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Old Stories from My Family
Submitted by Lisa Cox
Some Sebastian County Memories
Compiled By Grace Wortman Cox’s Granddaughter Lisa Cox
Grace Wortman and her parents John Lemuel Wortman and Henryetta Morgan Wortman and siblings Mary, Henry, Isom, and Delia moved from Searcy County
to Sebastian County in 1914. They had a farm and garden. John Lemuel kept a bear for a pet for a while but then sent it back to the
mountains. He also had two mules, Black Beck and Red Beck. During World War I, the kids sang the verse “Kaiser Bill went up the hill/To
take a peep at France/Kaiser Bill came down the hill/With a U.S. bullet in the seat of his pants.” Grace went to school at Lone Star;
her teacher was Mr. Redwine. Grace later taught school for two terms.
Some of the people they knew in Greenwood included the Murphys, Dillahuntys, Jones, Dawsons, Beens, and McAlisters, and also the Cox kids--Helen,
Russell, Reuben, Kathryn, Marge, Nell, and Buster. They and their friends drove around the country taking pictures at the Narrows and other places;
Grace called it “going kodaking.” They’d also go to a local cafe for cokes and candy bars.
Nell, Marge, Kathryn, and Grace played basketball. One time after Harris McAlister and a bunch of other friends had gone running around, Nell and
Grace wished they had gone with them, so they asked Russell, who was at work, if they could borrow his car and he let them even though neither knew
how to drive. The girls ended up visiting Delia and her husband Dr. John Seamans in Mansfield, and didn’t meet another car going there or returning.
Grace and Russell got married at sunset on 29 June 1928 in the front yard of J.H. Smith, the JP who performed the ceremony. During the ‘30s, Russell
and Grace and their kids would get together with his siblings and their kids for picnics during the day, and on Saturday nights they would listen
to the Grand Ol’ Opry and eat ice cream.
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