Aunt Ponnie And Me; Altus Okla Made Three

When I was a kid I used to listen to the poem starting with T'was The Night Before Christmas And All Through The House

Well let me tell you this was not the night before Christmas!!!!!

It was March and the night before the big Western dance at the Wm H Patterson Elks Lodge and I just got stood up!


Thinking fast, should I pick up the telephone and call or should I forget it.

I wanted to clear out my mind. No need in saying any bad words because that would make me more angry. I had never ever been stood up before.

The worse thing that I could remember happening to me was when that little boy who lived three doors down from us at the Lackland Air Force Base asked me to be his girlfriend. The next day after I said ok, he took my umbrella and broke it. I think he also quit me but I was so busy crying about my broken umbrella that I did not hear him.



The first thing would be is to stop looking at the clock. It seemed like all I heard was tic, tic tic, tic tic tic. Then, I need to get away from that dog-gone window. No reason to keep looking, Its not going to change anything one bit.Tic, tic, tic,tic, tic tic tic.



(I don't know what sound is worse the constant ticking or the buzzing of a fly that circles and circles all around your ear.)


My Aunt Ponnie used to say all the time,''Honey, haven't you heard that a watch pot never boils" I could hear her saying that now as I backed away from the window. I suddenly realized that my date was no longer important. That the realization should be on a person who had more of an impact on my life and that was Aunt Ponnie.

Although our time together was short, it was very meaningful to me. She kept me from being lonely when I missed my family back home, and she loved me as if I were her own.



Pauline was born November 30th 1899 to Joe and Nancy Cryor Mitchell in Hempstead County Arkansas. She grew up with two brothers Floyd and Wardell.

Here are two census records that reflect her and her family.

The first is a 1900 Census in Saline County Arkansas


The View:


Here is the 1910 census that depicts the brothers Floyd and Wardell Mitchell



The View:



Somewhere along the way Wardell ended up in Kansas City Kansas/Missouri area and Pauline and Floyd ended up in Altus Oklahoma. That's where I met her.



We spent hours and hours talking and laughing. Everyone called her Aunt Ponnie.
One thing about Aunt Ponnie was that she sure spoke her mind and 99.9 percent of the time it was the truth. She had her hands full with her grandson's Lawrence and Melvin who were just coming into their teens. Melvin was the outgoing one and Lawrence was more reserved.

I had driven down from Phoenix one year and stayed with them for about a month. I was on my way to Dallas but took a different route so that I could see them and also my Uncle Wright Cuney "Prof" Davis.

Every morning for about two weeks after getting up, I would go outside. The first thing that I saw was my car. It had been egged!


I was so upset. Number one because my car was egged and number two the paint on my car was being ruined. The boys Melvin and Lawrence and I tried to be look-outs for the culprits but to no avail.

Leave it to Aunt Ponnie, she found a way.

One night when everyone went to bed Aunt Ponnie got up, went to the refrigerator, took out all the eggs and carefully numbered them. She placed them back in the container upside down.


Well lo and behold the next morning, my car was egged. She called me and the boys in the living-room and told Melvin to get the eggs out of the refrigerator, and one by one read off the numbers. One number was missing.

Melvin confessed, saying that he was just playing pranks on me. All I could say was he had better be glad that he was not my child at that moment.

I think Melvin could not go out and play for about two days because he was put on punishment.
I asked Aunt Ponnie how she knew that it was Melvin. Well she said, " When it was lawrence's time to be the look-out, the next morning, no eggs!! When it was Melvin's turn, eggs !! That told me that one plus one equals two, so I got out the crayon."

Aunt Ponnie had a house with about four bedrooms. She rented out two of the rooms. One was to a soldier who was stationed at Altus Air Force base. His job on the base was a cook. So when he bought different things home from the base it was a welcome relief to Aunt Ponnie. There were big bags of flour and sugar, all kinds of fruits and veggies, spices and sweets.

One day I went over to her house and Aunt Ponnie was not really feeling that good. She was sitting on the couch and was a little out of breath. That did not stop her from puffing on those Pall Malls though. She asked me if I could finish cooking for her because her roomers would be home soon and that meals was a part of her contract with them.

Aunt Ponnie told me to look up under the cabinet and take out that big can of parsley that her roomer had bought home from the base and sprinkle some on the meat she was going to prepare.

I did so and opened the lid. Man oh man was I in for a shock. All I could smell was weed. That can was filled to the rim.

I was not a smoker of weed but being from the city I came from, I knew the smell.

I did not say a word to Aunt Ponnie. If I would have told her what she was unknowingly harboring I am sure her 65 years at that time would have been cut short by a heart attack.

Instead when the roomer soldier came home, I told him what I had found. He moved the next day. I think he may have told Aunt Ponnie that he was getting shipped out and had to leave for another assignment.

I learned several years later that he had been booted out of the service.

I moved back to Phoenix and called or wrote to Aunt Ponnie every chance I got.

One time she called me crying up a storm. She told me that someone was coming to take her refrigerator away and that she had to go to court. She begged me to come and go to the courthouse with her. Distraught, she said that she had no one else to go with her. Hating to hear that, I took time off my job, caught the bus and went back to Altus.

That following Monday we went down to the courthouse where we met with this lawyer who was in charge of her case. When he told me how much money her court case was over, I was too through. She was threatened with not only the loss of her refrigerator, but the threat that she could have her house taken away if she did not pay up.

They gave her a week or else.

She was in to them for a lousy eleven dollars. They had intimidated her with calls and threats that to her the eleven dollars seemed like eleven hundred dollars. I asked the lawyer what the total pay off was. With a smirk on his face, he told me thirty dollars which I promptly paid.

I asked him for a paid in full receipt and we left.

I know that Aunt Ponnie was relieved but she sure did try hard to get me to move back to Altus. God I loved that woman, but to live back there again, I just couldn't. Aunt Ponnie left this earth in 1979.......I drove down again for her home going celebration.

Rest In Peace Aunt Ponnie, Rest In Peace.

Mad Monday: Flipping Switches to Altus Oklahoma

Devine records Altus black history

ALTUS—Did you know that at one time Altus had five black deputy sheriffs or that Ray Charles and B.B. King once played here?

One Altus woman, Monetta Devine, took it upon herself to record the black history of Altus in three volumes of books called “From the Black Side of Altus.”

“I wanted to do this because there was a book written about the history of Altus and not one black person was in the book,” she said. “Not one, so I said this is the time that something needs to be said about some blacks.”

Devine went to the newspaper and radio stations and asked for people to send pictures and stories of their families. She received hundreds of family portraits and told the stories that people sent stories that people who have lived here all their lives may not have known. She began the book in 1987 and completed it six years later. It was published and sold in 1994.

“People sent me photos from all over,” Devine said. “I just wish I would have had the money to have it published the way it should have been. I took the information that they gave me and I added to this information and made it something that was delightful to read. It’s some of the most hilarious stories that you ever want to read. It’s just so interesting that it will just keep you reading and reading and reading.”

In Volume One, Devine has a special section devoted to her experiences of growing up on Crain Street and how every adult looked out for each other’s children.

“You could sleep hot summer nights with your windows and doors open and you weren’t bothered at all. Some people slept on a bed at night under a tree. Crain Street persons were concerned about each other and showed that concern at all times,” she wrote.

Volume One also tells the history of early settlements of blacks in Altus starting in the 1900s. Stories were told of the first businesses in Altus that were operated by blacks and black doctors. Family stories include those about Mary Wright, the Oliver family, the Dagget family, the Crowley family and others that resided in the community.

“We had five black deputy sheriffs in 32,” Devine said. “Mr. Savage was the sheriff and Altus was a ‘Boomtown’ then. Boomtown meaning big, running, gambling, hustling. Ray Charles used to play out of Altus. B.B. King, Big Joe Turner, Mr. Melvin, who had lots of places. He had the Coconut Club. He had the Hideaway ... I at one time had a beauty shop down on Crain Street, hustling people were there. I did hair sometimes until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning.”

Volume Two of the book tells the history of black churches, which include St. John Baptist Church, Macedonia Baptist Church, New Hope Baptist Church and the Church of God and Christ. Also in the second volume, it tells the history of Lincoln School.

Volume Three ends the collection with stories of local families and monthly calendars with historical facts about blacks. Hundreds of pictures are displayed in the books. Collages of family portraits are also on some of the pages.

Devine’s family history is told in the books. She was born in 1933 to Purthy and Beatrice Devine. She is the youngest of two siblings, a brother, Lonnie Allen and a sister, Jeanie Jackson. She graduated from Lincoln High School as salutatorian in 1950. She attended Langston University after she received a scholarship from the VFW Post Ladies Auxiliary with the help of O.B. Grimmit. She also attended Texas Southern University, Western Oklahoma State College and Eastern Oklahoma State College. She was married to Master Sgt. Herman Roberts. They had one child, Dr. Robbie Steward. She later married Climon Quarles. The couple had three children, Tina Quarles-McKinnis, Lonnie Quarles and Whitney Quarles. She and Quarles were married for 23 years.

Devine says that the books could not have been done without the efforts of Jodean McGuffin Martin, Phyllis Paul Williams and Jean Wilson. She would also like to thank the people that sent pictures and stories. The books are available to read at the Altus Public Library in the genealogy section, but cannot be checked out. Not all of the histories of black families in Altus are told because information was not sent in. She says that she feels it is very important for families to read about the history of Altus.

“People will find stories that they have never heard of before,” Devine said. “The stories are comical and sad. There are stories of white and black families. It will benefit them to take the time to read them.”


This article was found in the Altus Times about four years ago. The book can be found in the Altus Library. My interest stems from in Altus Oklahoma because of Floyd and Mary Lomax Mitchell and their son Alford Mitchell. Also Pauline Mitchell Martin. These are my daughter's line.

http://altustimes.com/view/full_story/1323161/article-Devine-records-Altus--black-history