Lillian May Adkins was born 31 July 1904 in Saratoga, Jefferson Co.,TX, to the parents of Benjamin Lawrence Adkins and Minnie May George. Shortly after she was born (probably 1 - 2 years old), the family moved to Wetumka, Hughes Co., Oklahoma.

She was the oldest child of Benjamin's second marriage and only living daughter. She had 8 younger brothers and had to help care for them and work in the fields as well helping provide for the family. Everyone worked.

Memories of her parents Opal Cullins Kirkpatrick and Lillian May Adkins and other family members by Mary Jane (Kirkpatrick) Pitts Langston, daughter of O. C. born Sep 18, 1940, written November, 2006

Lillian's parents were share croppers. They lived in a house once that had a kitchen seperate from the living part. They were washing clothes and their house got on fire. Everything burned except the clothes they were washing.

Lillian's mother always washed on Monday. She always cooked a pot of beans on that day. And when they finished the clothes the water was used to scrub down the wood floors in the house.

Grama (Minnie) had a crock she kept peas in. She hung some kind of herb in the pot to keep the bugs (weevels) out.

Lillian said her mom was such a good manager. If she wasn't they would not have made it ! Ben (Lillian's father) would take off and visit his parents in Texas when the crops were in and sold. It sounded like he went alone mostly every time.

They didn't get Christmas presents, just some fruit and candy. The lady down the road "Betty" gave mom a doll once. When she came home from school her doll was gone. She asked where? and her mom said she gave it away to some visitor who had a child. Mom never forgot that.

Sometimes they would go over to Aunt "Belle" (her father's sister) for Christmas or Thanksgiving but her mom put a stop to that because Ben and the other men would get drunk in the barn.

Aunt Belle's husband killed a man over a hound hunting dog. That man had killed his brother. Lillian said she had to sleep upstairs at Belle's house with bloody clothes and she was scared. Belle's husband Jeff and all of her children except Gold "a daughter" died one by one of T. B. (Tuberclois - spelling?)

Ben and Minnie met in Texas. He had been married before and had a daughter "Louise". His wife had died in child birth. Louise was raised by his parents Samuel & Sarah R. (Stice) Adkins.

Lillian's parents married, gave birth to her in Texas and then came to Oklahoma in 1906 - in a covered wagon. Lillian said some men pulled them across the river and where they were going to cross, quick sand would have taken the whole wagon. They settled in Wetumka, Hughes Co., Oklahoma.

Minnie's mother (Mary Ann (Hopkins) George would come to stay with them for a time every year. She was almost blind. Lillian said on her arrival, her black bonnets would be on the bed posts. Mom had to sleep with her and every morning at 5:00 she would elbow her and say "Lillian get up". It was mom's (Lillian) job to start the fire every morning for her mom to make 36 biscuits every morning.

Lillian said some nights they only had mush to eat and she would go hungry and not eat…she didn't like it. Her mom slapped her once because she wouldn't eat beans or peas that her grama washed - because she couldn't see well enough to get the worms out.

Lillian and her brothers had to work in the fields - hard. She wanted to go to high school and be a teacher but her mom made her quit school to help.

Lillian's mother kept having children - boys. When Lillian was 15 or so her mom had her a little sister Lafein but she died at 3 years, I think. Then she "Minnie" had twin boys. That was around the time Lillian got married to Opal. When the twin boys were about 5 years old, Ben left her and moved in with Betty a widow that lived down the road. She (Minnie) divorced him when she inherited oil rights from her parents. She didn't want to share.)

The only husband of Lillian M. Adkins, Opal Cullins Kirkpatrick built a little house that he and Lillian lived in when they married in Wetumka later (Minnie) her mom would live in until the day she died - on her birthday from "cancer of the ovaries". When she died it was reported by people in the room that the mirrow on the dresser made a loud cracking noise, they got up and felt the back of it…

Lillian and Opal Cullins Kirkpatrick married 9 Dec 1922 in Holdenville, Hughes Co., OK. I think Opal saw Lillian one day when he was playing baseball. She was going by with girl friends and he said someday I'll marry that girl. I remember she said her mom liked him. When he was playing baseball from the field, he kept seeing this girl (Lillian) and then he saw another girl he thought was she - but when the game was over he asked to walk her home, she said yes. Then he asked his brother to take his horse home, his brother said no. He asked why and his brother said because I'm ridin my mule (whatever that mean't).

Before that time, Lillian's mom would not let her go any where and some woman told her she needed to start letting Lillian do more because she was 18 years old.

Opals dad (Andrew Jackson Kirkpatrick) died when he was very young, 01 Mar 1907 in Wetumka, when Opal was 5 years old. He had 5 brothers that were Kirkpatrick's from Opal's dad, Andrew Kirkpatrick. Andrew had pneumonia and was very sick but was getting better. He asked his wife Maud to cook him some fish, she did, and that night he died. Was it her terrible cooking that killed him, we will never know? But they said her hair turned white over night after he died.

He (Andrew) ran a grocery store with another man named Kirkpatrick also but they were not kin to each other. Maud would not work in the store. She was so shy, instead she worked in the fields.

A man she and her husband knew wrote her and asked her to marry. She said "yes". He came that night and they married then 9 mos. later they had twins….and more children. His name was Marcus Bowden. They lived together the rest of their lives. She had a stroke and died in her 70's. I was in high school when Maud died she died before Opal because Lillian said she and Opal got two quilts she made and a vase that fell off the wall and broke.

Lillian said her mom made beautiful dainty quilts and Maud made quilts just for cover out of wool old scraps. Opal's mother, Maud loved animals. She had birds in cages and kept feed in the living room..and dogs. I don't think she was much of a cook either but she was a very good woman.

Opal and Lillian soon moved to Wanette, Pottawatomie Co., Oklahoma and lived there until they both died.

Opal loved to play any kind of sports. He managed teams as coach up until his 40's. When they were first married, dad had a job delivering ice. He had to learn to drive the truck the first day of work.

Opal and Lillian gave birth to a daughter named Evelyn and she was such a beautiful baby. Opal was so proud, he would bring people home to see her all the time. Lillian said every time she got pregnant she would be upset and cry but Opal would be so happy because he loved children and I know he did because he was always the best daddy. He was so funny. He always called his youngest daughter, Mary Jane (who wrote this story) Baby Doll or Sweet Baby. Mary Jane said she wanted to be around him all the time after school she'd run down to the feed store and he'd give her a nickle "that was a lot then" and he would always make Mary Jane hold his little finger when they crossed the street. Wanette was a great town then - not like now. It was full of business, the train running every day, movie theatre, drug stores, 2 or 3 grocery stores, 2 big cotton gins….piles of feed, milk, cream, eggs and hides in front of Opal's feed store business.

Years later, Uncle Lowell (Lillian's brother) came to her house when she was gone and hung two of grama's black bonnets on her bed post. It was quite a shock to Lillian when she came home as her Grama was deceased. I think he got a big laugh out of Lillian's expense. Everyone loved Lowell, Lillian's brother.

Sam Adkins, Ben's dad came up from Texas one hot summer and he put screens on their house. They didn't even have that. He went to town and brought back a plate and a rose bowl for Minnie his dau-in-law. Mary Jane has the plate and Evelyn has the rose bowl.

After the death of Opal, in 1952, Lillian never remarried. She lived in the same house by the wanette school until she died in the hospital. She was a good, good christian lady. She was always so sweet. She sold Avon and then worked as the Secretary for the Wanette Cemetery until she died. Opal and Lillian are both buried side-by-side in the Wanette Cemetery.

"The death of Lillian Adkins - Kirkpatrick's brother, Howard Adkins" told to Melinda Pitts - Pennington by Grandma (Lillian).

Howard Adkins (Lillian's brother) and a friend wanted to go pick cotton or share crop in Western Oklahoma. They left Wetumka hitchhiking, when they couldn't get a ride they decided to split up and meet again at their destination. Howard got a ride with a man and while they were driving through Oklahoma City, they were following a semi-truck carrying pipe. Somehow there was an accident and the car ran into the back of the semi and the pipe came through the windshield and decapitated Howard. He was only 16 years old.

When Grandma (Lillian) told me the story about her brother, she said it was the first death he went through and also that her little brother had the most thickest eye lashes she had ever seen.

Aunt Evelyn Kirkpatrick - Coulter (Lillian's daughter) told me that the phone call about the death came in the middle of the night and Opal (Lillian's husband - my grandfather) picked up the phone half asleep and thought the person said that it was his brother that had died. He was so upset and started cying. The next day, they drove to his parents house in Wetumka, OK and when asking about his brother, his parents replied "It wasn't your brother that died, it was Lillian's brother" so that is how Grandma found out about her brothers death.

BIBLE:

Grandma's (Lillian) bible states her great grandparents names were: Joe Adkins and Nancy Stice (I don't believe this to be correct -- it must of been entered incorrectly) Through extensive family research, I have found her grandparent's names was Samuel Adkins and Sarah Rebecca Stice - Adkins. I visited Sarah's birthstone in California and that's the name on the stone "Sarah R. Adkins". Grandma's great-grandmother's name was Nancy Covey who married John Graham Adkins. This was verified through another researcher, as well. The names were somehow mixed up and I don't know who Joe was. My brother, Darren Pitts inherited her bible and left it out on the offshore drilling rig he was working at in the Gulf of Mexico and it was lost. We would like to get the bible back if found. (Send to my mother: Mary Jane Langston, R#1 Box 19, Asher, Oklahoma 74826 - 405.784.2375 in 2008)

LILLIAN and OPAL's MARRIAGE LICENSE (I have a copy of this)

State of Oklahoma

Hughes County in County Court

To any person authorized to perform the Marriage Ceremony, Greeting:

You are hereby authorized to to join in marriage Mr. Opal KIRKPATRICK of Wetumka, County of Hughes, State of Oklahoma aged 20 years, and Miss. Lillian ADKINS of Wetumka, County of Hughes, State of Oklahoma aged 18 years.

And of this License you will make due return to my office within thirty days from this date. Witness my hand and official seal this 9th day of December, 1922.

Signed: R. B. Billingsley, Court Clerk

By: __ , Deputy

Recorded this 9th day of December, 1922

Signed: R. B. Billingsley, Court Clerk

By: __ , Deputy

CERTIFICATE OF MARRIAGE

STATE OF OKLAHOMA

I, John L. Coffman, Judge of the District Court of Holdenville in Hughes County State of Oklahoma do hereby certify that joined in marriage the persons named in and authorized by the License to be married on the 9th day of December, A.D. 1922 at Holdenville in Hughes County, State of Oklahoma in the presence of Anita Holle of Holdenville and B. R. Templerman (surname unclear) of Holdenville.

Signed: John L. Coffman, District Judge

Returned and recorded this 9th day of December 1922.

R. B. Billingsley, Court Clerk

By Lessie Wysor, Deputy

Document 2 (I have this document in my possession):

This certifies that Opal KIRKPATRICK of Wetumka, Oklahoma and Lillian ADKINS of Wetumka, OK. Were United in Holy Matrimony at Holdenville According to the Ordinance of God and the Laws of the State of Oklahoma on the 9th day of December in the year of our lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty Two.

John L. Coffman, District Judge

Witnesses: Vista Billingsley

B. R. Tempherman (surname unclear)

Lillian's Death Certificate:

Attending Physican, Certificate of Death, State of Oklahoma, Department of Health

1. Name: Lillian M. KIRKPATRICK

2. Date of Death: October 29, 1996

3. Sex: Female

4. Race: White

5. Age at last birthday: 92

6. Date of Birth: July 31, 1904

7a. County of Death: Pottawatomie

7b. City of Death: Shawnee

7c. Inside City Limits: Yes

7d. Hospital: Shawnee Regional Hospital

8. State of Birth: TX

9. Citizen: USA

10. Marital Status: Widowed

11. Surviving Spouse: N/A

12. Social Security Number: 448-36-2393

13a. Occupation: Clerk

13b. Kind of Business: Postal Service

14a. Residence - State: OK

14b. County: Pottawatomie

14c. City or Town: Wanette

14d. Inside City Limits: Yes

14c. Street or Address: Box 134

15. Father's name: Benjamin F. ADKINS

16. Mother's name: Minnie M. GEORGE

17a. Informant: Pat CANNON

17b. Mailing Address: 4103 Pine Ridge, Shawnee, OK 74801

18. Cause of death: a. Immediate Cause: Respiratory Failure

18b. Due to: Pnemonia

18c. Due to: CVA (Stroke), Part II: Other conditions: Anemia, Partial SBO Secondary Toimpaction

19a. Autopsy: No

20a. Physician attended: 10/15/1996 to 10/29/1996

20b. Last saw her: 10/28/1996

20c. View body after death: Yes

20d. Death occurred at 10:05 a.m.

21a. Certifier: Glen R. Hanson, M.D.

21d. Mailing address: 2801 N. Saratoga, Shawnee, OK 74801

22a. Pronounced dead: 10/29/1996 at 10:05 a.m.

23a. Burial: Yes

23b. Date of Burial: October 31, 1996

23c. Cemetery: Wanette Cemetery

23d. Location of Cemetery: Wanette, OK

24. Funeral Home: Roesch-Walker, 400 N. Broadway, Shawnee, OK 74801

24b. Funeral Director: Doug Walker

25. Local Registrar: Signature and date

26. Date Received by State Registrar: Nov 8 1996

I really miss my grandmother. Signed, Melinda G. (Pitts) Pennington

Lillian M Kirkpatrick