“Memories Frozen in Time”
The end of the school year is upon us. Yearbooks are hot off the presses and it’s a chance to autograph each other’s books and relive the memories of the year. Down the road, it’s fun to look back and see how young we were and reminisce about fashion, hair styles, and events from an impressionable time in our lives.
What do Viola Watkins (1911-2000) and Dallas Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman (1966-) have in common? They were both Henryetta Hens from Henryetta, Oklahoma. My grandaunt Viola was a freshman in 1929 and Troy Aikman was a freshman in 1981. (My dad was born in Henryetta in 1930.)
The mascot for Henryetta High School became the Hens after a “newspaper account of a game played in a downpour referred to the team as the Mud Hens. The ‘Fighting’ was added later (Students).” (In 1989 a very controversial decision was made to change the Fighting Hens to the Knights.)
Viola Watkins did not graduate from high school. On October 29, 1929 the stock market crashed and the country entered the Great Depression which lasted through 1939. Oklahoma was particularly hard hit because it was in a drought and entered the Dust Bowl era. The Watkins family struggled.
On February 2, 1930, Viola married J. Homer King in Newton, Kansas. On May 26, 1931, Viola and Homer had their first child, a daughter named Marian. They went on to have two more children, Madelyn and Max. Viola and Homer did not have a happy marriage and they divorced in 1953. Viola later married John Crichton.
Yearbooks are a time capsule and a memory book. Enjoy looking through your yearbooks and have fun exploring the yearbooks of relatives and ancestors that you can find online.
Sources
“Henryetta, Oklahoma.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Oct. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryetta,_Oklahoma.
“Students Will Vote to Change Name of Mascot.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 10 Jan. 1989, https://apnews.com/article/c41eb20bb91c44bb5c4523eedc7972ec.
“U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012”; School Name: Henryetta High School; Year: 1929
“U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012”; School Name: Henryetta High School; Year: 1981
“U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012”; School Name: Henryetta High School; Year: 1983