Mother was born in 1894 in what was then Texas. It was later Oklahoma Territory and then in 1907 it became Oklahoma. At one time it was Greer County but later became Jackson County. While it was never in Indian Territory, Indian Territory was only about 20 miles to the north and east.
Letitia Browder Dickey, called Lettie, was the fourth child of eleven children (10 survived) of a Presbyterian minister the Reverend David Levi Lincoln Waterman Dickey and Lula Ora Echols. She was born June 2, 1894, in a half-dugout. One of her many poems was about this half-dugout:
THE MOTHER WHO LIVED IN THE GROUND
There was a Grandpa and a Grandma, too
In the picture that I shall draw,
And only these as lucky as I
Can know the joys I saw.
They lived in a house just across the fence,
The liveliest house around,
While we lived in a little dug-out,
Just half-way under the ground.
But our days were full and our days were good
Of the things that mattered most,
No sandstorm dark and no blizzard black
Could drive us from our post.
For our little dug-out was lined with rock
Dug from our own gyp hills,
And try as they would no wind or snow
Could steal in around the sills.
But staunch and sturdy it defied them all,
Because it was honestly made
By a man who braved the perils and pains
And faced them unafraid.
The Queen of the mansion, a marvel she was,
No plans for herself to pursue,
Her children were many, and resembled the best
The woman’s who lived in the shoe.
No words can tell of the patience and work
And the love in which she abound,
This Pioneer mother, this courageous, kind mother,
The mother who lived in the ground.
Now some may scoff at the little dug-out,
Which saw much of joy and of pains,
But the spirit of love abode with us there
In the humblest of little domains
Oh! I wish to go back to the little dug-out,
The place where I once could be found,
To learn bravery and patience forsooth,
From the one who now rests in the ground.
She was bound to a lifetime of rearing five children over a seventeen-year period. Civilizing the 5 children was a duty that she took seriously. She expected and demanded more of us than our contemporaries. Somehow, she succeeded: Dick, a lawyer, was City Attorney and later City Manager of San Angelo, Texas; Emmalu, with an exceptional artistic talent, created many beautiful things; Bill was an architect in Oklahoma City; I became a librarian of note; and Carolyn, being terribly spoiled by Dad, eventually became a model homemaker.
I know that she loved us but looking back, I recognize that she was not warm and fuzzy. At that time, I didn’t know mothers were supposed to act. Also, I don’t remember that she ever praised me when I did something special. Why should she praise me when I accomplished what was expected? I suppose that it might make me soft – or something.
Mother was the only mother that I have ever heard of that named her chickens – all biblical names. I can remember the names of two roosters – Nebuchadnezzar the King of the Jews and Jeroboam the Son of Nebat.
From her we learned right from wrong and, within these parameters, that it was alright to “be different.” Indeed, in many ways we were required to be different. Despite all the discipline, I believe that my childhood was a happy one; however, I was very happy to leave home and go to the University. I was never homesick.
The following pictures of Olustee are dated about 1910. Mother would have been 16 years old.
