This past week marked the 156th year since Rosa Jarrell Rainey was born on March 7, 1868. She was the beloved maternal grandma of my mother, Bernyce Smith Gates. Mother lived near her dear grandma all her life, usually within walking distance.
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| Rosa Jarrell Rainey |
On July 23, 1923, Rosa and her
husband, Bill, gained a son-in-law when my maternal grandma, Gladys Rainey
married Calvin Callcayah Smith, of Cherokee descent and an original allottee on
the Dawes Roll. I understand my great-grandparents had reservations about their
daughter entering an interracial marriage. Rosa had experiences that shaped
her opinions when they lived near the Seminoles in Indian Territory near
Konawa, Indian Territory. (To read more go to: https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2016/05/when-raineys-lived-among-seminoles.html)
My great-grandparents instantly loved my mother when she was born on October 17, 1924. They began learning to accept my grandfather. Then Rosa Rainey buried her husband in 1931, after he succumbed following a brief illness. Grandma actively began helping her mother and her visually impaired sister, Alice, who lived with her mother. Likely it was Grandma's way of working through her own grief.
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| Grandma, Grandpa, and Mother at the new house on the Oliver Morton place. |
Grandpa with his understated humor and
helpfulness, endeared himself to the woman he referred to as Granny. Grandpa
and his mother-in-law would load a couple of cases of eggs in the back of her
Model A two-seater Ford that had belonged to her deceased husband. According to
Mother, her grandmother never learned to drive but thoroughly enjoyed going to
town, usually on Saturday, as my grandpa drove her car with her riding in the
front seat and the back seat filled with eggs to sell. The two chuckled about
filling the back of her little car with as many eggs as possible. Mother
reminded me that a case held 30 dozen or 360 eggs. She said usually in that little
car they could transport two cases or 720 eggs!
As I remembered Grandpa’s upcoming birthdate
on March 13, I recalled he was born in 1894, to a pureblood Cherokee father
whose first language was Cherokee, and his first language written and read had
been created by Sequoyah and embraced by the Cherokee Nation about the time
Grandpa’s grandfather for whom he was named was born. Grandpa grew up in the
Cherokee Nation and lived there until shortly after his father died from
pneumonia. Then Grandpa relocated to Osage County.
His own mother died the year after Grandpa Rainey died. This may have forged the bond between Grandpa and his mother-in-law. No matter the factors that influenced this close tie, it served as an example of treating one another right with respect and dignity.
The Apostle Paul preached these words recorded
in Acts 17:26, He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on
all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the
boundaries of their dwellings.
Later Paul addressed the two major
divisions in the early church – Jewish people and everyone else, sometimes referred
to as Gentile. Here Paul uses the term Greek in Romans 10:12, For
there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over
all is rich unto all that call upon Him.
Since we know the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the
sacred scriptures, we know it was not coincidence or happenstance that verse 13
from that same chapter says, For whosoever shall call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved. A few verses previously written in Romans 10
explained succinctly the need to confess Jesus as Lord (boss) and believe that
Jesus was raised from the dead.
THey were both great people. I loved being around them. Good memories .
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