Rogers Co. OK Obit for Theodore Rogers Gregory Archives http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/rogers/rogers.htm From: Barbara Cox ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** Theodore Rogers Gregory [obit] Theodore Rogers Gregory was born July 9, 1921 in Claremore, Oklahoma. He was always told that he was a distant relative of Will Rogers and was therefore named after him. Theodore was the third child and only son of Gilbert and Ina Stewart Gregory. His father was five-eighths Cherokee and Creek Indian. Gilbert worked as a mail carrier in Claremore and later in St. Louis, Missouri. Theodore had two older sisters, Rose born in 1902 and Beatrice born in 1917. Beatrice died as a teenager as a result of a car accident. Rose was married when Theodore was just two and her daughters were younger playmates to Theodore. Theodore was five when his family moved to St. Louis, Missouri and he recalled growing up in a Jewish neighborhood. Shortly after moving to St. Louis, Theodore contracted double pneumonia and ran a very high fever for several days during which he nearly died. This caused Theodore to struggle through his first few years of school. He completed his schooling at Mount Calvary in St. Louis and graduated from the eighth grade in 1935. When Theodore turned sixteen, his mother bought him a car and a movie camera. Remember, that was 1937! He told how he used to take movies of his nieces (who were just a little younger than he) in compromising situations and how tickled he used to get. He did not attend high school, but when he turned eighteen he remembers his Daddy telling him that he (his Dad) could no longer count him off for income taxes, so he (Theodore) had to get a job. That's when Theodore went to trade school for three and a half years at Hadley Technical School where he learned welding and show card printing. Theodore's first job was as an Arc Welder with the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company in Mobile, Alabama from February to July 1942. According to his Army papers he "fused metal parts together by means of electric welding apparatus to fabricate metal objects or to repair broken objects." His job there in Alabama was short-lived because he received his draft papers from the Army. Theodore served in the U.S. Army from August 11, 1942 until his honorable discharge at Ft. McPherson, Georgia on December 30, 1945. Theodore never spoke much about his military service, but he did mention serving in England and France. While in France during World War II, Theodore became engaged (or so he thought!) to a young French girl. He hadn't been able to get free to see her for a while, but finally he showed up on her doorstep. She answered the door in her wedding dress and politely invited him to her wedding that afternoon! According to his Army records, Theodore worked ten months as a warehouse foreman where he "worked at receiving and shipping warehouse at Daytona Beach, Florida. Checked incoming supplies and directed storage of supplies in warehouse. Shipped supplies to warehouses that were used as issuing points to military units. Kept records of all supplies received and shipped." Theodore also worked eighteen months as a cook where he "performed duty with the Headquarters European Civil Affairs Regiment while stationed in the European Theater of Operations. He prepared food for 250 men per meal and directed cooks' helpers in preparation of food and cooked meats, sauces, gravies, desserts, vegetables and soups. He made inspections of equipment and submitted sanitation report each day and kept records of all food used." After his discharge from the Army, he returned to Claremore where his parents were now living and built a house next door. He started working as a welder and traveled throughout the central U.S. Theodore's father died in 1946 and after this he cared for his mother. About 1952, Theodore decided he wanted to get out of welding and start his own business. He opened a hobby and craft store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but after two years noticed his bank account dropping and gave up his dream. It was this time that he taught himself to paint with oils. His family has several of his early pieces. One in particular is a white cat hanging on a wire fence. After he was stricken with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, the family hung this cat painting in his nursing home room. He often commented how that cat was always looking at him and followed him every time he moved to a new home! After his failed business venture, Theodore returned to welding and was a member of good standing in the Welders' and Pipefitters' Union Local 430 for 48 years at the time of his death. He had retired in 1983 for health reasons. Theodore was always keeping his eye open for a good investment and found a motel in Muskogee, Oklahoma where his mother could help run it during the day when he was away at work. That didn't work out, so then he invested in an apartment building in Sapalpa and did all the remodeling himself. This gave him the experience and confidence to begin building his own home from the ground up. He said later that he'd learned from his earlier mistakes and felt confident he could build his own home. He started building about 1975 and it took him nearly two years to finish working between jobs and in his spare time. As it turned out, he finished the house just in time for his wedding! After Theodore turned fifty, he decided to get serious about finding a mate and placed a personal ad in several papers. Over the years, he wrote to several ladies, but settled on one to get to know better. And that was our mother, Syble Beatrice Sears Kiser. Beatrice was born February 10, 1924 in Osage County, Oklahoma. She was the third child of Charles Preston Sears and Leona Clapp. She had two sisters and four brothers all together. Beatrice went to school in the oil fields in the Webb City area. In 1942 she married Earl Charles Kiser who worked in the mines and oil field construction most of his adult life. They had four children, James, Earlene, Ruth Elaine and Charles. Earl suffered a fatal heart attack in November 1974. Beatrice was left a young and lonely widow, but was not thinking of every marrying again. But she trusted the Lord and He obviously had other plans! She always said the Lord brought her and Theodore together because the circumstances of their meeting would never suggest "a marriage made in heaven." Someone showed Beatrice a paper, The Midnight Globe, which contained Theodore's personal ad. Both Theodore and Beatrice had written to several prospective companions, but the Lord spoke to them about each other. After Theodore proposed in September, Beatrice asked for each of them to prayerfully consider it. Then, she said, "Yes!" On November 26, 1977, in Nowata, Oklahoma, Theodore and Beatrice were married and Theodore received an "instant family" of four children with spouses and eight grandchildren! They made their home in the house he had built in Sapalpa. Beatrice remembers hearing that "if a man is good to his mother, he will be good to his wife." And Theodore was good to his mother. She continued to make her home with Theodore and Beatrice until 1980 when Theodore remodeled a house next door to his sister Rose in Claremore for his mother. After their marriage, Theodore and Beatrice bought a small travel trailer in which to live when he was working away from home. Theodore worked on jobs in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Illinois. Theodore developed the beginning of Parkinson's disease in 1980 and decided to retire in the spring of 1983 when he was 62. They looked for a small town in which to retire and settled in Chouteau, Oklahoma. It was still close enough to both their parents and siblings. In 1995 Theodore had been stricken so by Alzheimer's that Beatrice had to give up their home in Chouteau and move closer to her children for support and help. Theodore went to live in a nursing home Alzheimer's Unit for the next four and a half years. He seemed content and Beatrice visited him daily as her health permitted. Theodore never failed to recognize his wife. Theodore passed on to be with his Lord and Savior May 24, 2000 at of age of 78 years. He had been raised and joined the Lutheran Church, but enjoyed the music at his wife's Pentecostal Holiness Church. In his later years, Theodore read his Bible daily and wrote the date in the margins to help him keep track of his place. He particularly liked to read the words of Jesus. His favorite verse was Romans 1:17, "for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith." Theodore was a self-taught man, teaching himself to read and speak Spanish after he served with several Spanish-speaking buddies during WWII. He read the Spanish-language Reader's Digest until well after his retirement. Theodore inherited a German reproduction violin from his father and continued to play it even after an injury to his left arm, which forced him to hold the violin between his knees. Beatrice had a small portable electric organ when they married and Theodore became interested in playing it. When they went on the road in their small trailer, he moved the organ in also and he taught himself to play in the evenings after work. He bought larger and larger ones that offered him more challenge. The favorite memory of many of his children and grandchildren is waking up to Grandpa Theodore playing the organ. Every morning after his retirement, Theodore would rise at six to listen to the stock market report and then he would sit down to play the organ. He had a favorite Jimmy Swaggart hymn book that he would start at the front of and play each song through to the last one then start over again. He'd often play a couple hours at a time, sometimes even playing himself to sleep! Another favorite memory of Theodore involves his chessboard. He played as long as he could remember and joined chess clubs wherever he worked. Beatrice bought him an electronic chessboard shortly after their marriage because she couldn't play chess very well and wasn't much of a challenge for him. He went through a couple electronic chessboards, each one offering him more of a challenge. The family well remembers Theodore at many family gatherings retiring to a quiet corner to play a solitary game of chess, often being watched intently by a curious young grandchild. Written by Bonnie Kiser (BonieKiser@aol.com) and Beatrice Kiser Gregory