TUCKIES PAGE

VIRGINIA BELL WALKER'S HOMEPAGE In 1970 my mother VIRGINIA BELL WALKER, and I, became very interested in genealogy. We traveled to many states and visitead many old court houses. We went through old books and ledgers, walked through old graveyards and compiled all the information to pass on to future generations.We visited also the hill behind where the farm at which she was raised had been located, She said she slid on homemade sleds down the hill, which is named Staley's mound, in the winter, and learned to swim in their pondat the foot of it in the summer. I, her daughter, Mary Lee Rodenbaugh, want to do a page just for, and in memory of, My Mother VIRGINIA (Tuckie) BELL WALKER My dear and beautiful mother continued to live with us until August 1998, at which time I been paralyzed for two years, and still am.I could no longer provide the care she needed. Her son Donald Walker came and took her home with him. She left at age 92, to join her family and ancestors, She had 5 children, two still living. 13 Grandchildren 21 Great Grandchildren 14 Great Great Grandchildren at her demise I will tell the story of her life as she related it during the 25 years, she was at home with me. THE LIFE OF VIRGINIA BELL WALKER (TUCKIE) Virginia was the 10th and last child of John Fisher BELL and Clara Hanna BELL, nee, CUSTER Born: November 13, 1906 in Greencastle, Missouri. When she was four, her Father was sent to Tyler Texas by his employer. She lived there for about one year before her parents bought a farm in Pleasant Hill, Missouri and it was here she finished school as Valdictorian, and left for Kansas City with her sister Beulah Mae to become telephone switchboard operators. During her employment there she met a lineman named Harold Lowell WALKER, they dated for two years, and were married on June 15, 1927. Harold and virginia were called TUCKIE and BUDDY by all their family and friends. They excelled at ballroom dancing, and were requested by friends and family alike to perform on any and all occasions. Virginia got the nickname of Tuckie in an unusual way and it stuck with her for her entire life. She and her sister Beulah were playing with their brother Clinton and he would harness them to a toy wagon and pretend they were his horses. Their Father was in business pasturing horses for the Kansas City Street Car Line before electricity was used, and two big Belgian's were their favorites, their names being "Mike" and "Tuck" . Their mother said Clinton couldn't call her Tuck, so he changed it to Tuckie and their Mother approved. Mother told many stories of how her Mother was so busy helping in the fields on the farm, that she left the raising of the two little girls Tuckie & Beulah mainly to their older sister Nellie. For this reason Mother and Aunt Mike were very much attached to their sister Nellie Slaughter Steel, nee, BELL Virginia's was the inventor of the BELLSAW, however it was stolen from his widow when he died by his attorney's, and she and the rest of his heirs saw no benifits from it. Her Sister Nellie had a daughter maned Mary A. Baker, nee, Steel who gathered a collection of the original pattend's and flyers, of John Bell's " Bellsaw " and made a great display for the Pleasant Hill, Mo. Museum which will be there for eternity, for all to see. Tuckie & Buddy had 5 children and during the Great Depression of 1929, they lost the two markets and a dry cleaner they owned, as people would come in for groceries who had no money, and were hungry. They were given groceries and were never able to pay their bills. In 1934 due to lack of work in the City, they moved to a farm in Albany, Georgia where our Father's Uncle "Wallace WALKER" owned a packing and syrum plant. He gave our Dad a job, and we did farming also. They left Kansas City in a 1932 De Soto Roadster with a rumble seat, in which I, Mary my sister Billie and our brother Robert rode. The twins were just babies, so got to ride inside with Mother & Daddy and a passenger who paid to go along for the transportation "Carlyle" All I remember is his first name. We lived on that farm for 6 hard years during which time Virginia carried water up a path to the house from the well, cared for the black people working on all the farms around us, as they were usually mistreated by the other farmers, and delivered many of their babies. Friday was a big day for us as when Dad came home from work he brought 5, 1cent candy suckers called BB Bats for us kids. Mother taught us to cook, sew, have faith in God and keep clean. They had friends down the road with whom they socialized. Jack & Pauline Roper. One sunday afternoon I recall a party at our house for the 4 adults and us 5 kids. Somehow they had miscounted the hotdogs and were one short. I never knew who had gone without one, but I knew the embarrasment they felt, and I never forgot it. Mother was left alone on several occasions when Dad would go to Kansas City to sell the pecans we children would pick up and fill large gunny sacks with. He would take all the seats out of the car except his and be gone for a few days. We were left in the care of Mother and a quite elderly black lady named "Berta". Mother and Dad always managed to keep us fed, although the fare was often sweet potatoes and cornbread. We still were better off than the City kids. Mother would put an extra sandwich in our lunch boxes, and tell us to give it to some kid who didn't have a lunch. I have often wondered why I still like Peanut Butter. She always thought of the other person , and would sacrafice her own well being for them. "She had a heart of Gold" She bought fabric and made mens neckties which I remember turning them right side out for hours, as she sewed them up. They made extra money on those too. My parents were very hard workers, and we children never knew hunger or hardship. Thanks to them. We left Georgia in 1940 and went back to Kansas City where Daddy had been promised a job with Westinghouse Electric, where his Dad worked. We lived there until WW11 started at which time my Dad's sister Erma and husband Royal Hammon said he could go to work in the shipyards at Long Beach, California. They also said we could stay with them until we found a place. We left Kansas City in a Studebaker sedan, and Tuckie & Buddy had $100.00 in their pocket and 5 kids in the back seat. There was one suitcase with changes of underware and very few clothes. Mother made balogna samdwiches on the road for lunch and dinner, and at nite we had one motel room and we kids slept on blankets on the floor. We all s