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Note: History of Richard Malvin Wilkson I, Richard Wilkson was born in Rush Springs Okla. Jan.21, 1921. My dad, Jesse Louis Wilkson and my mother, Opal May Spears Wilkson, had seven children.
Children in order of birth:
Opal Mohota May 19, 1917 Alfred Lamoin Mar. 26. 1919
Richard Malvin Jan. 21, 1921
Lewis Warren Feb. 02, 1923
Wesley Sylvester Feb. 11, 1925
Wanda Laverne June 24, 1927
Jesse Donald Sept. 03, 1931
I never heard my dad talk about his parents. I remember my dad saying he had a half brother named Monroe. Dad did not tell the children the name of the man his mother married, after his father died, in fact we did not even know the given names of our grandparents.
The Spears, my mother�s parents, died before I was born. I did not know anything about them except that my grandmother�s parents were named Morgan. My great grandmother lived with her son John, his wife Myrtle, and children Elmo, Lahoma, and Doyle, across the road on the next farm. I remember the path from our house to the house my great grandmother lived in. My great grandfather died before I was born. Both of my great grandparents were Cherokee Indian. They are buried in Woodland Cemetery in Rush Springs. My parents and all the children went once a year to clean and maintain the graves. In those days, it was a family affair to clean graves once a year.
We moved to Acme and I started school in primer. Lamoin taught me to read the primer, before I started to school, so I was put in first grade. I went through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades there and then moved to Oak Grove and went through 4th, 5th, and 6th. Then the family moved back to Rush Springs, My dad owned a laundry there. I went through 8th and part of 9th grade there. My mother and dad separated and divorced when I was 12. Dad and the children moved to Sterling, Okla. There I finished the 8th and 9th grades then moved to Denton.
From the time I was 13 until I was 17 I raised and raced greyhounds.
I went into the Civilian Conservation Corp. (C.C.C) in Rye, Col. There I finished 10th grade.
In the C.C.C. Corp I was a powder monkey. A powder monkey did rock blasting. I was promoted to assistant leader in charge of tool room, garage and blacksmith shop.
The whole C.C. camp went to lunch, except a forest service man and me. All the men went on strike, because they did not like having lamb stew for the third day in a row.
From the C.C.C. I went to Chickasha. There I worked at Bolton Dairy. I ran the milk plant, pasteurizing, bottling and making buttermilk and chocolate milk.
I left Chickasha and went to Tehachapi, Ca. I worked in a potato shed for a short time.
My next move was to go to work for Webb school, in Claremont, Ca. It was a school for doctors and lawyers sons. Jan. 27, 1942 I joined the navy. I went through 6 weeks of boot camp in San Diego and then to Pearl Harbor aboard the U.S.S. Dewey. I spent 3 years and 8 months in the navy. All except 5 months of that time was spent in the Pacific. The Coral Sea was the first battle of 13. It was an air raid battle. We were taking back the Island from the Japanese. Other battle places were Guam, Marianas, Philipeans, Tonga, Marshall and Gilbert Islands, Australia, Iwo Jima, Wake, Kodiak and Saipan.
I was on the U.S.S. Dewey, Dec. 18, 1944, during a typhoon, the ship went over 83 degrees and with the Lord�s help, returned to an upright position. There were 320 men on board the ship, and no one went overboard. One of the men drew a picture of the ship on it�s side with an angel pulling the ship back to an upright position. Each man that was on the ship received a copy of the picture. I spent the last 5 months before I was discharged in New York, at the Brooklyn navy yard. I was discharged Oct. 13, 1945, and went to Tehachapi, Ca., there I went to work at Monolith cement plant, as a heavy equipment mechanic.
In Nov. 1945 I met Muriel Taunton, at the Southern Baptist church. We were married May 19, 1946. Our daughter Lorna Faye was born Mar.25, 1947. Our second daughter, June Eloise was born July 11, 1948, and the third daughter Sharon Louise was born Feb. 22, 1950. My dad passed away Feb. 25., just 3 days after Sharon was born. He, Wesley and Don had moved to Tehachapi, about a year before.
In Apr. 1952 I got a job as a heavy equipment mechanic at the U.S.M.C. base in Barstow and moved my family to Newberry. We moved to Yermo from Newberry. Bonnie Lois and William Louis were born Sept. 29, 1953.
One hobby that I loved was racing. From 1956 to some time in 1958 I raced stock jalopy cars on the old Barstow speedway track. John Sturnacle built a race track on his property and my friends and I raced on his new track where I was promoter of the race track. I also raced in San Bernardino. I raced midgets in Riverside, and super modifieds in Gardena.
July 4th, 1959 I had a stroke. I was diagnosed with cerebral thrombosis. Surgery could not be done because of the location of the aneurysm. I was retired from USMC civil service Jan. 27, 1961.
Muriel and I bought a lot in Bullhead, Az. in 1975. We decided to move to Az. in 1976. I went to work there selling mobile homes. In 1980 I had triple by pass surgery. In 1989 we moved back to Ca. In August of 1990, we went to Barstow to visit Dave and Lorna. Dave was working on his roof and I decided to go up there. I had a heart attack and had to go to the hospital. I have a very large aneurysm on the bottom of my heart caused from the heart attack. I had a light heart attack in 1999 and had to have a procedure done to open the main artery. Because of the aneurysm, the doctor could not do another by pass surgery. My doctor couldn�t get any of the other surgeons to assist him. One doctor told him that I was going to die anyway if they did the procedure so he should just let me go. Dr. Ahmed decided to go ahead with the procedure, without assistance. My heart rate dropped to 11. As soon as the artery was opened, my heart rate went to 133. The doctor didn�t expect me to live when it was down to 11 or when it jumped to 147. When the pump was removed from my leg, I bled so much that my prognosis was that I might not live.
It has been almost three years now since that procedure, and I have just had an angigram to see if my heart was getting enough blood for me to have surgery on my rotator cuff. The doctor found the artery wide open and said it was okay to have the surgery. God has been with me all the way.
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