Ethel
Young
VAUGHN
Ethel Young Vaughn Holdridge, (just "granny" to me) was born on April 25, 1910. She lived in the DeLeon Texas area just about all of her life, rarely leaving the area. She was born to Joseph and Mary Vaughn. Ethel was the 8th child in a family of 9 children. The child born just previous to her, Florence, had died as an infant, or was still-born. Ethel's health was a life long struggle for her but she did grow to adulthood and brought a family into the world.
Ethel is on the left leaning on the bridge rail. The small boy is Billy Joe McCrum. The woman in the hat is not known at this time (6-5-03)
Her grades in school were excellent, and her desire was to follow in the footsteps of her father and sisters, and become a teacher. She was told by the doctors however that she would not make it through the rigors of college, and that she should move in a different direction.
Ethel was raised in the St Joe community, just northeast of DeLeon Texas. She attended Baptist church in the St Joe and was at one time the church Pianist.
The Journey
At some point, she met Curtis Holdridge, if my memory serves me it was at the St Joe Baptist church. After a certian appropriate courtship, Curtis rode his horse to her home, just off of main street in DeLeon, tied up the horse to a metal ring attached to a wall that still stands to this day. He walked across the street caty-cornered to a house that also still stands and upon that porch, he asked the love of his life to marry him, and she agreed. My "pawpaw" was completely in love with "granny". I have never seen love and devotion on such a scale in my life.
The DeLeon Free Press (newspaper of DeLeon Texas) states the following in 1929.
Miss Ethel Vaughn, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Vaughn of the St. Joe community, was married on last Saturday evening, February 23rd, to Mr. Curtis Holdridge. Son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Holdridge. Both the contracting parties are De Leon young people, popular in a large circle of friends, all of whom wish for them a full measure of happiness as they journey through life together.
I have read this often, and have looked back now in hindsight to that day, when my grandparents married. I was not there of course, but to read the statement "as they journey through life together" inspires me in my life. Ethel's overall health never really improved. She would become sick easily, and suffered several times with various serious illnesses. Each time God's faithfulness brought her through the illness. This is not to say that her life was not also filled with joy. I never knew my grandmother to be cross or unhappy, at least not in the later years that I knew her. She also lived a long and full life. Curtis and Ethel had one child, a daughter, Margaret Faye Holdridge McGehee (my mom).
This is a picture of Ethel Vaughn Holdridge with her daughter Margaret Faye Holdridge McGehee just outside Ethel's home in DeLeon Tx. (early 1950s)
Curtis and Ethel Holdridge, with their daughter Margaret about 1940 in Odessa Texas. They were visiting Earnest Holdridge, brother to Curtis L Holdridge.
I realize this page is about Ethel, but its hard to talk about my grandmother without bringing my grandfather into the picture. They were inseperable. They were married for 59 years before Ethel went to be with the Lord. In that time no matter whether rain or sun, Ethel and Curtis were together. In later years Ethel suffered a massive stroke on both sides of her brain. Although suffering through a coma for 8 days, she came out of that and began to mend. She was never fully recovered and spent the last 8 years or so of her life in a nursing home in DeLeon Texas. Each day, without fail, my grandfather would get up, go to the nursing home, feed granny her breakfast, tend to all her needs. He would go back home for a few minutes in the morning and take care of his chickens, then return to his wife's side. He did this every day, 10 hours a day, each day she was in the nursing home. He never missed a day. On one occasion he had to have outpatient surgery at the hospital, but still - after the surgery he was by his wife's side.
Ethel went to be with her heavenly father on May the 9th, 1988 at 10:40 PM in the evening. She had fought with health issues and had lived a long, happy life, raised a daughter and followed her savior for 78 years.
During the time she was in the nursing home, she had a great deal of trouble using her hands. Her body was partially paralyzed from the stroke that had attacked her. As her body began to fail, she had developed lung cancer (her mother had died from cancer of the gal bladder). I have often thought of what it must have been like, as she lay there, her breath getting shorter and shorter over the days, and then there was one last breath. In that second, she stepped from this life, out of a body that was bound by sickness into the marvelous light of Christ. In that moment, that second of realization that she was there, with Christ, with her loved ones - no more paralyzed arms, or legs, no more slurred speech - the joy of being with Christ; How I have thought of that moment over the last 15 years.
I miss my granny, to this day. I
doubt that I will ever stop missing her. On March 4, 1999,
Curtis Lee Holdridge, also stepped through that thin veil. I understand fully that according to the bible, in heaven there is
neither male nor female; There is no "marriage or giving in
marriage" it says. However, I have no doubt that as my "pawpaw"
stepped into the arms of Christ, that also standing by were the
arms of a loving partner of over half a century.
So, I suppose we could say that now this "journey through
life" is complete.
Curtis Lee Holdridge
abt. 1950
Back Home to
