Kate to Katie

Sutton Family Summer 1928 L-R Fred, Wilma (Billy), Jack, Hazel, Kate

I never met my great-grandmother, but I know her still. She was born 2 November 1894 in Mcleansboro, Ill. From all accounts she had a delightful but uneventful childhood until tragedy struck. Her older sister contracted tuberculosis. After a painful struggle, she died a terrible death at age 17. Soon after her little sister was found to have the same malady ans succumbed at age 13. Shortly thereafter, her mother too died of the horrific disease. Time passed and it seemed that Kate had escaped the malady.

She married her sweetheart, Fred, and moved to Oklahoma with their little daughter, my grandma. In Pulare, OK, they opened a general store on an oil lease. Kate was a wonderful business woman and took over the business, while grandpa taught in the town's one-room schoolhouse. She kept up her homemaking wonderfully, because the lived over the store. A series of young cousins from Illinois came out to work in the store to get their start in life and allow Kate to be both a fantastic business woman and a dedicated homemaker and church member. Her table was always bounteous, her dwelling neat as a pin, her family well clothed in garments of her making, and her pew at church warm.

Two more children came along. My grandma tells of loving her work in the store, helping Kate with her duties behind the counter and the little post office housed in the store. Kate was the post mistress of Pulare, OK. Traveling to Tulsa on buying trips, Kate went to fancy dress shops to inspect the merchandise. Later she drew the new fashions and sewed dresses for her store and family identical to the expensive ones in the Tulsa shops. This skill was passed to my grandma starting at age 5 and later on to me, as I spent many hours watching my grandmother sew.

Kate, Fred, and their children, Wilma, Hazel, and Jack, led a charmed life in OK even during the dust bowl years. They secretly added food and supplies to the parcels of California bound Okies. Their happy life changed, as Kate began to weaken. It was found that tuberculosis that had lain dormant for so many years had reared its ugly head. Because the doctor said her only chance was desert air, the family moved to Arizona.

For 6 years, Kate seemed to do better. They operated a new family business in Tucson called a tourist camp with a small general store for a time. After a year, they moved on to Phoenix and a similar venture. Kate found she was carrying a fourth child, which thrilled my youthful grandma. It was not to be. She lost the baby and became very weak. TB came back. Kate failed and died.

By this time, doctors had learned about boiling dishes and burning rags used for handkerchiefs by TB patients.  Neither my grandmother, her siblings, or my great-grandfather ever contracted TB, although they all tested positive for the pathogen.

Kate was so special to me, that I named my youngest daughter after her.