Ancestor Archives: Louella Pritchard (1871-1954)

 by Rocky Macy

Louella Pritchard

At the time of her birth on December 5^th, 1871, Louella PRITCHARD was already a 4th generation resident of Newton County, Missouri.  Louella’s mother, Julia Ann MARTIN had also been born in Newton County (1852), and Julia Ann’s father and grandfather had settled in the county by the mid-1840’s.  

Louella PRITCHARD married William Stephen MACY on April 3^rd, 1887.  She was fifteen-years-old and William was a far more mature twenty-five.   Individual photos of the two taken at about that time suggest that they were a strikingly handsome young couple. 
 
Louella was a life-long resident of Newton County, and when she passed away on June 6^th, 1954, in Neosho, she had 133 living descendants, many of whom were also residing Newton County.  The impact that Louella PRITCHARD MACY had on her county and her community was far-reaching and immeasurable.

Louella was the oldest child of Eugene Marshall Stanley PRITCHARD, an Arkansas transplant to Missouri,  and Julia Ann MARTIN.  According to the 1940 US Census, Louella had an 8^th grade education.   It was not long after she completed the 8^th grade that Louella became a bride.

 
(There are several variations of Louella’s given name on different historical records.   She was listed as “Luella” on her marriage record in 1887 and on the 1920 US Census, as “Lu” in the 1900 US Census, and “Louella” in the 1910 and 1930 US Censuses,  and “Lou Ella” in the 1940 US Census.    Her death certificate recorded her given name as “Louella,” as did her obituary, and her tombstone reads “Lu Ella Macy.”  I have also seen the pushed together form of “LouElla” used to refer to this lady, and a letter to her from her grandson Wayne MACY who was serving overseas in World War II was addressed to “Mrs. Lue Macy.”  I have chosen to go with the more common “Louella” for this biographical sketch.)
 
Louella and William Stephen MACY had seven children, six of whom survived their parents.  They were:  William “Arnold”  (1889-1963),  Claude (Edgar or Everett) (1891-1930),   John “Orville”  (1893-1978),   Amia Bell  (1895-1977),   Walter “Jack”  (1898-1974),  Charles Eugene  (1900-1972),  and  Ina “Pearl”  (1903-1989).   
 
William Arnold MACY married Annie L. Gay WILLARD;  Claude E. MACY married Byrl Lelia WALKER;   John Orville MACY married Ida Belle CRABTREE;  Amia Bell MACY married Harry BUZZARD;   Walter Jack MACY married Ethel B. NUTT;  Charles Eugene MACY (my paternal grandfather) married Hazel Josephine NUTT;   and, Ina Pearl MACY married Cloyce Otis (Jack) L0WE.   (Ethel and Hazel NUTT were sisters.)
 
William and Louella were married young, and even though their marriage lasted more than fifty years until William’s death in 1938, the union was not without difficulties.   There was a ten-year period between 1918 and 1938 in which William published three notices in Neosho area newspapers where he disavowed debts incurred by Louella, clear indications that there was trouble in the marriage.  Those notices follow:
 

Neosho Daily Democrat, June 25^th, 1918:
Notice
“Neosho, Mo, June 22.  After the above date I will not be responsible for any debts contracted by my wife, or for any checks written by her or anyone else signing my name.  W.S. Macy”

Neosho Daily Democrat, December 15^th, 1925:
NOTICE TO PUBLIC  
“This is notify anyone concerned that I will not be responsible for any debts made or checks signed by anyone but myself.  W.S. Macy”

Neosho Daily News, January 7^th, 1928:  
NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC
“My wife having left my bed and board, I will not stand good for any debts made by her or cash and checks issued by her.  W.S. Macy”

Part of the friction between William and Louella may have centered on her spending habits.  I remember listening to a conversation between my father, Garland Eugene MACY and his younger brother, Tommy Dean MACY.  Uncle Tommy was talking about their grandmother, Louella, and said, “Do you remember, Garland, how Grandma would buy anything – whether she needed it or not – if the salesman would let her have it on credit?”  William, who made his living farming and buying and selling land, may have not felt that he was in a position to support his wife’s careless spending.
 
After William Stephen MACY died in 1938, Louella spent most of the remaining sixteen years of her life residing in the home of her daughter, Ina “Pearl” LOWE in Neosho.   Pearl and her husband, Jack, ran a taxicab company in Neosho before, during, and after World War II.   (After my father, Garland MACY, completed school at the rural school of Westview - which only went through tenth grade - he moved to Neosho and lived with the LOWEs while he finished high school.  He also worked for their cab company.)
 
A discussion of Louella PRITCHARD MACY’s later life would not be complete without a mention of her most notorious bad habit:  she enjoyed smoking a corncob pipe, and, according to my father, could usually be found sitting on the front porch of Pearl’s house in Neosho with her bare feet propped up on the porch railing while she smoked her pipe.  Dad said that some of the people in Neosho regarded it as scandalous behavior.
 
My mother had issues with Louella’s pipe.  I was just barely six when Grandma Louella passed away, but I have a few memories of her sitting in our kitchen smoking and talking while Mom stayed busy with household chores like cooking or ironing.   Grandma Louella would light her pipe by striking a long kitchen match across the wooden bottom of our kitchen table – and every time the pipe would go out she would strike another match.  Those matches left long black marks on the underside of the table, and after Louella would finally leave, my mother, a fastidious housekeeper, would crawl under the table and scrub off the black marks – and she would have plenty to say as she did it!  
 
When my little sister, Gail, would get fussy or angry, Mom would invariably start calling her  “Miss Pritchard!”
 
My aunt (by marriage) Mary Olive DAY moved to Neosho from Kansas City when she was in high school.  She later married my Dad’s oldest brother, Wayne Hearcel MACY just before the outbreak of World War II.  Aunt Mary tells the story of walking home with her new Neosho school friend, Jane LOWE, one day and being surprised to see a little old woman sitting on Jane’s front porch smoking a corncob pipe.  She said she was kind of shocked, but Jane reassured her that it was just her grandmother - and she enjoyed the pipe!
 
Aunt Mary also said that there was some irritation among Louella’s grandchildren because she seemed to show a preference for her grandson Wayne – which Mary said was because Wayne (whom Mary later married) “was so cute.”  In a letter to his grandmother dated January 1^st, 1944, Wayne, who was then serving with the US Army in Wales, seemed to play on her fondness for him.  (In the salutation Uncle Wayne refers to the old lady as “Grunt,” which is apparently a nickname or a name with some special meaning to the two of them.   Here is what he had to say in that V-Mail:
 

“Dearest Grunt, 

Hello my Sweet, and how are you these days, spry as ever I know. 

I ought to be ashamed of myself because I don’t write more often, but you are so hard to keep track of.  I tell everyone to give you my love and I (am) 100% ok.   Just homesick naturally. 

Are you staying home much this winter? 

I told mother to give you some pictures of me, did you get them? 

Well my Darling, bed time.  Tell them all hello and to write. 

Always thinking of you. 

Wayne”

My father, Garland Eugene MACY, who was three years younger than his brother, Wayne, described his Grandmother Macy in handwritten notes this way:  

"My grandmother Macy, (LouElla) died when I was 30, so I got to know her better, even lived with her one time as did most of her grandkids.  She was the greatest.   (She) smoked a cob pipe and would let you get away with anything."
 
One of the few trips that Louella PRITCHARD MACY took beyond the borders of Newton County, or at least outside of Missouri, occurred in 1942 when she was apparently the chaperone on a road trip with three of her grandchildren.  In March of 1942 my father, Garland MACY, aged 17, and Jane (aged 17) and Buddy LOWE (aged 7) drove from Neosho to Fort Riley, Kansas,  to visit Jane’s boyfriend who was stationed there.   My Dad and Jane were probably planning on having a great weekend on the road until Aunt Pearl LOWE, Jane’s mother, put little Buddy and Grandma in the car with them!
 
Here is the article that ran in the "Neosho Daily Democrat" on March 6^th, 1942, about that trip:
 

“Jane and Buddy Lowe, Garland Macy, and their grandmother, Mrs. W.S. Macy, drove to Ft. Riley, Kansas, last weekend and visited Grady Colvin who is in camp there.”

 
Twelve years after that Buddy Dean LOWE, then 19, was himself in the Army and stationed at Ft. Bliss, Texas.  On February 2^nd, 1954, the following piece ran in "The Neosho Daily News:"
 

“Pvt. Buddy Dean Lowe who has just completed his basic training at Ft. Bliss is spending the day in Neosho.  He is visiting his grandmother, Mrs. W.S Macy of Ford Street, his sister and family, and will go on to Stella to visit his other grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. R.L. Lowe.  Pvt. Lowe will be stationed at Ft. Bliss following his leave.”

 
Louella, who had been in residence in Buddy’s home for most of his life, undoubtedly enjoyed getting to see her grandson one last time.  She passed away just a little over four months later on June 6^th, 1954.
 
The obituary of Louella PRITCHARD MACY ran in “The Neosho Daily News” on June 7^th, 1954:
 

Mrs. Louella Macy
 
Mrs. Louella Macy, 82, died in Sale Memorial Hospital at %:10 o’clock Sunday morning. 

She is survived by six childen, Arnold, Orville, Charlie and Jack, Sr., of Neosho, Rt. 4, Mrs. Harry Buzzard of Neosho, and Mrs. Jack Lowe of Joplin;   40 grandchildren, and  87 great-grandchildren. 

Funeral services will be held at the Belfast Church of Christ at 2;30 o’clock tomorrow afternoon with Rev. James Hall of Monett officiating. 

Burial will be in h Belfast Cemetery under the direction of Thompson Funeral Home.

 
Today Louella PRITCHARD MACY’s legacy lives on through hundreds of descendants.  She was a unique individual who lived life on her own terms – and if her corncob pipe wasn’t buried with her, it should have been!