Hattie Clyde Farmer Armstrong's Life Story

I was born at home in Meridian, Mississippi early in the morning on April 25, 1925, 5th child of what became six children born to Mackie and Bailey Farmer.  I'm told Bailey was so excited he finally got a girl that he passed out cigars to everyone he saw.  Three years later my youngest brother was born.  We had a saying, "Five boys and every one of them had a sister!"

When I was about 3 years old, my mother's youngest sister Nancy was close to me.  I thought if anything belonged to Aunt Nancy I could have it.  "Aunt Nancy's!  Clyde can have!"

I loved to dress up.  We lived across from the banker and his wife and daughter would invite me to go with them to shop in town.  I would get a clean dress out of my drawer to wear, often without permission, just so I'd look pretty.

I remember when we were at a cousin's house and Roland pointed a gun at my head.  My brother Matthew told him to stop and never do that again.  Roland stated it wasn't loaded and pointed it at the porch, where it blew a hole through the wood.   God was not through with me yet.

When I was six, we moved to the country on Grandpa Farmer's 15 acres and built a house on the land.  We had a living room, dining room, and 3 bedrooms, but no running water or electricity until 1945.  We had a well but when the water ran out in the summer, my younger brother and I had to carry buckets of water from the spring to the house.

My grandfather Farmer lived with us for several years. His mother, Nancy Wheelas Farmer, taught him to speak the Choctaw language when he was young. He would often call me something that sounded like "Fini Fini Cha Cha," which meant "pretty little girl."  I reminded him of his wife, Ella Clyde Buntin Farmer.  He was such a kind sweet man.  He was a retired Sheriff.

I remember my Grandmother Matheney had been very ill, and my mother Mackie and her sister Vera took constant care of Grandmother.  She passed away on Christmas Day 1936.    Grandmother Matheney was born Hattie Patterson and her dad was a medical doctor in Lewisville, Tennessee.  She was sent to Cookville, Tennessee to care for her brother where she met Matthew Matheney who worked with her brother.  She married Grandpa Matheney, who was a Methodist Minister, a Circuit Preacher in the hills on the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee.

One of my earliest memories from childhood was when I was 9 years old and Santa brought me a beautiful doll with a porcelain face, hands, and legs and whose eyes opened and closed. I was so excited that I ran to show a friend but slipped in the Mississippi mud and fell.  The doll's eyes rolled back in her head and couldn't be repaired.  My uncle tried all day to repair her eyes but was not able to fix them.   I begged for a new doll, but our family couldn't afford it. Years later I gave the doll to a blind girl and told her to take good care of her because the doll was blind also.

One Sunday we were at Uncle Oll's playing on the hay.  I got so high on the bales I was afraid to come down so my cousins Elizabeth and Nina told me to jump; they'd catch me.  I did, they didn't.  I didn't remember anything until I got to the house.  Uncle Oll had a creek nearby and one Sunday I got too deep in the water, couldn't stand on my feet and have my head above water, but no one noticed.   I was scared but decided to walk it out.  I would bob up for air, walk on a little farther, bob up for air.  I finally got to a level where I could stand with my head above water and didn't ever do that again.

A good memory for me was being allowed to go the premier of "Gone with the Wind" with my cousin.  We got to dress up and stay out late.  It was a very big event in Mississippi and my first time to go to the movies.

My dad was manager of Dixon Battery company and worked to repair batteries most of his life.  He had no fingerprints left by the time he passed away.  He was good at his job, and I remember we had a radio that worked off a 6-volt car battery.  We would listen to the Grand Ol' Opry every Saturday night.  We were allowed one hour a night but we all liked Saturday.

When I was 16 years old, on December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor was bombed, and my older brothers enlisted in the military, each in a different branch of service. Eventually, the youngest brother at only 15 1/2, got my dad to sign for him to go into the Navy.  All my brothers returned safely after the war, although one brother was ill with malaria and had to recover at home.  While they were at war I was still in high school. Our tires were rationed for 4 tires and a spare for each car.   I drove an old bread truck that had wooden benches inside.  I would take 15 kids from the country to school into town each day. My brother Charles taught me to drive at age 12.  It took me a while to master the clutch and accelerator, but I did.  We had to keep a ration book and rationed pork, beef, and shoes, but everyone was patriotic and helped each other.

After high school, I attended junior college for a semester and worked in town at Kress's for about a year. Then I took and passed a Civil Service exam and was accepted to meteorology school.

While I was waiting for meteorology school to start, I rode the bus to Savannah, Georgia, to help my sister-in-law Dee drive a 1936 Buick, pulling a 14  foot house trailer, back to Meridian. We had to stop many times to add water to the radiator when the car overheated, but we eventually made it back safely. That was quite a feat for two women in that day.

I attended Meteorology school in Atlanta, Georgia.  After graduation I took a job with the government, stationed in Florence Air Force Base, South Carolina.  I lived there about 3 years.  I drew weather maps by hand that were top secret and used by the government in the war effort.  I rented a room from a Greek family, and their young daughter became my lifelong friend.  After the war the base closed, and I transferred back to Meridian, Mississippi.  The jobs were given to the returning troops so they had no openings for meteorologists.

After the war my parents, my younger brother Bill, and I moved to Oklahoma. Since I was no longer in the south and two names weren't required, I went from being "Hattie Clyde" to "Clyde."  I worked at a local grocery store and met my future husband Lloyd.  We only dated about 6 weeks and married.  We agreed we both wanted a Christian home and a safe place to raise our future children. We opted for me to be a homemaker when we had children.  We bought a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home about two blocks down from my parent's home.  I became active in Church Leadership, Girl Scouts, Sunday School Teacher, Eastern Star, Airforce Wives Association, Home Demonstration, and the East Minister United Presbyterian Church Women's Association.

We had 3 daughters: Charlotte, who lives with her husband in Australia, Lyn, who lives with her husband in Tennessee, and Vicki, who lives with her husband in the Liberty Hill/Georgetown area.  I have 6 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, and 3 great-great grandchildren.

My husband spent over 20 years in the Air Force, and we traveled to different states. We bought a 160-acre farm outside of Oklahoma City, and after his retirement, we built a house on it and moved to the country.  We raised Black Angus cattle, pigs, and chickens. We always had a large garden; we canned vegetables and shared with family and friends.  I worked as hard as any man and still kept the laundry, cooked and cleaned.

After Lloyd's passing, I stayed 10 years on the farm by myself.  I changed my own spark plugs, mowed my own lawn, but we did sell the cows before he passed.

In 2008 I sold the farm and moved in to an apartment in Meeker, Oklahoma.  I became active in the Senior Citizens Center and went often to fellowship with friends.  I was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church of Chandler, Oklahoma and kept ties with them even after I moved to Texas.

In 2012, I moved to Tennessee for a year and then to Texas.  I lived at The Oaks from the time it opened in 2015, only recently moving to Delaney Assisted Living, still in Georgetown, Texas. I have been blessed by God during my lifetime and turned 99 last April.

Funeral services will be held at 1:00 pm om Saturday, February 8, 2025 at Parks Brothers Funeral Home 617 Manvel Ave. Chandler, Oklahoma 78434.  Burial will follow at Rossville Cemetery E990 Road  Meeker Oklahoma 74855