At Clara Harris we had a very closely knit family of employees with a minimum of discontent and few complaints, if any. One of our very best, if not our best employee, was Oletha Hayes, who we lovingly called "Kitten." She was a sales representative covering several of the southern states and was doing an outstanding job. She led the sales girls in sales nearly every week. She was one of the finest people I ever knew.
One weekend while reporting in, she made the statement that she would like to meet my son, Jim, who was away at Yale University.
I'm not sure what interested her in Jim, but she kept reminding me that she wanted to meet him. Christmas was only a couple of weeks away, and I told her he would be home then. Whether accidentally or purposely, she managed to be in Kansas City during the holidays, and I introduced them. It was fascination at the first meeting, and adoration at the second meeting the next day. From that point on, there was nothing that would describe their feelings for each other except, "love." They were inseparable and on July 13, 1947 they were married.
School was out then and they stated traveling together - making an exceptionally fine sales team. Jim was finished with schooling at Yale and we were ecstatic, and firmly convinced we had a team to carry on the business in an improved manner. We were all set for retirement. (WHAT BUSINESS?)
When Kitten and Jim married, they didn't exactly move away. They just moved in with us when in town, and we continued as one enlarged family. That was what we all wanted, and we were all very happy. I wrote this poem for Kitten, as I knew we would all be separated a great deal (approximately 90%) of the time.
POEM
Jim went on to become a minister, and in 1949 he and Kitten were blessed with their first child, Joyce Ann, on October 5. Our lives now seemed to be complete.
Jim and Kitten moved into a house I built for them just down the street, and once again we were all close together. 2640 Arlington. Storm clouds began appearing, however, and we became aware that there was something amiss in the apparently idyllic marriage of Jim and Kitten. A second child, Susan, was born on September 14, 1954, and shortly after that, their marriage ended in divorce. I believe that was one of the darkest days in my life.
NOTE: Grandpa called her Kitten because of her "catty" and witty remarks. She was always known as Kitty, or Kitten, and even to grandkids, she was "Grandma Kitty."
Mom operated a beauty shop out of the basement of that house. It was built with an outside entrance. She was a hard worker and I spent many days sitting in the hair dryer chair just watching all the activity and listening to the conversations. Later, when my parents divorced, Mom rented out the upstairs and she lived in the basement. Connected to the little shop, which only took maybe a quarter or third of the basement, was just a basement area, and then a living area. The basement area had a washer and dryer and a Coke machine! No refrigerator. No stove. I believe the only sink and bathroom were in the beauty shop. I don't think Mom ate much back then, but if she needed anything kept cold, it went in the back of the Coke machine. She probably only weighed about 95 pounds at the time. The living area had one twin bed, a television, and a couch. After the divorce, when Sue and I would spend the night, we would all sleep in that twin bed. I think she wanted to keep us as close to her as she could, knowing she had to return us to our dad on Saturday morning. I have sweet memories of Mom rubbing our backs until we finally drifted off to sleep. At that point in her life, she basically owned nothing.
After our dad remarried in 1960, Mom's story is that she didn't want to get in the middle of that and moved to Mississippi without so much as a goodbye. We didn't know until 1968 that she was even still living. She had been writing us through the years, but our dad wasn't letting us have the letters. Finally, in a rare moment of kindness, our stepmother delivered one of her letters to me and then Sue and I started building a relationship with her. Sue even went to live with her for awhile in Mobile.
Alcohol and infidelity are what ruined that marriage. I believe they both loved each other the rest of their lives but they just couldn't get it together. Too many things that needed forgiving and effort.
I don't remember my father living in our house. I guess he was always traveling with International Lectures, while Mom was always home with us.
When Mom came back into our lives in 1968, I will have to say that my grandparents welcomed her with open arms. I believe it was a serious slap in the face to our dad. He never saw her, but he knew Grandma and Grandpa had her in their house and were happy to have her back. They always loved her, and to their credit, were willing to keep the past IN the past.
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