Deep in the Heart of Kansas

Deep in the Heart of Kansas

Shortly before World War One, Ruth Vining the thirteenth child of Nancy Jane and Henry Vining married Clarence McGhee of Tyro, Kansas. Soon after their marriage Clarence enlisted and was sent to France along with Ruth’s brother, Albert.

That was when Ruth began making up stories to entertain the children of the neighborhood. Then in the long evenings Ruth began writing stories. “Black Kitten For Luck” was one of her short stories.

When the war was over and her husband returned to Montgomery County, he took a job as night watchman for a pipeline pumping station west of Tyro. Again, many long, lonely hours gave Mother time to write. She wrote a novel that she titled,” Tragedy and Romance In The Osage Hills.” Those hills run down through Montgomery County area.

Ruth’s first daughter, Melba, was born on Christmas Day in 1920. Clarence found a job as a pumper with Phillips Petroleum Company in northwest Greenwood County and they moved to a lease house in the heart of Kansas, better known as the Teterville area of the Flint Hills.

Six months before I was born September 13, 1924, my Mother, twenty six year old Ruth McGhee, won second place in a writing contest with her story, "When Dreams Come True" for The Palmer Photoplay Corporation of Hollywood, California.

The Wichita Beacon sponsored the contest in connection with the Palace Theater in Wichita. Mother received fifteen dollars, her returned typewritten manuscript with the promised critiques and a glowing letter of acceptance. My sisters and I didn’t know about this until after my Mother passed away in 1960. It is still a mystery why Mother didn't write more and where in her isolated circumstances did she find a typewriter?

Her hand-written drafts even show good grammar and are written on ledger style paper. We also found a novel and a short, short story. I don't recall her ever talking about writing or the contest.

My younger sister, Carol, is ten years younger than me. I was married and had moved away from home when Carol began writing short stories for children when she was a teenager. Mother was her best supporter. I remember her essay, “Dear Diary” and “This Lonesome Land.” Now that she is all grown up, she is writing and publishing a monthly newsletter about her beloved town of Seadrift, Texas. She has also written two story/ picture books, "A Seadrift Christmas" and "Curve of the Coast" using her pen name of C.J. Garriott.

I was always writing stories as far back as study hall in high school in Madison and Hamilton Kansas, but I never shared my writings with Mother. I never thought anyone would want to read them. It seemed I was compelled somehow to write. I threw them all away, but now I wish I hadn't. I remember later, writing while my children were trying to take their naps. This way I could be quiet and they would think I was napping too.

It is hard to think of my gentle Mother, who wiped away my childish tears with the corner of her apron, as a writer of "When Dreams Come True." Out in those hills Mother cared for a big garden and preserved a lot of the produce for winter meals. She always had a flock of chickens to care for and lovely flower beds, in spite of the shortage of water. She had no electricity, no running water, or telephone. No neighbors or family close by for most of her early life in the oil fields. Even books and magazines were hard to come by but were cherished as treasures.

A few years ago I returned to the site of our home on the prairie, where we lived while she was writing for the contest. Just barren plains with abandoned parts of oil wells scattered all around. Mother had told us about their life there, in an unpainted, 'shot-gun', oil field house with no neighbors in sight. My oldest sister was three years old then, so when did Mother find time to write? I certainly can understand her title and hope I helped make her dreams come true with my writing.

In the May,1992 issue of the Kanhistique magazine, my story, “My Mother Was a Writer in 1924” was published and I received fifteen dollars for my Mother's Day story. Do I have genes from my mother that make me want to write? It doesn't matter, I just love to write.

I went on writing and had five winning entries in the Jessie Perry Stratford Butler County Historical contest. With one I received a two hundred dollar prize. I joined Kansas Authors Club and each year, since I joined in 1990, I have had a short story published in their annual year book.

The Kanhistique a monthly magazine published in Ellsworth, Kansas accepted thirty-one of my stories including pictures from 1992 through 2000. I never got rich with my writing but was pleased so many people wanted to read them. I also had articles, essays and stories published in The Golden Years, The Schooner Magazine, Great Plains Magazine, Reminisce, and Cappers magazines. I contributed family biographies to the Greenwood County’s history books in 1986 and 1987 and the Wilson County History book in 1989. It is like having chocolate icing on my cake to see my writing in print with my name as the author.

Oh what pleasure my Mother would have had learning how to use the computer. As well as the opportunities I’ve have had to send e-mails to our daughter, Karen when she was in India and our daughter, Ginger during her three years in Alice Springs, Australia. This gave them a closer-to-home feeling and their e-mails are so irreplaceable I keep them in special files. The internet has given me more places to share my writings.

I know Mother would have loved having the chances I have had, to send recipes online to Kitchen Happenings and More, and family stories to My History Is America’s History, and OurEchoes, everybody has a story. What is yours? This is my newest site to share my items of writing and it is world wide. All of my stories, and my mother’s too, have been about what we loved about our lives deep in the heart of Kansas.

The above essay was written for an entry to the 2007 Kansas Authors Club’s 103rd conference writing contest’s theme category, ‘Pen Life As Art, Write From The Heart.’ I didn’t win but had fun writing it.

Story ID:	3088
Written by:	Gail Lee Martin (bio, other stories)
Organization:	Kansas Authors Club
Story type:	Family History
Location:	El Dorado Kansas USA
Year:	2007
Person:	Ruth McGhee & girls