Opal Ella Nora Higdon Ford (By Dee Dee)

This picture is of my mother, Opal Ella Nora Higdon, at age 18.  She married my dad, Paul Millard Ford, at the age of 19.

She was born on January 15^th, 1912, to Joseph and Lucy Higdon in Eastland, Texas.  She was the 5^th child of eight children born to them.

They moved by covered wagon to Wellington, Texas, at some point in her childhood.  My mother did not have much formal education (through either 6^th or 7^th grade), but she was one of the smartest women I’ve ever known.  She could write the best poems and essays.  She helped my sister with several college papers and they got A’s on them.  She helped me write a poem in high school (and Odell Lemons stood up after I read mine and said, “Chevy, you know you didn’t write that.”  It was so much better than my other writings.  I’m sure my teacher came to the same conclusion and graded me accordingly.

My mother could sew anything by just seeing a picture.  When we were teenagers, my sister and I would buy “Photoplay” and “Seventeen” magazines and she would copy the clothes from them.  She kept us very well dressed when we were teenagers.

She met my Dad at the skating rink in Wellington, Texas.  This would carry on for two more generations as I met Larry at the skating rink and Lara met Donnie at the skating rink.

My Dad was from Dodson, Texas, so when they married they moved there and spent the rest of their lives there.  There is so much more to write, and as the family story continues I will write more of her, but for now, when I’ve been asked what is my fondest memory of her, it would be that I remember her as the most gentle, kindest, sweetest, and smartest of all women.  In fact, I think of her as a saint (which she was called that by someone), and as the story unfolds it will show that she really was.

She never spanked us, and the only bad scolding I remember getting was when my sister, the neighbor kids, and I were making fun of another neighbor kid.  She sat us down and chewed us out royally.  She never made fun of anyone and always tried to find the best in everyone.  I remember a new girl moved into town.  Truthfully, she was very ugly.  She couldn’t help it, and I did feel sorry for her.  I told Mama that a real ugly girl had moved in.  Later, when my Mama saw her, she said, “She is not so ugly.  She has beautiful eyes and real pretty hair.”  That was my Mama – always finding the good and pretty in the bad and the ugly.

She died on July 15^th, 1971, at the age of 59.  Oh, how I loved her and still miss her!