User:Brooksie Haney

Brooksie Haney Born Brooksie White in Lepano, Arkansas, April 6, 1925 to Frederick and Corrinne (Hester) White. Frederick White was a tenant farmer. He was a good husband, father and a hard worker. After losing his first wife and two of their 3 children to the Spanish Flu, he married a full-blooded Blackfoot Indian, Corrinne (Cae-rohe-ana-heen-a) Hester, moving her aged, widowed mother, Atenha (Awt-na-nee-hau-a), in with them. Atenha watched Brooksie's half-brother, Floyd, and later Brooksie and her other brothers, while helping Corrinne and Frederick farm his 2 acres of 'truck-farm' vegetables, cotton, and tobacco. Atenha and Corrinne contributed greatly to the success and finally to the swifter purchase of the 2 acres. They created a hand-dug canal from a spring on the property to the house and fields for a year-round supply of fresh, clean water. Later, the family lined the canal with river rock and dug a small pond for the few goats and dairy cattle purchased with the extra money from not only selling more vegetables, but also the fruits of a small orchard, and a small still that had a unique design. With the birth of Franklin, Brooksie, and Columbus, Fred and Cor had a very profitable farm. Enough so, that they eventually (and with the help of the Great Depression)wound up owning slightly more than 50 acres, all irrigated with spring water or used as small pastures for the meat and milk animals. Each child old enough to work was paid a penny a day or, a penny and a half if they stayed in school but also worked at least 6 hours a day. Brooksie saved enough to buy a few chickens with which she built into quite a large flock which supplied eggs and meat that she sold to townspeople in Lepano and a General Store. With this money, she helped buy her father and half-brother a few mules and eventually a tractor that helped to make farming a little easier for her family. After losing her grandmother, she was very lonely and after completing Sixth grade at the age of 9, she began to take care of her ill mother who was dying of cancer and extreme heart disease. After her mother's death Brooksie began to take care of her elderly father, kept house for her 3 brothers, and after a discussion with them, she began handling all the financial decisions for the farm. By setting up a field rotation plan which alternated pasture for animals being plowed under to be used as farm land the next year, and planting of rye grass and clover on the past year's farm land, the Whites made as efficient use of natural fertilizer as possible. As a by-product, they never suffered from pests or diseases that plagued neighbors using 'government fertilizer'. In fact, they actually helped neighbors by buying manure from them for cash and showing those who would listen how to use the aged manure for better fertilizer. Water drawn off several small ponds stocked with fish and used for watering livestock was also used to irrigate the fields and added to the natural fertilizer because of the fish waste content. The oldest brother, Floyd, bought several acres of his own nearby after marriage to his first wife. He opted to buy horses, dairy cattle, meat cattle, and donkeys. Crossing the donkeys with the horses, he built a good business selling mules and later on, tractors. Floyd also built a true dairy business, erecting a dairy barn and hiring three other men to help milk, package, and deliver and sell fresh milk, eggs, butter, cream, and buttermilk. Later, he began a modest aged-manure fertilizer business. He would go to all his neighbors and buy fresh manure for cash or make a deal for aged manure in return for it. Brooksie stayed in charge of the family farm. When her father finally passed away when she was 14, after discussion with the whole family, it was decided that Floyd take over six adjacent acres of land (which included the original freshwater spring), and selling off the remaining acreage, splitting the money between the siblings. Brooksie and her younger brother, Columbus, went to live with Franklin and his family in California, where he was employed as a welder in the shipyards. She and Columbus went back to school, and at 16, she not only graduated high school, but got married to a young seaman by the name of Stanley Parsons, whom she'd met at a USO dance. He shocked her by buying all her dance tickets for two nights in a row. At that time, USO dances were held and young women donated a few hours each month to 'sell' dance tickets to young men and unmarried military men to get cash to help send CARE packages to overseas military, and help out widows or parents of men lost in battle. This was seen not as exploitation, but as a way for young, marriagable women to meet young men without seeming immoral. This was because these dances were heavily chaperoned by older, married women and by both military and civilian police. A young lady was not allowed to leave without an older family member or she was given a ride home (with a chaperone), along with several other young ladies in the same area. It was seen as a safe alternative to going to bars to meet a wife or husband. The 'tickets' were sold at the door, and the young men would buy tickets to dance with different young ladies. But often if a young gentleman was becoming smitten with a particular young woman, he would ask to buy more and more of a certain young lady's tickets. If that young lady was not interested in his company, she would let the chaperones know and they would tell the young man that her 'dance card' was filled. At times, the chaperones would giggle and make small wagers of cookies or soda pop as to how long it would take after the same young man kept buying a young lady's dance card for them to either get married or break up. Occasionally, when a fickle young lady happened to have two suitors and wouldn't choose between them, a fight would break out. One of the rules was; Because of the two suitors fighting over a young lady, all 3 of the parties were banned from any future USO dances. If one or both men were military, they were immediately arrested and taken to stockade. If one or both were civilian, then it was off to jail. the young lady in question was taken immediately home and her family was informed of the ban. This was tantamount to branding her as an immoral woman or even as unpatriotic. If this information became local knowledge the family would, to save their reputation, often send the young lady to a family member who didn't live in the area. --Brooksie Haney (talk) 01:30, 25 March 2009 (UTC)