Biography:  Lela Morrow Craddock, Coke County, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
15 May 2002
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The Observer/Enterprise, 5 April 2002, Robert Lee, TX

Out of the Ordinary

by Jane Austin Bruckner 

(Out of the Ordinary columns will remind you of your heritage, talk 
about things that matter, and perhaps give you a different point of 
view.  This week features the woman behind Craddock Motor Company. 
Francis Wylie Lomas, local genealogist writes about her Grandmother 
Lela Craddock. The complete story is published in Grandmother Stories 
from the Heart of Texas, published by Eakin Press.)

Lela Morrow Craddock

by Frances Wylie Lomas 

My grandmother was a business woman before it was fashionable. In 1914 
Lela Morrow married Jess Craddock, who had established Craddock Motor 
Company earlier that year in Robert Lee. Lela shared his interest as 
well as his labors in the auto world. Many a custoimer was surprised 
to find a wom­an behind the parts counter; female auto parts managers 
were rare in those days in Texas. She was knowledgeable and quick.  
If the customer needed something she did not have, she ordered it.

Several years later Lela con­tinued to hand out parts as well as do the 
bookkeeping. In 1923 the named was changed to Coke Motor Company. 
Sometime in the mid-twenties my granddad had purchased three additional 
buildings in Robert Lee. One day a man came in and talked to Lela about 
renting one of the buildings and he had the ready cash.  Without 
further exchange, she rented one to him.  A brief time of car­pentry 
work passed before the new store was opened - a liquor store.  Needless 
to say, it was an even shorter time until the building was vacant. 
Besides raising a family of four, she was very active in the First 
Methodist Church and the Women's Missionary Society.

In 1944 they sold the business in Robert Lee and moved to Colorado 
City where they had purchased the Ford dealership. She continued 
working as a bookkeeper until 1954 and being active in church work 
until her death. I was probably the only little girl to sit in the 
back of a new convertible on the show-room floor and cut out paper 
dolls with sharp-pointed scissors!

At home, cooking was one of her least favorite things to do, so she 
found either the fastest or the easiest way to make meals. I do 
remember the tasty chicken and dumplings at her table.

There was always a folding table set up with a jigsaw puzzle in the 
works, the more compli­cated, the better. She taught every grandchild 
to play Scrabble while at her house, and she never "let" us win. We 
had to earn the win...and she played for real too! While we were 
involved in these mind-boggling games, we would sip frosted Cokes. 
And maybe we'd have two in one day, which wasn't allowed at home.

Grandmother Lela lived alone after my granddad died in 1977, until 
she moved to the care center nine years later.  At age ninety-three, 
in 1988, she died surrounded by our love.

Look for the next story featuring bank Bill Allen's grandmother 
Amelia.

Permission granted by Observer/Enterprise for publication in the
Coke County TXGenWeb Archives