The Report Card Enclosed in a Letter

 Mother was age 6 going on 7 when her cousin, Billie Jean, was born on August 11, 1931. Her birth occurred during a tumultuous family time. Mother’s maternal grandfather had died the day before at age 63. At 98, Mother recalls never tiring of holding and rocking her new baby cousin, Billie Jean. The procedure was always the same. An adult placed this new baby in Mother’s lap. Mother was perfectly content to cuddle this newest addition to the Rainey family until an adult would retrieve Baby Billie Jean. Mother had a special relationship with her grandpa, William Rainey. Maybe holding and rocking Little Billie Jean brought comfort to Mother as a little 6-year-old. 

The earliest photo of Billie 
Jean in my grandma's 
album.

When Billie Jean was age 11, her mother, Raucie Snow Rainey, joined the ranks of the female riveters in Tulsa. The women became such an integral part of the war effort that the icon Rosie the Riveter was created to honor their dedication.

Just months after their mother began working, Billie Jean and her younger sister, Marilyn, age 9, were stunned by the death of their beloved mother. Her husband, Gene, the younger brother of my maternal grandma, Gladys, spiraled down on a path of grief that dogged him periodically throughout the remainder of his life, as he would later be diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

After her sister’s death, Mabel Snow Lynn and her family took both girls to live with them. Later Marilyn would live with my maternal grandparents and my mother. To read more about Marilyn’s life, access the blog When the Little Brown-Eyed Durgan Lived with My Grandparents at this link: Faith_Family_Farm: When the Little Brown-Eyed Durgan Lived with My Grandparents (bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com

A few months ago, Rick Rice, whose father, Virgil, was a cousin of Billie Jean and Marilyn just like my mother, dropped off a letter and a report card he had found in his parents belongings saying, “This might be of interest to you.”

The 12-year-old seventh grader, Billie Jean who had been bereaved of her mother a little over a year earlier, had written the letter to Aunt Emma Rainey Buckley, her father’s sister, and enclosed her 1943-1944 report card. She told of her last day of school and beyond. Here in Billie Jean’s own words is her account.

The top of Billie Jean's Letter to Aunt Emma. What gorgeous handwriting! I have
comments made frequently about the demise of reading and writing cursive
handwriting in our culture today. People bemoan the illegibility of handwritten 
communication. This seventh grader didn't have that problem even with all the
difficulty and sorrow she had experienced.

School was out just yesterday, and I’ll be in the eighth-grade next year. We went on a picnic lunch for the last day of school down on the creek where Grandpa (Asa Snow) used to live. It sure was grand. I wish you could have been there.

We went fishing down by Kate’s the other day, had a lot of fun. When we started home, Edd Pat, Patricia and I got in the boat for one last ride. Anthony and Joe Dean were seining and when we were about ten yards from shore they waded out, tried to get in but as they were trying to get in, the end of the boat where they were pulling down went under water and water poured in. Patricia pushed Joe Dean off accidentally and jumped on Anthony’s shoulders. Edd Pat jumped out too and I rowed to shore. (Explanation: Kate Lynn was a sister of Bernard Lynn, the husband of Mabel Snow Lynn. Edd Pat and Joe Dean were brothers, the sons of Jim and Vera Miller Lynn. Vera was a sister of Bud Miller, a life-long Bender. Patricia and Anthony Lynn were the children of Bernard and Mabel Snow Lynn.)

 After we had all got out of the boat, Edd Pat and Anthony got back in the boat and rowed out to look at their trout lines, but it started sinking. Anthony would run to one end of the boat, and it would start sinking then he would run to the other. Finally, it went plumb down. They had to pull it in and dump it on shore.

We went down on the river that evening and tried to seine a pond that was left by the flood (This was the flood of 1944. To read more about the flood of 1944, access this post at https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2019/06/recalling-haymaking-after-flood-of-1944.html ). They said there was a fifty-pound catfish in it but it was too big. We will have to seine it when it goes down a little more.

Grandpa has a horse that I can ride pretty well and I sure have fun when I go down there.

Billie Jean closed by telling Aunt Emma she wanted to show you what kind of grades I made.  All my Love, Billie Jean Rainey.

Having known Billie Jean all my life, I imagine her as a sensitive preteen delighted to share a report card with her beloved aunt that revealed all A’s and Bs with NO days absent. She had a father who still loved her and her sister. No substance abuse was involved. Billie Jean had aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents who loved Marilyn and her. Even though the girls lived with different aunts. uncles and cousins, the homes they stayed in were not even a mile apart. Their father was less than a mile from both girls’ residences. They both attended Belford Grade School located within walking distance of the homes where they stayed. Their teachers knew the losses the girls had experienced. Yet they challenged the girls to learn and achieve all they could.

Billie Jean and Marilyn received nurturing support, encouraging compassion, and much strengthening love. This enabled them to move through the grief, never getting over the loss of their mother, but being able to continue living a life that provided enjoyment and fulfillment.

        As my father said about how to walk the road of severe loss, “You put one foot in front of another.” The Bend community and its school, the families of Billie Jean and her little sister bolstered them as they continued maturing. Their love for Aunt Emma and their desire for success led them to live in Washington, D. C. with Aunt Emma Rainey Buckley. (To access a photo of Aunt Emma and Billie Jean, go to the link - https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-bittersweet-shared-birthday.html )