Baptized at age 13 and filled with the Holy Ghost at age 17, I began to attend Apostolic Bible College in West Tulsa.
I left Spartan Aircraft and went to work for Kress (a 5 & 10 store). The Sperry church split, and they ousted Brother Brown. At that time I left to go to Bro. Williams? church in Tulsa. I had gotten a room in Tulsa, and I asked my boss if I could take classes early in the morning and work 10-6 when the store closed. I went regularly to church. I lived across town and had to ride the bus and catch the bus late at night and then get back to school early the next morning.
I had dated Sister Brown?s brother-in-law. It was getting serious. He was divorced, and I did not feel that it was God?s will to marry him. Later I found out he re-married several times. God had told me he had someone better for me. This proved to be true!
Henry Martens from Los Angeles, California was attending Apostolic Bible College. I met him there one morning while eating breakfast. He was serious in his studies and didn?t chase the girls. We began dating; and after two years, we were married in a simple ceremony.
My first daughter, Claudia Sue, was born in Tulsa while we were still attending Bible College. She cried all the time, and we paced the floor with her. We didn?t realize that I didn?t have enough milk to satisfy her. I never nursed another child after that! We moved to Los Angeles when she was five weeks? old. I lacked one subject of graduating from ABC.
S.E. (Sherman) Langford was the pastor of the Los Angeles church, and we stayed in the Langford?s basement for three months. The rats loved to run the beams in that basement! We then rented a house from the City-Highway Department. Ruth Ann was born while we lived there. We stayed there as long as we could, but a freeway was coming through, and the house was right in the middle of its path.
I started working full-time after Ruth was in school at various retail stores. Stephen Henry was born 11 years after Ruth, and I worked part of the time after he started to school.
Many children stayed in our home over the years as foster children. To this day, we are happiest when all of our kids, grandkids, and great grandchildren are together.
We lived in the Los Angeles area until we moved back to Sperry, Oklahoma in 1973. It?s great to be back home again.