WHEN MARIE WAS BORN, JUANITA NAMED HER VIRGINIA MARIE. MILTON SAID HE COULDN’T CALL HER VIRGINIA, SO HE WOULD JUST CALL HER JENNY. WELL, THERE WAS NO WAY JUANITA WAS GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN, BECAUSE THE NAME OF THE FAMILY MULE WAS JENNY! SO SHE SAID HE COULD CALL HER MARIE!

     JUANITA GOT THE NAME FROM MILTON’S AUNT THAT HAD RAISED HIM, HENRYETTA VIRGINIA ROBBS, AND THE NAME MARIE FROM HER FRIEND IN HIGH SCHOOL, MARIE CLANAHAN. WHEN MARIE WAS ABOUT SIX YEARS OLD THEY HAD PUBLIC DRAWINGS ON MAIN STREET IN LOCKNEY, TEXAS. EVERYONE WENT TO TOWN TO SEE IF THEY MIGHT WIN SOME FREE GROCERIES OR OTHER GOODIES FROM THE LOCAL MERCHANTS. THEY HAD THE DRAWINGS FROM THE BACK OF A TRAILER WHERE THE TICKETS WERE PICKED OUT OF A LARGE DRUM BY THE CHILDREN THAT WERE CHOSEN FROM THE CROWD.

     ALL OF THE OTHER CHILDREN WOULD RAISE THEIR HANDS AND YELL, “PICK ME, PICK ME!” BUT MARIE WOULD STAND THERE REAL QUIET WITH THIS LONG SAD FACE AND THEY WOULD PICK HER EVERY TIME.

     AFTER SHE HAD DRAWN THE TICKETS, THEY WOULD GIVE HER A QUARTER OR TWO, AND THEN SHE WOULD GO TO THE DRY GOODS STORE AND GET SOME MATERIAL SO THAT JUANITA COULD MAKE HER A DRESS. MARIE ALWAYS LOVED PRETTY THINGS.

 

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