My name is Alveta Ann Lee, and this is my life story. I was born September 21, 946 in Vici Oklahoma. My dad’s name is Fred Elmer Lee and my mom’s name is Imo Eileen Daniels. Just a little history of how my mom and dad met and their love story. My dad was a soldier in World War II fighting the Nazis in Europe and was stationed in Italy until the war ended in 1945. He returned to his home on the farm in Vici Oklahoma. He first saw my mom Imo Eileen Daniels when she was working as a waitress in a cafe in Arnett Oklahoma, which was a neighboring town. The first time he saw her, he thought to himself that is the girl I am going to marry. He asked her out on a date to a dance and I guess you could say he swept her off her feet as he was a very handsome guy with a winning smile and a good dancer. He was 26 years old and mom was only 17 years of age and still a Senior in Highschool. My mom’s dad, Admiral Dewey Daniels, said that they could get married, but she had to finish high school and graduate. They were married on August 13, 1945, at a city hall???. My mom was also a star basketball player, but when they got married that all changed because Elmer did not want her out playing in front of everyone in shorts. She became pregnant soon after and I was born on September 21, 1946, in Vici Oklahoma.
I was born at the home of Doctor Vince. I weighed 5 pounds 6 ounces and was 21 inches long. According to my mom, I was a blue baby and not breathing and she was hemorrhaging and my dad fainted. My dad described me as looking like a skinned jackrabbit because I was so long and skinny and said I did not look like a Lee. I had blonde hair and blue eyes while my parents were dark-haired and dark eyes. I seemed to take after the Nixon side, who were of Irish and English descent. I was the only one out of my siblings that had this coloring.
My dad became my hero and saved my life many times. The first story that my mom told me was when I was a baby my dad saved my mom and my life. My dad came home from work my mom was passed out and he realized there was carbon monoxide in the house. He immediately got us out of the house. He saved my life another time when I was young I had contracted pneumonia and he took me to the doctor. Shelia came along very soon after me when my sister Shelia came early weighing only 3 pounds 2 ounces. My mom said she brought her home and she slept in a little shoebox. Shelia was tiny with red hair and freckles. Such a cute baby. We were very close as sisters when we were growing up and still are. My other siblings were Marvin Elis Lee born May 22, 1948, in Pampa, Texas, who died shortly after birth, and Evalyn Louise Lee September 15, 1949, who also died shortly after birth. Richard Elis Lee was born June 1 1952 in Woodward Oklahoma. Luetta Kaylee was born November 15, 1954, in Oklahoma City and was also premature.
My first memory was living in a little two-room Sod house west of Vici which was the Lee homestead. I remember a big windmill in our front yard with roaming cows and top it all off a dog. A picturesque of what people lived in in the plains of Oklahoma. We then moved to the east of Vici in a newer house with running water and electricity. I had happy memories of living there with my mom and dad and sister, except for one memory of a mean goose who finally was a cooked goose. I loved helping my mom feed the chickens from a young age, I loved all animals. One spring our female sow had baby pigs and I wanted to hold them so bad the mother sow came after me and my dad jumped into the corral and saved my life again. You could say my dad was my hero so many times in my life. My mom was very loving and never raised her voice with us. My sister and I were taught at a very young age to help my mother and never be disrespectful to her. We were taught the importance of work and doing the best of any job we were doing. I remember being very shy because we were farm girls and never really went anywhere. Shelia and I liked to make mud pies, we had paper dolls, played with the animals, played hopscotch, rope jumping, and jacks. Life was simple, we never had a TV until I was about ten years old. We had a radio which played Dad’s favorite country music. My dad liked to whistle and sing country songs, he also loved to dance. My dad’s parents went to dances until they were unable to.
Living on the plains of Oklahoma we were subject to tornados every spring. My dad would stay up during the night watching the storm clouds because at that time we had no tornado sirens that warn of danger. There were many nights that my sister Shelia and I would grab our dolls and dad would hurry us to the cellar to stay until morning. I did not like the cellars they were dark and had spiderwebs! Later in my life when we lived North of Yukon when I was 12 years of age I heard the sound of a locomotive train, so figured I had been dreaming, and little did I know that a tornado had hit right by our house leaving the house, but taking the barn. Thank goodness for angels watching over us.
I loved both of my grandparents but I felt closer to my mom’s parents, Admiral Dewey and Edna Cornelia Barton Daniels. I remember staying with my mom’s parents when we were young girls and Grandma Daniels would make homemade buttermilk biscuits and homemade syrup which we loved. Grandpa Daniels loved to tease us and make a rise out of us. Also, I remember my Aunt Delia made some chocolate fudge and we were not supposed to eat the fudge before it was done, but Shelia and I got into the fridge and ate it with spoons and it was gone by the time she got home. I appreciate all my ancestry from England, and Ireland but cherish the fact that Grandma Daniels was of Cherokee descent. I loved my Aunt Pearl who was my grandma Lee’s sister, on my dad’s side. She had a piano which I loved to play and she was a very happy, jolly person who made you feel at home. The Nixon’s came from Nebraska. Grandpa Daniels was from Illinois.
