Individual Details

Mary Hughes was born Monday, January 22, 1917, in Jack County, Texas, at home, the 13th child of Optimus John and Belle Leeman Hughes.

Other children: Johnny Barlow Hughes, Minnie Faye Hughes, Samuel Benjamin Hughes, Nellie Hughes, Edyth Lutitia Hughes, Leslie Lewis (Buck or Buster) Hughes, Fletcher Wellington Hughes, Cora Edna (Mike) Hughes, Wilmer Wade Hughes and Jack Locker Hughes. Out of fifteen children born, only these eleven grew to adulthood.

When Mary was born, John and Belle lived on the Wade place outside of Jacksboro, Texas, owned by a Dr. Wade. All the other 8 children were still living at home, except Minnie, who had married Dave Dukes in August 1916.

Mary remembers when her youngest brother Jack was born. She, her sister Cora Edna, and brother Relum went over to stay with their Aunt Ora McClelland, on the old McClelland place (where John and Belle lived later in their lives in the 1940's.) She remembers she wanted to go home that evening - she was always ready to go home in the evenings - but had to stay overnight.

The Wade house burned in August 1923, when Mary was only 6 years old. No one was home at the time. Everyone had gone to town except Mary's dad and her brother, Buster, who were in the field. Everything was lost. They went to the home of older brother Johnny and his wife Peak who lived East of them, and stayed until another house was built on the same site, (4 rooms and no bath.) Just a frame house.

Mary started school in September 1923, at Pleasant Hill School, about a mile down the road from where they lived. She went to school with her cousin Hootsie Lowrance and also Ora Dixson and Alexine King.

One of Mary's fond memories is of brother Fletcher helping her with arithmetic. Her sister Mike and also Fletcher went to school at Berwick for about a year at one time. They went to school in the buggy because it was too far to walk.


At about the time she started school, Mary started helping out in the fields. She went barefoot all the time, through grass burrs and all. They had to keep shoes nice for Sunday. Church was held in the school building. Usually the sermons were preached by traveling preachers or preachers from neighboring churches. When they couldn't get a preacher, one of the men at church would fill in and give a talk. Also the young women would teach Sunday school to the children.


When Mary was about 7 years old, the whole family, Ma and Pa and Sam, Buster, Fletcher, Cora Edna, Mary, Wilmer and Jack, went in the Model T, (and probably Nell and Howard and their Model T, too,) went out to Wellington, Texas to see Minnie and Dave and family. They tied boxes filled with their clothes on the running boards, because the cars were full of people. Johnny and Peak lived at Quail, and Johnny had a shoe repair business at his house. The family left Jack County about 3:00 AM and got to Wellington about dark. There were no paved roads except in the towns, and they had to ford the Red River and the Pease River, no bridge, just a low-water crossing. Mary asked Buster in later years if they had any flats on that trip, and Buster said not that he remembered.

When school let out for the summer, there would be one night for little kids to put on a play, do recitations, and lots of singing. The second night there would generally be a 3-Act play that involved not only the older school children, but also members of the community, including Mary's older brothers. One of the plays comes to Mary's mind. It was called "Mammy's Little Wild Rose," which was a favorite, and they took the play to Wizard Wells.

Mary played a little girl in one play (she can't remember the name of it.) She played the cousin to Harry Whitsitt and she remembers he was supposed to refer to her as "little cuz" and he called her "little cuss" instead.

One time when Mary was young, she was over at her sister Nell's house making biscuits. Nell and Howard had set a mouse trap under the eaves of the house to catch birds that were nesting there. A trap sprung and all went running to see if they had caught a bird. Mary started slinging biscuit dough off her hands so she could go look, and Nell told her to quit making a mess and get back to her biscuits; all the while Nell was laughing.

Another memory Mary has, is hiding out many times to get out of drying dishes. One incident she remembers, she was hiding in an old carriage (which had previously had fringe around the top), and her sister Mike started shooting at the carriage with a B-B gun to roust her out. Another time to get out of the dishes, she hid in a two-wheel cart and covered up with a blanket. The family knew where she was, but they just waited to see how long she would stay there under the hot blanket. When she finally came out, they had still left the dishes for her.

The family moved from the Wade place, in the autumn of 1927 when Mary was 10 years old, to the Armentrout place near the Lowrances. They lived there about 3 years.

Mary remembers when girls would use curling irons to style their hair. The curling irons were heated by holding them in a coal-oil lamp. They would have to wipe the soot off the curling iron before they could use it, and it would leave a lot of burnt heads and scorched hair. Crimping irons were used in the same fashion. Even though Mary was only 10 or 12 years old, she could style her sister Mike's and other girls' hair.

One time when Mary was about 11 years old, the whole family, Ma and Pa, Buck, Sam, Fletcher, Mike, Mary, Wilmer and Jack went to Archer City for some kind of celebration. An older couple named Coff and Sally Connor, (old friends of Grandma and Grandpa Leeman) lived there. The kids went to the picture show in town, and Mary was amazed that you just walked into the theater off the street, instead of having to go upstairs like in Jacksboro. The family stayed in Archer City until late and the men went and got a large sack of hamburgers for all of them and they ate out under the trees. For Mary this was a big treat because they didn't get hamburgers very often.

Buck and Claudie married July 13, 1929, and moved to Lubbock, Texas.

At the end of Mary's fifth grade year, Pleasant Hill school was consolidated with Jacksboro schools. Mary rode the school bus into Jacksboro and it seemed to her that there were just bunches of kids in the school. She never really got used to the large school.

Due to consolidation and an overload of students, Jacksboro started building a new high school in 1930. Then the school became financially strapped, partly because of the Depression of 1929. They had to cut the school year short (about 2 months early,) and Mary and her brothers Wilmer and Jack went to Berwick Community school for the rest of the school year.

They returned to Jacksboro school in the Fall (1930,) and Mary's class of 7th graders was the first to go to the new school building. Mary ran around with her cousin Hootsie, and with Alexine King. She remembers that in gym class, they would do tumbling, and also dances like the highland fling. The music was played on a wind-up Victora.

Cora Edna and Doyle married November 27, 1932. Fletcher and Fannie Mae married December 23, 1932.

The family moved to the Kimbell place a little further West, and Mary finished the 9th grade in the Spring of 1933.

The first Mary knew of the Ernest Spann family (Odie's parents,) they lived in the Rockland Community when Mart and Flora Span lived at Winn Hill. Mary first saw Odie Spann at a school play at Wynn Hill - Odie had a part in the play. Edna Shields was a teacher at the time.

There used to be dances at different people's houses in the community, and Mary remembers dancing with Odie and also others. Odie and Mary mostly met at dances and parties. Sometimes Odie would get a friend with a car (Odie didn't have a car) to double date with him and Mary.

Odie worked for a while for Joe Dixson at Pleasant Hill, and one time he borrowed Joe's car to take Mary to meet his folks who lived at Sand Flats near Chico, at that time.



On June 26, 1933, Mary and Odie got married.



compiled by Mary A. Perry
updated February, 2004

Birth	22 Jan 1917	Jack, Texas, United States
Marriage	26 Jun 1933	Jack, Texas, United States - Odie Leroy Spann
Death	29 Oct 2009	Granbury, Hood, Texas, United States
Burial		Evergreen Cemetery, Lipan, Hood, Texas, United States

Spouse	Odie Leroy Spann (1910 - 1994)
Child	Living
Child	Edwina Belle Spann (1934 - 2000)
Child	Living
Child	Living
Child	Johnny Leroy Spann (1945 - 2009)

Father	Optimus John Hughes (1875 - 1957)
Mother	Belle Smith Leeman (1880 - 1949)
Sibling	Johnny Barlow Hughes (1898 - 1988)
Sibling	Minnie Faye Hughes (1900 - 1970)
Sibling	Samuel Benjamin Hughes (1902 - 1969)
Sibling	Nellie "Millie" Hughes (1902 - 1997)
Sibling	Edith Loutisha Hughes (1903 - 1991)
Sibling	Leslie Lewis (Buck) Hughes (1905 - 1994)
Sibling	Fletcher Wellington Hughes (1908 - 1984)
Sibling	Little Ora Hughes (1908 - 1909)
Sibling	Carl Hughes (1910 - 1910)
Sibling	Clarence Hughes (1910 - 1910)
Sibling	Cora Edna Hughes (1912 - 1991)
Sibling	Hughes (1914 - 1914)
Sibling	Wilmer Wade Hughes (1918 - 1999)
Sibling	Jack Locker Hughes (1921 - 1997)

Notes