of age.) The newlyweds celebrated their wedding in Pawnee County, Oklahoma, at her parents’ home.

Daisy and Ernest Rice's Wedding Photograph
Image source: Findagrave for Ernest E. Rice*

Her mother planned the best festive dinner she could for her oldest daughter’s marriage. The table was set, delicious food had been prepared, and all was ready for a joyful time. Then a nightmare for Daisy and her mother began to develop.

According to Daisy’s ten-year-old sister, Gladys, their beloved father convinced the groom and several of the young and old men in attendance to imbibe some type of alcohol. They actually drank enough to be staggering and quite inebriated. Grandma said her mother and Daisy were distraught and crying. The women at the wedding celebration were appalled at the men’s behavior on this memorable occasion. Typical of Bill Rainey, he tried to smooth it over with lightheartedness. That approach didn’t work well.

Despite the rocky beginning, young Daisy and Ernest settled into a partnership of hard work and love. Within a year or so, they moved across the Arkansas River to the Big Bend in southwest Osage County. Aunt Daisy never forgot how hard she and Ernest worked to clear “the 80.” This parcel of land was an 80-acre lease where the two of them toiled with backbreaking labor to meet the requirements of the lease. She recalled how she tied canvas on her feet to work with the man she loved to accomplish a near impossibility for only two – one a teenager and the other in his middle twenties. Daisy and Ernest, even though young, understood marriage to be a commitment to each other, no matter how hard or challenging the road became.

The thirty-eight years they shared before his death seemed all too brief for Daisy. Even though she went on to live almost 30 years without him, I sensed she felt incomplete without the man who provided strength, stability, and protection for her. Every couple could benefit from following the example of Daisy and Ernest Rice and in turn, our families, our communities, and our nation would be stronger.
*http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=16367036&PIpi=52832364

Celebrating FFA Week

February 20-27 marks National Future Farmers of America Week. I have such pride in former students who are involved in ag education in Oklahoma. This blog post honors them as well as other friends who are serving in this field to keep an emphasis on a challenging lifestyle but one of the best that a family can embrace.

More Than an Ag Teacher

                At the Ralston Biennial High School Alumni Banquet in early September of 2015, I sat next to Mr. and Mrs. Gene Mohon during the meal. Mr. Mohon (I cannot bring myself to call him “Gene.”) served as the ag educator and FFA advisor at the Ralston High School.

                Many RHS alums could attest to the influence that Mr. Mohon had on their adolescent development.  Yet it seems upon reaching our 50s and 60s, we realize even more the significance of his positive impact during those years of our lives.

                I never enrolled in any of the courses he taught. Neither was I a member of Future Farmers of America chapter in our small high school. During the alumni dinner, I told Mr. Mohon, since beginning to care for my parents’ small cattle herd, how frequently  I have wished I had taken some of his classes. Maybe I wouldn't feel like such a greenhand!

                As the title of this blog post indicates, Mr. Mohon was more than an ag teacher. His family and my family were members of the Ralston Baptist Church. He held the position of church treasurer while he lived in Ralston. As an adult, I understand more fully the demands of that job in the church – bills to pay on time, a budget to balance, and a monthly accounting to the other members.

                At that time in our church, each Sunday evening, we had a Bible study time called “Training Union.” Not only did Mr. Mohon teach a full slate of ag-related courses at the high school, help some local farmers on the weekends, and manage the church’s money,  but each Sunday evening, he faithfully taught a Bible lesson for high school-aged students.

Mr. Mohon’s commitment to his job of molding young lives in the school system reinforced a strong work ethic and integrity that permeated our community. His dedication to teach godly principles in the church training class undergirded the spiritual beliefs our parents were instilling in us. I don’t think any of us comprehended the power of men and women of character who built into our lives qualities that would affect our choices for almost a half century.

Even though many decades separate us from the 1970s at Ralston, Oklahoma, good people living lives of quiet, but influential behavior are needed as much as ever. No matter our age, may we aspire to a life that possesses a vibrant faith in God who desires to successfully direct lives of individuals. Then we will exemplify a lifestyle of honestly dealing with others every day in the way we would want to be treated. This is what  Mr. Mohon was trying to teach and did quite effectively.

FFA Members of the classes of 1974 and 1975 in attendance at the RHS Alumni Banquet
L to R: Jody Denney, Bill Harry, Mike Mitchell, Mr. Gene Mohon, Branden Whannel, Rick Rice,
Mike Hightower, Vickie Renfro Denney, and Lora Kitchen Taylor.

The Tragedy Memorialized by a Chinese Elm Tree

Once again I am indebted to my grandmother, Gladys Rainey Smith, for being the family archivist. I began this account last year to explain the story behind the large Chinese elm tree that stands in my mother's yard, but, because of gaps in information, abandoned it. I decided to utilize the microfilm archives of The Fairfax Chief. Sure enough, with help from Howardean Rhoads and Marcy Sterling at the Fairfax Library, I discovered a wealth of information from Grandma's column. Much thanks to Howardean and Marcy!

The Farming Fatality in the Big Bend in 1939

                When my mother began the 8^th grade at the Belford Grade School on the east side of the Big Bend community, she and her parents lived in the house on Lora Betts’ place where Wayne Mitchell now lives (Lora Betts was Wayne’s mother-in-law.). In 1938, the nation, as well as the Big Bend community, was rebounding finally from the Great Depression that had begun ten years earlier with the crash of the stock market in October of 1929. People were finding jobs. Families had more money to spend. Things were at last starting to look up.

                Neighbors were important to the Big Benders since people depended on each other for help and support. In January, as the new year of 1939 commenced, my grandparents, Calvin and Gladys Smith, with my mother, Bernyce, moved to the house on Louise Butler Jefferson’s original Osage land allotment. Mother and her parents had new neighbors to the north who was the Farnsworth family. They lived on the farm now owned by my mother.

                The Farnsworth family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Farnsworth and their 29-year-old son, Harlow. They had lived in the Bend for about one year before that fateful day in February of 1939. 

Portrait of Asher Judson Farnsworth
from findagrave.com

                 According to the “Belford” column written by my maternal grandmother, Gladys Rainey Smith in the February 16, 1939 issue of The Fairfax Chief, near 4 p.m. on Tuesday, February 7, Asher Judson Farnsworth died as the result of being kicked by a horse. He and his son, Harlow, were training the young horse to work when it kicked him in the lower part of his chest. Harlow and his father were training the horse near their small barn that was located where the lots are now, west of Mother's house.(My mother indicates that people were still using horses for farm work in the late 1930s.)

                Mr. Farnsworth was rushed to Ralston, but Dr. H. B. Spaulding, the local physician, pronounced him dead upon arrival. News of his death reverberated throughout the shocked community because he had been among the first to donate time to help his new community and had made many friends in the Bend.

                He was 66 years old having been born on June 2, 1874, in Kansas. Mr. Farnsworth married Linnie Alice Barnum in 1909, establishing their first home in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Beside his wife and  their son, Harlow, he was survived by two daughters, Roberta Hawkins and Eleanor Farnsworth.

The memorial Chinese elm tree is on the left.

                My grandmother wrote that his funeral was held at the Gill Funeral Home in Ponca City on Friday, February 8, at 2 p.m. conducted by Rev. R. R. Ellis of Fairfax. A quartet from the Big Bend sang during the funeral service. The quartet was composed of Mrs. Will Kelty, soprano, Mrs. Jim Clark*, alto, Perry Woods, bass, and Walter Schubert, tenor. My grandmother accompanied them on the piano.

                The Farnsworth family planted, in his memory, the Chinese elm tree that still stands just west of my mother’s home. Many times my father recalled the poignant story behind the tree’s origin. When I was young, even before I learned about Mr. Farnsworth's tragic death, I remember Harlow and his wife visiting our family - how illustrative of the strong ties of friendship that span the years in rural areas, especially in the Big Bend.

*Mrs. Jim Clark (Mary) moved to Ralston in her later years. Mary retained her strong alto voice even into her 90s. She was the grandmother of Gilbert Morris aka Junior. Mary Clark was a great-grandmother of Gil Morris, Patricia Morris Chaffin, and Pam Morris Felix. To read more about Junior Morris see: http://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2015/11/when-cotton-was-king.html