| Earl Berry, October 2, 1900 to January 22, 1978. | Effie Lee Staggs, October 4, 1905 to September 3, 1982. |
| Earl was born in Stone Co. Arkansas, in a town near Little Rock to John and Faye Berry. There he grew up with his three brothers , Wes, James, and Willey (Raymond) and one sister, Laura (Allie) Mae. In his younger years he would go fishing with his father, John. In the 1910's, Earl met Effie Staggs in a school yard. They fell in love and were wed on June 6th, 1919. They traveled to a blind sharecropper's place in Blanchard, Oklahoma, in 1927, where Earl began farming. The two mules Earl was working with were very stubborn, in fact they were so stubborn that one day, after plowing half of the fields, they stopped and refused to move an inch further. No matter how hard Earl hit their rumps they would not move, so Earl bit the ear of one of the two mules, causing the mule to pull the plow again. A few days after this incident, that same mule that Earl bit, escaped from the barn, eat all of the vegetables in the family garden, and subsequently died of overeating. (From Margie) Later, in the 1930's, Earl and Effie moved with their children to the west coast to find better farming opportunities. They moved from place to place depending on the farm work that was available. In the 1940s, they settled down in the state of California. | Effie was born in Texas, to Robert Lee Staggs and his wife, Charity Elizabeth. She grew up in the farms of Texarkana and moved to Stone Co. Arkansas in 1910. There she met Earl and were wed. In 1921, Effie gave birth to Florene Berry. In 1923, Carl was born. In 1925, Irene was born. Edward was born in 1927. Then Edgar was born in 1929. In 1933, she gave birth to Margie, then in 1935, Doyle was born. Doyle did not live beyond a week. In 1937, Faye was born, who was named after Earl's mother. In 1939, Effie gave birth to Floyd, then she gave birth to Joyce in 1942. In 1945, Linda was born and three years later, Lloyd was born. she dedicated her years to raising her family. In all, she gave birth to twelve children over the span of 27 years.. |
Here is the nail Earl used to hang his lantern on at Mill Creak during
the 1940's till the 1970's.
Their Children
