CECIL AND JEAN DAVENPORT

Cecil Davenport was born on a farm southeast of Woodburn on October 10th, 1921. He says: My parents were Roy and Bessie Viertz Davenport and we lived on various farms in Clarke County.  I went to Redwing Grade School, south of Woodburn then graduated from Woodburn High School in 1939.  I had four brothers and three sisters. In order of age, they were Merle, Erma, Josephine, Hallie, Kenneth, Claudine, myself, and Keith.

While I was in high school worked before and after school in a garage owned by my brother Merle and John Crist.  Then I would go home and help my dad on the farm.  When I was a junior in high school, I built a generator and engine in a frame, and then used batteries and ran wires to the house to run lights and a radio.  This gave us the opportunity to have electric lights in the house long before anyone else in that part of county.

When I was a freshman in high school, I made a transistor radio.  I set it on the library table at home to listen to at night; but after Dad came in, when his chores were done, he took over the radio and I didn't get to listen.  We had an old radio but it took batteries and we couldn’t afford to buy them.

Before my senior year other members of the community and I built a gym in Woodburn just north of the city park.  Before that we played basketball on an outdoor court south of the high school until the weather got too bad.  Then we had to play on visitors' indoor facilities.  That was one of our recreations.  For another, in the late 30's, since we didn't have cars to go places, we used my turntable and records and had dances. We still have the turntable and records.

After graduation I worked for the county and pipeline until I was laid off because my brother worked there.  That was not allowed at that time. In 1940 a car dealer in Des Moines hired me to drive a big car to California to trade it.  California did not have big cars and there was a market for them there. Three others went with me, sharing expenses.  On the way out I stuck a nickel in a slot machine at a gas station.  I got such a handful of nickels that they spilled out all over the driveway.  The other fellows had to help pick them up.

Everyone on the boat had a particular job and stayed at his station for eight hours; then he was relieved for four hours, unless he was called back because of an emergency.  There were some men appointed for emergency, and they had to take over during that time.

There was no way for mail to reach us while we were away from the base.  Because of that, it was some time before I knew that my dad had died.  That was April, 1944, and I was in the Atlantic theater.  I couldn't come home but I was put up in a room in a hotel for a few days. There was another message that came from Iowa.  The Captain came to tell me that he had a letter from the Clarke County Draft Board with a notice that I was drafted, and, of course, I was already in.  He probably just threw the letter away.

About 1945 I went into Pearl Harbor and was transferred to the Pacific theater, on the Tinosa 283.   The Tinosa was its way to the sea off Japan, going through mine fields and under the Japanese ships, when we learned that the war actually was over. That had been the scuttlebutt but, when it was confirmed, we made u-turn and went back to Mare Island, San Francisco. There was a big ship yard and the submarine base was part of it.

I was discharged in October and it was necessary to have a physical before we could be released.  They discovered a scar on my eardrum.  I knew what had happened.  On one occasion they had decreased the pressure in the sub too fast and it broke the ear drum.  It had healed over by the time we came in to port; but, when they asked, during the physical, if there were any complaint, I told them I was o.k. I knew I'd have had to stay a couple extra days if I said "yes" and I just wanted to go home.

There was a fellow named Cooper, from Chariton, who was coming back to Iowa at the same time as I. We got as far as Minneapolis and would have had to wait there all night for transportation to Des Moines, so we hitchhiked.  We weren’t out long at all when a trucker picked us up and took us clear on into Des Moines.  I went to sister Claudine's home and she and her husband brought me the rest of the way.

I was home! The whole time I was in the Navy, I had only two leaves!  It was funny, Jean remembers, that when he had been home on leave, and people saw him crossing the street, they would be yelling, "Cecil's home; Cecil's home" because there was nobody in Woodburn, at the time, who could walk that fast.

Jean continued, saying that Cecil lived with and took care of his mother until Jean and Cecil were married in 1950.  After that he continued to look after her, stopping every day on his way to work.  His mother fixed their supper each evening until they moved to Osceola.  She was a very devout Catholic. Cecil was an altar boy during his younger years, and he continued to take his mother to midnight mass until 1950.

Cecil had his own garage in Woodburn, and, in about 1945, he ran a projector and showed movies in the Woodburn Park.  He was on the Woodburn Volunteer Fire Department, was a Charter member of the Reorganized Herndon/Oehlert  Legion, serving as Adjutant (secretary/ treasurer) acknowledging his 50 year membership in 1996. Cecil also played basketball and pitched baseball on the Woodburn town team, and, when they weren’t playing, other teams asked him to pitch for them.  There was a time when he hurt his knee so badly that he could hardly walk but still pitched a 10 inning shut-out.  The final score was one to nothing.  That was his last game. While he and Jean were going together, their dates in the summer months were usually baseball games on Sunday afternoons.  There was generally a group of nieces and nephews with them that Jean baby-sat while watching the game.

Jean continues: in the 1950's, right after we were married, television was coming into being so Cecil sold TV sets and antennas all around Woodburn.  He sold lots of people their first TV set.  He would buy one, bring it home, set it up to demonstrate and usually, by night, we had no TV until we got another. WOI-TV was the only station we could get and it had a pretty snowy reception.   One big event was a parade when General McArthur returned to the States. All the school children came to watch. During one Christmas season, I worked at Robinson.  One night I came home to find the whole living room full of people watching wrestling matches.

In 1952 Cecil started working in the machine shop for Underwood Auto Supply in Osceola, on the southwest comer of the square.  He was also a counterman until Clifford's death in 1973 at which time the business incorporated.  Cecil purchased stock and was a partner until the business was sold in 1985. For the first six months or so, under the new owners, Linda and Randall Andrew's family, Cecil worked part-time and continued when they called for his help.

During the early 1960's, Cecil and Cliff took flying lessons and were co-owners of a 120 Cessna.   They spent many hours at the old airport north of town, across from what is now the nursing home.  Those who also enjoyed the hobby were Eldon Allen, Toad Mumper, and Shorty Denly, Warren Kimball and Clifford. Cecil is the only one still living.

Jean

Jean has a remarkable memory!  She credits that, in part, to the fact that she never wanted to go to bed until the last person in the house had retired for the night.  She would listen to stories everybody was telling. Additionally, her mother and grandmother told stories about things that happened. For whatever reason, she can recall events that took place when she was only three or four years old.

She said: I must have been a handful when I was very young. My name, Betty Jean, was shortened to Jean, because it took too long to say my full name. Long after we were grown, my sisters would still say to Mother, "Tell us things Jean did when she was little."

I was born on April 18th, 1930, near Pitzer, a little community that had only a garage and grocery store, near Earlham, Iowa. This was close to Dad's parents, who lived in Dexter.  My parents, both deceased, were Mike and Eva Sink Webb.  I had four sisters-- Barbara, Bonnie, Bernita, and Loretta. Dad lost his job when the banks went broke, so, in 1934, we moved to Van Wert.  I remember that trip!  We went in Davey Jones' stock truck.  Mother and two sisters rode in front and I sat in a. little chair on the floorboards.  Dad rode in back.

We lived across the street from the Methodist Church.  My sister Bernita was born there, and Bonnie Lou died at the age of 13 months.  Our doctor, Dr. Stray, sent her on to Dr. Nown who said Dr. Stray had made a correct diagnosis.  The cause was tuberculosis of the stomach. We were poor, so they sent us to Iowa City. Dad worked on an extra gang for the railroad.  I remember when he would come home, that Mother would make him empty his suitcase outside to check for bedbugs.

Mother worked for our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Belding, who had a boarder, Mr. Chamberlain.  They ate formally every evening and Mother cooked and served their meals.  When they finished, Mrs. Belding would say, "We'll never eat all this. You take some home."  This probably provided half our meals. In the summer of 1935, we moved to Mr. Chamberlain's farm, south of Van Wert.  It was a thousand acre forest ranch, near DeKalb, now a forest reserve.

I started to a country school, Hazel College.  The first day, Dad took me to school on a handcar.  The rest of the time I had to walk to and from school down the railroad tracks and I cried every day because I was afraid of tramps. Late that fall we moved in with my grandparents Sink.  That was the winter of 1935, which people remember as the winter of the big snow.  Roads had to be shoveled out every day. I walked over fences and telephone wires to get to school.  In the spring of '36 we moved up the hill to another farm, which is where Dad got started farming and where my sister, Loretta, was born.  One morning, when I was walking to school, I could see water under the ice.  I seemed to be smart enough to know not to walk on it.  I called the name of a neighbor boy as loudly as I could. He came and helped me across but then fell in up to his waist in the icy water.  That night he took me home over the hill on horseback.  My folks were scared because they knew everything was underwater -- the whole bottom was flooded, and I didn't go back to school all that year.

We moved to Clarke County in the spring of '37 and I finished the grades at Lewis School.  I had been in first grade in Decatur County, then, in Clarke County, I had to go back and take Kindergarten to get phonics.  Then I was able to take first and second grades together. But I am grateful that I have had phonics.

When I was seven years old, Mother had tuberculosis.  We girls had to be separated and we stayed with two different sets of aunts and uncles near Van Wert.  One of the treatments for t.b. in the '30s was lots of sunshine or vitamin C.  My younger sisters spent all summer outside and were brown as berries. My grandmother Sink kept us supplied with bottles of Cod Liver Oil pills!!!

When school started, Barb and I came home.  The little girls were left there because Mother wasn’t yet able to look after them. Then Barb and I got whooping cough, so they still couldn’t come home for fear of taking it.  One time, when folks wanted to see the others, Barb and    I hid down between seats so the little girls wouldn’t see se us.  I didn't whoop and ended up with an abscess on my lungs, which confined me to bed for six weeks.  They used to have big trucks that went around to take chest x-rays to test for t. b. I am the only one whose test was negative.

We moved to Woodburn in the spring of' 44. That is where I finished school and graduated in 1948.   Dad worked for Gardner Grocery Store and in those days they delivered groceries.  They took orders over the phone and he would deliver all over Woodburn area.  This was the first time we had electricity. Until then Mother had washed clothes on a washboard.   She had a restaurant in '48 and '49.

Our family always was very close.  We made our own entertainment.  Mother taught us to sing without any musical instruments.  Two of us sang alto, two sopranos.  We used to enter amateur contests every chance we had.

When I had attended Lewis School, Mr. Butler held a church service in the country school building, but the first time I remember going to church was when we lived right across the street from one in Van Wert. I went to Sunday school and was in Sunday school programs.  When we moved to Woodburn in the mid-'40's, Melvin Goeldner came to serve that church, and it was because of him that I joined.  I taught Sunday school from '45 to '56.  We girls sang in church a lot and, until his last years of Melvin’s life, he used to greet me with, "One of the Webb girls who loves to sing."

We played cards, too.  Dad and Barb played pitch against Mother and me and they won every time.  There was lots of laughter, too.  With four girls, we always got the giggles.  Dad usually did something to get us started and Mother would enter the picture to quiet us down.  We did that until Dad died. In fact, we still do.

Mother always said I was her helper since I was the oldest.  From the time I was two I can remember looking after my younger sisters. Work was always a large part of our lives.  I cleaned house for the Newsome-Crist family on Saturday mornings. It was a huge old house on a dusty main street.  I made 25-cents an hour, which was spending money. We girls cleaned at home, too, because Mother always worked. We divided the house.  One week two of us would take the front part, two the back; then we would change.  No one ever wanted to work with me because I cleaned.  Barb played.  They thought I was bossy and I probably was.

All the time I was home we had a heating stove in the living room which meant bringing in coal and carrying out ashes.  We banked the fire at noon so it wouldn't go out while we were at school.  The first winter after I left home they got an oil burner because the fire kept going out.

Cecil and I probably met at a Woodburn dance on Christmas Eve, 1948, and were married in the Methodist Church by Rev. Lloyd Latta in 1950.  Right after I graduated in '48, I went to work for Miller and Garris at Banta Abstract Company. While there, I learned how to research for abstract of titles. I quit when we were married and didn't work again until l952 when I went to work for Harold McNeal as Deputy Recorder. I worked there until June 30, 1955. That was the year they started tearing down the courthouse and the offices were moved to the lawyers' offices on the southwest corner of square.

Cheryl was born in December, 1955.  I remained a homemaker until Cheryl was a senior in 1974.  We moved to Osceola in December, 1956.  When we first moved, Ella Davenport, Merle's wife, invited me to church the very first Sunday and here I still am.  Although Cecil only attended for special events, including, of course, when Cheryl was baptized, he insisted I go to church every Sunday.

When I wasn't employed, I did volunteer work: I was Home Room mother, involved with Girl Scouts, Vacation Bible School, and Sunday school and held various offices of UMW. I was and still am active in Legion Auxiliary, at one time or another on the local, county, and district levels.  I worked with the Iowa Heart Association in the city, county and state.  I chaired UMW dinners until I started working at Furnas in. 1974; and by now I have sung in the church choir for about 25 years.

I was one of the first women hired by Furnas Electric Company.  I worked there for 21 years, as inspector for 19.  I retired in April 1995.  Before quitting work I mentioned that I still wanted a part-time job, and am delighted to have one now at the Osceola Public Library.

After Dad died in 1984, Mother moved to Osceola.  I checked on her at least once a day until she died in 1995.  When Cecil's mother lived with Erma and became disoriented, she would come to our house.  I watched for her every noon because I knew she would be coming.  In her latter days, my mother was afflicted the same way and Cecil looked after her the way I had looked after his mother.  Mother thought Cecil was Number One. After she had her stroke, Cecil went to Leisure Manor with me every day because he knew how hard it was for me to go.  We were both with her when she took her last breath.

Cheryl is our only child, married to Marvin Zach, living in Des Moines. She has her degree in human services and has worked for the state in human services since 1978.   She is now supervisor in the Child Protection Agency of the State Department of Iowa Human Services.  She met Marvin through SCCA (Sport Club Cars of America) when she was working at the Grand Prix in Des Moines.  Marvin rebuilds and keeps the cars ready for racing. They go to races on weekends all summer.  The cars are on computers and Cheryl runs the laptop computers for races.

We have two grandsons, Nick and Aaron Spicer.  Aaron will be 14 in November; Nick will be 16 in May, 1997. The boys are typical teenagers.  They like sports.  Nick is so tender hearted that when their cat, Colors, died after being like one of the family, and was about 8 years old, Cheryl wasn't  sure Nick was going to make it.  They had her cremated and have her ashes in the living room, on the entertainment center next to the TV.

As we look at our grandchildren and think of all the experiences of our lives, we wonder what life will hold for them. Hopefully, they will be influenced by some of the qualities instilled in us during our upbringing.  Hard times and good have shaped our lives. We believe it has been a benefit to grow up in rural Iowa.  We know that we were not deprived just because we had to do without some things.  In fact, that taught us a valuable lesson.  May they, however, never have to endure a war. We want them always to know how important they are to us.

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Last Revised May 8, 2012