| Raymond Roy Platt |
| Raymond Roy Platt was born November 29, 1896, on the farm near Crystal, Oklahoma. He was the sixth child and third son of Papa and Mama. He would have been 17 at the time Papa moved to Stillwater to run the Ford agency and probably finished high school in Stillwater. His family name was always his initials, RR.
He was the only one of the family to be in the military service, enlisting in the Army in 1917 and serving in France. On his discharge, he married Marie (Sis) Pershall, the sister of Mamie and Maude, wives of Lyman and Harmon. This was then, and may still be, the only instance in Oklahoma where three brothers married three sisters. It made the Maramec News. (for the newspaper article ) The Pershall girls were from Evansville, Washington County, Arkansas, right on the border by Oklahoma. In 1921, he was in Perkins, Oklahoma (29 miles south of Stillwater), working for older brother Harmon as a mechanic in the Ford garage. Their first child, Lois Pearl, was born there November 5, 1921. Harold Raymond and Betty Lou were born there on July 29, 1925 and May 9, 1928 respectively. Harold was born with a defective heart and died June 19, 1938, just short of his 13th birthday. In 1930, the beginning of the Great Depression found them in Stillwater, where they were living with Mama. Mildred Marie was born there on June 9, 1930. Older brother Lyman bought a farm near Walsh, Colorado, and Raymond went there to work it with him. Buelah Fern was born there on January 6, 1934. Between dust and hail, it was unhealthy and an economic failure. Both Buelah and cousin Myrtle came down with dust pneumonia |
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| Contributed by Lois Bryant and Richard Bradley |
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| Story:
Once, while there at Walsh, they did not have a thing in the house to eat. A stranger knocked on the door and Raymond answered it. The Stranger said "I feel a need to give you some money, but I don't know why". Raymond responded, "I know why- we have nothing". The stranger gave them $10 to get them over their hard spot. |
| After the failure and loss of the farm, Raymond moved to Paonia, Colorado with Lyman. He lived there and at close by Hotchkiss, Colorado, through the end of WWII, working as an automobile mechanic.
In 1946, he moved to Las Animas, Colorado, to become the pastor of the Friends Church there. Las Animas, out on the prairie not too far from Walsh, is a far cry from the mountains of Paonia. |
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| About 1962, he lived in Denver and helped Elizabeth in her real estate business. He owned a powerful Chevrolet, and used it to pull his camping trailer on trips.
After leaving Denver, he continued as a minister, in the San Luis valley at both Center and Homelake, Colorado. His final years were spent in Homelake at the Veterans Administration home there. He died there on April 6, 1978, at age 81. Marie survived him for several years. Both are buried at Homelake. |