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Tag: audrey larkin drake mitchell

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch- Changes

So many changes are coming! I’m opening up a shop! The new name of the website is now the name of my business – Honeysuckle Farm, LLC. The blog will remain and will keep the name Days of Our Lives. I named it that because my paternal grandmother and great grandmother (Audrey and Bess) were always watching soap operas when I was little and when I talk about my blog I always think of them. What can I say? I’m a sentimental person.

I’m attempting to point my Shopify shop here. I have no idea what I’m doing so bear with me! I’m figuring it out as fast as I can. I’m hoping that connecting the shop will help me centralize everything. We’ll see… I only have a free trial of Shopify so if it doesn’t work out I’ll have to figure out something else so changes may continue for a month or two while I get it together. For now, you can view my shop items on the Collections page. Once you arrive there, you can click on the titles under each picture to go to each collection although I will tell you that the only one with products listed right now is the Family History Collection. There are only a couple of items listed right now due to the amount of time it’s taking me to learn the new software and get the information online.

Thanks for your understanding and for sticking with me through these changes. I’ll get back to blogging soon. I forget how insanely busy the last few weeks of the school year are but we’re almost there – just two more weeks and then I can focus just on my shop and my blog (and Cousin Camp because YAY- 2021 Cousin Camp is coming at the end of June!!!).

While you’re waiting on me to pull myself together, here are a few pics of one of my absolute favorite places and a place I took the boys for their Cousin Camp field trip a couple of years ago. It was one of my favorite field trip days with the boys.

Saline Courthouse – the only original standing Cherokee courthouse in what was Indian Territory. There were 9 in Indian Territory and only this one remains.
Current hours of operation.
June 27, 2019 Us and the boys at Saline Courthouse for Cousin Camp Field Trip day.
June 27, 2019 Bart’s parents and the boys at Saline Courthouse for Cousin Camp Field Trip day.
June 27, 2019 My parents and the boys at Saline Courthouse for Cousin Camp Field Trip day. You can see the courthouse in the background. In 2019 they were still renovating it.
June 27, 2019 The boys being goofy at Saline Courthouse for Cousin Camp Field Trip day.

If you get a chance to visit Saline Courthouse, go! And while you’re in the area, try to find the Cherokee Nation Buffalo ranch and visit the Buffalo. Here’s a website to get you started. https://www.visitcherokeenation.com/attractions/saline-courthouse-museum. You can view inside the courthouse with that link but it doesn’t do justice to the location. Make time to go there!

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Audrey Larkin Drake Mitchell: Helper and Friend, Part 2

Before we get started, I want to share a photo with you and some additional information. First, I don’t think I included Mam’s middle name which is ‘Marguerite’. I thought I had written a blog post about how I think she got the name Marguerite but apparently I just shared that privately with a few people. I will add that to the list of stories to tell on weeks that are slow. Second item: I’ve been looking for this photo for a while and finally found it. This is Mam as a child with her classmates at Poynor School. I have written down somewhere what year it is but when the picture was digitized that information wasn’t included. When I find the information again I’ll be sure to pass it along. I have marked Mam with a red arrow above her head. She’s on the top row on the left side. There are other relatives (DRAKE’s and LARKIN’s) in this photo and I will identify them as I can- again, I need to find the written documentation and the physical photograph in order to pass along that information.

Audrey Larkin with her schoolmates at Poynor School in Delaware County, Oklahoma.
Audrey Larkin with her schoolmates at Poynor School in Delaware County, Oklahoma.

Poynor School students, Delaware County, Oklahoma near the Missouri state line (near Southwest City, McDonald County, Missouri).
Today, some stories from those who loved Mam. (If you missed yesterday’s post, go back and read it first here.) Before I pass along these stories though, I want to make a small correction to what I posted yesterday. I made the statement that she raised grandchildren, nephews, and a brother-in-law. I should have been more clear. She helped raise these people. There is one grandson whom she raised and adopted. The other three grandchildren, nephews, and brother-in-law were people who lived with her when other options were not optimal or not available. On to the stories.
From her son, Roy:
Mom was born, raised and lived with very little in things but was rich in love. Her life was spent working for/in the church and in helping others. She helped raise four children, three nephews, four grandchildren and one brother-in-law; and, became care giver for both her mother and mother-in-law! She was always cooking for someone in need (sick) and taking it to them. She’d clean and wash for them. She always showered them in love. And, these things were acts of love as much as being a good neighbor. She’d take old folks to town and back for groceries. Hers was a life of service. She practiced God’s love and lived it. I don’t know how she did it; and, to the extent that he had time, dad did the same. I have no doubt that her reward in heaven will far exceed mine – and, I suspect, many others. My greatest asset will always be the examples they set for me and the rules they set and enforced.
From her grandchildren:
Mam was good about writing notes to her grandchildren. Mine and my brother’s notes are packed away but my cousin Angela was able to put her hands on her treasured note from Mam and shared it with us. Thank you, Angie! We each received notes like this but each one was tailored to the specific grandchild so while we all received her standard, timeless advice, the personal notes to each of us were slightly different. In


From her granddaughter, Angela- the note Mam wrote to her:

A handwritten note from my grandmother Audrey (Larkin) Drake to her granddaughter (my cousin), Angela.
A handwritten note from my grandmother Audrey (Larkin) Drake to her granddaughter (my cousin), Angela.

My own experiences with Mam:
Mam spent so many of her years teaching Sunday School classes to the younger generations. When my children were young and we attended Poynor Baptist Church near Southwest City, McDonald County, Missouri, Mam was still there teaching the little ones. I’m grateful for her life of service, for the lessons she taught me both inside and outside the church, and for the lessons she taught my children. I appreciated her openness. She was always willing to share her own life lessons in order to help teach me ways to confront various situations in my own life. I won’t go into details but she rarely hesitated to give examples of situations from her own life to show how to (or how not to) respond to a particular situation. Like Angie’s note above, Mam was always directing us back to scripture for answers to problems as well and quick to remind us that maybe we needed to pray about a problem. Any time I had questions to ask, she was willing to take the time to answer them and if my behavior got a little off track she wasn’t afraid to set me straight even if I didn’t appreciate it at the time.
Thank you to those of you who shared some stories with me and if I missed anyone’s story please message me and let me know so I can include it in the weekend wrap up.


Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Audrey Larkin Drake Mitchell: Helper and Friend

This is going to be a two-part series with the shorter part being today. Yesterday was full of emergencies, car repairs, computer repairs that didn’t fix the problem, internet issues, more sickness…you get the picture. So today I will basically introduce Audrey (“Mam”) as a helping person and will continue with more stories on Wednesday.
Yesterday was Audrey’s birthday. Audrey is my paternal grandmother. I think I miss my grandmas more and more as I grow older.

Audrey (Larkin) Drake, November 1956 in Texas (probably Amarillo).
Audrey (Larkin) Drake, November 1956 in Texas (probably Amarillo).

A photo of Audrey about 4 years before the newspaper article below was written.
I wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to take with this blog post until I found this article yesterday on Newspapers.com:

9 November 1960 article in the Miami Daily News Record (Miami, Oklahoma) about Audrey (Larkin) Drake and her father-in-law Ervin "Alonzo" Drake.
9 November 1960 article in the Miami Daily News Record (Miami, Oklahoma) about Audrey (Larkin) Drake and her father-in-law Ervin “Alonzo” Drake.

Wednesday, 9 Nov 1960, Miami (Oklahoma) Daily News-Record
Mam (Audrey) always was a helper. She raised her four children but then she also raised four grandchildren, three nephews, and a brother-in-law. I knew about her grandchildren living with her- they were my cousins and one of the reasons I enjoyed going to Mam’s house often. I had no idea that she had raised three nephews and a brother-in-law, though. So there is a lot to find out about Mam and all the ways she helped people. I’m still gathering stories if you’d like to send me yours.
I apologize for the brevity of this post but real life gets in the way sometimes. I promise to deliver lots of stories on Wednesday to go with this theme and the newspaper article I found. I’m looking forward to it. I hope you are as well. (On Wednesday I was planning to tell you about new information I’ve received on people I’ve blogged about in the past. That will be pushed back to later in the week- maybe Friday.)


Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

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