One Story Leads to Another

While collecting the information to compose the autobiography for Violett Workman, I found out some interesting things about my own family and remembered others that my Dad, Rich Gregory, told me as we spent time together shortly before he died in August of 1995.

I already knew that Violett was his cousin because he talked fondly of her and told stories about when they were both kids together. He told about when he was 14 or15 years old, he had a disagreement with his step-dad and he left home and walked from their home north of Laird to Beecher Island where his uncle Alvie Samson lived. This had to be 20 miles or so. He said it was night time and he just took off across country and walked all the way over there. He never went home again after that. He began getting odd jobs around the area and sort of lived with Violett’s parents.

Cecil Workman was the one who got Daddy a job with Marvin Mills on his cattle ranch in 1935. My dad would have been about 24 years old and it was a life changing thing for him. Marvin and my dad were very good friends for the rest of their lives. Marvin helped my dad get the original loan to purchase the farm from Bertha Zuege in 1941.

One thing I learned this week was that the flood in 1935 was instrumental in the change of direction in my dad’s life. Because he was working at the Mills Ranch, he met the school teacher (my mom) who was working during the summer to help Gladys Mills when Jane was born.

There was a circus in St. Francis that had monkeys and the first date my parents had was when my dad came to the main house at the ranch and asked my mom if she wanted to go “see the monkeys”.

They may have never met if the flood hadn’t happened or if Cecil hadn’t told my dad that there was a 2 week job, or if Marvin hadn’t decided to keep him on for longer.

One story always leads to another: To be Continued