Friday's Photo: Two Girls on a Car - Seymour, Texas 1927

This photo has been in my unknown file for more than 20 years. When scrolling past it, I accidentally enlarged it yesterday and realized the girl on the right was my father's sister, Willa Mae Bryan. The girl on the left is unknown. Scroll down to see enlarged photos of both girls. 

1927 is the year on the Texas license plate. If the year is 1927, the photo was probably taken in or near Seymour, Texas. Willa Mae appeared in the 1928 yearbook for Seymour High School. 

In the fall of 1927, Willa Mae's sister, DeRay, began teaching in Borger, Texas. It is said that Willa Mae left Seymour to live with DeRay, but it is not known exactly when that occurred. 

Willa Mae Bryan Dudley 1910 -1991
The photo on the right was found in the 1928 Seymour High School yearbook. At that time
she was Willie Mae Bryan. 

Unknown Young Woman

For more about Willa Mae, read 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #5 Willa Mae Bryan Dudley and Sunday's Obituary: Willa Mae Bryan Dudley.

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page, where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2024 

Seymour High School, The Jackrabbit (Seymour, Texas:1927), no page number, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1265/images/43134_b201875-00036?pId=181479176 : accessed 23 Feb. 2024). 

Two Girls on a Car, photograph, ca.1927; digital image, from the privately held photo collection of D.B. Quinn, 2024.

#52ancestors Post Fourteen: Monte DeRay Bryan

This week's writing prompt for #52ancestors is The Maiden Aunt. The Cambridge Dictionary defines maiden aunt as an aunt who is not married and is no longer young. My father's two sisters, Monte DeRay Bryan and Myrtie Marie Bryan, were my maiden aunts. I wrote about both of these aunts in 2014 and chose to write about DeRay today as I have additional information to share. 

My aunt went by her middle name, DeRay. Dad sometimes called her DeeDee and we knew her as Aunt DeeDee. DeRay was born in Erath County, Texas on March 11, 1904. She was the second child born of Myrtie Hairston and Redic Bryan. Her family moved to Baylor County in 1905. She spent most of her childhood in Baylor County. 

In addition to school activities, DeRay was an active member of the B. Y. P. U. (Baptist Young People's Union), the Woodmen Circle, and a member of the Baylor Bridge Club.

DeRay graduated from Seymour High School in 1920. The photo above was found in her high school yearbook. 

She attended Simmons College in Abilene for one year. At the beginning of her second year, she accepted a job teaching for the Corn community in Baylor County. I wonder if this was out of financial need or obligation. Would she have earned a degree if given a choice?

DeRay taught in the Corn community, in Seymour, and in Lamb County, before settling in Borger, Texas where she taught until 1941. 

According to History of Hutchinson County, Texas: 104 years, 1876-1980, DeRay arrived in Borger, Texas in 1927. This was shortly after her mother died. After her father's death in 1929, her siblings joined her and she was the primary wage earner. 

Dad (Whit Bryan) and his sister, DeRay - about 1942

DeRay continued her education by attending classes in the summers and served in several leadership roles before leaving teaching due to financial needs.

DeRay was active in her church, a Red Cross Volunteer, and served as an election official. 

DeRay never married. I know about two serious boyfriends. One died while he and DeRay were dating and I only have little information about the other. 

DeRay had more family obligations than most young women her age. By age 25, both of her parents died. My father, her youngest sibling, was only eight years old. She became his guardian and with little money, and the help of her sister, Marie, cared for my father until he joined the Navy in 1940. 

Whit sent flowers to his sisters for Mother's Day when
stationed at Pearl Harbor during WWII.
This was such an appropriate gesture and the fact this
card was saved showed how much it was appreciated. 

For more about DeRay, check my 2014 post - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #3 Monte DeRay Bryan.


If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn

#52ancestors: Post Six: Hairston Albritton Bryan

The writing prompt for this week's #52ancestors is favorite name. My father's brother had the unusual name, Hairston Albritton. Hairston was his mother's maiden name and Albritton was his paternal grandmother's maiden name. What I like about the name is the way he creatively modified his name at different times in his life. 

Hairston Albritton Bryan was known as Buster to most family and friends. He was born to Redic and Myrtie Hairston Bryan on January 24, 1906, in Baylor County, Texas.  Buster was the third child and the first son born to Redic and Myrtie. 

Buster (left) and Sherrell Ballew (right) - Seymour High School Tennis Team 1923

He was Buster at Seymour High School when he played tennis and won the county championship for his school. However, he was Bus when he was playing football. 

He was the administrator of his father's estate in 1929 and signed his name H. B. Bryan. On a land record, his name was H. A. Bryan. 

Out on his own and working as a drugstore clerk, Buster was identified as Harry B. Bryan on the 1930 census. 

David Vernoy "Wanda" Land

H. Buster Bryan and Wanda Land were married January 1, 1935, in Ector County, Texas according to the marriage record.  

If you didn't have a birth certificate, did you have a legal name? 

Wanda was actually David Vernoy Land Dorman. She was named after her father, David Vernoy Land and had been married to Rufus Dorman before she married Buster. 

Buster died on September 15, 1940. He was working in the oil fields when an oil well blew.  He was struct by gravel causing the wounds and died of tetanus. His name in his obituary was Buster H. Bryan. On his death certificate, his name is written Hairston Albritton [Buster] Bryan. 


If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1990 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Family photographs and documents from the collection of  Diana Bryan Quinn

Friday's Photo: Willa Mae Bryan AKA Willie Mae

Willie Mae Bryan - 1928

Willie Mae Bryan - 1926

I never met my father's sister, Willa Mae Bryan Dudley. I know a little about her. You can click here to see a previous post with information about Willa Mae. When looking for her in family photos, newspapers, and at Ancestry.com. I was unable to learn where or if she went to high school.

Last week, I browsed the Seymour High School yearbooks at Ancestry.com, I found her as "Willie Mae." I had been searching for "Willa Mae."

Her high school years must have been sad and difficult. After an illness, her mother died in 1927.  I know her father, Redic Bryan, was having financial difficulties and I believe Willa Mae and my father, Whit, moved between homes of relatives. Eventually, she moved to Borger to live with her older sister, DeRay.

In 1926, Willa Mae was a sophomore. There was no 1927 yearbook, but I found her as a junior in 1928.  She wasn't in the 1929 yearbook for Seymour High School and the Borger 1929 year book was not available. 

I don't know if Willa Mae graduated, but do know she attended Seymour High School and now have two great photos. AND, while looking for Willa Mae in the Borger High School yearbooks, I found a new (to me) photo of her older sister, DeRay Bryan, a teacher in Borger. Thank you, Ancestry.com.

DeRay Bryan - 1930 Borger, Texas

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2017 

Sources 

Yearbooks | High School Yearbooks | Ancestry. Web. 30 Jul. 2017. <http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?indiv=try&h&dbid=1265>.

Friday's Photo: Marie and Friends

 

I titled this post "Marie and Friends" but really don't know if the women are friends or relatives. Is this in Seymour, Texas? Borger? Or, another place in Texas? Is this before or after 1920? 

My father's sister, Marie Bryan is the girl to the far left. If these girls are her cousins, maybe someone has a matching photo. 

Marie Bryan 1921

I thought that these girls could be classmates so looked at Marie's high school yearbook, the Jackrabbit, at Ancestry.com. Marie graduated from Seymour High School in 1921. There were eleven graduates in the class of 1921. Two young men, Adolph Wirz and Roscoe Caldwell, and the remaining were young women; Marie, Cecilia Cooper, Jo Lee Dickson, Lucille Gray, Lois McMurray, Lyddia Patterson, Laura Bess Rogers, Bill Smith, and Bernice Sanders.  Comparisons of the photos were inconclusive. 

This is one of many of my problematic photos. If you have suggestions or a similar photo, please contact me! 

Diana

© 2016

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

"U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012 for." U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012 for. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. <http://interactive.ancestry.com/1265/43134_b207594-00043/328323589>.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #4 Myrtie Marie Bryan

Myrtie Marie Bryan was born on June 21,1901 in Erath County, Texas. I suspect that she was born in Bethel where her Hairston grandparent's lived or possibly in Dublin where her parent's resided about that time. She was my father's sister and the first child of Myrtie Hairston and Redic Bryan. 

In 1905 Marie's parents and her grandparents, Phillip and Lodema Criswell Hairston, moved from Erath County to Baylor County. As a young girl, she belonged to the Woodsman Circle and the BYU - a Baptist youth organization. Marie is in the center, directly in front of the tallest girl in the group. 

This "Pussy Willow" by Marie Bryan in 1912 was found in the Bryan Family Bible.

Marie 1919

This was the photo seen in the Jackrabbit, the yearbook for Seymour High School, in 1920.
Marie was in 10th grade and was named the class artist under "Who's Who."

 According to Marie's 10th grade report card, she had excellent deportment
and received good to excellent grades. 

Dad said that Marie had a speech problem and that when she was young, her father took her to Oklahoma by wagon to see a speech correctionist. She must have had other issues - maybe apraxia or cerebral palsy. I was told that she had weakness on one side. 

This was found in the December 4, 1919 issue of the Baylor County Banner:   Mrs. R. E. Bryan left Sunday afternoon for Dallas in company with her daughter, Miss Marie. They are going to have an x-ray picture taken and try and determine the trouble with her speech.  It is hoped that this trouble may be located and remedied.

The following is an excerpt from a letter written by my grandmother to her cousin, she tells about plans to make the trip. I assume that Marie did not have the surgery. 

May, I am going to Dallas Thursday. I am going to carry Marie to Babtest Sanatarium for an X-ray Examination. She is having nervous troubles. I feel so sorry for her. It just breaks my heart to see her suffer. I am sending a Kodak of her. Drs here say I may have to have an operation on her head (a bone cut that is pressing on the brain). I will make the trip with she and myself and if I have her operated on I will wire for Redic. If you get this letter in time to ans before Thursday write me and tell me if Frank is at Wichita and I may see him as I come home. You come to see  me when you get moved. I get so lonesome since Mama died. Financially we have made lots of money lately. If we had not been in the hole from just 2 years but we are making good now but I have had so many worries lately I have not that very much about money but I am thankful that I have the money to have Marie treated and try to restore her to health. I realize her condition will be improved after the operation or worse if an operation can't be performed I just can't see her get in such bad shape. She is just as pretty as can be. She is in 10th grade will finish next year if she stays in school. 

Marie graduated from Seymour High School in 1921. This announcement was given to me in 2011 by a newly found Hairston cousin. Her family kept this for 90 years!
Thank you, Carla!

Next to her senior picture in the high school year book was written,
"Marie - If her work counts, success is hers. Her record shows no trace of blurs."

Marie didn't marry. After her mother died in 1927, I imagine that she was my father's primary caregiver as all other siblings were not living at home. When Redic Bryan died in 1929, Marie and my father, Whit, moved to Borger to live with sisters DeRay and Willa Mae. DeRay and Willa Mae both worked a variety of jobs in Borger. Marie took care of the house and the cooking.

I only met Aunt Marie once, at the age of four.
I am told that she was a wonderful cook and
that she loved to play bridge.
Marie and Dad (Whit Bryan) in 1943. 

Myrtie Marie Bryan died on September 16, 1986. She is buried with her sisters, DeRay and Willa Mae, at Westlawn Memorial Park in Borger, Texas. 

No Story Too Small

Diana

© 2014

Sources

Baylor County Banner [Seymour] 4 Dec. 1919: Microfilm.  

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

Letter from Myrtie Hairston Bryan to Amy Criswell Barton courtesy of Lena Criswell.  

Seymour High School.  "1919 Yearbook". The Jackrabbit.

Seymour High School.  "1920 Yearbook". The Jackrabbit. 

Seymour High School.  "1921 Yearbook". The Jackrabbit.

Stanley, Edith Guynes . "Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials." Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials.  Web. 17 Jan. 2014. <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr&GSln=BRY&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSst=46&GScntry=4&GSsr=2041&GRid=48102309&>. Used with permission. 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #3 Monte DeRay Bryan

DeRay is 3rd from the left. I have other pictures of the women in this photo, but cannot positively identify anyone except DeRay.

No Story Too Small

By 1929, at age nine, my father was an orphan and his sister, DeRay, became the breadwinner of the family.  Here is her story in photographs, documents, and newspaper clippings. 

Monte DeRay Bryan, the daughter of Myrtie Hairston and Redic Bryan was born March 11, 1904 in Erath County, Texas.

In 1905, DeRay's family, along with her grandparents Phillip and Lodema Criswell Hairston, moved to Baylor County, Texas. DeRay (on the left) is pictured with her sister, Marie. 

DeRay's family lived in Baylor County for most of her childhood; living in Levelview and later Seymour. For a short period they lived in Big Springs in Howard County and later, briefly lived in Stamford in Haskell County, Texas. I am not certain where or why this picture was taken. Are these friends or family? DeRay is said to be on the first row in the center. The tallest girl, behind DeRay, is said to be Millard Ray Latta, a Bryan cousin who lived with the family in Baylor County. 

DeRay graduated from Seymour High School in 1920. She gave
the salutatory speech "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Maintaining
Our Political Institutions. 

DeRay attended Simmons College (now Hardin-Simmons University).
Found in the Baylor County Banner, March 23, 1921.

This unsigned teaching contract was offering DeRay $100 monthly to teach in Seymour, Texas. In addition, she would agree to not participate in dancing during the contract term except during Christmas holidays. In 1924, DeRay taught third grade at Seymour Elementary School.  In 1926, she was teaching at Amherst in Lamb County. 

 In 1927, DeRay moved to Borger, Texas where she taught until 1941. Dad said that she went to Borger because they had a teacher shortage and were paying more than any other place in Texas at the time. You can read a brief story that DeRay wrote about her initial trip to Borger and a little about her life in Borger in History of Hutchinson County, Texas 104 years 1876 -1980. 

With the exception of one brief meeting in 1959, I only knew DeRay through gifts and correspondence.
Pictured - DeRay, my father - Whit Bryan, and their sister, Marie, in Virginia Beach, Virginia

Monte DeRay Bryan died on August 16, 1987.
She is buried, with her sisters Marie and Willa Mae, in Westlawn Memorial Park in Borger, Texas.

Diana

© 2014

Sources

Baylor County Banner [Seymour] 23 Mar. 1921: Microfilm.  

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn. 

Stanley, Edith Guynes . "Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials." Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2014. <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr&GSln=BRY&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSst=46&GScntry=4&GSsr=2041&GRid=48102309&>. Used with permission.