howeenterprise.com
Monday, April 25, 2016
Page #10
Texas History Minute: Apollo 11 landings in 1969 and the family watched on TV, she sat in another room taking care of her father as he lay dying of cancer. In the 1970s and 1980s, the debate over women in the workplace and wives working outside the home perplexed her. “We all worked,” she would say. In 1984, she married Jeff Seay, a respected rancher and gentleman Dr. Ken Bridges from Archer City. The two had Veron Seay was not a woman people many happy times together. will read about in the history books. While living on the ranch, she She was not famous, but she was the once helped birth a calf, the first time she ever saw anything being kind of person that the world was born. As Jeff Seay’s health better for having around. declined, she cared for him day and night. She later recalled that She was born Lois Veron Harris in as he passed away, he saw 1927 in Ragtown, Texas, a small someone above him and reached community of farmers just outside out. She would tell the story Paris. She had an older brother, Gaylon, who died when he was five, often that whoever Jeff Seay saw in his dying moments, he was and a younger sister, LaFay. glad to see them. The family later moved further west to Wichita Falls when she was young Well into retirement, she continued to work. She in hopes of better work. The Great Depression, however, hit the family volunteered for many years with several organizations, always hard. Her mother would have to helping others and always make dresses for her and her sister out of old potato sacks. For a time in treating each volunteer job as she the 1930s, her parents were only able would any other job. to support the family through Works Her faith was always there, and she read the Bible and religious Progress Administration work books voraciously, always projects, her father digging ditches asking questions about it all. or helping pave highways and her Even pushing 80, she still mother working in WPA sewing walked the ten blocks to and rooms or canning rooms. At one point, all they had to eat in the house from church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. was one can of Spanish rice. But they worked hard, endured, and For Veron Seay, kindness was gradually overcame their poverty. never a weakness. Self-respect and hard work were always a When she was growing up, their given. If someone ever took denomination would be whatever church was within walking distance. advantage of her generous nature, she would just shrug it She would go on to teach Sunday off and move on. She would School and Vacation Bible School never allow someone else’s lack for nearly six decades. of character to diminish her In 1940, she had to quit school in the own. Being good to others was an expectation. eighth grade to go to work. She mentioned in her job as a waitress When her sister became ill, she that she made $6 per week for a seven-day week and thought she was cared for her day and night, refusing to leave her side. As getting rich. they had been all their lives, they She married W. T. Nichols in 1947, were inseparable. Not long after her sister passed away, her exa marriage that later ended in divorce. When she gave birth to her husband became ill, and she took care of him, too, staying at this only daughter in 1948, the bill was side the whole time with all only $50, including the ambulance forgiven. Losing so much in the ride to the hospital and back home. Family was always important. When span of just a few months took its toll and her, and her health men walked on the Moon with the
declined.
One life touches another. Perhaps the ultimate legacy anyone can She was tired, but she still wanted leave is the example they lead, to take care of everybody. In how they touch the lives of others, March, she suffered a serious and how they made them feel. stroke that briefly paralyzed her. And sometimes we find a special With modern medicine and a person in our lives who makes us strong spirit, she was up walking want to be better people. That was the next day. Her luck ran out, and the special legacy of Veron Seay, she suffered a second stroke a my grandmother. month later, much more serious Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, and one she would not be able to recover from. She died April 16 at writer, and history professor. He the age of 88. can be reached at drkenbridges@gmail.com.
