HISTORY SHEET
Ava Ella Jones
Compiled by Nancy Long
February 2013
Surname: Jones
Maiden name: McNair
Source: Interview with Carolita Quillin
When Ava was 14, Frank began his missionary work and the family moved to Tolbert between Chillicothe and Vernon, then to Thalia, then to Lockett, then Hess Oklahoma and finally Frank settled in Lockett where he eventually retired. Ava went to school in Thalia in 1920 and graduated from there in 1922. I have in my notes that she enrolled in the university which would probably have been in Abilene if that is true, but that was not to be since Ava married Joe Carroll Jones in 1923.
Joe Carroll “Skinny” courted her in a horse-drawn carriage, and Ava remembered a time when he took her to a party and left with another girl. His brother, Hugh, had to take her home. Joe Carroll’s family lived in a community just south of Thalia and he dropped out of school after the 8th grade. His father grubbed out mesquite trees to make pasture land for other people. Ava was acquainted with an ambitious upcoming young man who her father knew she would marry. When she fell in love with Joe Carroll, Frank was adamantly against it. Frank knew the night that they were going to ask him if they could get married, and he went on to bed before they got home. They went in to his bedside anyway to ask for his permission. He said she could if that is what she wanted, but that he would not bless the marriage. Even though Frank was a minister, he did not even attend the marriage. They were married in the parsonage in Vernon by Dr. Mima.
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After the marriage, they lived with Joe Carroll’s parents (Martin Harmon and Mattie Belle Jones) for awhile. Joe Carroll farmed all day, and when they could establish themselves in a home, he also began working in the cotton gin. His job there was to poke the cotton through the first machine to keep it from becoming jammed in the claws that rotated to shred the cotton. The machine snagged his glove and pulled his whole arm into the machine which was brushing his head. They worked day and night to save his life and the recovery lasted for the better part of a year. Ava had to do all the work around the house which included chopping wood, bringing the cows in, milking them, and keeping the fires stoked.
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There were complications with their first born child, Reitha Jo. It was an extended labor and Jo was stuck in the birth canal. Forceps were finally used, yet Jo was born with physical deformities. Directly after birth, Ava’s mother, Ella, took Jo and worked with her, clearing her passageways. Everyone left, including the doctor, thinking that there was no way the Jo would survive. Ella breathed life back into Jo, and she lived to be 63 years old. Martin was born in 1926 and when Carolita was born in 1928, Ella and Charles Franklin (Mama and Papa) took Jo in order to help Ava, who would have had 3 infants in diapers. They taught Jo to walk and potty trained her, and when life returned to normal, Jo returned home. This was during an era when people would keep those with disabilities from the public eye. When anyone came to the house, Jo was sent to the back room, and other children made fun of her. The last time that Jo was allowed to go to town with them, she was taunted as she waited in the car by passers-by until she was in the floorboard of the car. Ava and Joe Carroll finally took her to the Masonic Hospital in Dallas, Texas. They were told that nothing could be done for Jo, but that they could leave her there and she would be taught life skills. Joe Carroll was more in favor of this, but Ava did not have the heart to leave her. So, Jo was brought back home and became Ava’s total responsibility.
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About 1934, they purchased a butane refrigerator which eventually exploded and burned down their home “on the hill” and everything in it. Fortunately, the family had gone for a ride and no one was home. They had only the clothes on their backs and the children were all barefoot. They drove to Electra that night to stay with Ava’s parents, and the next day Frank took them to buy shoes and socks. Ava and the children stayed in Electra until Joe Carroll could find a place to rent, and then they eventually made a down payment on a home in downtown Thaila in 1939. The community had a shower for them to help replace some of their things. Joe Carroll moved a house onto the back of their property for his parents, and Ava took care of them for the rest of their lives.
Back during that time, extended families lived near one another and often together. They stayed close to help support one another. When someone died, embalming was done in the house and the body stayed at home. The community and friends would sit with the family and the body night and day until the person was buried. They would also sit with the sick, too.
They lived and raised their children in the Thalia community during the Great Depression. Thalia had a nice school, several churches, a grocery store, gas stations, a lumber yard, a cotton gin, and when the highway was paved, the community thrived. Nothing was open on Sundays and the family grew most everything they ate. They had to work hard, but the family was always clean, clothed and well fed. They drank water from a cistern, slaughtered hogs to render lard for soap, built fires to heat water, washed clothes on a rub board, then ironed the clothes with 2 black irons that were rotated and heated over the fire. They brought in their own fresh milk and would skim the cream from the top. Ava used the laundry water to wash the floors. She was finally able to buy a gas Maytag washer which was placed in the smokehouse running the exhaust pipe out the back of the building. She would order material, patterns and shoes from the Sears and Roebuck mail order catalog, but made everyone’s underwear out of flour sacks and used tire tubes for elastic. They went into town only when they needed to.
Saturday nights were bath nights because everyone went to church on Sunday. A #3 washtub was placed behind the stove, and they would take turns bathing in the same water. Nothing was wasted so this bath water was used to wash the floors. Carolita remembers that linoleum floors were for “rich” people. They had wood floors with a rug in the middle. There was always a tea kettle on the stove for hot water. Saturdays were also used for yard cleaning. They would pick up the yard and then sweep it with a broom…no grass. Carolita also remembers Ava “driving the flies” out of the house with a tea towel. Scraps of material were used in quilts. Large frames were suspended from the ceiling and after the noon meal and the men had returned to the fields, the women would lower the frame and sit around the edges and hand quilt the top to the batting and bottom. I still have some of these handmade quilts. Carolita remembers crawling under this frame and watching their hands work from the underside.
Joe Carroll’s father died in 1950 and sometime around 1957 or 1958, Ava and Joe Carroll moved the family to Crowell. Joe Carroll also moved the little house that his parents lived in and located it near their property in Crowell where Ava continued to take care of Mattie Belle. Their house was considerably more modern, yet they still had to haul water into the bathroom. Joe Carroll worked for a large land owner, Guy Crews, and when he got enough money together, he purchased his own land, about 180 acres. The family did well living off the land.
Ava was a devout Christian and was active in the First Baptist Church of Crowell where she taught a children’s Sunday school class. She began driving to Vernon every Wednesday to take her laundry to the laundry mat, and she also did her grocery shopping there for many years. Her home was the gathering spot for extended family on holidays. She would bake pies, cakes, breads, etc, and also serve a complete meal to the families on holidays and on most Sundays. She was known for her red velvet cakes and strawberry icebox pies! Among all the duties that she performed every week, she cooked 3 meals a day, was an excellent seamstress and often did embroidery handiwork. She continued to be the nurse maid for Mattie Belle, who now lived next door, and she cared tirelessly for her daughter, Reitha Jo. It was in her nature to be a devoted partner, caring for others with a gentle spirit. She believed in tending to your own business and there was no room for gossip in her world. Ava was not judgmental and never said anything bad about anyone. She was serious minded, yet she had a wonderful sense of humor.
After Joe Carroll passed away in 1972, Ava continued to live in Crowell with Reitha Jo. In the early 1980’s, they moved to Hale Center, Texas, to be nearer to her son, Martin. Martin was a devoted son and cared for her and Jo for the rest of their days. Not long after her move to Hale Center, Ava fell and broke her hip. She never fully recovered because she began to suffer congestive heart failure. When she passed away on 21 Dec 1985, there was no doubt for those who witnessed her death that she opened her eyes and saw Heaven.
Ava’s sister, Ova Kerr, wrote Carolita a letter after Ava died. Ova always referred to Ava as ‘Sister’. Her words properly describe the person I knew as ‘Mimi’.
“ Sister – Papa always said she was ‘the best one in the family’. I agree! She was special in so many ways. I wanted to be the kind of grandmother she was. She was my model. My grandchildren think I’m OK, but I know I fall short of Sister. She had a loving, giving spirit few people have. She knew what love was – She was love. She had to make no effort – it was her.
She had true humility which gave her great strength. I never knew her to be pretentious. Yet she was so genteel and gracious. She had a sweetness that was like a fragrance.
And I loved her and I will miss her. But who could deny her the Glory she was so privileged to see and so richly deserved.”
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