Recipes for Living The J. D. Eddy Family

In writing my life story, I am following in the footsteps of my grandmother, Nancy Moran, because she wrote their family story, although she wrote in pencil on a lined tablet, such as they used in those days. She did it when she was 83 and nearly blind because of cataracts. It must have seemed like a miracle when they removed them and she could see well enough to crochet.

Grandmother told that her grandfather had come to America from Ireland and settled in South Carolina. He had two marriages and seven children by each wife. That was not unusual in those days. Women bore lots of babies and died young. The men needed help raising the children, remarried, and the next wife had more babies. Grandmother's father was Joel Bradshaw. He was raised a Catholic but gave the children their choice; some were Catholic and some Methodist.

Grandmother taught country school, riding a horse from their farm near Westerville, which is north of Grand River, Iowa. All that is left of the community is one house that stood near the mill, parts of which can be seen from the bridge over Grand River. There is one other house that has since been built.

Grandmother was a great Democrat. She had scrap books where she had put political news from the front pages of newspapers. Some of the scrap books were burned in a fire at the home of my uncle Woody. All my uncles had nicknames.

Grandmother also wrote poetry. Mother remembers that after the children were put to bed at night, Grandmother would stay up and write until2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. Nancy and I each have a poem written especially to us, and the following was one of hers:

NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP
When my sunny life is low,
When the dewey shadows creep -
Say for me before I go -
''Now, I lay me down to sleep."

I am at the journey's end -
I have sowed and I must reap
There are no ways to mend,
Now, I lay me down to sleep.

Nothing more to doubt or dare -
Nothing more to give or keep -
Say for me the children's prayer -
Now, I lay me down to sleep.

Who has learned along the way
Primrose path and thorny steep
More of wisdom than to say
Now, I lay me down to sleep.

What have you more wise to tell
when the shadows round me creep: "
All is over, all is well."
Now, I lay me down to sleep.

Mother's family lived on several farms in Decatur County and, at the time when I was a little girl, they moved to Clarke County, north of Murray, on what my family called "Rabbit Ridge."

My mother, Ethelene, was the oldest girl of 10 living children. There were 13 altogether-three sets of twins. One set of twin girls died, and one boy of another set died. The other set of twin girls is still living. Grandfather died when the youngest set of twins were only months old, so Grandmother raised that whole family by herself, out on the farm. She seldom, if ever, went to town.

They lived in Decatur County. In order for Mother to go to grade school, she had to take her little 4-year-old brother with her. When the children were high school age, the twin girls were sent to a Catholic school in Missouri, near Maryville. Mother and my uncles Buck and Tick went to high school in Grand River. Mother and Uncle Buck did all the bookkeeping, borrowing money, getting feed for the livestock and the groceries. The two older boys had to stay home and helped with the farm. This happened with many young people in those days, but was, in itself, an education. These boys were very smart and very good carpenters. A brick house which they built still stands near Grand River. They later did carpenter work in Osceola and Des Moines. Uncle Pete lived with Grandma and worked for Lamoree Funeral Home in Osceola.

My father, Harry Jones, lost his mother when he was only two or three weeks-old and his father died when he was two, leaving a large family. My father was raised by relatives, and by the time he was five-years-old, they had used up all his inheritance, and he went with his older brother, Walt, to Colorado. They had a covered wagon for their belongings and my father walked all the way. He told about one time when they asked a farmer if they could stay in his barn for the night. The man was hesitant until he noticed Walt's Oddfellow ring. Then Walt and all the family were welcome. At the time I first heard the story I didn't know what an Oddfellow was. I thought he was odd fellow.

Their journey ended in the town of Marino, Colorado, which was just a little bigger than Weldon. This was the hometown of Ralph Edwards, who became famous as host on two T.V. shows, "Truth or Consequences" and "This is Your Life." They went to the same school and in later years Ralph Edwards gave the town a new school.

When Dad was through 8th grade, he thought he was smart enough so he left Colorado and came back to Iowa. He never did go to high school but Dad and Mother met when she was in high school in Grand River. They were married shortly after she graduated. Dad worked for one and another relative in Decatur and then came to Clarke County where he worked for Don Lynn's father. When I was in 3rd grade, he quit farming and was employed by the State Highway Commission and then county departments in Clarke.

We were living on the farm when I was born in Osceola at Grandma's house, October 2, 1927. Our parents had five children-my older brother, Wayne, who died of a massive heart attack when he was 31; I was next oldest, then Nancy, Norma Jean, and Mancel. Norma Jean died of pneumonia when she was two, which was not unusual in those days. There was no medication to prevent it.

At the time Dad worked for Virgil and Nellie Lynn, their daughter, Audra, married Louis Fisher and the community had a big chivaree for them. Those who arranged it filled a doll buggy with gifts, dressed Don Lynn and me up as bride and groom and we pushed the buggy. What I remember best was that it was a night of many falling stars.

Because of my birth date, I started to school when I was four-years-old before I would be five in October. This made me very young for school and I started my senior year when I was 15. Darrell Shepherd was my first teacher. He became the son-in-law of Roy Lewis and was known best, probably, as co-owner with "Slats" Simpson of the Lewis Chevrolet where Querry Chevrolet is now located. Bill Webster was in country school with me and Bernard and Louise Diehl (now Louise Liggitt). The first day of school I embarrassed my brother, who was two years older than I, because I yelled from my seat, "Wayne, I've got to go to the toilet." He just stomped his feet that night when he told Mother. The second day of school I embarrassed him again when I sang out loud. Darrell told me that if I quit singing he would give me a nickel. He kidded me forever about that nickel that I owed him.

I attended the M.P. (Methodist Protestant) Church, which was just southwest of the depot, on the east side of Highway 69. In 1939 there was a union of all Methodist churches and there was tension between some of the congregations. In Osceola some of the M.P.s chose not to change. I was too young for it to make a difference. I wanted to go where my friends attended and I joined what was then the M.E. (Methodist Episcopal) Church that stood on the corner of Main and Cass Streets. It later became United Methodist and was replaced with a new structure at 130 West Grant. The first minister I remember was Rev. R. C. Calkins who served in Osceola from 1940-1942. After we were married, J.D. and I shared our churches because he was raised in the Christian (Disciples of Christ) Church. We feel we have the best of both worlds and have heard many good sermons in both by all of the great ministers Osceola has had.

We all went to Clarke Community School and I particularly remember several of my teachers. In either 4th or 5th grade, I had Minnie Hertz, whom my brother Wayne had had before me. He was a good writer, and, when we had an assignment to write a story, I asked him to do it for me, which he did. The only problem was that Mrs. Hertz could identify his writing style. She made no comment, but read it aloud to the class, then asked "Isn't that a nice story Betty's brother wrote?"

We had a guidance counselor in junior high, Mrs. Loupe, who played a different role than guidance counselors now. She taught us manners and how to act properly. I also remember Miss Nelson and our band teacher, who, I suppose because I am of dark complexion, asked J.D. if I was part Indian. J.D. said I was and never told him differently.

I was in band in high school, playing the clarinet in concert and marching bands. We were in contests and I was chosen to go to Creston several times to play in bands made up of combined players from various schools. That was the extent of my musical talent. I cannot sing. In junior high they had us try out for girls' chorus and there were only two in our class who didn't make it. We were included, however, with the provision that we just mouth the words.

J.D. and I now have a granddaughter, Leane, who one day said, "Grandma, you're the dumb one in the family, aren't you?" I said I was but asked why she thought so, and she said, ''Well, you can't swim and you can't sing." Her mother, Diane, has a lovely voice and sings to our granddaughter. One day when she was staying with me and I was holding her she said, "Grandma Betty, sing." So I started to sing and she looked startled and said, "No, Grandma, sing!", so I was reminded again.

I took bookkeeping, typing, and shorthand in school, and worked on weekends and during the summer at Hyde's Grocery on the south side of the square. Working in a grocery store in those days was quite different than now. Customers would come in and buy groceries, then leave them while they went to the movies or the tavern. It was expected that we would wait until they came back for the groceries, which might be midnight or 1:00 in the morning. There was no such thing as overtime. My pay was $2.50 a day regardless of the hours involved. I went to work later at Clarke County State Bank as a teller and then secretary to the president, Mr. Ralph McGee.

J.D. also played clarinet in the high school band and we sat side by side. We started going together during my junior year and were married in November, 1945. His dad was really ill, his two brothers were in the service and J.D. helped on the farm.

J.D.'s dad was Merlin W. Eddy. He had been born in Illinois and his mother died when he was two or three years old. His dad took him to Missouri and from there they moved to the Osceola area. Merlin and J.D.'s mother, Blanche Miller Eddy, met because they lived on neighboring farms. Unlike the situation now, in those days young people didn't get far from home and often married ones they had grown up with.

Merlin and Blanche started their married life on the farm where they continued living all of his life. He died at the age of 58 and she remained on the farm until she was 75, when she built her house in town. Once she had moved, she never looked back, never talked about wanting to go back. People in those days were so strong!

They lost their first son, Harold, and had six more children-three boys and three girls: Roberta (Touet), Aletha (Newman), JoAnn (Marvin), Olin, Oral and J.D. All the children settled in this area. I told Blanche more than once what a lucky lady she was. For instance, when she became ill in her later years, these six children took turns staying with her. Every night one of them would go at 6:00 in the evening to be with her until 6:00 the next morning, when a lady was hired to come. I know of no other family who would do that.

When we were married, we lived for a short time on J.D.'s parents' farm and then moved to town. I went back to work at the bank. J.D. continued to work for his Dad but also for Mike Roe in his filling station, Cliff Coyle in his, and as a mechanic at Kaiser Frazer car business at Murray. He also ran the projector at the Lyric Theater at night. He continued until his dad died and we moved to the farm.

In July, 1946, Diane was born. We lived in town until she was about three-years-old. J.D. and I played in the town band. We rehearsed in the Fire Hall on Tuesday nights and played concerts uptown on Wednesday nights. Dr. Porterfield played his trombone, and there was a trumpet player from Truro; the drummer was Vernon "Shaker" Richards. People sat around in the park and enjoyed the evening.

We moved back to a farm just north of J.D.’s mother. Diane started to the Leslie country school, where all of J.D.’s brothers and sisters had attended. It is still there and is the last country school house on its original location. We still have reunions every other year. We've looked up the history, called back graduates, students and former teachers, and have a pretty good crowd. A couple times each winter we girls give neighborhood chili suppers.

Presently the building is in jeopardy. The land has been purchased for the purpose of developing a hog confinement. Government regulations are complicating the process but some of us are working hard to save the school as it has been.

Five years after Diane was born, July, 1951, we had a little boy that was delivered by Caesarian section. He was what was called a "blue baby'', and in those days there was nothing they could do. Dr. Stray was so upset that he breathed for him from about 9:00 in the morning until about 3:00 in the afternoon, but was unable to save his life. Now they have found a way to save them. The following March we moved to the house where we still live, one house south of where J.D.'s folks had lived.

After we were on the farm, I was a 4-H leader. We didn't have the same projects as now. We took the girls to camp a couple years, but at that time the girls did "girl-stuff' and boys did "boy-stuff', like working with livestock. Diane would have stayed in if it had been otherwise because she loved animals, but after awhile she said, "Why don't you quit being a leader because I don’t want to do this anymore?" She would rather dance and sing.

From the time Diane was old enough, my mother taught her songs like "Daddy's Little Girl". She has sung all her life. She was in Rainbow Girls, an organization that was sponsored by Eastern Star. She had a Rainbow mother, Ruth Rindy; her Rainbow father was Ernest Vanderlinden. It was good for the girls. They learned manners and things that girls don't get nowadays.

I made almost all of Diane's clothes throughout her school years, including college. She was the easiest child to raise! Never asked for anything. We had to figure out what she wanted. She knew how to drive because she drove tractors but, unlike other children, she wasn't eager to drive the car. In fact, she never drove until her class was decorating for graduation day.

She started dancing, probably when she was in 3rd grade. She had an agreement with her dad that if she took lessons in dancing, she would also take piano, for which her teacher was Mrs. Orpha Cobin. In the beginning we took her to New Virginia for dancing lessons and, when she was in 8th grade, we started taking turns with Ann Freundl driving our daughters for lessons in Des Moines every Monday night. They were in the group of 12 that started the first Des Moines Civic Ballet. We seemed to be on the road all the time.

Diane graduated from Drake, where she had her own jazz show on the radio and got to say "goodnight" to the boys at Drake every midnight. Then she started to work for KRNT-TV, where she met her husband, Jerry Davies, who was working as the newscaster at KRNT while getting his Master's degree at Ames. He was from Miami and had graduated from Miami University. From there he went on to school at the Pasadena Playhouse and was with a group that made records and performed. He was on the "Ozzie and Harriet" and "Syd Caesar'' shows, among others. He had become tired of that and got a scholarship to go to Ames to get his degree.

When they married, they moved to Miami where he worked as a newsman for NBC and Diane had a radio show in Miami Beach. They moved several times but, when they had their two girls, Valeri and Leane, they decided to set up a home in McPherson, Kansas. During that time Jerry lost a kidney to cancer and the dry climate was not healthy for him. Now that the girls are grown and gone from home, they live in Sacramento, California, which is much better for his health.·

Jerry is back in film work, writing, speaking, and works for insurance companies. Diane continues to sing and has starred in and produced lots of plays in Kansas. This year she sang with the Billy Graham Crusade when they were in Sacramento. Jerry and Diane had invested in and still have a radio station, newspaper, a shopper and print shop in Kansas and she stays busy going back and forth to take care of the business.

Valeri graduated from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. She now works for the insurance commissioner in Kansas as a computer specialist. In May, 1998, she and I spent nine days on a tour to Switzerland. We had a great time. It was important to both of us that we could be together, just the two of us, for that whole time.

Leane is married and has a four-year-old girl, Chelsea. Her husband, Rod Williams, is in the insurance business. They live in Overland Park, Kansas. My sister, Nancy, married Doug Price and they live at Leon and have three children. Nancy is Public Relations Director at Citizen's Bank. Mancel is retired from having his own food brokerage and lives in Des Moines. He married Sharon Querrey, who grew up in Osceola, and they have two children.

Mother is in the Westview Care Center in Leon and has just celebrated her 92nd birthday. J.D. is semi-retired. He still has a few head of cattle and puts in his own crops.

When we lived on the farm near J.D.’s parents, we Eddy girls formed a bridge club that Grace Curnes named the "Dinky Club." The name caught on and we have kept it all these years. It is still going, every other Thursday. It started with Lois Eddy, Twila Eddy, Aletha Newman, Roberta Touet, Blanche Eddy, Lillis Luce, Mildred Miller and me. Neighbor Ferne Yates was a part of it because we always called her our aunt. This has been going on for at least 40 years and shows no sign of stopping. It is a wonderful way to keep the closeness of the family.

J.D. and I are very fortunate that all our children, grandchildren, now a great grandchild love to come to the farm and we enjoy traveling to visit our family. Life can be so full if we just let it be and can share it with someone for over 50 years.