Ollie Drucilla Jones
(Mellette, Oklahoma circa 1911)
Ollie Drucilla Jones was born in Batesville, Arkansas on January 5, 1893 and was the fourth child born unto John Curtis Jones and Sarah Parthena Felts. By her own account, she wasn't close to her parents John Curtis and Sarah. In later years she would recollect that "she did not have good communication with her mother and father. Especially her father." Her reasoning for this was that when it came to her father "it seemed boys were more important than girls."
After her family relocated to the town of Mellette, Oklahoma she met William Kennedy whose family had also recently relocated to the area from Pontotoc, Mississippi. William and Ollie would eventually marry on January 29, 1911 in Eufala, Oklahoma. In later years, Ollie would state that she only told one of her sisters about her pending marriage to William, providing further evidence of her strained relationship with her parents.
William Kennedy & Ollie Drucilla Jones on their wedding day.
(Eufala, OK ~ January 29, 1911)
After getting married, William and Ollie remained in McIntosh County for a number of years raising cotton. During this time the couple had seven children: Norma Kennedy (1912), James Curtis Kennedy (1914), Dodd Kennedy (1916), Ira William Kennedy (1919), a set of twins named Elmer and Velma who died at birth (1921), and Dolfus "Don" Kennedy (1922). In 1923 the couple would decide to relocate to California. The family was accompanied by Ollie's half-cousin, Tinsy, and her husband. After getting as far as Texas, the car broke down. Tinsy and her husband returned to Oklahoma and the Kennedys remained in Dodge, Texas for about a year. It was during this time that Ollie gave birth to her eighth child James Robert "Junior" Kennedy in the late summer of 1924. The family eventually returned to Eufala, Oklahoma and spent several months living in an extra home on the farm owned by one of William's brothers. In 1925 or 1926 the family moved north to Okmulgee County and settled in the Natura Township on a farm known as Old Hayden's Place. While living at Old Hayden's Place, William and Ollie had three more children: Billie "Charles" Kennedy (1926), Leroy Kennedy (1928), and Jack Kennedy (1931). Four months after the birth of Jack, William was shot in the abdomen south of Bixby, OK by a local farmer named J. L. Sanders during an evening of heavy drinking and playing dice. The incident made the front page of the Tulsa Tribune newspaper and Sanders was later charged with murder after William succumbed to his wound and died on December 10, 1931.
Following William's death, the family remained at Old Hayden's Place for a couple of years and then relocated to just outside Kiefer, OK. After only a couple more years the family moved again to Beggs, OK. It was here in Beggs, that Ollie got remarried to a man named Thomas McCall. The marriage only lasted a year. In November of 1936, Ollie gathered all her children and packed all their belongings into a 1932 Ford V-8 with a trailer and headed out to California. After making the long trip at the lightning-fast pace of 30 mph, the Kennedys arrived in Southern California. They first took work helping two older ladies who lived in a huge house. The family took up residence in a small house in the middle of an orange grove. Ollie's son Don recalls that during this time "each family member probably ate five pounds of oranges a night." They worked for seventy-five cents an hour, an unheard of sum for the time, taking care of smudge pots for 10 to 12 hours a night. The family eventually headed north to Turlock, where times got hard due to lack of work. What little work that could be found primarily involved migrant work picking peaches, cotton, and grapes. By the 1940's work became more plentiful and Ollie took a job working for Armours in 1941. Eventually she was able to buy a house for the sum of $2750.00. Ollie would eventually remarry again, this time to a man named Lee Belcher on May 10, 1956. Ollie lived out her days in Turlock, CA, eventually passing away on August 14, 1980.
Ollie Jones Kennedy and daughter Norma
(Turlock, CA ~ 1943)
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