Leslie Walter Collvins was born April 18, 1908, in Red River County at Avery, Texas, the seventh child of ten children born to John William Collvins and Mary Drucilla Stinson. He had three brothers, Jesse Leon, John William,Jr., and Andrew, and six sisters, Maggie Mae, Rhoda Sheldon, Ada Opal, Bonnie Ethel, Myrtle Vinnie, and Annie, twin of Andrew. He was the only son who survived to adulthood. His sister Annie also died at birth. His oldest sister Maggie, was as much a mother to him as a sister. Protecting her only brother was important to her, and my father had a very special relationship with her his entire life.

Leslie married Loveta Marie Ramsey on December 3, 1938, in Lawton, Oklahoma. The couple moved to Eldorado, Oklahoma and lived there, raising their children, until 1962, at which time they moved to Hugo, Oklahoma and finally to Fort Towson, Oklahoma. They had been married for 32 years at the time of his death. He was the father of three children, Leslie Dean, Rita June, and Joe Wayne.

My father had a great deal of natural musical talent. He could play many insturments, but the "fiddle" was his instrument of choice. He began at a young age to "make music", as it was called, at all the local dances. This created a great deal of friction on the home front, his parents being very stanch church going people. I remember stories told about a certain buggy whip. During my time of growing up, many Saturday nights were spent, either at home, or at a neighbor's house, making music. There would be fiddles, both bass and violins, guitars, and tamborines, and while the adults enjoyed the music, the crowd of kids would play baseball, or tag until night, and then it was hide and go seek in the dark.

We were a farm family most of the time. My father loved to operate machinery, his machine of choice being a bull dozer. He would put in his crop and then find a job somewhere as an operator. At different times he even owned his own dozer and built farm ponds for neighbors, or grubbed mesquite trees from their pastures. He was happiest at the controls of a machine. His work was in high demand, due to his abilities. He was called to California twice as I was growing up, to work as an operator for a friend.

Dad was a good neighbor and a true friend. He instilled in his children the value of hard work, honesty, and respect for other people. This was the legacy that he left us. True wealth. He died of cancer April 22, 1971, in Hugo, Oklahoma, and was buried in the Collvins Cemetery, in Red River County, Texas, just a stone's throw from where he was born, beside his parents, John and Mary, and grandparents Andrew William and Matilda.
I miss him today and always.