Esther Lena Rice was born on March 19, 1930, in the back bedroom of her parent's home at 223 South First street in Durant, Oklahoma. She was delivered by Dr. O. J. Colwick. She was the third child of Roscoe Horace Rice and Sarah Jewell Flemons. Lena had two older sisters, Geraldine Rice, born February 4, 1926, and Imogene Rice, born May 10, 1928; and a young brother, Roscoe Horace Rice, born January 23, 1936.
Lena and her siblings attended the Durant Public School System, starting to school at the Robert E. Lee School and they attended Sunday School at the First Baptist Church and later at the Calvery Baptist Church. She never forget the names of every teacher that she had.
Esther Lena Rice married Calvin Kirby Hogue, Jr. on August 22, 1947, in the living room of her mother's home at 2123 Northwest 22nd street, in Oklahoma City. They were married by a Methodist minister named Reverend McFarland.
Calvin Kirby Hogue, Jr. was born on January 10, 1928, in San Antonio, Texas, on Fort Sam Houston, the son of Calvin Kirby Hogue, Sr. and Eula Fullbright. Calvin's father was in the Army. When Calvin was still quite young, the family moved to Arkansas, and shortly after that, to Coal County, Oklahoma, where other members of their family lived. Calvin started to school in Arkansas, but started over again in Ada, Oklahoma. The family moved around in Ada, and as a result, Calvin attended three different grade schools: Hayes, Glen Elm, and Irving. When Calvin was 13, he moved with his family to Oklahoma City.
As a young boy, Calvin liked nothing better than to play in the woods. He was chief indian scout, head cowboy, and Tarzan all rolled into one. He loved to explore, and to look for arrowheads and unusual rocks. Calvin remembers going to Sunday school occasionally, but does not recall ever being baptized. Calvin had a baby sister, Rosa Lee. Calvin's mother and father divorced, and his mother married a man named Josephus Green. She and Josephus had three children: David, Patsy, and Luther (Butch.
Calvin attended Northeast High School in Oklahoma City. In December 1945, when he was 17, Calvin joined the Army and was put in the Army Air Corps. After spending six weeks in basic infantry school at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Little Rock, Arkansas, Calvin went to Kerns Field in Utah for a few days. From there he went to Camp Stoneman, near Pittsburgh, California, and then on to San Francisco Bay to be put on a Liberty Ship bound for Japan. He said the voyage to Japan was very rough, that the ship was quite small and overcrowded, and that it was bucking and shaking the whole time in the rough waters. He said most of the soldiers got so sick they thought they would die, and after a while they were afraid that they wouldn't. Calvin said he got a queasy stomach but managed not to get sick. The ship docked at Yokohama, where Calvin was put on a train to Fukouako, an old Japanese base on an island named Kyushu. Itazuki AFB was only about 20 miles away but it had no living accommodations. About 10 months later, Calvin was sent to Itami AFB at Osaka, Japan. Calvin spent 17 months in the Pacific, and was then returned to the states where he was discharged from the Army. In April 1947 he went to work at Tinker Air Force Base, starting as a W-05 mechanic's helper. He had a most successful career, advancing to a GS-12 supervisory position. He retired on January 4, 1986, with 40 years of government service.
After being discharged from Army, Calvin lived in his mother's house for a while. She lived next door to a young woman named Eva Mae, who was a good friend of Imogene Rice, Lena's sister. One time when Imogene went to visit Eva Mae, she took Lena with her, and Lena spent the afternoon talking over the fence to the boy next door. Lena thought Calvin was the best looking man she had ever seen, and Calvin told his mother, before he ever dated Lena, that he was going to marry her. Lena went to Eva Mae's house another time, so she could see Calvin, and stayed quite late. Calvin agreed to walk her to the bus stop. Before getting on the bus, Lena reached up and kissed Calvin. He said it almost blew his socks off. They started going out every Friday and Saturday nights, and after a five-month whirlwind romance, Calvin asked her to marry him.
After the wedding ceremony, Calvin and Lena were driven through the main streets of Oklahoma City and then taken to their new apartment at NE 9th and Durland. After living in that apartment a while, they moved to an apartment on NE 36th owned by the Theimer's. Lena's sister, Gerri, and her husband, Harry, lived in an adjacent apartment. A little later, Lena and Calvin moved to an apartment on NE 6th, just east of Broadway, and closer to downtown.
Shortly after they married, Lena and Calvin had gotten a chicken named Peaches that lived in their apartment with them. Lena had gotten Peaches as a baby chicken and raised it in the house. It roosted on the headboard of their bed and would follow Lena around the house. One day Lena and Calvin had no money at all and had to cook Peaches. They invited Lena's sister, Gerri, and her husband, Harry, to dinner Harry sat at the table and said, "Pass the peaches."
In February 1949, Calvin and Lena purchased their home at 1316 Givens Drive in Midwest City, Oklahoma. It was a 2-bedroom white frame home, with garage, and big back yard. At that time, Midwest City was in the early stages of development and their new house was on the east side of Midwest City. Lena and Chuck had no telephone, but there was a public phone across the street from their house. Lena would hear the phone ring and could bound out the front door of her house, cross the street, and pick up the phone before the 3rd ring.
Calvin and Lena had no car when they first married. Public transportation was dependable, cheap, and easily accessible, so they usually just took a taxi or rode a bus wherever they wanted to go. Calvin rode in a carpool to work, and once in a while he and Lena would borrow a car to go somewhere special. They bought their first car in 1950. It was a maroon 1946 Ford.
Both Lena and Calvin were good dancers. As a young man, Calvin took dancing lessons at the Arthur Murray studio, but considered himself to be a better dancer before he took the lessons. He said the reason for this was that nobody danced liked Arthur Murray.
Lena and Calvin had been married for about 11 years and had tried without success to have children. They had sought medical advice and Lena had even had some corrective surgery, but it seemed that they were destined not to have children. In early1958, Lena learned she was pregnant and she and Calvin were extremely happy. On September 22, 1958, Lena gave birth to their first child, Nancy Louise Hogue, in Oklahoma City at Wesley Hospital. They named this daughter after Lena's niece, Nancy Louise Ladd. They waited a couple of years and then on August 21, 1961, Lena gave birth to their second daughter, Karen Kay Hogue, in Oklahoma City at Mercy Hospital.
Lena and Calvin loved to travel and to fish and camp. They fished and camped in nearly every pond and state park in Oklahoma, including Texoma, Eufaula, Tenkiller, Cedar Lake, Little River, Broken Bow, Pine Creek, Robber's Cave, and so on, as well as various places in Missouri and Arkansas.
In 1959, when their first daughter was still a toddler, they spent a week camping in Colorado, visiting such places as Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods, Cave of the Winds, and so on. They took Lena's niece, Nancy, with them, and each night the four of them would crowd into the back of their little Opal Station Wagon to get some sleep. Lena and Calvin never returned to Colorado Springs, but they traveled to a number of other places. One year they spent a week at Grand Canyon. Another they went to Carlsbad Caverns and then drove leisurely through major portions of New Mexico. Another time they went to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, stopping along the way to see Elvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.
Lena had to have surgery to remove her thyroid gland that had become hyperactive. Her father's sister, Bessie Mae Rice, had died of thyroid cancer when she was only 42 years old, which made Lena extremely apprehensive about the surgery. The surgery was a success; however, Lena had to take a thyroid supplement each day for the rest of her life. Further, it was later determined that thyroid problems were common in the family, because Lena's sister, Gerri, had to undergo the same surgery in 1976. Later, in 1991, Gerri's daughter, Nancy, had the same problem but opted for radioactive burnout of the thyroid gland rather than surgery.
Lena's primary role was as a homemaker, but from time to time she worked outside the home to make extra money. Before she married Calvin, she held various jobs, including working at Robert's Drug and Rosenfield Jewelers. After she and Calvin married, she worked at the John A. Brown department store and later at Bartlett's Peanut Company in Midwest City. She then worked for a couple of years as an Avon lady, selling cosmetic's door-to-door. She also worked for a while as a School Crossing Guard at Epperly Grade school, and then decided to start caring for children in her home.
In about 1968, Lena decided she wanted to learn to play the guitar. Calvin bought her a guitar for Christmas, and her niece, Nancy, showed her how to play the basic guitar chords. Lena practiced hard until finally she could sing some of her favorite country tunes. She could be seen several times a week, perched on a stool, strumming her guitar with enthusiasm, and singing her songs loud and clear. Calvin also learned the chords, but instead of singing the words of the music as they had been written, he kept the tunes but changed the words. One of his favorite was to the tune of "You Get a Line and I'll Get a Pole." He changed the words to "You Get a Blanket and I'll Get a Pillow."
Lena was a wonderful cook and homemaker. She cooked enormous family dinners, the table overflowing with such things as hot biscuits, fresh vegetables, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, fruit cobblers, fried pies, and so on. Calvin was a vegetarian, who tried numerous times unsuccessfully to eat meat. That didn't deter Lena's enthusiasm for cooking. Each Christmas eve, Lena and Calvin usually invited all of Lena's family members to share in a holiday feast that Lena had spent days preparing, and in the festivities of their Christmas tree. There would always be music, and usually some of the family would sing Christmas music as someone strummed a guitar.
Calvin enjoyed collecting rock specimens. He had every kind of quartz and rock specimen imaginable, many of which were encased in glass cases. He had cutters, and sanders, and tumblers, and everything else one needs for such a hobby. He made paperweights and jewelry, and the garage was filled to the brim with rock specimens that he had polished and organized. He also enjoyed woodworking, and clock repair. He could repair or refinish furniture to perfection and was frequently called upon by family members to do so. He refinished an antique trunk for his sister-in-law, Gerri. Using slices of tree trunk, he made clocks for everyone in the family. He made fancy birdhouses, capable of housing large numbers of wrens. During the 1980's, Chuck decided to start collecting and repairing antique mantel clocks. Each time he added anew one to his collection, he would completely dismantle it, clean it, repair it if necessary, and refinish its casing. At one point in time, he had 10 or 12 mantel clocks in the den, all in working order and all chiming in unison. Lena advised him that it was time to take some of the clocks to the garage, or stop them because the ticking and chiming were driving everybody crazy.
In June 1991, Chuck was working in his back yard, when his leg buckled, he fell and broke his ankle. He had been having trouble with his legs for some time but the doctor had not been able to pinpoint the cause. His ankle eventually healed, but the source of the problem was never determined. From that day on, Calvin walked using a cane.
In February 1992, Lena awoke from an afternoon nap and told Calvin that she had a headache that was far more severe than anything she had ever had and that she wanted him to take her to the hospital. After arriving at Midwest City Memorial Hospital, she was diagnosed as having a cranial aneurysm and transported by ambulance to the Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City which was better prepared to handle such a serious condition. Lena underwent a series of tests and was found to have two aneurysms. The doctor said he wanted to stabilize her and would then discuss with Calvin whether to proceed with surgery. He said the location of the aneurysms within the skull would make surgery difficult, if not impossible. Lena lapsed into a coma, and at 4:25 p.m. on February 23, 1992, she passed away. She was placed in the care of Bill Eisenhour Southeast Chapel, Del City, and was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Copyright © 2010 Nancy Ladd. All rights reserved.
Lena and her siblings attended the Durant Public School System, starting to school at the Robert E. Lee School and they attended Sunday School at the First Baptist Church and later at the Calvery Baptist Church. She never forget the names of every teacher that she had.
Esther Lena Rice married Calvin Kirby Hogue, Jr. on August 22, 1947, in the living room of her mother's home at 2123 Northwest 22nd street, in Oklahoma City. They were married by a Methodist minister named Reverend McFarland.
Calvin Kirby Hogue, Jr. was born on January 10, 1928, in San Antonio, Texas, on Fort Sam Houston, the son of Calvin Kirby Hogue, Sr. and Eula Fullbright. Calvin's father was in the Army. When Calvin was still quite young, the family moved to Arkansas, and shortly after that, to Coal County, Oklahoma, where other members of their family lived. Calvin started to school in Arkansas, but started over again in Ada, Oklahoma. The family moved around in Ada, and as a result, Calvin attended three different grade schools: Hayes, Glen Elm, and Irving. When Calvin was 13, he moved with his family to Oklahoma City.
As a young boy, Calvin liked nothing better than to play in the woods. He was chief indian scout, head cowboy, and Tarzan all rolled into one. He loved to explore, and to look for arrowheads and unusual rocks. Calvin remembers going to Sunday school occasionally, but does not recall ever being baptized. Calvin had a baby sister, Rosa Lee. Calvin's mother and father divorced, and his mother married a man named Josephus Green. She and Josephus had three children: David, Patsy, and Luther (Butch.
Calvin attended Northeast High School in Oklahoma City. In December 1945, when he was 17, Calvin joined the Army and was put in the Army Air Corps. After spending six weeks in basic infantry school at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Little Rock, Arkansas, Calvin went to Kerns Field in Utah for a few days. From there he went to Camp Stoneman, near Pittsburgh, California, and then on to San Francisco Bay to be put on a Liberty Ship bound for Japan. He said the voyage to Japan was very rough, that the ship was quite small and overcrowded, and that it was bucking and shaking the whole time in the rough waters. He said most of the soldiers got so sick they thought they would die, and after a while they were afraid that they wouldn't. Calvin said he got a queasy stomach but managed not to get sick. The ship docked at Yokohama, where Calvin was put on a train to Fukouako, an old Japanese base on an island named Kyushu. Itazuki AFB was only about 20 miles away but it had no living accommodations. About 10 months later, Calvin was sent to Itami AFB at Osaka, Japan. Calvin spent 17 months in the Pacific, and was then returned to the states where he was discharged from the Army. In April 1947 he went to work at Tinker Air Force Base, starting as a W-05 mechanic's helper. He had a most successful career, advancing to a GS-12 supervisory position. He retired on January 4, 1986, with 40 years of government service.
After being discharged from Army, Calvin lived in his mother's house for a while. She lived next door to a young woman named Eva Mae, who was a good friend of Imogene Rice, Lena's sister. One time when Imogene went to visit Eva Mae, she took Lena with her, and Lena spent the afternoon talking over the fence to the boy next door. Lena thought Calvin was the best looking man she had ever seen, and Calvin told his mother, before he ever dated Lena, that he was going to marry her. Lena went to Eva Mae's house another time, so she could see Calvin, and stayed quite late. Calvin agreed to walk her to the bus stop. Before getting on the bus, Lena reached up and kissed Calvin. He said it almost blew his socks off. They started going out every Friday and Saturday nights, and after a five-month whirlwind romance, Calvin asked her to marry him.
After the wedding ceremony, Calvin and Lena were driven through the main streets of Oklahoma City and then taken to their new apartment at NE 9th and Durland. After living in that apartment a while, they moved to an apartment on NE 36th owned by the Theimer's. Lena's sister, Gerri, and her husband, Harry, lived in an adjacent apartment. A little later, Lena and Calvin moved to an apartment on NE 6th, just east of Broadway, and closer to downtown.
Shortly after they married, Lena and Calvin had gotten a chicken named Peaches that lived in their apartment with them. Lena had gotten Peaches as a baby chicken and raised it in the house. It roosted on the headboard of their bed and would follow Lena around the house. One day Lena and Calvin had no money at all and had to cook Peaches. They invited Lena's sister, Gerri, and her husband, Harry, to dinner Harry sat at the table and said, "Pass the peaches."
In February 1949, Calvin and Lena purchased their home at 1316 Givens Drive in Midwest City, Oklahoma. It was a 2-bedroom white frame home, with garage, and big back yard. At that time, Midwest City was in the early stages of development and their new house was on the east side of Midwest City. Lena and Chuck had no telephone, but there was a public phone across the street from their house. Lena would hear the phone ring and could bound out the front door of her house, cross the street, and pick up the phone before the 3rd ring.
Calvin and Lena had no car when they first married. Public transportation was dependable, cheap, and easily accessible, so they usually just took a taxi or rode a bus wherever they wanted to go. Calvin rode in a carpool to work, and once in a while he and Lena would borrow a car to go somewhere special. They bought their first car in 1950. It was a maroon 1946 Ford.
Both Lena and Calvin were good dancers. As a young man, Calvin took dancing lessons at the Arthur Murray studio, but considered himself to be a better dancer before he took the lessons. He said the reason for this was that nobody danced liked Arthur Murray.
Lena and Calvin had been married for about 11 years and had tried without success to have children. They had sought medical advice and Lena had even had some corrective surgery, but it seemed that they were destined not to have children. In early1958, Lena learned she was pregnant and she and Calvin were extremely happy. On September 22, 1958, Lena gave birth to their first child, Nancy Louise Hogue, in Oklahoma City at Wesley Hospital. They named this daughter after Lena's niece, Nancy Louise Ladd. They waited a couple of years and then on August 21, 1961, Lena gave birth to their second daughter, Karen Kay Hogue, in Oklahoma City at Mercy Hospital.
Lena and Calvin loved to travel and to fish and camp. They fished and camped in nearly every pond and state park in Oklahoma, including Texoma, Eufaula, Tenkiller, Cedar Lake, Little River, Broken Bow, Pine Creek, Robber's Cave, and so on, as well as various places in Missouri and Arkansas.
In 1959, when their first daughter was still a toddler, they spent a week camping in Colorado, visiting such places as Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods, Cave of the Winds, and so on. They took Lena's niece, Nancy, with them, and each night the four of them would crowd into the back of their little Opal Station Wagon to get some sleep. Lena and Calvin never returned to Colorado Springs, but they traveled to a number of other places. One year they spent a week at Grand Canyon. Another they went to Carlsbad Caverns and then drove leisurely through major portions of New Mexico. Another time they went to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, stopping along the way to see Elvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.
Lena had to have surgery to remove her thyroid gland that had become hyperactive. Her father's sister, Bessie Mae Rice, had died of thyroid cancer when she was only 42 years old, which made Lena extremely apprehensive about the surgery. The surgery was a success; however, Lena had to take a thyroid supplement each day for the rest of her life. Further, it was later determined that thyroid problems were common in the family, because Lena's sister, Gerri, had to undergo the same surgery in 1976. Later, in 1991, Gerri's daughter, Nancy, had the same problem but opted for radioactive burnout of the thyroid gland rather than surgery.
Lena's primary role was as a homemaker, but from time to time she worked outside the home to make extra money. Before she married Calvin, she held various jobs, including working at Robert's Drug and Rosenfield Jewelers. After she and Calvin married, she worked at the John A. Brown department store and later at Bartlett's Peanut Company in Midwest City. She then worked for a couple of years as an Avon lady, selling cosmetic's door-to-door. She also worked for a while as a School Crossing Guard at Epperly Grade school, and then decided to start caring for children in her home.
In about 1968, Lena decided she wanted to learn to play the guitar. Calvin bought her a guitar for Christmas, and her niece, Nancy, showed her how to play the basic guitar chords. Lena practiced hard until finally she could sing some of her favorite country tunes. She could be seen several times a week, perched on a stool, strumming her guitar with enthusiasm, and singing her songs loud and clear. Calvin also learned the chords, but instead of singing the words of the music as they had been written, he kept the tunes but changed the words. One of his favorite was to the tune of "You Get a Line and I'll Get a Pole." He changed the words to "You Get a Blanket and I'll Get a Pillow."
Lena was a wonderful cook and homemaker. She cooked enormous family dinners, the table overflowing with such things as hot biscuits, fresh vegetables, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, fruit cobblers, fried pies, and so on. Calvin was a vegetarian, who tried numerous times unsuccessfully to eat meat. That didn't deter Lena's enthusiasm for cooking. Each Christmas eve, Lena and Calvin usually invited all of Lena's family members to share in a holiday feast that Lena had spent days preparing, and in the festivities of their Christmas tree. There would always be music, and usually some of the family would sing Christmas music as someone strummed a guitar.
Calvin enjoyed collecting rock specimens. He had every kind of quartz and rock specimen imaginable, many of which were encased in glass cases. He had cutters, and sanders, and tumblers, and everything else one needs for such a hobby. He made paperweights and jewelry, and the garage was filled to the brim with rock specimens that he had polished and organized. He also enjoyed woodworking, and clock repair. He could repair or refinish furniture to perfection and was frequently called upon by family members to do so. He refinished an antique trunk for his sister-in-law, Gerri. Using slices of tree trunk, he made clocks for everyone in the family. He made fancy birdhouses, capable of housing large numbers of wrens. During the 1980's, Chuck decided to start collecting and repairing antique mantel clocks. Each time he added anew one to his collection, he would completely dismantle it, clean it, repair it if necessary, and refinish its casing. At one point in time, he had 10 or 12 mantel clocks in the den, all in working order and all chiming in unison. Lena advised him that it was time to take some of the clocks to the garage, or stop them because the ticking and chiming were driving everybody crazy.
In June 1991, Chuck was working in his back yard, when his leg buckled, he fell and broke his ankle. He had been having trouble with his legs for some time but the doctor had not been able to pinpoint the cause. His ankle eventually healed, but the source of the problem was never determined. From that day on, Calvin walked using a cane.
In February 1992, Lena awoke from an afternoon nap and told Calvin that she had a headache that was far more severe than anything she had ever had and that she wanted him to take her to the hospital. After arriving at Midwest City Memorial Hospital, she was diagnosed as having a cranial aneurysm and transported by ambulance to the Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City which was better prepared to handle such a serious condition. Lena underwent a series of tests and was found to have two aneurysms. The doctor said he wanted to stabilize her and would then discuss with Calvin whether to proceed with surgery. He said the location of the aneurysms within the skull would make surgery difficult, if not impossible. Lena lapsed into a coma, and at 4:25 p.m. on February 23, 1992, she passed away. She was placed in the care of Bill Eisenhour Southeast Chapel, Del City, and was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Copyright © 2010 Nancy Ladd. All rights reserved.
Esther Lena Rice was born on March 19, 1930, in the back bedroom of her parent's home at 223 South First street in Durant, Oklahoma. She was delivered by Dr. O. J. Colwick. She was the third child of Roscoe Horace Rice and Sarah Jewell Flemons. Lena had two older sisters, Geraldine Rice, born February 4, 1926, and Imogene Rice, born May 10, 1928; and a young brother, Roscoe Horace Rice, born January 23, 1936.
Lena and her siblings attended the Durant Public School System, starting to school at the Robert E. Lee School and they attended Sunday School at the First Baptist Church and later at the Calvery Baptist Church. She never forget the names of every teacher that she had.
Esther Lena Rice married Calvin Kirby Hogue, Jr. on August 22, 1947, in the living room of her mother's home at 2123 Northwest 22nd street, in Oklahoma City. They were married by a Methodist minister named Reverend McFarland.
Calvin Kirby Hogue, Jr. was born on January 10, 1928, in San Antonio, Texas, on Fort Sam Houston, the son of Calvin Kirby Hogue, Sr. and Eula Fullbright. Calvin's father was in the Army. When Calvin was still quite young, the family moved to Arkansas, and shortly after that, to Coal County, Oklahoma, where other members of their family lived. Calvin started to school in Arkansas, but started over again in Ada, Oklahoma. The family moved around in Ada, and as a result, Calvin attended three different grade schools: Hayes, Glen Elm, and Irving. When Calvin was 13, he moved with his family to Oklahoma City.
As a young boy, Calvin liked nothing better than to play in the woods. He was chief indian scout, head cowboy, and Tarzan all rolled into one. He loved to explore, and to look for arrowheads and unusual rocks. Calvin remembers going to Sunday school occasionally, but does not recall ever being baptized. Calvin had a baby sister, Rosa Lee. Calvin's mother and father divorced, and his mother married a man named Josephus Green. She and Josephus had three children: David, Patsy, and Luther (Butch.
Calvin attended Northeast High School in Oklahoma City. In December 1945, when he was 17, Calvin joined the Army and was put in the Army Air Corps. After spending six weeks in basic infantry school at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Little Rock, Arkansas, Calvin went to Kerns Field in Utah for a few days. From there he went to Camp Stoneman, near Pittsburgh, California, and then on to San Francisco Bay to be put on a Liberty Ship bound for Japan. He said the voyage to Japan was very rough, that the ship was quite small and overcrowded, and that it was bucking and shaking the whole time in the rough waters. He said most of the soldiers got so sick they thought they would die, and after a while they were afraid that they wouldn't. Calvin said he got a queasy stomach but managed not to get sick. The ship docked at Yokohama, where Calvin was put on a train to Fukouako, an old Japanese base on an island named Kyushu. Itazuki AFB was only about 20 miles away but it had no living accommodations. About 10 months later, Calvin was sent to Itami AFB at Osaka, Japan. Calvin spent 17 months in the Pacific, and was then returned to the states where he was discharged from the Army. In April 1947 he went to work at Tinker Air Force Base, starting as a W-05 mechanic's helper. He had a most successful career, advancing to a GS-12 supervisory position. He retired on January 4, 1986, with 40 years of government service.
After being discharged from Army, Calvin lived in his mother's house for a while. She lived next door to a young woman named Eva Mae, who was a good friend of Imogene Rice, Lena's sister. One time when Imogene went to visit Eva Mae, she took Lena with her, and Lena spent the afternoon talking over the fence to the boy next door. Lena thought Calvin was the best looking man she had ever seen, and Calvin told his mother, before he ever dated Lena, that he was going to marry her. Lena went to Eva Mae's house another time, so she could see Calvin, and stayed quite late. Calvin agreed to walk her to the bus stop. Before getting on the bus, Lena reached up and kissed Calvin. He said it almost blew his socks off. They started going out every Friday and Saturday nights, and after a five-month whirlwind romance, Calvin asked her to marry him.
After the wedding ceremony, Calvin and Lena were driven through the main streets of Oklahoma City and then taken to their new apartment at NE 9th and Durland. After living in that apartment a while, they moved to an apartment on NE 36th owned by the Theimer's. Lena's sister, Gerri, and her husband, Harry, lived in an adjacent apartment. A little later, Lena and Calvin moved to an apartment on NE 6th, just east of Broadway, and closer to downtown.
Shortly after they married, Lena and Calvin had gotten a chicken named Peaches that lived in their apartment with them. Lena had gotten Peaches as a baby chicken and raised it in the house. It roosted on the headboard of their bed and would follow Lena around the house. One day Lena and Calvin had no money at all and had to cook Peaches. They invited Lena's sister, Gerri, and her husband, Harry, to dinner Harry sat at the table and said, "Pass the peaches."
In February 1949, Calvin and Lena purchased their home at 1316 Givens Drive in Midwest City, Oklahoma. It was a 2-bedroom white frame home, with garage, and big back yard. At that time, Midwest City was in the early stages of development and their new house was on the east side of Midwest City. Lena and Chuck had no telephone, but there was a public phone across the street from their house. Lena would hear the phone ring and could bound out the front door of her house, cross the street, and pick up the phone before the 3rd ring.
Calvin and Lena had no car when they first married. Public transportation was dependable, cheap, and easily accessible, so they usually just took a taxi or rode a bus wherever they wanted to go. Calvin rode in a carpool to work, and once in a while he and Lena would borrow a car to go somewhere special. They bought their first car in 1950. It was a maroon 1946 Ford.
Both Lena and Calvin were good dancers. As a young man, Calvin took dancing lessons at the Arthur Murray studio, but considered himself to be a better dancer before he took the lessons. He said the reason for this was that nobody danced liked Arthur Murray.
Lena and Calvin had been married for about 11 years and had tried without success to have children. They had sought medical advice and Lena had even had some corrective surgery, but it seemed that they were destined not to have children. In early1958, Lena learned she was pregnant and she and Calvin were extremely happy. On September 22, 1958, Lena gave birth to their first child, Nancy Louise Hogue, in Oklahoma City at Wesley Hospital. They named this daughter after Lena's niece, Nancy Louise Ladd. They waited a couple of years and then on August 21, 1961, Lena gave birth to their second daughter, Karen Kay Hogue, in Oklahoma City at Mercy Hospital.
Lena and Calvin loved to travel and to fish and camp. They fished and camped in nearly every pond and state park in Oklahoma, including Texoma, Eufaula, Tenkiller, Cedar Lake, Little River, Broken Bow, Pine Creek, Robber's Cave, and so on, as well as various places in Missouri and Arkansas.
In 1959, when their first daughter was still a toddler, they spent a week camping in Colorado, visiting such places as Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods, Cave of the Winds, and so on. They took Lena's niece, Nancy, with them, and each night the four of them would crowd into the back of their little Opal Station Wagon to get some sleep. Lena and Calvin never returned to Colorado Springs, but they traveled to a number of other places. One year they spent a week at Grand Canyon. Another they went to Carlsbad Caverns and then drove leisurely through major portions of New Mexico. Another time they went to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, stopping along the way to see Elvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.
Lena had to have surgery to remove her thyroid gland that had become hyperactive. Her father's sister, Bessie Mae Rice, had died of thyroid cancer when she was only 42 years old, which made Lena extremely apprehensive about the surgery. The surgery was a success; however, Lena had to take a thyroid supplement each day for the rest of her life. Further, it was later determined that thyroid problems were common in the family, because Lena's sister, Gerri, had to undergo the same surgery in 1976. Later, in 1991, Gerri's daughter, Nancy, had the same problem but opted for radioactive burnout of the thyroid gland rather than surgery.
Lena's primary role was as a homemaker, but from time to time she worked outside the home to make extra money. Before she married Calvin, she held various jobs, including working at Robert's Drug and Rosenfield Jewelers. After she and Calvin married, she worked at the John A. Brown department store and later at Bartlett's Peanut Company in Midwest City. She then worked for a couple of years as an Avon lady, selling cosmetic's door-to-door. She also worked for a while as a School Crossing Guard at Epperly Grade school, and then decided to start caring for children in her home.
In about 1968, Lena decided she wanted to learn to play the guitar. Calvin bought her a guitar for Christmas, and her niece, Nancy, showed her how to play the basic guitar chords. Lena practiced hard until finally she could sing some of her favorite country tunes. She could be seen several times a week, perched on a stool, strumming her guitar with enthusiasm, and singing her songs loud and clear. Calvin also learned the chords, but instead of singing the words of the music as they had been written, he kept the tunes but changed the words. One of his favorite was to the tune of "You Get a Line and I'll Get a Pole." He changed the words to "You Get a Blanket and I'll Get a Pillow."
Lena was a wonderful cook and homemaker. She cooked enormous family dinners, the table overflowing with such things as hot biscuits, fresh vegetables, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, fruit cobblers, fried pies, and so on. Calvin was a vegetarian, who tried numerous times unsuccessfully to eat meat. That didn't deter Lena's enthusiasm for cooking. Each Christmas eve, Lena and Calvin usually invited all of Lena's family members to share in a holiday feast that Lena had spent days preparing, and in the festivities of their Christmas tree. There would always be music, and usually some of the family would sing Christmas music as someone strummed a guitar.
Calvin enjoyed collecting rock specimens. He had every kind of quartz and rock specimen imaginable, many of which were encased in glass cases. He had cutters, and sanders, and tumblers, and everything else one needs for such a hobby. He made paperweights and jewelry, and the garage was filled to the brim with rock specimens that he had polished and organized. He also enjoyed woodworking, and clock repair. He could repair or refinish furniture to perfection and was frequently called upon by family members to do so. He refinished an antique trunk for his sister-in-law, Gerri. Using slices of tree trunk, he made clocks for everyone in the family. He made fancy birdhouses, capable of housing large numbers of wrens. During the 1980's, Chuck decided to start collecting and repairing antique mantel clocks. Each time he added anew one to his collection, he would completely dismantle it, clean it, repair it if necessary, and refinish its casing. At one point in time, he had 10 or 12 mantel clocks in the den, all in working order and all chiming in unison. Lena advised him that it was time to take some of the clocks to the garage, or stop them because the ticking and chiming were driving everybody crazy.
In June 1991, Chuck was working in his back yard, when his leg buckled, he fell and broke his ankle. He had been having trouble with his legs for some time but the doctor had not been able to pinpoint the cause. His ankle eventually healed, but the source of the problem was never determined. From that day on, Calvin walked using a cane.
In February 1992, Lena awoke from an afternoon nap and told Calvin that she had a headache that was far more severe than anything she had ever had and that she wanted him to take her to the hospital. After arriving at Midwest City Memorial Hospital, she was diagnosed as having a cranial aneurysm and transported by ambulance to the Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City which was better prepared to handle such a serious condition. Lena underwent a series of tests and was found to have two aneurysms. The doctor said he wanted to stabilize her and would then discuss with Calvin whether to proceed with surgery. He said the location of the aneurysms within the skull would make surgery difficult, if not impossible. Lena lapsed into a coma, and at 4:25 p.m. on February 23, 1992, she passed away. She was placed in the care of Bill Eisenhour Southeast Chapel, Del City, and was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Copyright © 2010 Nancy Ladd. All rights reserved.
Lena and her siblings attended the Durant Public School System, starting to school at the Robert E. Lee School and they attended Sunday School at the First Baptist Church and later at the Calvery Baptist Church. She never forget the names of every teacher that she had.
Esther Lena Rice married Calvin Kirby Hogue, Jr. on August 22, 1947, in the living room of her mother's home at 2123 Northwest 22nd street, in Oklahoma City. They were married by a Methodist minister named Reverend McFarland.
Calvin Kirby Hogue, Jr. was born on January 10, 1928, in San Antonio, Texas, on Fort Sam Houston, the son of Calvin Kirby Hogue, Sr. and Eula Fullbright. Calvin's father was in the Army. When Calvin was still quite young, the family moved to Arkansas, and shortly after that, to Coal County, Oklahoma, where other members of their family lived. Calvin started to school in Arkansas, but started over again in Ada, Oklahoma. The family moved around in Ada, and as a result, Calvin attended three different grade schools: Hayes, Glen Elm, and Irving. When Calvin was 13, he moved with his family to Oklahoma City.
As a young boy, Calvin liked nothing better than to play in the woods. He was chief indian scout, head cowboy, and Tarzan all rolled into one. He loved to explore, and to look for arrowheads and unusual rocks. Calvin remembers going to Sunday school occasionally, but does not recall ever being baptized. Calvin had a baby sister, Rosa Lee. Calvin's mother and father divorced, and his mother married a man named Josephus Green. She and Josephus had three children: David, Patsy, and Luther (Butch.
Calvin attended Northeast High School in Oklahoma City. In December 1945, when he was 17, Calvin joined the Army and was put in the Army Air Corps. After spending six weeks in basic infantry school at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Little Rock, Arkansas, Calvin went to Kerns Field in Utah for a few days. From there he went to Camp Stoneman, near Pittsburgh, California, and then on to San Francisco Bay to be put on a Liberty Ship bound for Japan. He said the voyage to Japan was very rough, that the ship was quite small and overcrowded, and that it was bucking and shaking the whole time in the rough waters. He said most of the soldiers got so sick they thought they would die, and after a while they were afraid that they wouldn't. Calvin said he got a queasy stomach but managed not to get sick. The ship docked at Yokohama, where Calvin was put on a train to Fukouako, an old Japanese base on an island named Kyushu. Itazuki AFB was only about 20 miles away but it had no living accommodations. About 10 months later, Calvin was sent to Itami AFB at Osaka, Japan. Calvin spent 17 months in the Pacific, and was then returned to the states where he was discharged from the Army. In April 1947 he went to work at Tinker Air Force Base, starting as a W-05 mechanic's helper. He had a most successful career, advancing to a GS-12 supervisory position. He retired on January 4, 1986, with 40 years of government service.
After being discharged from Army, Calvin lived in his mother's house for a while. She lived next door to a young woman named Eva Mae, who was a good friend of Imogene Rice, Lena's sister. One time when Imogene went to visit Eva Mae, she took Lena with her, and Lena spent the afternoon talking over the fence to the boy next door. Lena thought Calvin was the best looking man she had ever seen, and Calvin told his mother, before he ever dated Lena, that he was going to marry her. Lena went to Eva Mae's house another time, so she could see Calvin, and stayed quite late. Calvin agreed to walk her to the bus stop. Before getting on the bus, Lena reached up and kissed Calvin. He said it almost blew his socks off. They started going out every Friday and Saturday nights, and after a five-month whirlwind romance, Calvin asked her to marry him.
After the wedding ceremony, Calvin and Lena were driven through the main streets of Oklahoma City and then taken to their new apartment at NE 9th and Durland. After living in that apartment a while, they moved to an apartment on NE 36th owned by the Theimer's. Lena's sister, Gerri, and her husband, Harry, lived in an adjacent apartment. A little later, Lena and Calvin moved to an apartment on NE 6th, just east of Broadway, and closer to downtown.
Shortly after they married, Lena and Calvin had gotten a chicken named Peaches that lived in their apartment with them. Lena had gotten Peaches as a baby chicken and raised it in the house. It roosted on the headboard of their bed and would follow Lena around the house. One day Lena and Calvin had no money at all and had to cook Peaches. They invited Lena's sister, Gerri, and her husband, Harry, to dinner Harry sat at the table and said, "Pass the peaches."
In February 1949, Calvin and Lena purchased their home at 1316 Givens Drive in Midwest City, Oklahoma. It was a 2-bedroom white frame home, with garage, and big back yard. At that time, Midwest City was in the early stages of development and their new house was on the east side of Midwest City. Lena and Chuck had no telephone, but there was a public phone across the street from their house. Lena would hear the phone ring and could bound out the front door of her house, cross the street, and pick up the phone before the 3rd ring.
Calvin and Lena had no car when they first married. Public transportation was dependable, cheap, and easily accessible, so they usually just took a taxi or rode a bus wherever they wanted to go. Calvin rode in a carpool to work, and once in a while he and Lena would borrow a car to go somewhere special. They bought their first car in 1950. It was a maroon 1946 Ford.
Both Lena and Calvin were good dancers. As a young man, Calvin took dancing lessons at the Arthur Murray studio, but considered himself to be a better dancer before he took the lessons. He said the reason for this was that nobody danced liked Arthur Murray.
Lena and Calvin had been married for about 11 years and had tried without success to have children. They had sought medical advice and Lena had even had some corrective surgery, but it seemed that they were destined not to have children. In early1958, Lena learned she was pregnant and she and Calvin were extremely happy. On September 22, 1958, Lena gave birth to their first child, Nancy Louise Hogue, in Oklahoma City at Wesley Hospital. They named this daughter after Lena's niece, Nancy Louise Ladd. They waited a couple of years and then on August 21, 1961, Lena gave birth to their second daughter, Karen Kay Hogue, in Oklahoma City at Mercy Hospital.
Lena and Calvin loved to travel and to fish and camp. They fished and camped in nearly every pond and state park in Oklahoma, including Texoma, Eufaula, Tenkiller, Cedar Lake, Little River, Broken Bow, Pine Creek, Robber's Cave, and so on, as well as various places in Missouri and Arkansas.
In 1959, when their first daughter was still a toddler, they spent a week camping in Colorado, visiting such places as Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods, Cave of the Winds, and so on. They took Lena's niece, Nancy, with them, and each night the four of them would crowd into the back of their little Opal Station Wagon to get some sleep. Lena and Calvin never returned to Colorado Springs, but they traveled to a number of other places. One year they spent a week at Grand Canyon. Another they went to Carlsbad Caverns and then drove leisurely through major portions of New Mexico. Another time they went to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, stopping along the way to see Elvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.
Lena had to have surgery to remove her thyroid gland that had become hyperactive. Her father's sister, Bessie Mae Rice, had died of thyroid cancer when she was only 42 years old, which made Lena extremely apprehensive about the surgery. The surgery was a success; however, Lena had to take a thyroid supplement each day for the rest of her life. Further, it was later determined that thyroid problems were common in the family, because Lena's sister, Gerri, had to undergo the same surgery in 1976. Later, in 1991, Gerri's daughter, Nancy, had the same problem but opted for radioactive burnout of the thyroid gland rather than surgery.
Lena's primary role was as a homemaker, but from time to time she worked outside the home to make extra money. Before she married Calvin, she held various jobs, including working at Robert's Drug and Rosenfield Jewelers. After she and Calvin married, she worked at the John A. Brown department store and later at Bartlett's Peanut Company in Midwest City. She then worked for a couple of years as an Avon lady, selling cosmetic's door-to-door. She also worked for a while as a School Crossing Guard at Epperly Grade school, and then decided to start caring for children in her home.
In about 1968, Lena decided she wanted to learn to play the guitar. Calvin bought her a guitar for Christmas, and her niece, Nancy, showed her how to play the basic guitar chords. Lena practiced hard until finally she could sing some of her favorite country tunes. She could be seen several times a week, perched on a stool, strumming her guitar with enthusiasm, and singing her songs loud and clear. Calvin also learned the chords, but instead of singing the words of the music as they had been written, he kept the tunes but changed the words. One of his favorite was to the tune of "You Get a Line and I'll Get a Pole." He changed the words to "You Get a Blanket and I'll Get a Pillow."
Lena was a wonderful cook and homemaker. She cooked enormous family dinners, the table overflowing with such things as hot biscuits, fresh vegetables, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, fruit cobblers, fried pies, and so on. Calvin was a vegetarian, who tried numerous times unsuccessfully to eat meat. That didn't deter Lena's enthusiasm for cooking. Each Christmas eve, Lena and Calvin usually invited all of Lena's family members to share in a holiday feast that Lena had spent days preparing, and in the festivities of their Christmas tree. There would always be music, and usually some of the family would sing Christmas music as someone strummed a guitar.
Calvin enjoyed collecting rock specimens. He had every kind of quartz and rock specimen imaginable, many of which were encased in glass cases. He had cutters, and sanders, and tumblers, and everything else one needs for such a hobby. He made paperweights and jewelry, and the garage was filled to the brim with rock specimens that he had polished and organized. He also enjoyed woodworking, and clock repair. He could repair or refinish furniture to perfection and was frequently called upon by family members to do so. He refinished an antique trunk for his sister-in-law, Gerri. Using slices of tree trunk, he made clocks for everyone in the family. He made fancy birdhouses, capable of housing large numbers of wrens. During the 1980's, Chuck decided to start collecting and repairing antique mantel clocks. Each time he added anew one to his collection, he would completely dismantle it, clean it, repair it if necessary, and refinish its casing. At one point in time, he had 10 or 12 mantel clocks in the den, all in working order and all chiming in unison. Lena advised him that it was time to take some of the clocks to the garage, or stop them because the ticking and chiming were driving everybody crazy.
In June 1991, Chuck was working in his back yard, when his leg buckled, he fell and broke his ankle. He had been having trouble with his legs for some time but the doctor had not been able to pinpoint the cause. His ankle eventually healed, but the source of the problem was never determined. From that day on, Calvin walked using a cane.
In February 1992, Lena awoke from an afternoon nap and told Calvin that she had a headache that was far more severe than anything she had ever had and that she wanted him to take her to the hospital. After arriving at Midwest City Memorial Hospital, she was diagnosed as having a cranial aneurysm and transported by ambulance to the Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City which was better prepared to handle such a serious condition. Lena underwent a series of tests and was found to have two aneurysms. The doctor said he wanted to stabilize her and would then discuss with Calvin whether to proceed with surgery. He said the location of the aneurysms within the skull would make surgery difficult, if not impossible. Lena lapsed into a coma, and at 4:25 p.m. on February 23, 1992, she passed away. She was placed in the care of Bill Eisenhour Southeast Chapel, Del City, and was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Copyright © 2010 Nancy Ladd. All rights reserved.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
