Photos from John T.

Here are some photos from John T.

A Great Granddaughter's Thought's

A few words,
Bye meredith sullivan friday 4/10/2008

NOTE:

forgive me, I am not a good speller.

I feel I must make some noise on this blog. Everybody else is, so, why not me.
Shakespeare once said "All the world's a stage. We are all actors." The last couple of weeks since the funeral has felt like a play, especially when we were at the ranch. I feel as though we have just thrust ourselves back into our lives, forgetting about what has happen. We have no time to think about her, becuase we are too busy with different stuff. School, work, family, church, and trying to have a life is difficult. Soon, she is not the center of our thoughts anymore. Every once in a while we come back to her, rembering she is gone and trying to change our minds to something else. It is becuase we do not want to think of one of the saddest times in our lifetime. I have been gulity of this, but also gulity into knowing that I did not have a proper goodbye with her, in my feeling of course.
My mother told us one Sunday morning, two weeks before her death, that we were going to see Momme. She also told us, things looked grim and we should try to say goodbye to her, just in case.

When we got there, Momme was in her kitchen, dressed, and watching tv. But something was different, something was. (One of the help people was there)
She was sitting in a wheelchair, bent over and holding a sippy cup, one Bella might have left. We only stayed 20 minutes or so. I remember the mood was uncomfortable. We talked with her, and we all sat close to her, that way we can hear her when she talked, because her speech was so hard to hear, She probably did not remember an hour later or so that Cam and I were going to get our braces offor that Avery was going to be 14 in a few weeks. Or that he was going to high school come September. She might not even remember that a grandchild and three great-grandkids were there. We were all sad. I think that was we knew we were not going to see her sitting up again. The next time she would be laying down, in final sleep.

For my grandmother and grandfather's anniversy, I was transfering some old videos to DVD. One was her 90th birthday video that was shown at the party. One brief clip showed her around 1990, taking about her husband.
I must confess I can not recall her moving and speaking perfectly like she was in that video. All my memories were of her in the last year, trapped in a frail body are sad.At Hugie's 89th birthday, I saw her and later told Grandma that her body look lifeless. Her eyes had little life. She was just...there. Sitting on the couch in the dining room, just sitting there. I was quite sad that day.
A memory of her before her stroke was her car. A blue car, old but still working car.
I am standing behind my glass front door. My age I can count with my fingers, I am happy. Becuase I know she has come to give us cocoa puffs or cupcakes or something like that. I smile at that memory, becuase it comes from a happy time, when I didn't know what death was or how it looked liked. Before I got so scared that I would have a heart attack, like the one guy in some irish comedy movie my parents forced me to watch when I was ten(it was that or go to bed, nothing else). That was a happy time for me....................

I think I thought the way I would say goodbye was to be by her bedside, kiss her cheek or forehead, say goodbye to her. Or to see her in th coffin, opened, to show she's in a better place. But when we were at the funeral, and we were all touching the coffin, I wanted to hold on, wanting to be near the person who hugged me, let me play with toys, and gave me cupcakes. But I let go, because I was doing all I could to not break down. I left and ran over to Rebe, where I felt most confortable at the time. When I saw people picking up rocks , I picked one up. And almost in a child-like state, I picked another up, and gave it to Chris, who at the time was doing something I had never seen him do before, crying. I wanted to hug him, but I resisted, just stood there, holding my rock while my eyes ran dry, unable to cry, knowing, I had just said "Goodbye" to my Momme, for the last time



If I have bored you, I'm sorry. If you thought this didn't make any sence and I went on too long, forgive me. But if you read this trip down memory lane, thank you.
I thank you for reading this long,
If any relatives want to write me, please email me at
Batcat@tx.rr.com.
thank you
Meredith Sullivan, age 15 1/2.

Momme's Cocoa Puffs

About a few years ago, we asked mamee for this recipe. Now I'm sure all of you will want this recipe, because you have a special memory involing this. I had orginally written this for Buc and Janet when they first became engaged, for them to make it one day. After the passing of our great matriarch, my grandmother and I realized we did not want this great recipe to be forgotten and lost to time. So here it is.
Meredith, from Mary Kuhn's house.


From the kitchen of Annie Lucile "Momee" Smith Rowntree:
Cocoa Puffs.

You will need:


· 1 Cup of Sugar
2 oz. of Honey
2 oz. of Karo Syrup + 1 T
Melt until
Bubbles all
around, barely rising.
__________________________
Move off the heat and fold in

1 and a half cups of Creamy Peanut Butter
4 cups of Cocoa Puffs



_____________________________

· Put the Peanut Butter in one bowl, the 4 cups of Cocoa Puffs into another bowl.
· Then, quickly put the P.B into the Pan, stir, then quickly put the Cocoa Puffs.

· After Stirring, begin putting Cocoa Puffs onto Wax Paper.



· Remember: Always Keep Stirring, Until you start putting the Cocoa Puffs on Wax Paper.

This is for keeping a happy family. And yes, you can use it for the holidays.

Love,
Mary Kuhn Rowntree Rogers
Meredith Leigh Rogers Sullivan

Three Pic's of Momee Easter 2007 at 3 Trees Ranch

I wanted to share with everyone these photo's that Matt Rowntree sent me from the 2007 Easter at 3 Trees Ranch

Double Dip Day

One of the best memories of childhood that I share with my brother and sister is the magical sentence: "It's a double dip day!" Whenever Momee would visit us in Indiana, we would make at least one trek to Lloyd's Ice Cream for a cone. We were always in suspense...will it be? will it be? will it be a....double dip day?!

Selections of flavors was always a long, thought provoking endeavor, and it always seemed we could narrow our choices down to just 2. Momee and Mom would smile mysteriously, savoring the suspense. At the last moment, when we couldn't stand it anymore, the verdict would be given, and more often than not...it was a double dip day!

Double Dip Day has now become a phrase we use to indicate it was an extra special, happy day or experience.

May we all have plenty of "double dip days" to come!

Lucile Smith Rowntree Brief Biography and Obituary

Lucile Smith Rowntree

1912-2008

Annie Lucile Smith was born on a ranch on Rocky Creek near Oakalla in Burnett County, about twenty miles from Lampasas in Central Texas. She died peacefully on Sunday, March 9, 2008, at her home in Grand Prairie surrounded by those who loved her. She often said she was “the luckiest woman in the world” to have had the life that she had.

She was the daughter of Edgar “E.Babe” Smith and Leila Mae Wykes. Lucile was one of three children. She had an older brother, E. Babe, Jr. and a younger sister, Dorothy Virginia Lewis. Lucile read before she was five so her parents allowed her to start school early. She rode to school with her brother, behind him on his horse.

The Smith family lived at the ranch until their house burned in 1918. They, then, moved to Lampasas, and Lucile attended school there, graduating from Lampasas High School in 1928. The summer she graduated Lucile met John Thomas Rowntree, who had just come to Lampasas to accept the position of high school coach. John, the son of Robert Rowntree and Mary Lucille Schrock, was from Bartlett, Texas. Reportedly, John soon told Lucile over a cherry coke, “You are the prettiest girl I have ever met, and I’m going to marry you.”

None the less, after her graduation, Lucile left Lampasas to attend Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, but she did return home to marry John in 1930.

In the next fifteen years, Lucile and John had seven children, Mary Kuhn, Martha Lucile, Rebecca Alice, John Thomas, Jr., David Terry, Ruth, and Paul Anthony. The family lived in Greenville, San Angelo, and Canadian, as well as Lampasas, before moving to Grand Prairie, Texas, in 1956.

In addition to raising her children and supporting her husband in his career as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent, Lucile finished her college degree at West Texas State College in 1957. She then began her twenty years as a language-arts teacher at Lee Middle School in Grand Prairie. She retired in 1976.

Lucile was a life-long member of the United Methodist Church, and she lived her faith. She was involved in many local organizations, the Grand Prairie Woman’s Club, 3 G’s, Rejevian Book Club, Grand Prairie Retired Teachers, and others. Reading remained one of her mainstays, as was keeping personal journals. She painted in oils as a hobby. She especially appreciated birds and all of nature. Helping others, unassumingly, was a way of life for her. An avid democrat, she also followed social and political issues closely, often writing congressional representatives to express concerns and requests for changes, most often in behalf of those who have little voice.

Lucile was preceded in death by her husband John.

Lucile was always available to her own large family, treating all as if each were the most loved.

She is survived by her children and their spouses: Mary Kuhn and husband Robert Rogers, Martha and husband David Brownlie, Rebecca Moore, Grand Prairie, TX, Ruth Hatcher and husband Charles Hendryx, Honolulu, Hawaii, John T. Rowntree and wife Mary Schleppegrell, Dexter, Michigan, David Rowntree and wife Sheila, Concord, California, Paul Rowntree and wife Beverly , Colleyville, TX.

All of Lucile’s family, her seven children, sixteen grandchildren, and nineteen great grandchildren, as well as the mates of the grandchildren and other relatives and friends, celebrate the life of love and service that she led.

In lieu of flowers, please send memorial contributions to the Methodist Children’s Home at 1111 Herring Avenue, Waco, TX 76708.

The family deeply appreciates the kind and able assistance of Care Mountain Caregivers, Jennifer, Melaine, Tonja, Lorena, and Claudia and Rick Putchio and the wise counsel of Dr. Chuck Dell, all of whom enabled them to keep Lucile in her own home during her declining years.

A memorial service will be held at 10 A.M. on Friday, March 14, at the Baker Chapel of the First Methodist Church of Grand Prairie. Burial will be on Saturday, March 15, at the Smith Family Cemetery near Lampasas in Oakalla, Texas, on the land on which she was born.