Leona Locke's Family

According to her daughter Sidney, Virgil Wallingford was serving in the military and stationed in Leona's hometown of Sherman, Texas. Virgil had enlisted in the Air Force on 13 February 1942.

Virgil's enlistment

Sidney says that Leona's mother Lena was not all that happy with the marriage. Remember that Virgil was 13 years older than Leona, had already been married twice, and was really something of a dashing young man with the local girls. Sidney tells a story of a friend of Leona's who worked for the telephone service. Listening in on his phone calls, the friend caught Virgil out making arrangements to see some other girl when he was supposed to be with Leona! Joan Wallingford Mickler remembers Virgil bringing a different girl to the Wallingford family Thanksgiving get togethers just about every year! Ultimately, Sidney said that it was Virgil who won Lena over, with his care and offers to have her live with them.

Photo: Virgil in the snow, probably about the time of his marriage to Leona
Photo: Two photos of Virgil and Leona, one probably about the time of their marriage, one with their two young daughters
Photo: Virgil with his Aunt Mae Hegar
Photo: Leona Wallingford

GEORGE AND LENA LOCKE

Leona's parents were George Enloe Locke and Lena Faye Daughtety. The Daughetys had been in Sherman for some years, while George Locke was more of a newcomer.

George and Lena were married about 1922, and almost certainly in Sherman, Texas. Their only child Leona Fay was born a year or so later, on 19 December 1923. They lived in a variety of places through the 1920s, and George worked at a range of jobs - yardman, truck driver for the Sherman Sash and Door Company and a night watchman for a chicken hatchery. Lena worked a sewing machinest. Around the time of the marriage, it was with the Sherman Overall Manufacturing Company, and then after Leona was born she worked for the Pool Manufacturing Company for many years as a machinest/seamstress.

1930 Grayson Co. TX Census

George died 20 February 1959, and was buried in West Hill Cemetary, Sherman, Texas. A large number of both sides of the families are in that one cemetery...

Death Certificate: George Locke
Tombstone: George Locke

After George died, Lena lived for some time with her daughter Leona and her husband Virgil. Lena died 21 July 1993 at the age of nearly 94. She, too, is buried at West Hill Cemetery.

Tombstone: Lena Daughety Locke

THE LOCKE FAMILY

George had been born in Tennessee, and spent at least some of his time in Oklahoma (he was living with his brother Robert Lee, Jr., in McAlister, Oklahoma, when he registered for WWI in 1918). He grew up with his three brothers - Thomas, Robert Lee and Howell. Though not confirmed, it seems his parents Robert Lee Locke and Rhoda Pantha Newell may have separated later in life. In the 1930 census, Robert Lee is shown as a widower living with his son Thomas's family, while Rhoda is shown as a widow living with her son Howell.

WWI Registration: George Locke
1910 Gibson Co. TN Census
1930 Mayes Co. OK Census (with his father)
1930 Oklahoma Co. OK Census (with his mother)

Little has been found of George's brothers Robert Lee, Jr., and Howell. His only older brother, Thomas Cosmo Locke, remained in Oklahoma with a family. He lived mostly around Mayes County, Oklahoma, and worked as a telegrapher for the railroad for much of his life. Thomas' wife Mary Delilah was part Cherokee on both her mother's and father's side. The family extends down to the present time, at least through one son (Thomas Cosmo Locke, Jr.) though it looks like the family will have relocated up to King County, Washington, at some point.

WWI Registration: Thomas Locke
1920 Mayes Co. OK Census

The family back 'beyond' Leona's great grandfather George W. Locke has been documented by others to some extent. In Gibson County, Tennessee, prior to the Civil War, George's grandfather Thomas Dewe Locke was a storekeeper, and George's father Robert Lee Locke continued the tradition, having been a bookkeeper for a dry goods store.

Information on Thomas Locke Ctrl F for "Thomas D. Locke" when the page loads)

THE DAUGHETY FAMILY

Lena came from quite a large family. Her parents George W. and Laura Bell (Richards) Daughety had six children - 3 boys and 3 girls. All were (believed to be) born in Sherman, and all lived most of their lives in the town.

1910 Grayson Co TX Census

Lena's only older sibling was her brother Ernest, born 3 years before her. He worked most of his life as a moulder in iron and brass foundries. His wife, Gladys (also shown as "Tommie") was a manager for a cafeteria. They appear to have moved from Sherman to Ft. Worth in the 1940s at some point. They had at least two children, Ernest Jr. and Billie Jo (a girl). He died 7 September 1971.

1910 Grayson Co. TX Census

Sister Nannie Mae was 3 years younger than Lena. She married Ben Franklin Hagan, and they lived all their lives in Sherman. She died 11 May 1986.

Lena's brother John Richard (known mostly as Richard) lived (as did several of the others) with his parents for most all his life. He did serve as a private in the infantry in WWII, and he worked at a variety of jobs through the years, including as a teamster, for the railroad and for Sherman Manufacturing Company. It appears he was married and then divorced at some point before 1942 when he enlisted. He appears to have died in about 1956, but no confirmation or details have been located.

Otha Cyril (known as Cyril) was 8 years younger than Lena. He, too, lived most all his life with his parents, and worked at a range of occupations, including as an electrical serviceman and, at the time he died in 1944, as a taxi driver. He died young, at the age of not quite 37, dying of tuberculosis.

Death Certificate: Cecil Daughety

Lena's youngest sibling was Ethyl Fay, 10 years younger than Lena. Ethyl lived most of her younger years with her parents and brothers Richard and Cyril. By the late 1940s, she had moved to Dallas (living at 5811 Mockingbird Lane in 1947). She was, in 1953, a saleswoman for Nieman Marcus in Dallas. She married Donald Frank Phillips in 1951 and continued to live in Dallas until her death on 7 December 2003.

The parents of these six children, George and Laura, came to Sherman probably in the mid 1890s, along with George's father Andrew Jackson Daughety, Jr, and a number of his other siblings. George had been born in Tennessee and his wife Laura Bell Richards in Georgia. Laura died 7 January 1947. George died 30 May 1967.

Photo: Andrew Jackson Jr. and Sarah Elizabeth Daughety
Photo: George Washington and Laura Bell Daughety
Death Certificate: Laura Richards Daughety
Death Certificate: George Washington Daughety

George, too, came from a large family - there were believed to have been 13 children in A.J. Jr. and Sarah's family! George was one of the older, being the third born and third boy in the family.

1910 Grayson Co. TX Census

George and most of the older family members were born in Kentucky - only the last two children were born in Texas, providing evidence that A.J. Jr. and Sarah had moved there in about 1890, along with a number of their children, both young and older.

1930 Grayson Co. TX Census (George's nephew Randolph, son of his brother William E.)
George's sister Texanna and her husband
George's sister Texanna and her husband in the 1950s
Geroge's two sisters Texana and Lula in 1961

In the early 1900s, the family made a series of applications to the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes to try to get the family declared to be Choctaw Indians. Apparently, through the late 1890s and early 1900s, these applications were very common - as the tribes were beginning to realize moneys from the tribal lands for oil and other resources. There was a major law firm - located in Sherman, Texas - that handled many of the claims.

Andrew Daughety application (has the most documentation and detail)
John Daughety application
Susan Daughety Hime application
George Daughety application
William Daughety application

The Daughety family had very little in the way of evidence, apart from family stories that A.J. Jr's grandfather was named William, known as "Billy", and that he had been a Choctaw Indian. As part of trying to collect more evidence, their lawyer (who was working for a large number of other claimants, too) went to Mississippi. There he found a 'witness', an 80 year old Negro who was willing to testify that he remembered "Billy" and that Billy had had a son Andrew Jackson Daughety, but that they had moved away from Mississippi when he was still very young. The family hoped this testimony would be compelling. The witness did claim that Billie had been a Choctaw, because he said he remembered him talking Choctaw to other Indians (admitting, though, that he didn't speak the language).

At one point in the deposition, he made a claim that was quite a surprise to the family's lawyer - that Billy had in fact been a slave and was part Negro and part Choctaw.

Very shortly afterward, the Daughety family attempted first to have all of that testimony removed from the record, as they claimed it couldn't have been 'their' Billie Daughtety as they had no Negro blood. Subequently, they attempted to abandon the application entirely, but the Commission refused that, too, ultimately ruling that the Daughetys had no valid claim to be Choctaw Indian.

The various applications make very interesting reading, and have provided a number of details of marriages and children for the family, even though the applications are repetitive and cloaked in the "language of law" of the time!

A.J. Jr died on 27 February 1916. His wife Sarah died 31 December 1933.

Death Certificate: Sarah Elizabeth Daughety
Death Certificate: Andrew Jackson (A.J.) Daughety, Jr.