Some years ago I spoke with Uncle Clarence on the phone. We live in Washington; he was in Missouri. We were discussing our early years as children in the Midwest, specifically in the hills and backwoods. He knew the quality of life we Myers children had lived because our mother was his oldest sister. When Grandma Lawson, their mother passed on, she left seven children. Uncle Clarence was the youngest. He was very young, but I don't know what his age was. He went to live with Mom and Dad and our sister Suzy, who was little more than a toddler. When our older brother, Don, was born, Mom and Dad did not have enough room in their small house for Uncle Clarence to stay with them so he went to live with another of his siblings, Aunt Ruby and her family.
He told me during our conversation that he continued to go to the same country school he was attending prior to his move to Aunt Ruby's. It was located back in the hills quite a long distance from her house. It was necessary for him to ride a horse to get to school. There was a wide, powerful stream (I understood him to say it was a river) and when they came to it, the horse didn't even hesitate but stepped right into it and swam to the other side, let Uncle Clarence off, then swam back across the river and went home. At the end of the school day, Uncle Clarence said he'd walk from the schoolhouse to the riverbank and the horse was always there waiting for him. He'd climb on and the horse would swim to the other side and take him home.
Somehow that story really touched me; to think of what he endured in order to get an education when he so easily could have just said "forget it" and stayed home to become a farmer. It's inspirational to think how much he wanted to learn, to better himself and to perhaps make the world a better place.
He most surely played a very important role in many young people's lives, and most likely inspired many of them to go the limit to get that diploma and make a better life than what they might have had. We are all fortunate to have known him, to have had him in our lives, and to have been lucky enough to be related to him. He was a very special person whom we all loved.
Phyllis Myers Miller
