The Life and Writings of Z. Pearl Noel

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF PEARL THORNTON NOEL Pearl’s parents, Peter Hamilton Thornton, age twenty one, and Margaret Melvina (Vinie) Watts, age fifteen, were married at Whitefield, northern Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, October 4, 1896. Born to them were Homer (b.1898), and Uda (b.1900), both of whom died in early infancy. Pearl was born on January 27,1905 at Stigler, I.T. just six miles east of Whitefield. The next child born was a sister named Jewel (b.1907 in I.T.). Sadly, Jewel died at age 2 of diphtheria in late March, 1909, after the family moved from Indian Territory to Comanche County, Texas. Remarkably, just three weeks after young Jewel’s death, Vinie birthed their fifth child, Pearl’s younger brother, Elijah John, (later known only as “Billy”). He was born on April 13, 1909.

Tragically, at the time of Jewel’s death and Billy’s birth, Vinie was showing signs of a severe, disabling and untreatable mental illness. After about thirteen months of a vain attempt to keep her with the family, including her sister coming for a time to help with the baby, Vinie was committed to Austin State Asylum in Austin, Texas on February 23, 1910, when Pearl was five years old. Pearl remembers going by train, with brother and her father, Pete, to visit her in August, 1910, at the asylum. Vinie was never discharged. She died of “cerebral hemorrhage” on September 6, 1945 at the hospital and is buried there. This information was not known to Pearl’s children until we were all adults.

 

 

In 1952, Daddy became very ill. His heart just finally gave out. He suffered from end-stage congestive heart failure from rheumatic heart disease. The heart valve was injured by rheumatic fever when Daddy was a youth. He was bed-ridden at home for over one year, requiring oxygen. He was finally hospitalized in Vernon, Texas, at Christ the King Hospital. He died on February 16 ,1953, at age 59.

 

So, Pearl became a widow at the tender age of 48, with three children still at home. Jean graduated from Victory High School that Spring. June was 15 and Ray was 12. Her third son, Tom Royce (Rusty), the eager young protégée of our father, took over the operation of the farm. Rusty was just 21 years old. He managed the farming operation, providing financial stability for his mother and younger siblings. This was a great weight on him as a young man just recently married to Norma Jean Miracle.

 

Pearl had a dream of being a school teacher. She was not able to go to high school in her youth. So, she began correspondence high school, The American School, Chicago. Her last child, Ray Allan, was in high school. She finished and received a high school diploma in 1959.

 

 

 

Ed. note: This recently uncovered portrait of Mama is dated Spring, 1959.  She is applying for college. RAN

 

 

 

 

She enrolled in Cameron Junior College in Lawton that Fall, and completed two years, Associate of Arts degree. She studied History and English, and was recognized by an Excellence in English Award in her class at Cameron at end of her sophomore year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pearl with gleaming smile. circa, 1960 (apology for quality)

Pearl enrolled in Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma in the fall of 1961, graduating in Spring of 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts in History, minoring in French. She thoroughly enjoyed her university experience and made many friends.

She then taught these subjects in three different Oklahoma high schools from the fall of 1963 through spring of 1970,  teaching American History and French..  She thoroughly enjoyed this teaching experience. She would not have retired, except for a Oklahoma Education Department rule requiring teachers to retire at age sixty five. She turned 65 in January, 1970.  During the summers of those teaching years, we have learned Mama took additional college credits at Midwestern University, Wichita Falls, Texas and Central State College, Edmond, Oklahoma. The remaining years of Mama’s life were on the farm into her 80s, and then moving to the county seat of Frederick to be near her youngest daughter June and family. Her recently divorced daughter,  Jean Smith with her youngest, a teenage daughter, Velinda, moved back to Frederick during this time, and Jean was of great assistance to Mama during some difficult periods.  Mama volunteered at the Tillman County Historical Museum with great enthusiasm, never tiring of this opportunity to teach history! She also kept a keen interest in her 28 grandchildren and their lives as best she could over the years. She passed away in Frederick at age 92.

Ed. note: This photograph is modern one from the website of Tillman County Historical Society. The white building and campus is located in Frederick, county seat of Tillman County, and is an old one room school house common in the early years of Tillman County. This building was the primary museum and Mama volunteered in this building for many enjoyable years in her 70s and early 80s, helping visitors learn about early Oklahoma and especially this southwestern corner. RAN

 

So, this is a brief sketch of Pearl Noel’s life. What this website is purposed to do is give you, the reader, some brief vignettes of her writing in an ongoing way for your learning and enjoyment, and to give honor to Pearl and her legacy. (See Purpose and Methods for more on the website and plan). She was “Mama” to her 7 children, “Mamagran” to her 28 grandchildren.

Enjoy!

Ray Allan Noel, MD