Dear Mamma, well you made it to the year 2000 and I am glad you lived to see it. I wish we could have had more time with you, but I know that you are with the Lord, Nana, Granddaddy and your grandparents. I also know that you are now with Kudo, Skipper, and Frosty, your beloved dogs.
Last night, before you went to the other side, I thought about your life and all the things you told me that I don't want to forget. Some of those things I wish had never happened to you, but made you who you are. If it is ok with you, I will write the things I can remember:
Yvonne Whitehead, (Momma), was born and raised in Topeka Kansas. When she was just a little girl, she would stare for hours out of the school window, dreaming of adventures that she made up in her very creative mind. This did not work well for her school grades, but she never cared for school anyway.
When she was very young, she often went to visit her Aunts in Arkansas.
(Aunt Jesse, and a few of Nana's people, on the Flippin side).
On one occasion, she went on a picnic with her cousins and aunts near White River by where Uncle Frank Flippin's farm was. None of her cousins would play with her as most were boys or older girls (that she worshiped), so as usual, she went out on her own to explore. As an only child, she was always alone, but I think she liked her time alone to dream. She began finding interest in a dung beatle as it rolled it's prize along. She followed it for a very long time into the woods then realized that she was lost. Soon she heard someone calling for her and was found.
She often visited her, prim and proper, devoutly Christian Grandmother, Grandma Whitehead. whom she had fond memories of. Grandma, who so believed in this little misfit, lived close to her in Topeka Kansas.
(Some of the Whiteheads including Grandma and Grandpa Whitehead in their latter years).
Little Vonnie Lou as she was known to loved ones, lived much of her childhood with her parents in a boys industrial school. (a boy's criminal institution). Her father was the Sherif, so they lived there, and her only playmates were her imaginary ones. There was one man that my mother spoke of often, named Brownie. He was a black convict, a man with a very big heart. He used to play with her for hours as if he were a little kid himself. He let her take him to her tea parties. He helped her with her foil collection. He even let her play beauty shop. One day she shaved her father's German Shepherds, and Brownie tried to get her father to have mercy on her (but to no avail). My mother has fond memories of old Brownie. She also once took the foil from around her fathers last cigar in the box. When he found out, he asked her about it and she lied.. To this day momma still talked about how much trouble she got into for lying to her father. She always had a beauty salon in her play as a child, which turned out to be her profession as an adult. She was a manicurist later in life, and even owned a beauty salon, fulfilling one of her childhood dreams.
Yvonne's father was a good man but a very strict man. He was also an alcoholic, who raged when he became drunk. I remember her telling horror stories of him taking her and her mother and parking on the railroad tracks threatening to kill them all.
Once she could remember her mother putting her into a closet and having her be real quiet so when he came in he wouldn't find her. Her mother finally got out of this relationship, and moved to Hollywood, California.
Momma actually went to Hollywood High School with Doris Day and other future movie stars. Her mother struggled with life, and often treated her badly. Her mother was always on her back for a small weight problem that she had. She would bring friends in to her apartment and her mom would put her down in front of them, and take over her friendships, (and even her boyfriends). My mom went to live with her dad who had moved to Fresno. She tried to get help to go to Beauty School, but he kicked her out and told her that she had to learn to be on her own, to be a self reliant, self made person. She later thanked her dad, for making her tough and able to handle life. She kept this philosophy with her own children when they were in need. She never believed in hand outs and was very proud. She worked and went to beauty college and became a beautician. She also became a motel maid to help her through school.
Yvonne married a man in uniform, but when she got to know him she realized she had made a big mistake and was soon divorced. This became a pattern in her life. She would marry alcoholics and try to save them, they would abuse her and she would divorce them.
She soon met another man who she had a real attraction to, but they had knock down drag out fights and soon she divorced him as well. His name was John Guasto. She had no children with these first two husbands.
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