Hazel May Burkett

Hazel May Graham and Iva were the only slim girls of the family, although, someonly got heavier as they grew older. She said she had to watch younger brother Arch and she'd "take his hand and jerk him along."

    August 1, 1915 she met Maude's brother, Snowden (a Leo).  they came from a large family too, there was also Hervert (crippled ) and two afflicted with epilepsy, Oscar and Emerson, both big muscular menh.  And, I recall two other girls, Pearl and Rose.

    Mrs. Ida May Burkett, widowed, told Aunt Hazel the boys had "worms". (Of course, Aunt Hazel knew them as boys.)

    I remember a picnic at Mrs. Burkett's old vine-covered home in Argentine and Oscar and Emerson went into seizures in the side yard.  I was so frightened!  It took every man there to restrain them.  Their mother would not consider putting them into an institution.  Both died young.  It came through the mother's side and affected the victims at puberty.

    Hazel and Snowden married August 2, 1916 and their first child, Emerson Earl (the big brother I never had) was born August 3, 1917.  snowden kidded Hazel that they met on the first, married on the secons and Emerson was born on the Third.  Hazel would get indignant and declare, "Now, Snowden, you know it was all a year apart!"  

    They tried farming.  Hazel said bitterly,"With a hoe and a rake!" (Not the Hatch method.)  They did live in the country in a house, a bit more than a lean-to.  Daddy wired it free gratis.

    Many summers I spent with them and cousins, Emerson and Ida May, (Born Nov. 1919).  Aunt Haxel wanted to name her Juanita, but she was named for her grandmother.  

    Walking bare-footed on tar-covered country roads with that Kansas sun burning down on us.  Aunt Hazel had chickens.  That's where I learned when their heads are chopped off, they still flop around the yard.

    The radio was our only entertainment.  Aunt Hazel was a good cook - salmon patties and lucious pies and checken, of course.  Men played horseshoes.  They moved back to Rosedale.  Ida May7 and I were quite close.  They lived on the road below Mount Marty (Rosedale) High School.  A boy "Red" Clark was interested in Ida May, but her father (strict) let him know he was decidedly unwelcome.  

    One Thanksgiving, they came to Grandma's (we had a nice two-storie home at 1406 37th Avenue or Walknut Street).  Their house )first floor built into a hill, which probably saved it) had caught on fire!  The firemen said mice had gnawed electric wites within the walls.  Oh, the tears Aunt Hazel shed!  It was the Grest Depression, and we had so few material things to begin with.  They moved to a nicer one-storie home on the road that extended from out paved sidewalk on 37th Avenue.  Some Amish folks were their close neighbors.  

    Ida May, resentful, went to work at the Air Base in Warrengburg, Missouri.  It was not far enough.  She went to L.A. and lived with the Schulers.  Mary Queen and she drove ambulances.  She met Ray willing II and married him.  He was good-looking and romantic.  At first, Ida May adored him, but she did not want any children due to the Burkett side.  She and Ray had one son, Ray III, who was an infant when I stayed with them in 1947, enroute to Oahu.  She'd strap the baby on her back and go to work by way of the baby-sitter's or dayacare.  

    Ray drank, he blamed this on World War II.  Disillusioned, she divorced him and wrote me "I thought I"d never get rid of that fool!"  She later married Max Wise and wrote they had a mobile home and [planned to come see me.  Max and his brother died within a week of each other.  She wrote Aunt Blanche (then in K.C.), "You'll never hear from me again."  A Scorpio, she had a somewhat tragic life ... Scorpians always have a darl side... she had it in spades!

    Emerson went to work at Lockheed Aircraft in Califormin.  He met a Missouri girl, Sue, whom he married and the6y had four sons.  He was so like Hazel.  Ida May was a feminine version of her father, short and inclined to weight-gain.

    The burketts were they only ones, who came to Beloit of my relatives.  This set well with the Hatches and Yousts.  Your Great Grandmother Flora Ann Youst once screame4d at me, "No one knows where you came from!  You have no background! (The hell I don't!)  So, the Burketts made me ligit.  Your father and Snowden both liked baseball games and fishing and I heard Bill tell E,erson in your home, "Your Dad and I had some good times together."

    Iva and I were at work when Anna fell on the porch of the Dump, 636 S.W. Bl'vd (moved here in 1941).  She pounded with her stick and passer-bye notified the Burketts.  After the hospital, she lived at their home.  (widowed Nov. 1940 at1406 37th Avenue).  Edna (Mrs. Harry G.) told me she, Maude and sometimes Marie (who worked at a bakery) and Mary helped out as Hazel was never healthy.  I remember you'r father coming upstairs at the farmhouse with a very shocked expression telling me Snowden had called to say Grandma G. had died.  It was the day Bonnie was baptised - May, 1951.  I entrained to K.C.; I walked with Aunt Hazel to the graveside.  Aunt Hazel died of leukemia April1, 1955.  Ida May was reluctant to attend the funeral, but Snowden got tough and she  went to K.C.  Hazel was a dear, sweet lady! What a difficult life!  An Aries with a temper, but not fiery.

(Letter from Dorothy Nugent Hatch to Michael Hatch)