Golf Gypsy--The Lost Stories

This morning I awoke early with stories spinning in my head. At last I gave up and crawled out of bed, boiled some hot water for my morning tea and sat down to write. By then whatever seemed so important had drifted away and new thoughts and stories streamed through my visions faster than I could type or organize my thoughts.

I have piles of notes that are unlabeled but visibly show different resources, such as: newspaper clippings of interest, WOGA, Letty's writings and thoughts, and three piles of "golf" history.

Three tags in my golf history piles caught my attention: Mother's list and costs of supplies for our bomb shelter; a story about being pregnant for three years; and personal story that will not be retold in print.   

    

The rains began Monday and on Tuesday we drove through torrential rains too Shangri-la, Grove, Oklahoma for a golf vacation and history search. Waking up to more rain on Wednesday we explored the activity center at Shangri-la and spent  time playing ping pong and using the Track Master golf facility hitting into an automated golfing screen. Still no outside golf.

When it became apparent this would not be a golf trip, I began the phone calls and appointments with former Miami, Oklahoma, Golf and Country Club members. I've been collecting stories about the club for over ten years now.

We drove into Grove, Oklahoma and met Bev Jackson Moss, who I had not seen in over fifty years. At 88 she has outlived three husbands and played golf until recently when she began losing her eye-sight to macular degeneration. She has battled back from colon cancer and then nearly died two years ago from Covid. She has not lost her sense of humor and good memories of the old country club, as we have come to call it. 

After the hugs and laughter my most pertinent question burst forth.

 "Bev, please tell me about your pregnancies and golf games. I can recall looking out the golf shop windows as you teed off on number 6 and I saw your belly swing forward with force as you hit your drive up the hill and nearly to the bunker. It seemed like that baby is what propelled you to hit the ball so far."  

Before she could reply, I spewed another memory. "Keep in mind Bev that I was twelve when you moved to Miami and it seemed to me that you were always pregnant. I even heard people talk about you as years went by, pointing out that you were the only woman they knew who was pregnant for three years." Once again we could not contain our laughter.

"Letty, it felt like I was pregnant that long, too. Daughter number one, Sandy was born in 1960. Daughter number two, Debbie, was born in 1961 and son, Billy, was born in 1962." 

"No, wonder people laughed saying you had been pregnant for three years, and you played golf, too, didn't you."

Bev explained, " With Sandy, I gained too much weight. Dr. Highland insisted that I get exercise and said, 'You live on the golf course, get out and start playing golf for your health." Her husband, Wayman Jackson, a part owner in car dealerships in Kansas City and Miami, bought her a set of clubs and a pull cart.

"Letty, without even having a lesson I walked out the backdoor and every day played holes number 8, 9, coming into the club house, and then turned around and played numbers 6, and 7 that led back to our house. All the time I hooked a stroller type of a chair to the back of the golf bag and cart and pulled Sandy along while I learned how to play golf."

That summer of 1961 she began playing in the Friday evening Scotch foursomes, a couples 9-hole event. People began placing bets on when she would deliver that baby and on what hole.

That Friday night she recalled, "I played the best I have ever on the 9th hole. I hit four perfect shots and my partner and I, Charlie Trussler, won the night's award. The next morning I felt better than ever and set to work in the garden when suddenly my water broke. My husband panicked and Virgil Cooper, a friend and the undertaker!"

"Mr. Cooper also panicked and arrived at our house in the Cooper Funeral Home Hearst. They rushed me to the hospital and Debbie was born an hour later."

L to R: Beverly Jackson, Winner; Faye Berentz runner-up championship flight; Sue Barnes, 9-hole champion; Dorothy Schofield, runner-up 9-hole. 

"The good news is that I never delivered a baby on the golf course. Our three children all learned to play golf and I took lessons from your dad, which led to me winning the club championship several times. From the late 1960's through the 1970's I became a golf travel mom, taking the kids all over the four-state for golf tournaments. It's been a great and rewarding game."

**The story of the bomb shelter will be published soon.