Our mother's earliest memories were of living with her Grandpa Milford Dickerson on his farm near Seybert in rural Dade County for about four years. Her mother Martha Lena (Dickerson) Hook, had a mental breakdown while the family was living in Wichita, Kansas, and she and her mother were brought back to her Grandpa Milford's farm in Missouri. Her mother was committed to the Missouri State Asylum in Nevada, Vernon County in 1932 when mom was about three years old. Lena was then released from the asylum for a short period of time before being recommitted in 1934 and giving birth to a son at the asylum on September 15, 1934. The baby boy was adopted shortly thereafter by Cleason S. and Edith M. (Murphey) Robertson of the Kansas City, Missouri area. After his adoptive parents passed away, John Charles Robertson (1934-2007) felt comfortable to begin a search for his birth family and was able to find and meet his older sisters Evalina and Reba shortly after their mother Martha Lena's death in 1986.
Mom's father Charles Harry Hook had remained in Kansas. A cousin in Wichita, Frank Hook Jr., said everyone called his uncle by his middle name, Harry. Frank Jr.'s family lived directly across the street from them and he had sometimes gone over to play at Harry and Lena's house. He remembered watching several women taking his Aunt Lena and cousin Evalina away and heard his family talking about it afterwards. He never saw either one of them again. (Several of Lena's sisters had traveled to Wichita to bring Lena and mom back to Milford Dickerson's farm.) I had wondered how Grandma Lena might have met Harry Hook and thought it might be connected to Milford Dickerson's moonshining operation as the product was being distributed on both sides of the Kansas / Missouri border and down into Oklahoma as well, and I thought Grandma Lena might have met him through her brothers. It could have had some connection to the moonshining (before, during and after Prohibition 1920-1933), but Grandma Lena's older brother Wilburn Wrice "Jim" Dickerson was married to Harry Hook's younger sister Alveretta Hook and lived in Wichita, and was the most likely way they met. In 1999, I wrote letters to "Jim" and Alveretta (Hook) Dickerson's sons and received a most welcome phone call from their son Carl Wilburn Dickerson (1926-2001) of Pretty Prairie, Kansas and though they never had personal contact, he and mom were both happy to know about each other and pleased that they were double first cousins!
(Both our dad and Granddad "Jim Boone" DePreste knew and liked Milford Dickerson and were well aware of his moonshining operation, and mom remembered seeing the stills on her Grandpa Dickerson's farm.)
~ Martha Lena Dickerson, Claude Feezell and Charles Harry Hook ~
...For many years, mom and I thought her father might have played a role in her mother's mental breakdown, but later contact and communications with a previously unknown older half-sister, Reba Mildred (Feezell) Burch - Mattingly (with supportive documents and records), confirmed Martha Lena's mental health deterioration probably started with the actions of her first husband Claude Feezell when he abducted their daughter Reba; which by several accounts brought on an immediate and acute emotional breakdown by Grandma Lena, "she went wild."
…I have not been able to find Harry, Lena, and mom on the 1930 census in Dade County, Missouri or elsewhere. If they were living in Dade County where mom's older sister Erma died in Center Township on April 3rd, 1930 (from whooping cough and pneumonia), they were either missed by the enumerator or had moved to Wichita soon after Erma's death and burial, as they do not appear on the census taken in April and May.
…Mom also had an older paternal half-sister named Ruth Hook born June 2, 1914 in Chelsea, Rogers County, Oklahoma. She was the daughter of Charles Harry Hook, Jr. and his first wife Cora McReynolds. In 1920, Ruth Hook appears as a stepdaughter in the household of Fred and Cora (McReynolds) Pegg in Chelsea Precinct., Rogers County, Oklahoma. Cora married Hohman Richard Heath in 1929 in Oklahoma and they appear together on the 1930 census in Chelsea Town, Rogers County, Oklahoma. Hohman Richard Heath was born June 2, 1910 in Chelsea, Oklahoma, and died November 23, 1967 in Tulare County, California. I have yet to find more conclusive information on Ruth (Hook) Heath unless she is the "Miss" Ruth Heath age 23 (born about 1915) of Tulsa, who was united in marriage to James Roy Johnson of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma on December 9, 1938.
…I did find nine-year-old Reba Feezell in 1930. After her father Claude abducted her, he apparently abandoned her with Bert and Susie (Hayes) Franks in the "Damsite Town" in Miller County, Missouri. In 1940, Reba is nineteen and living with her foster brother Elmer Hayes' family in Arkansas, and her foster parents Bert and Susie (Hayes) Franks are nearby. Reba referred to Bert and Susie Franks as her adoptive parents, strongly suggesting a deep bond of love between parent and child. I also found Reba's father Claude Feezell in 1940, he had married Edna Ethel (Asher) Moorehead on March 12, 1940 and was farming in Lamar, Barton County, Missouri. He died March 15, 1959 at the Missouri State Sanatorium in Mt. Vernon in Lawrence County, Missouri. [Death Certificate]
Charles Harry Hook married a third time and remained near his aging parents in Kansas for a number of years, appearing on the 1940 census in Wichita. He was a carpenter and would eventually build his own house in Racine, Missouri. Frank Hook Jr. and his wife occasionally visited Harry and Rachel (Frizzell) Hook in Racine. He remembers his uncle as a tough and hardworking man who "always seemed to have something on his mind," and of Harry telling him, "Lena was never going to come home from the hospital." Harry may have inquired about mom during her childhood as his brother-in-law, Wrice "Jim" Dickerson (Lena's brother) also lived in Wichita, but Harry Hook's presence around the Dickerson family in Dade County was not welcome. It was a tragic family circumstance and we will never know the whole story. Ironically, Harry Hook died December 20, 1968 at Missouri State Hospital No.3 in Nevada, Missouri while Lena was still a patient there and was laid to rest at Hornet Cemetery near Racine, in Newton County, Missouri. [See cemetery note below.] He is buried next to Rachel (Frizzell) Hook who is noted as his wife on several records, but Frank Hook Jr. didn't believe Harry and Lena were ever legally divorced. He may have been right about Harry not being legally divorced from Lena as I've not found a record of one, but Harry Hook and Rachel Hunter were married on June 15, 1936 by a Justice of the Peace at the Justice Court in Newkirk, Kay County, Oklahoma.
Since mom's Grandpa Milford didn't drive (traveled by farm wagon), he made an arrangement for mom to live at Martha Milligan's Boarding House in South Greenfield, Dade County. Mom is enumerated at the boarding house as Martha Milligan's eleven year-old foster daughter on the census dated April 27, 1940. Mrs. Milligan was a strict taskmaster with mom's household chores but also offered the advantages of living in town and being close to school, and learning to play the piano. Mom also said she was shown affection and kindness by the elderly resident boarders, but at age fifteen, mom packed her clothes and sneaked out of the boarding house and went to live with her Aunt Lyda (Dickerson) Shive and baby cousin Lyndall in South Greenfield. Mom was only four years younger than Aunt Lyda and would be a companion and helpful hands while Uncle Clarence was serving in the Army in the South Pacific during WWII. Mom attended high school in Greenfield and had several close girlfriends and started dating.
~ Evalina Hook and Paul Trenton DePreste ~
Mom was living with her Aunt Lyda and Uncle Clarence Shive in Greenfield when she met our father. Keen on high school basketball, she and her girlfriend Georgiana Hunt were to attend the game in Miller on a double-date but as they were leaving Georgiana's, a big new black car drove up and another friend, Evelyn Sparks, got out of the car and asked the girls to go with her and her date Paul DePreste and his friend Henry Stahl, both of Miller. Dad wasn't that interested in basketball, but Henry's date had cancelled and the Miller boys enjoyed looking over the replacement prospects in Greenfield. Mom dated Henry a few times afterwards, but then Paul DePreste showed up at the door. Bye-bye Henry. (She didn't remember who won that basketball game, but hoped it was Greenfield.) Mom and dad became engaged one month later. Since mom was only sixteen, she wondered how they would obtain a marriage license. Her future mother-in-law, Nina (Jones) DePreste told her to do what she had done, "just tell the clerk you're eighteen and they'll give you the license." When mom told the clerk at the courthouse in Mt. Vernon she was eighteen the clerk did give them the license, but he had a big smile on his face. Evalina Hook and Paul Trenton DePreste were married at his parent's home near Miller on Thursday, April 5, 1945, at 9 o'clock in the evening. They didn't have a traditional honeymoon, but they did manage some time away together when dad took her on a camping and fishing trip to White River, and camping and fishing, and site-seeing became a life-long recreational pursuit in our family.
The family of Paul and Evalina "Evelyn" (Hook) DePreste
Their first child, son Paul, Jr. was born at Dr. Watt O. Cowan's home residence and hospital in Greenfield, Dade County, and their next son Morris, was born at Dr. Cowan's new clinic in Lockwood, Dade County; both being born while their parents were living in the old family homestead farmhouse on an eighty-acre farm just southwest of Miller in neighboring Lawrence County. By 1949, our parents had purchased a home at 3101 West Mount Vernon and South Golden Avenue in Springfield, Greene County, where daughter Vicki was born at the old St. John's Hospital and four years later, son Brian was born at the new St. John's Hospital.
Mom and dad sold their home in Springfield and moved back into the farmhouse west of Miller. Her Grandpa Milford passed away on January 17, 1955, and as much as she wanted to attend his funeral, the heavy snow made her decide not to try traveling that distance with four young children. Shortly after deciding not to attend, Granddad Boone drove up in his truck and told her he would make sure she made it to her Grandpa Milford's funeral and she did. Gotta love such determined, resourceful and caring people.
In 1955, mom and dad bought a new 40' x 8' (single wide) Spartan Trailer and a new International Pickup and moved to Texas. We moved first to Big Spring for a few weeks where our dad connected with Thomas and Alma Reed (Reed Oil Co., Inc., formerly of Springfield, Missouri), then moved west to Odessa for a short time, then west again to Pecos where dad managed a Reed Oil Gas Station, and lastly back east to Midland where dad worked for the Bush Drilling Company (later the 41st U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush).
In the fall of 1956, our family moved on to Livermore, Alameda County, California, where our sister Joyce and four years later our youngest brother James were born, both at the old St. Paul's Hospital. In-between Joyce and James' births, we moved to rural Pleasanton for a year before returning to Livermore. The family moved from Livermore in 1965; first to San Pablo, and in 1966 mom and dad bought a home in nearby Richmond, both being in Contra Costa County. When the school year ended in June of 1969, mom and dad and the three younger children moved back to the family farm near Miller, Missouri, then later bought a home in town. By the time the family moved from California, Paul, Jr. was married, and he, Morris and I were working and living on our own in the East Bay Area.
Cemetery Note:
While on vacation to visit the family in Missouri in July of 2001, Ron, myself, and mom and dad went to Hornet Cemetery (south of Joplin) to visit the gravesite of mom's father. It was very meaningful to me that mom and I were together to pay our respects after such a long journey of sorting out that missing part of her childhood. The cemetery is fairly large and if memory serves, Harry and Rachel (Frizzell) Hook's graves are in the back part of the cemetery.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
MILLER PRESS - LAST WEEK OF APRIL (1945)
Greenfield Girl; Paul DePreste Are Married
...Paul DePreste of R.2, Miller, and Evelyn Hook of N. Greenfield were united in marriage Thursday, at 9 P.M. April 5 at the home of the groom's parents, near Miller. The double-ring, candle light ceremony was preformed by the Rev. J. E. Burk of the Assembly of God Church in Mt. Vernon, Mo. with the Rev. J. E. Mastries officiating. Mr. and Mr. Victor DePreste, brother of Paul, acting as best man and maid of honor. Following the wedding the bride and groom gracefully cut the beautiful three-tier cake baked by Dixie Rose Sexton. And refreshments were served to about 30 guests who reported the sweetest and most enjoyable marriage witnessed.
...Evelyn attended high school in Greenfield, Mo. and made her home there with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Shive. Paul graduated from Springfield H.S. and has been a member of the F.F.A. Association since the year 1940 and was awarded a medal in Greene Co. in 1943 for having the most outstanding Farm program of the year. He says he's spending his honeymoon on the tractor and Evelyn performing the duties of a farmer's wife.
...Guests at the wedding were: Mrs. Al Singelton and daughter Beverly of Greenfield, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Shive, Greenfield, Rev. and Mrs. J. E. Burk and daughter, Mt. Vernon, Rev. and Mrs. J. E. Mastries, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Hushal Sexton, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Jones, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Don Washam, and daughter, Miller, Mr. Norm Garver, Miller, Mr. Clifton Jones, Miller, Mrs. Wanetta Edwards and Joe Lee, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. V. E. DePreste, and Mr. and Mrs. Jim DePreste.
______________________________________________________________________
Obituary
Evalina Evelyn DePreste
March 23, 1929- December 21, 2019
Evalina "Evelyn" DePreste, age 90, of Miller, Missouri, passed away at 9:35 p.m. on Saturday, December 21, 2019, at the Joplin Health and Rehabilitation Center in Joplin, Missouri. She was born March 23, 1929, in Dade County, Missouri, the daughter of Charles Harry and Martha Lena (Dickerson) Hook.
Evelyn is survived by three sons, Paul DePreste Jr. and his wife, Linda, of Livermore, California, Brian DePreste Sr. and his wife, Donita, of Springfield, Missouri and James DePreste and his wife, Pam, of Joplin; two daughters, Vicki Peterson and her husband, Ron, of Clovis, California and Joyce DePreste of Joplin; daughter-in-law, Debbie DePreste of Dallas, Texas; 16 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, and 16 great-great grandchildren to date.
Evelyn was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Martha, husband, Paul T. DePreste Sr., son, Morris DePreste, sister, Reba Mattingly and brother, John Roberson.
A funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, December 30, 2019, at the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, Missouri. Burial will follow at the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Miller.
Memorial donations may be made payable to the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in care of the funeral home. Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home 510 E. Cherry St., Mt. Vernon, MO 65712
[https://www.fossettmosherfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Evalina-Evelyn-DePreste?obId=9952823#/obituaryInfo]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Vedette - Death Notices for Jan. 2, 2020
Evalina 'Evelyn' DePreste
Evalina "Evelyn" DePreste, age 90, of Miller, Missouri, died Saturday, December 21, 2019, at the Joplin Health and Rehabilitation Center in Joplin, Missouri.
A funeral service was held Monday, December 30, 2019, at the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, Missouri. Burial followed at the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Miller.
Memorial donations may be made payable to the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in care of the funeral home.
Online condolences may be shared at www.FossettMosherFuneralHome.com.
Evalina 'Evelyn' DePreste
[https://www.greenfieldvedette.com/articles/2129/view]
Mom's father Charles Harry Hook had remained in Kansas. A cousin in Wichita, Frank Hook Jr., said everyone called his uncle by his middle name, Harry. Frank Jr.'s family lived directly across the street from them and he had sometimes gone over to play at Harry and Lena's house. He remembered watching several women taking his Aunt Lena and cousin Evalina away and heard his family talking about it afterwards. He never saw either one of them again. (Several of Lena's sisters had traveled to Wichita to bring Lena and mom back to Milford Dickerson's farm.) I had wondered how Grandma Lena might have met Harry Hook and thought it might be connected to Milford Dickerson's moonshining operation as the product was being distributed on both sides of the Kansas / Missouri border and down into Oklahoma as well, and I thought Grandma Lena might have met him through her brothers. It could have had some connection to the moonshining (before, during and after Prohibition 1920-1933), but Grandma Lena's older brother Wilburn Wrice "Jim" Dickerson was married to Harry Hook's younger sister Alveretta Hook and lived in Wichita, and was the most likely way they met. In 1999, I wrote letters to "Jim" and Alveretta (Hook) Dickerson's sons and received a most welcome phone call from their son Carl Wilburn Dickerson (1926-2001) of Pretty Prairie, Kansas and though they never had personal contact, he and mom were both happy to know about each other and pleased that they were double first cousins!
(Both our dad and Granddad "Jim Boone" DePreste knew and liked Milford Dickerson and were well aware of his moonshining operation, and mom remembered seeing the stills on her Grandpa Dickerson's farm.)
~ Martha Lena Dickerson, Claude Feezell and Charles Harry Hook ~
...For many years, mom and I thought her father might have played a role in her mother's mental breakdown, but later contact and communications with a previously unknown older half-sister, Reba Mildred (Feezell) Burch - Mattingly (with supportive documents and records), confirmed Martha Lena's mental health deterioration probably started with the actions of her first husband Claude Feezell when he abducted their daughter Reba; which by several accounts brought on an immediate and acute emotional breakdown by Grandma Lena, "she went wild."
…I have not been able to find Harry, Lena, and mom on the 1930 census in Dade County, Missouri or elsewhere. If they were living in Dade County where mom's older sister Erma died in Center Township on April 3rd, 1930 (from whooping cough and pneumonia), they were either missed by the enumerator or had moved to Wichita soon after Erma's death and burial, as they do not appear on the census taken in April and May.
…Mom also had an older paternal half-sister named Ruth Hook born June 2, 1914 in Chelsea, Rogers County, Oklahoma. She was the daughter of Charles Harry Hook, Jr. and his first wife Cora McReynolds. In 1920, Ruth Hook appears as a stepdaughter in the household of Fred and Cora (McReynolds) Pegg in Chelsea Precinct., Rogers County, Oklahoma. Cora married Hohman Richard Heath in 1929 in Oklahoma and they appear together on the 1930 census in Chelsea Town, Rogers County, Oklahoma. Hohman Richard Heath was born June 2, 1910 in Chelsea, Oklahoma, and died November 23, 1967 in Tulare County, California. I have yet to find more conclusive information on Ruth (Hook) Heath unless she is the "Miss" Ruth Heath age 23 (born about 1915) of Tulsa, who was united in marriage to James Roy Johnson of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma on December 9, 1938.
…I did find nine-year-old Reba Feezell in 1930. After her father Claude abducted her, he apparently abandoned her with Bert and Susie (Hayes) Franks in the "Damsite Town" in Miller County, Missouri. In 1940, Reba is nineteen and living with her foster brother Elmer Hayes' family in Arkansas, and her foster parents Bert and Susie (Hayes) Franks are nearby. Reba referred to Bert and Susie Franks as her adoptive parents, strongly suggesting a deep bond of love between parent and child. I also found Reba's father Claude Feezell in 1940, he had married Edna Ethel (Asher) Moorehead on March 12, 1940 and was farming in Lamar, Barton County, Missouri. He died March 15, 1959 at the Missouri State Sanatorium in Mt. Vernon in Lawrence County, Missouri. [Death Certificate]
Charles Harry Hook married a third time and remained near his aging parents in Kansas for a number of years, appearing on the 1940 census in Wichita. He was a carpenter and would eventually build his own house in Racine, Missouri. Frank Hook Jr. and his wife occasionally visited Harry and Rachel (Frizzell) Hook in Racine. He remembers his uncle as a tough and hardworking man who "always seemed to have something on his mind," and of Harry telling him, "Lena was never going to come home from the hospital." Harry may have inquired about mom during her childhood as his brother-in-law, Wrice "Jim" Dickerson (Lena's brother) also lived in Wichita, but Harry Hook's presence around the Dickerson family in Dade County was not welcome. It was a tragic family circumstance and we will never know the whole story. Ironically, Harry Hook died December 20, 1968 at Missouri State Hospital No.3 in Nevada, Missouri while Lena was still a patient there and was laid to rest at Hornet Cemetery near Racine, in Newton County, Missouri. [See cemetery note below.] He is buried next to Rachel (Frizzell) Hook who is noted as his wife on several records, but Frank Hook Jr. didn't believe Harry and Lena were ever legally divorced. He may have been right about Harry not being legally divorced from Lena as I've not found a record of one, but Harry Hook and Rachel Hunter were married on June 15, 1936 by a Justice of the Peace at the Justice Court in Newkirk, Kay County, Oklahoma.
Since mom's Grandpa Milford didn't drive (traveled by farm wagon), he made an arrangement for mom to live at Martha Milligan's Boarding House in South Greenfield, Dade County. Mom is enumerated at the boarding house as Martha Milligan's eleven year-old foster daughter on the census dated April 27, 1940. Mrs. Milligan was a strict taskmaster with mom's household chores but also offered the advantages of living in town and being close to school, and learning to play the piano. Mom also said she was shown affection and kindness by the elderly resident boarders, but at age fifteen, mom packed her clothes and sneaked out of the boarding house and went to live with her Aunt Lyda (Dickerson) Shive and baby cousin Lyndall in South Greenfield. Mom was only four years younger than Aunt Lyda and would be a companion and helpful hands while Uncle Clarence was serving in the Army in the South Pacific during WWII. Mom attended high school in Greenfield and had several close girlfriends and started dating.
~ Evalina Hook and Paul Trenton DePreste ~
Mom was living with her Aunt Lyda and Uncle Clarence Shive in Greenfield when she met our father. Keen on high school basketball, she and her girlfriend Georgiana Hunt were to attend the game in Miller on a double-date but as they were leaving Georgiana's, a big new black car drove up and another friend, Evelyn Sparks, got out of the car and asked the girls to go with her and her date Paul DePreste and his friend Henry Stahl, both of Miller. Dad wasn't that interested in basketball, but Henry's date had cancelled and the Miller boys enjoyed looking over the replacement prospects in Greenfield. Mom dated Henry a few times afterwards, but then Paul DePreste showed up at the door. Bye-bye Henry. (She didn't remember who won that basketball game, but hoped it was Greenfield.) Mom and dad became engaged one month later. Since mom was only sixteen, she wondered how they would obtain a marriage license. Her future mother-in-law, Nina (Jones) DePreste told her to do what she had done, "just tell the clerk you're eighteen and they'll give you the license." When mom told the clerk at the courthouse in Mt. Vernon she was eighteen the clerk did give them the license, but he had a big smile on his face. Evalina Hook and Paul Trenton DePreste were married at his parent's home near Miller on Thursday, April 5, 1945, at 9 o'clock in the evening. They didn't have a traditional honeymoon, but they did manage some time away together when dad took her on a camping and fishing trip to White River, and camping and fishing, and site-seeing became a life-long recreational pursuit in our family.
The family of Paul and Evalina "Evelyn" (Hook) DePreste
Their first child, son Paul, Jr. was born at Dr. Watt O. Cowan's home residence and hospital in Greenfield, Dade County, and their next son Morris, was born at Dr. Cowan's new clinic in Lockwood, Dade County; both being born while their parents were living in the old family homestead farmhouse on an eighty-acre farm just southwest of Miller in neighboring Lawrence County. By 1949, our parents had purchased a home at 3101 West Mount Vernon and South Golden Avenue in Springfield, Greene County, where daughter Vicki was born at the old St. John's Hospital and four years later, son Brian was born at the new St. John's Hospital.
Mom and dad sold their home in Springfield and moved back into the farmhouse west of Miller. Her Grandpa Milford passed away on January 17, 1955, and as much as she wanted to attend his funeral, the heavy snow made her decide not to try traveling that distance with four young children. Shortly after deciding not to attend, Granddad Boone drove up in his truck and told her he would make sure she made it to her Grandpa Milford's funeral and she did. Gotta love such determined, resourceful and caring people.
In 1955, mom and dad bought a new 40' x 8' (single wide) Spartan Trailer and a new International Pickup and moved to Texas. We moved first to Big Spring for a few weeks where our dad connected with Thomas and Alma Reed (Reed Oil Co., Inc., formerly of Springfield, Missouri), then moved west to Odessa for a short time, then west again to Pecos where dad managed a Reed Oil Gas Station, and lastly back east to Midland where dad worked for the Bush Drilling Company (later the 41st U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush).
In the fall of 1956, our family moved on to Livermore, Alameda County, California, where our sister Joyce and four years later our youngest brother James were born, both at the old St. Paul's Hospital. In-between Joyce and James' births, we moved to rural Pleasanton for a year before returning to Livermore. The family moved from Livermore in 1965; first to San Pablo, and in 1966 mom and dad bought a home in nearby Richmond, both being in Contra Costa County. When the school year ended in June of 1969, mom and dad and the three younger children moved back to the family farm near Miller, Missouri, then later bought a home in town. By the time the family moved from California, Paul, Jr. was married, and he, Morris and I were working and living on our own in the East Bay Area.
Cemetery Note:
While on vacation to visit the family in Missouri in July of 2001, Ron, myself, and mom and dad went to Hornet Cemetery (south of Joplin) to visit the gravesite of mom's father. It was very meaningful to me that mom and I were together to pay our respects after such a long journey of sorting out that missing part of her childhood. The cemetery is fairly large and if memory serves, Harry and Rachel (Frizzell) Hook's graves are in the back part of the cemetery.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
MILLER PRESS - LAST WEEK OF APRIL (1945)
Greenfield Girl; Paul DePreste Are Married
...Paul DePreste of R.2, Miller, and Evelyn Hook of N. Greenfield were united in marriage Thursday, at 9 P.M. April 5 at the home of the groom's parents, near Miller. The double-ring, candle light ceremony was preformed by the Rev. J. E. Burk of the Assembly of God Church in Mt. Vernon, Mo. with the Rev. J. E. Mastries officiating. Mr. and Mr. Victor DePreste, brother of Paul, acting as best man and maid of honor. Following the wedding the bride and groom gracefully cut the beautiful three-tier cake baked by Dixie Rose Sexton. And refreshments were served to about 30 guests who reported the sweetest and most enjoyable marriage witnessed.
...Evelyn attended high school in Greenfield, Mo. and made her home there with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Shive. Paul graduated from Springfield H.S. and has been a member of the F.F.A. Association since the year 1940 and was awarded a medal in Greene Co. in 1943 for having the most outstanding Farm program of the year. He says he's spending his honeymoon on the tractor and Evelyn performing the duties of a farmer's wife.
...Guests at the wedding were: Mrs. Al Singelton and daughter Beverly of Greenfield, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Shive, Greenfield, Rev. and Mrs. J. E. Burk and daughter, Mt. Vernon, Rev. and Mrs. J. E. Mastries, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Hushal Sexton, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Jones, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Don Washam, and daughter, Miller, Mr. Norm Garver, Miller, Mr. Clifton Jones, Miller, Mrs. Wanetta Edwards and Joe Lee, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. V. E. DePreste, and Mr. and Mrs. Jim DePreste.
______________________________________________________________________
Obituary
Evalina Evelyn DePreste
March 23, 1929- December 21, 2019
Evalina "Evelyn" DePreste, age 90, of Miller, Missouri, passed away at 9:35 p.m. on Saturday, December 21, 2019, at the Joplin Health and Rehabilitation Center in Joplin, Missouri. She was born March 23, 1929, in Dade County, Missouri, the daughter of Charles Harry and Martha Lena (Dickerson) Hook.
Evelyn is survived by three sons, Paul DePreste Jr. and his wife, Linda, of Livermore, California, Brian DePreste Sr. and his wife, Donita, of Springfield, Missouri and James DePreste and his wife, Pam, of Joplin; two daughters, Vicki Peterson and her husband, Ron, of Clovis, California and Joyce DePreste of Joplin; daughter-in-law, Debbie DePreste of Dallas, Texas; 16 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, and 16 great-great grandchildren to date.
Evelyn was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Martha, husband, Paul T. DePreste Sr., son, Morris DePreste, sister, Reba Mattingly and brother, John Roberson.
A funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, December 30, 2019, at the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, Missouri. Burial will follow at the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Miller.
Memorial donations may be made payable to the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in care of the funeral home. Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home 510 E. Cherry St., Mt. Vernon, MO 65712
[https://www.fossettmosherfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Evalina-Evelyn-DePreste?obId=9952823#/obituaryInfo]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Vedette - Death Notices for Jan. 2, 2020
Evalina 'Evelyn' DePreste
Evalina "Evelyn" DePreste, age 90, of Miller, Missouri, died Saturday, December 21, 2019, at the Joplin Health and Rehabilitation Center in Joplin, Missouri.
A funeral service was held Monday, December 30, 2019, at the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, Missouri. Burial followed at the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Miller.
Memorial donations may be made payable to the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in care of the funeral home.
Online condolences may be shared at www.FossettMosherFuneralHome.com.
Evalina 'Evelyn' DePreste
[https://www.greenfieldvedette.com/articles/2129/view]
Our mother's earliest memories were of living with her Grandpa Milford Dickerson on his farm near Seybert in rural Dade County for about four years. Her mother Martha Lena (Dickerson) Hook, had a mental breakdown while the family was living in Wichita, Kansas, and she and her mother were brought back to her Grandpa Milford's farm in Missouri. Her mother was committed to the Missouri State Asylum in Nevada, Vernon County in 1932 when mom was about three years old. Lena was then released from the asylum for a short period of time before being recommitted in 1934 and giving birth to a son at the asylum on September 15, 1934. The baby boy was adopted shortly thereafter by Cleason S. and Edith M. (Murphey) Robertson of the Kansas City, Missouri area. After his adoptive parents passed away, John Charles Robertson (1934-2007) felt comfortable to begin a search for his birth family and was able to find and meet his older sisters Evalina and Reba shortly after their mother Martha Lena's death in 1986.
Mom's father Charles Harry Hook had remained in Kansas. A cousin in Wichita, Frank Hook Jr., said everyone called his uncle by his middle name, Harry. Frank Jr.'s family lived directly across the street from them and he had sometimes gone over to play at Harry and Lena's house. He remembered watching several women taking his Aunt Lena and cousin Evalina away and heard his family talking about it afterwards. He never saw either one of them again. (Several of Lena's sisters had traveled to Wichita to bring Lena and mom back to Milford Dickerson's farm.) I had wondered how Grandma Lena might have met Harry Hook and thought it might be connected to Milford Dickerson's moonshining operation as the product was being distributed on both sides of the Kansas / Missouri border and down into Oklahoma as well, and I thought Grandma Lena might have met him through her brothers. It could have had some connection to the moonshining (before, during and after Prohibition 1920-1933), but Grandma Lena's older brother Wilburn Wrice "Jim" Dickerson was married to Harry Hook's younger sister Alveretta Hook and lived in Wichita, and was the most likely way they met. In 1999, I wrote letters to "Jim" and Alveretta (Hook) Dickerson's sons and received a most welcome phone call from their son Carl Wilburn Dickerson (1926-2001) of Pretty Prairie, Kansas and though they never had personal contact, he and mom were both happy to know about each other and pleased that they were double first cousins!
(Both our dad and Granddad "Jim Boone" DePreste knew and liked Milford Dickerson and were well aware of his moonshining operation, and mom remembered seeing the stills on her Grandpa Dickerson's farm.)
~ Martha Lena Dickerson, Claude Feezell and Charles Harry Hook ~
...For many years, mom and I thought her father might have played a role in her mother's mental breakdown, but later contact and communications with a previously unknown older half-sister, Reba Mildred (Feezell) Burch - Mattingly (with supportive documents and records), confirmed Martha Lena's mental health deterioration probably started with the actions of her first husband Claude Feezell when he abducted their daughter Reba; which by several accounts brought on an immediate and acute emotional breakdown by Grandma Lena, "she went wild."
…I have not been able to find Harry, Lena, and mom on the 1930 census in Dade County, Missouri or elsewhere. If they were living in Dade County where mom's older sister Erma died in Center Township on April 3rd, 1930 (from whooping cough and pneumonia), they were either missed by the enumerator or had moved to Wichita soon after Erma's death and burial, as they do not appear on the census taken in April and May.
…Mom also had an older paternal half-sister named Ruth Hook born June 2, 1914 in Chelsea, Rogers County, Oklahoma. She was the daughter of Charles Harry Hook, Jr. and his first wife Cora McReynolds. In 1920, Ruth Hook appears as a stepdaughter in the household of Fred and Cora (McReynolds) Pegg in Chelsea Precinct., Rogers County, Oklahoma. Cora married Hohman Richard Heath in 1929 in Oklahoma and they appear together on the 1930 census in Chelsea Town, Rogers County, Oklahoma. Hohman Richard Heath was born June 2, 1910 in Chelsea, Oklahoma, and died November 23, 1967 in Tulare County, California. I have yet to find more conclusive information on Ruth (Hook) Heath unless she is the "Miss" Ruth Heath age 23 (born about 1915) of Tulsa, who was united in marriage to James Roy Johnson of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma on December 9, 1938.
…I did find nine-year-old Reba Feezell in 1930. After her father Claude abducted her, he apparently abandoned her with Bert and Susie (Hayes) Franks in the "Damsite Town" in Miller County, Missouri. In 1940, Reba is nineteen and living with her foster brother Elmer Hayes' family in Arkansas, and her foster parents Bert and Susie (Hayes) Franks are nearby. Reba referred to Bert and Susie Franks as her adoptive parents, strongly suggesting a deep bond of love between parent and child. I also found Reba's father Claude Feezell in 1940, he had married Edna Ethel (Asher) Moorehead on March 12, 1940 and was farming in Lamar, Barton County, Missouri. He died March 15, 1959 at the Missouri State Sanatorium in Mt. Vernon in Lawrence County, Missouri. [Death Certificate]
Charles Harry Hook married a third time and remained near his aging parents in Kansas for a number of years, appearing on the 1940 census in Wichita. He was a carpenter and would eventually build his own house in Racine, Missouri. Frank Hook Jr. and his wife occasionally visited Harry and Rachel (Frizzell) Hook in Racine. He remembers his uncle as a tough and hardworking man who "always seemed to have something on his mind," and of Harry telling him, "Lena was never going to come home from the hospital." Harry may have inquired about mom during her childhood as his brother-in-law, Wrice "Jim" Dickerson (Lena's brother) also lived in Wichita, but Harry Hook's presence around the Dickerson family in Dade County was not welcome. It was a tragic family circumstance and we will never know the whole story. Ironically, Harry Hook died December 20, 1968 at Missouri State Hospital No.3 in Nevada, Missouri while Lena was still a patient there and was laid to rest at Hornet Cemetery near Racine, in Newton County, Missouri. [See cemetery note below.] He is buried next to Rachel (Frizzell) Hook who is noted as his wife on several records, but Frank Hook Jr. didn't believe Harry and Lena were ever legally divorced. He may have been right about Harry not being legally divorced from Lena as I've not found a record of one, but Harry Hook and Rachel Hunter were married on June 15, 1936 by a Justice of the Peace at the Justice Court in Newkirk, Kay County, Oklahoma.
Since mom's Grandpa Milford didn't drive (traveled by farm wagon), he made an arrangement for mom to live at Martha Milligan's Boarding House in South Greenfield, Dade County. Mom is enumerated at the boarding house as Martha Milligan's eleven year-old foster daughter on the census dated April 27, 1940. Mrs. Milligan was a strict taskmaster with mom's household chores but also offered the advantages of living in town and being close to school, and learning to play the piano. Mom also said she was shown affection and kindness by the elderly resident boarders, but at age fifteen, mom packed her clothes and sneaked out of the boarding house and went to live with her Aunt Lyda (Dickerson) Shive and baby cousin Lyndall in South Greenfield. Mom was only four years younger than Aunt Lyda and would be a companion and helpful hands while Uncle Clarence was serving in the Army in the South Pacific during WWII. Mom attended high school in Greenfield and had several close girlfriends and started dating.
~ Evalina Hook and Paul Trenton DePreste ~
Mom was living with her Aunt Lyda and Uncle Clarence Shive in Greenfield when she met our father. Keen on high school basketball, she and her girlfriend Georgiana Hunt were to attend the game in Miller on a double-date but as they were leaving Georgiana's, a big new black car drove up and another friend, Evelyn Sparks, got out of the car and asked the girls to go with her and her date Paul DePreste and his friend Henry Stahl, both of Miller. Dad wasn't that interested in basketball, but Henry's date had cancelled and the Miller boys enjoyed looking over the replacement prospects in Greenfield. Mom dated Henry a few times afterwards, but then Paul DePreste showed up at the door. Bye-bye Henry. (She didn't remember who won that basketball game, but hoped it was Greenfield.) Mom and dad became engaged one month later. Since mom was only sixteen, she wondered how they would obtain a marriage license. Her future mother-in-law, Nina (Jones) DePreste told her to do what she had done, "just tell the clerk you're eighteen and they'll give you the license." When mom told the clerk at the courthouse in Mt. Vernon she was eighteen the clerk did give them the license, but he had a big smile on his face. Evalina Hook and Paul Trenton DePreste were married at his parent's home near Miller on Thursday, April 5, 1945, at 9 o'clock in the evening. They didn't have a traditional honeymoon, but they did manage some time away together when dad took her on a camping and fishing trip to White River, and camping and fishing, and site-seeing became a life-long recreational pursuit in our family.
The family of Paul and Evalina "Evelyn" (Hook) DePreste
Their first child, son Paul, Jr. was born at Dr. Watt O. Cowan's home residence and hospital in Greenfield, Dade County, and their next son Morris, was born at Dr. Cowan's new clinic in Lockwood, Dade County; both being born while their parents were living in the old family homestead farmhouse on an eighty-acre farm just southwest of Miller in neighboring Lawrence County. By 1949, our parents had purchased a home at 3101 West Mount Vernon and South Golden Avenue in Springfield, Greene County, where daughter Vicki was born at the old St. John's Hospital and four years later, son Brian was born at the new St. John's Hospital.
Mom and dad sold their home in Springfield and moved back into the farmhouse west of Miller. Her Grandpa Milford passed away on January 17, 1955, and as much as she wanted to attend his funeral, the heavy snow made her decide not to try traveling that distance with four young children. Shortly after deciding not to attend, Granddad Boone drove up in his truck and told her he would make sure she made it to her Grandpa Milford's funeral and she did. Gotta love such determined, resourceful and caring people.
In 1955, mom and dad bought a new 40' x 8' (single wide) Spartan Trailer and a new International Pickup and moved to Texas. We moved first to Big Spring for a few weeks where our dad connected with Thomas and Alma Reed (Reed Oil Co., Inc., formerly of Springfield, Missouri), then moved west to Odessa for a short time, then west again to Pecos where dad managed a Reed Oil Gas Station, and lastly back east to Midland where dad worked for the Bush Drilling Company (later the 41st U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush).
In the fall of 1956, our family moved on to Livermore, Alameda County, California, where our sister Joyce and four years later our youngest brother James were born, both at the old St. Paul's Hospital. In-between Joyce and James' births, we moved to rural Pleasanton for a year before returning to Livermore. The family moved from Livermore in 1965; first to San Pablo, and in 1966 mom and dad bought a home in nearby Richmond, both being in Contra Costa County. When the school year ended in June of 1969, mom and dad and the three younger children moved back to the family farm near Miller, Missouri, then later bought a home in town. By the time the family moved from California, Paul, Jr. was married, and he, Morris and I were working and living on our own in the East Bay Area.
Cemetery Note:
While on vacation to visit the family in Missouri in July of 2001, Ron, myself, and mom and dad went to Hornet Cemetery (south of Joplin) to visit the gravesite of mom's father. It was very meaningful to me that mom and I were together to pay our respects after such a long journey of sorting out that missing part of her childhood. The cemetery is fairly large and if memory serves, Harry and Rachel (Frizzell) Hook's graves are in the back part of the cemetery.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
MILLER PRESS - LAST WEEK OF APRIL (1945)
Greenfield Girl; Paul DePreste Are Married
...Paul DePreste of R.2, Miller, and Evelyn Hook of N. Greenfield were united in marriage Thursday, at 9 P.M. April 5 at the home of the groom's parents, near Miller. The double-ring, candle light ceremony was preformed by the Rev. J. E. Burk of the Assembly of God Church in Mt. Vernon, Mo. with the Rev. J. E. Mastries officiating. Mr. and Mr. Victor DePreste, brother of Paul, acting as best man and maid of honor. Following the wedding the bride and groom gracefully cut the beautiful three-tier cake baked by Dixie Rose Sexton. And refreshments were served to about 30 guests who reported the sweetest and most enjoyable marriage witnessed.
...Evelyn attended high school in Greenfield, Mo. and made her home there with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Shive. Paul graduated from Springfield H.S. and has been a member of the F.F.A. Association since the year 1940 and was awarded a medal in Greene Co. in 1943 for having the most outstanding Farm program of the year. He says he's spending his honeymoon on the tractor and Evelyn performing the duties of a farmer's wife.
...Guests at the wedding were: Mrs. Al Singelton and daughter Beverly of Greenfield, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Shive, Greenfield, Rev. and Mrs. J. E. Burk and daughter, Mt. Vernon, Rev. and Mrs. J. E. Mastries, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Hushal Sexton, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Jones, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Don Washam, and daughter, Miller, Mr. Norm Garver, Miller, Mr. Clifton Jones, Miller, Mrs. Wanetta Edwards and Joe Lee, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. V. E. DePreste, and Mr. and Mrs. Jim DePreste.
______________________________________________________________________
Obituary
Evalina Evelyn DePreste
March 23, 1929- December 21, 2019
Evalina "Evelyn" DePreste, age 90, of Miller, Missouri, passed away at 9:35 p.m. on Saturday, December 21, 2019, at the Joplin Health and Rehabilitation Center in Joplin, Missouri. She was born March 23, 1929, in Dade County, Missouri, the daughter of Charles Harry and Martha Lena (Dickerson) Hook.
Evelyn is survived by three sons, Paul DePreste Jr. and his wife, Linda, of Livermore, California, Brian DePreste Sr. and his wife, Donita, of Springfield, Missouri and James DePreste and his wife, Pam, of Joplin; two daughters, Vicki Peterson and her husband, Ron, of Clovis, California and Joyce DePreste of Joplin; daughter-in-law, Debbie DePreste of Dallas, Texas; 16 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, and 16 great-great grandchildren to date.
Evelyn was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Martha, husband, Paul T. DePreste Sr., son, Morris DePreste, sister, Reba Mattingly and brother, John Roberson.
A funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, December 30, 2019, at the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, Missouri. Burial will follow at the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Miller.
Memorial donations may be made payable to the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in care of the funeral home. Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home 510 E. Cherry St., Mt. Vernon, MO 65712
[https://www.fossettmosherfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Evalina-Evelyn-DePreste?obId=9952823#/obituaryInfo]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Vedette - Death Notices for Jan. 2, 2020
Evalina 'Evelyn' DePreste
Evalina "Evelyn" DePreste, age 90, of Miller, Missouri, died Saturday, December 21, 2019, at the Joplin Health and Rehabilitation Center in Joplin, Missouri.
A funeral service was held Monday, December 30, 2019, at the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, Missouri. Burial followed at the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Miller.
Memorial donations may be made payable to the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in care of the funeral home.
Online condolences may be shared at www.FossettMosherFuneralHome.com.
Evalina 'Evelyn' DePreste
[https://www.greenfieldvedette.com/articles/2129/view]
Mom's father Charles Harry Hook had remained in Kansas. A cousin in Wichita, Frank Hook Jr., said everyone called his uncle by his middle name, Harry. Frank Jr.'s family lived directly across the street from them and he had sometimes gone over to play at Harry and Lena's house. He remembered watching several women taking his Aunt Lena and cousin Evalina away and heard his family talking about it afterwards. He never saw either one of them again. (Several of Lena's sisters had traveled to Wichita to bring Lena and mom back to Milford Dickerson's farm.) I had wondered how Grandma Lena might have met Harry Hook and thought it might be connected to Milford Dickerson's moonshining operation as the product was being distributed on both sides of the Kansas / Missouri border and down into Oklahoma as well, and I thought Grandma Lena might have met him through her brothers. It could have had some connection to the moonshining (before, during and after Prohibition 1920-1933), but Grandma Lena's older brother Wilburn Wrice "Jim" Dickerson was married to Harry Hook's younger sister Alveretta Hook and lived in Wichita, and was the most likely way they met. In 1999, I wrote letters to "Jim" and Alveretta (Hook) Dickerson's sons and received a most welcome phone call from their son Carl Wilburn Dickerson (1926-2001) of Pretty Prairie, Kansas and though they never had personal contact, he and mom were both happy to know about each other and pleased that they were double first cousins!
(Both our dad and Granddad "Jim Boone" DePreste knew and liked Milford Dickerson and were well aware of his moonshining operation, and mom remembered seeing the stills on her Grandpa Dickerson's farm.)
~ Martha Lena Dickerson, Claude Feezell and Charles Harry Hook ~
...For many years, mom and I thought her father might have played a role in her mother's mental breakdown, but later contact and communications with a previously unknown older half-sister, Reba Mildred (Feezell) Burch - Mattingly (with supportive documents and records), confirmed Martha Lena's mental health deterioration probably started with the actions of her first husband Claude Feezell when he abducted their daughter Reba; which by several accounts brought on an immediate and acute emotional breakdown by Grandma Lena, "she went wild."
…I have not been able to find Harry, Lena, and mom on the 1930 census in Dade County, Missouri or elsewhere. If they were living in Dade County where mom's older sister Erma died in Center Township on April 3rd, 1930 (from whooping cough and pneumonia), they were either missed by the enumerator or had moved to Wichita soon after Erma's death and burial, as they do not appear on the census taken in April and May.
…Mom also had an older paternal half-sister named Ruth Hook born June 2, 1914 in Chelsea, Rogers County, Oklahoma. She was the daughter of Charles Harry Hook, Jr. and his first wife Cora McReynolds. In 1920, Ruth Hook appears as a stepdaughter in the household of Fred and Cora (McReynolds) Pegg in Chelsea Precinct., Rogers County, Oklahoma. Cora married Hohman Richard Heath in 1929 in Oklahoma and they appear together on the 1930 census in Chelsea Town, Rogers County, Oklahoma. Hohman Richard Heath was born June 2, 1910 in Chelsea, Oklahoma, and died November 23, 1967 in Tulare County, California. I have yet to find more conclusive information on Ruth (Hook) Heath unless she is the "Miss" Ruth Heath age 23 (born about 1915) of Tulsa, who was united in marriage to James Roy Johnson of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma on December 9, 1938.
…I did find nine-year-old Reba Feezell in 1930. After her father Claude abducted her, he apparently abandoned her with Bert and Susie (Hayes) Franks in the "Damsite Town" in Miller County, Missouri. In 1940, Reba is nineteen and living with her foster brother Elmer Hayes' family in Arkansas, and her foster parents Bert and Susie (Hayes) Franks are nearby. Reba referred to Bert and Susie Franks as her adoptive parents, strongly suggesting a deep bond of love between parent and child. I also found Reba's father Claude Feezell in 1940, he had married Edna Ethel (Asher) Moorehead on March 12, 1940 and was farming in Lamar, Barton County, Missouri. He died March 15, 1959 at the Missouri State Sanatorium in Mt. Vernon in Lawrence County, Missouri. [Death Certificate]
Charles Harry Hook married a third time and remained near his aging parents in Kansas for a number of years, appearing on the 1940 census in Wichita. He was a carpenter and would eventually build his own house in Racine, Missouri. Frank Hook Jr. and his wife occasionally visited Harry and Rachel (Frizzell) Hook in Racine. He remembers his uncle as a tough and hardworking man who "always seemed to have something on his mind," and of Harry telling him, "Lena was never going to come home from the hospital." Harry may have inquired about mom during her childhood as his brother-in-law, Wrice "Jim" Dickerson (Lena's brother) also lived in Wichita, but Harry Hook's presence around the Dickerson family in Dade County was not welcome. It was a tragic family circumstance and we will never know the whole story. Ironically, Harry Hook died December 20, 1968 at Missouri State Hospital No.3 in Nevada, Missouri while Lena was still a patient there and was laid to rest at Hornet Cemetery near Racine, in Newton County, Missouri. [See cemetery note below.] He is buried next to Rachel (Frizzell) Hook who is noted as his wife on several records, but Frank Hook Jr. didn't believe Harry and Lena were ever legally divorced. He may have been right about Harry not being legally divorced from Lena as I've not found a record of one, but Harry Hook and Rachel Hunter were married on June 15, 1936 by a Justice of the Peace at the Justice Court in Newkirk, Kay County, Oklahoma.
Since mom's Grandpa Milford didn't drive (traveled by farm wagon), he made an arrangement for mom to live at Martha Milligan's Boarding House in South Greenfield, Dade County. Mom is enumerated at the boarding house as Martha Milligan's eleven year-old foster daughter on the census dated April 27, 1940. Mrs. Milligan was a strict taskmaster with mom's household chores but also offered the advantages of living in town and being close to school, and learning to play the piano. Mom also said she was shown affection and kindness by the elderly resident boarders, but at age fifteen, mom packed her clothes and sneaked out of the boarding house and went to live with her Aunt Lyda (Dickerson) Shive and baby cousin Lyndall in South Greenfield. Mom was only four years younger than Aunt Lyda and would be a companion and helpful hands while Uncle Clarence was serving in the Army in the South Pacific during WWII. Mom attended high school in Greenfield and had several close girlfriends and started dating.
~ Evalina Hook and Paul Trenton DePreste ~
Mom was living with her Aunt Lyda and Uncle Clarence Shive in Greenfield when she met our father. Keen on high school basketball, she and her girlfriend Georgiana Hunt were to attend the game in Miller on a double-date but as they were leaving Georgiana's, a big new black car drove up and another friend, Evelyn Sparks, got out of the car and asked the girls to go with her and her date Paul DePreste and his friend Henry Stahl, both of Miller. Dad wasn't that interested in basketball, but Henry's date had cancelled and the Miller boys enjoyed looking over the replacement prospects in Greenfield. Mom dated Henry a few times afterwards, but then Paul DePreste showed up at the door. Bye-bye Henry. (She didn't remember who won that basketball game, but hoped it was Greenfield.) Mom and dad became engaged one month later. Since mom was only sixteen, she wondered how they would obtain a marriage license. Her future mother-in-law, Nina (Jones) DePreste told her to do what she had done, "just tell the clerk you're eighteen and they'll give you the license." When mom told the clerk at the courthouse in Mt. Vernon she was eighteen the clerk did give them the license, but he had a big smile on his face. Evalina Hook and Paul Trenton DePreste were married at his parent's home near Miller on Thursday, April 5, 1945, at 9 o'clock in the evening. They didn't have a traditional honeymoon, but they did manage some time away together when dad took her on a camping and fishing trip to White River, and camping and fishing, and site-seeing became a life-long recreational pursuit in our family.
The family of Paul and Evalina "Evelyn" (Hook) DePreste
Their first child, son Paul, Jr. was born at Dr. Watt O. Cowan's home residence and hospital in Greenfield, Dade County, and their next son Morris, was born at Dr. Cowan's new clinic in Lockwood, Dade County; both being born while their parents were living in the old family homestead farmhouse on an eighty-acre farm just southwest of Miller in neighboring Lawrence County. By 1949, our parents had purchased a home at 3101 West Mount Vernon and South Golden Avenue in Springfield, Greene County, where daughter Vicki was born at the old St. John's Hospital and four years later, son Brian was born at the new St. John's Hospital.
Mom and dad sold their home in Springfield and moved back into the farmhouse west of Miller. Her Grandpa Milford passed away on January 17, 1955, and as much as she wanted to attend his funeral, the heavy snow made her decide not to try traveling that distance with four young children. Shortly after deciding not to attend, Granddad Boone drove up in his truck and told her he would make sure she made it to her Grandpa Milford's funeral and she did. Gotta love such determined, resourceful and caring people.
In 1955, mom and dad bought a new 40' x 8' (single wide) Spartan Trailer and a new International Pickup and moved to Texas. We moved first to Big Spring for a few weeks where our dad connected with Thomas and Alma Reed (Reed Oil Co., Inc., formerly of Springfield, Missouri), then moved west to Odessa for a short time, then west again to Pecos where dad managed a Reed Oil Gas Station, and lastly back east to Midland where dad worked for the Bush Drilling Company (later the 41st U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush).
In the fall of 1956, our family moved on to Livermore, Alameda County, California, where our sister Joyce and four years later our youngest brother James were born, both at the old St. Paul's Hospital. In-between Joyce and James' births, we moved to rural Pleasanton for a year before returning to Livermore. The family moved from Livermore in 1965; first to San Pablo, and in 1966 mom and dad bought a home in nearby Richmond, both being in Contra Costa County. When the school year ended in June of 1969, mom and dad and the three younger children moved back to the family farm near Miller, Missouri, then later bought a home in town. By the time the family moved from California, Paul, Jr. was married, and he, Morris and I were working and living on our own in the East Bay Area.
Cemetery Note:
While on vacation to visit the family in Missouri in July of 2001, Ron, myself, and mom and dad went to Hornet Cemetery (south of Joplin) to visit the gravesite of mom's father. It was very meaningful to me that mom and I were together to pay our respects after such a long journey of sorting out that missing part of her childhood. The cemetery is fairly large and if memory serves, Harry and Rachel (Frizzell) Hook's graves are in the back part of the cemetery.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
MILLER PRESS - LAST WEEK OF APRIL (1945)
Greenfield Girl; Paul DePreste Are Married
...Paul DePreste of R.2, Miller, and Evelyn Hook of N. Greenfield were united in marriage Thursday, at 9 P.M. April 5 at the home of the groom's parents, near Miller. The double-ring, candle light ceremony was preformed by the Rev. J. E. Burk of the Assembly of God Church in Mt. Vernon, Mo. with the Rev. J. E. Mastries officiating. Mr. and Mr. Victor DePreste, brother of Paul, acting as best man and maid of honor. Following the wedding the bride and groom gracefully cut the beautiful three-tier cake baked by Dixie Rose Sexton. And refreshments were served to about 30 guests who reported the sweetest and most enjoyable marriage witnessed.
...Evelyn attended high school in Greenfield, Mo. and made her home there with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Shive. Paul graduated from Springfield H.S. and has been a member of the F.F.A. Association since the year 1940 and was awarded a medal in Greene Co. in 1943 for having the most outstanding Farm program of the year. He says he's spending his honeymoon on the tractor and Evelyn performing the duties of a farmer's wife.
...Guests at the wedding were: Mrs. Al Singelton and daughter Beverly of Greenfield, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Shive, Greenfield, Rev. and Mrs. J. E. Burk and daughter, Mt. Vernon, Rev. and Mrs. J. E. Mastries, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Hushal Sexton, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Jones, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Don Washam, and daughter, Miller, Mr. Norm Garver, Miller, Mr. Clifton Jones, Miller, Mrs. Wanetta Edwards and Joe Lee, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. V. E. DePreste, and Mr. and Mrs. Jim DePreste.
______________________________________________________________________
Obituary
Evalina Evelyn DePreste
March 23, 1929- December 21, 2019
Evalina "Evelyn" DePreste, age 90, of Miller, Missouri, passed away at 9:35 p.m. on Saturday, December 21, 2019, at the Joplin Health and Rehabilitation Center in Joplin, Missouri. She was born March 23, 1929, in Dade County, Missouri, the daughter of Charles Harry and Martha Lena (Dickerson) Hook.
Evelyn is survived by three sons, Paul DePreste Jr. and his wife, Linda, of Livermore, California, Brian DePreste Sr. and his wife, Donita, of Springfield, Missouri and James DePreste and his wife, Pam, of Joplin; two daughters, Vicki Peterson and her husband, Ron, of Clovis, California and Joyce DePreste of Joplin; daughter-in-law, Debbie DePreste of Dallas, Texas; 16 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, and 16 great-great grandchildren to date.
Evelyn was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Martha, husband, Paul T. DePreste Sr., son, Morris DePreste, sister, Reba Mattingly and brother, John Roberson.
A funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, December 30, 2019, at the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, Missouri. Burial will follow at the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Miller.
Memorial donations may be made payable to the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in care of the funeral home. Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home 510 E. Cherry St., Mt. Vernon, MO 65712
[https://www.fossettmosherfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Evalina-Evelyn-DePreste?obId=9952823#/obituaryInfo]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Vedette - Death Notices for Jan. 2, 2020
Evalina 'Evelyn' DePreste
Evalina "Evelyn" DePreste, age 90, of Miller, Missouri, died Saturday, December 21, 2019, at the Joplin Health and Rehabilitation Center in Joplin, Missouri.
A funeral service was held Monday, December 30, 2019, at the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, Missouri. Burial followed at the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Miller.
Memorial donations may be made payable to the Miller Memorial Gardens Cemetery in care of the funeral home.
Online condolences may be shared at www.FossettMosherFuneralHome.com.
Evalina 'Evelyn' DePreste
[https://www.greenfieldvedette.com/articles/2129/view]
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
