She was 15 and he was 17. They were in love and wanted to get married. They went to Cuero, the county seat, in an automobile. The day started out good but ended bad. There was a bad storm that day.
A wedding in 1918
The yellowed newspaper clipping from a Cuero newspaper is dated 1918. It says “Mr. Willis Marion Wauson and Miss Mary Vivian Brooks, both of Yoakum with a party of relatives motored over to Cuero, and after obtaining a marriage license from the county clerk, they called upon Rev. J. W. Albritton at the Methodist church to say the words which united them as man and wife.”
Willis, 17 and Vivian, 15 were my husband’s parents.
The article listed the couple’s parents and Willis’ two brothers and wives also. It went on to say the car broke down on the way to Cuero, and had delayed the “occasion”. Besides that a big rain came after the wedding so the wedding party decided to not take their cars back to Yoakum because of the muddy roads and took the train, a passenger train called The Davy Crockett, to Yoakum. It was the last train in the day, and maintained an average speed of 24 miles an hour.
Thus started my mother and father in-law’s married life. He was working with his father-in-law on the railroad and they lived with their in-laws, William and Lenora Green Wauson, in Yoakum. Vivian had four children while living in Yoakum, including Eddie Wauson. Then they moved to Pleasanton in 1926, where Willis was working as a fireman for the Missouri Pacific railroad.
They had two more children while in Pleasanton, actually North Pleasanton. Their lives were hard during the depression years with six children. Willis didn’t work a lot of the time, and was put on the “extra board”. Vivian did laundry and baked bread to make ends meet. The boys delivered the bread and laundry to customers in their little wagon.
Then the war came in 1941, and their oldest boy, Willis Jr. joined the Marines. As the boys graduated they went into the service. Richard went to the Coast Guard, Eddie and Tommy to the Navy. Vivian and Willis had four Blue Stars in their window. Their daughter Helen worked and Johnny was still in school.
The Wausons moved to San Antonio during the 1940’s, as Willis continued to work on the railroad. They eventually bought a house on Hearne Ave. in that city and in the 50’s also rented a small 2-bedroom unit in a “tourist court” sin Crystal city. Vivian would stay with him for weeks at a time.
Three children, Richard, Helen, and Tommy had married by 1950. The only child still at home was the youngest, Johnny, then Eddie and Willis Jr, who came home from the war. The three boys lived in the Wauson home on Hearne Ave.
That is where I came into the picture. I had met the Wausons in 1948, when Richard was teaching at Kasper School. He and his wife Lessie Sawyer Wauson became friends with the Zook family. When I graduated from Poth, I went to San Antonio, got a job and roomed with Richard and Lessie. I met all of the Wauson family including Eddie, and fell in love all of them. They were friendly, fun, laughing, joking, and loving.
I married Eddie Wauson in 1950. My sister Margaret married Johnny Wauson three weeks later. Going to the Wauson home for all special occasions, were the highlights of my married life. I loved that family. At the family gatherings, the men would play poker in a back bedroom; the women would drink coffee and talk. Dad Wauson was the biggest old softie I ever saw. He was 6’2” but cried when he watched “Queen for a Day” on TV. Mom Wauson could quiet a crying baby with colic, on her lap, when nothing else would help. I was one of those mothers. Her grandchildren adored her!
Willis and Vivian were just teenagers when they got married in Cuero that stormy, rainy day. They were married for over 50 years. She died in 1969 and he died in 1973. I miss them. I wish everyone could have wonderful in-laws like him or her.
A wonderful story of your in-laws. They were like so many people of that era--hard-working and family-oriented--suffered a lot during the Depression and World War II. The only thing that I wondered about was whether those places you mentioned were all in Texas. I recall visiting Pleasanton, California a few times.
Inside the Methadone Clinic. Addiction to heroin, methadone, and other opiates. Destruction. The primal addiction" of the child, power and control over your own life, the institutions and the characters, the love between a mother and son. This book i
A wedding in 1918
