Day 9 - Just can't stop visiting the old homes!

 Decided we had to finish the tour of old homes by visiting all of the Omaha homes, so Saturday we embarked on the final leg of the Road Trip 2011

South 77th Street in Westgate.  1962 - 1964

South 105th St, Rockbrook.  1964 - 1967

Valley St, Rockbrook - 3 months in 1967 while Dad was in Wichita

South 124th St., Deer Ridge - 1967 - 1977
Last house where Bob and Kathi lived with the family.
Peter and Clay moved to the farm with Mom and Dad in 1977.
(didn't visit there)

Day 7 and 8 - Kansas City and Beatrice

Thursday was to be a stop for lunch in Kansas City with friends, Tom and Lois Roszak and Tom's mom, Helen, then on to Manhattan, KS to visit Jenni.  We learned Wednesday night that Jenni had to leave town on an emergency - her friend's fiance was killed in Afghanistan and Jenni and two friends decided to drive her to Dover, Delaware for the military service.  We will miss her, but know she is needed where she is.

The water was BLUE!   (probably for the KC Royals)

After lunch, we drove on some beautiful scenic highways back to Omaha.  Although disappointed at not seeing Jenni, it was good to be home.


On Friday morning, we drove to Beatrice to pick Clay up and take him shopping in Lincoln.  We went to the workshop and snapped this photo of Clay and his teachers, who help him with the computer and his emails.  It was a great day and we all had fun!

Sheila, Diane, Clay, Denise, and Gloria in the Mosaic Workshop
What a team!

Day 6 - End of Day - Oak Grove correction

I wanted to make one more trip to Oak Grove on our way to our Blue Springs motel.  It was my hope that someone might be home, so I could introduce myself and dad.
Sure enough, there was a man outside the garage.  I parked and told him who I was and how beautiful they have kept the house.  I told him I had taken photos for my blog and he very kindly told me that he thought I might be thinking of the house next door - that burned down five years ago!  He said his house was the Webb house, which had been a similar style to Grandma and Grandpa's house and the Webb's had been their next door neighbors.  And OMG, he was RIGHT!  His wife came out (she was born and raised in Oak Grove and knew everyone and everything) and told us the story.  It was being rented at the time.  The house is completely gone and the barn had fallen years before that.  The garage and chicken coop are all that remain, but it felt so familiar to walk the property and remember.  Really sad, but again, the land remembers - and so do we.

Day 6 - Part 3 - Mayview

When we finished up at the cemetery, we drove back to Mayview, which is rich with childhood memories for Dad.  His uncle, grandparents and great grandparents lived there, and his family moved there when he was in fourth grade.  He attended country school there and walked the very roads we traveled.

Site of the school house with little outbuilding still standing.  Located at the corner of Wheatley Rd and Houx Rd.

Wheatley Road to the school house.

They walked from way beyond where you see the road in the background.  ( in every kind of weather - uphill both ways!!)  ;o)

Actually, sometimes he and Marion rode horses or ponies that Uncle Doug let them use.  Sometimes they would walk to the intersection of Hwy 40 and Houx Road, and meet the teacher who had a car and would drive them the rest of the way.

This MIGHT be Uncle Doug's old farm, south of Mayview, where we had a family reunion in 1956, but it was not a welcoming place, so we did a "drive by" photo shoot.

SIBLINGS.  Gilbert, Margaret, Doug and Robert

Gilbert, Hal, and Bobby Lee  1956

The town of Mayview.

Dad saw his first movie (a silent film) projected on the outside of this building when he was visiting Uncle Doug.

The Lankford home is long gone, but I have a feeling the land remembers...  as does my dad.

Day 6 - Part 2 - Lexington's Machpelah Cemetery

After our first two attempts to find our ancestors in the Lexington Cemetery, Dad and I made some phone calls and found a gentleman in Lexington with all the information we needed!  He was so helpful and we now have maps to all of the graves.  We found many relatives that we didn't know were there and the stories are fascinating!  The Machpelah cemetery is Missouri's most celebrated cemetery and is one of the oldest corporations in continual existence in Missouri.  There is so much history here (besides ours!)  

Here are some close family members:

William and Lucy Burton Lankford

Parents of Robert Hall Lankford

Grandparents of Gilbert

Great Grandparents of Hal

My Great Great Grandparents

Margaret Virginia Green Gordon
Married to Dr. William A Gordon, a prominent local physician
They had 10 daughters.

William and Margaret Gordon, Parents of Jennie Gordon Lankford
Grandparents of Gilbert
Great Grandparents of Hal
My Great Great Grandparents

Robert H Lankford, Father of Gilbert, Grandfather of Hal,
My Great Grandfather

Jane Lee (Jennie Lee) Gordon Lankford, Mother of Gilbert,
Grandmother of Hal, My Great Grandmother

Dr Alvin Peter Lankford
Brilliant Surgeon, who was well respected in his field.  Died very young.
Robert Hall Lankford's brother, Gilbert's Uncle, Hal's Great Uncle,
My Great Great Uncle

Dr. A.P. Lankford
Born
April 11, 1841
Died
June 1, 1884
True, Noble, Unfortunate in Life
In Death, Rest.
May we meet again where the mists
are cleared away. 

This is the Lankford lot, Section C, Lot 72.  Robert and Jennie are left foreground.  Alvin Peter is large monument, and next to fence in front of Dad are William and Lucy Lankford, Hal's great grandparents.

Day 6 - Part 1 - Rolla, Lebanon, Sedalia, and Sweet Springs

This day's blog is going to be separated into sections, because it was an incredibly full and fruitful day!!

We got up early to set out for our day's itinerary of Rolla, Lebanon, Sedalia, Sweet Springs, Lexington (again), Mayview (again), and Oak Grove (again).

Our first stop was the Missouri University of Science and Technology, formerly known as the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy in Rolla, MO.  

Dad received his Bachelors and Masters degrees at this school.  The campus has grown immensely and has many more women than it had 65 years ago!  We were able to find the original buildings that housed the school when Dad was there and we took a photo outside the Chemical Engineering Building where he had a lab.

1949

2011

After an hour on the campus, it was off for a beautiful drive to Lebanon, where Dad and Marion graduated from High School.  

The town of Lebanon has grown, but Commercial Street, where Grandpa managed the Mattingly's Department Store, remains very much the same.

Dad in front of the old Mattingly's Department Store

Dad had a job as a soda jerk at Knight's Drug Store across the street.

Lebanon High School (now Junior High School)

We almost left town without trying to find the site of his old High School, since he knew that a new HS was built 20 years ago and thought the old school had most likely been torn down.  We stopped a lady on the street downtown (who looked like she might have been in Lebanon a good while) and she was most helpful!  She told us where to go and we found the old HS building, which is now the central part of the new Junior HS!  We went in and got a little tour.  They were pleased to welcome back such an "old" alum!

1943 class at Lebanon High.  Dad is second from left, front row, holding Army/Navy sign.

Lebanon JHS today.  Taller building is the original HS.

The old entrance to the HS

These are the steps that led into school when Hal and Marion attended.  Can't you just picture them here?

 Next, a drive up through the Lake of the Ozarks on the way to our next destination, Sedalia, MO

Dad's family moved to Sedalia in 1933 and lived there for one year before moving to the Mayview Farm when his grandmother died.

This is the only picture we took in Sedalia.  No houses or schools that he remembered.
Just passed through to say we'd been there.

Now it's on a few miles to Sweet Springs, where Dad's family lived from 1931 - 33.  Some of his favorite memories were of picnics in the park when Uncle Doug came to visit from Mayview.  There is a sulphur spring in Sweet Springs and Uncle Doug used to fill up jugs to take back to Mayview.  The park and spring are still there.  Beautiful and STINKY!!

Next Blogs -  Lexington, Mayview and Oak Grove