Ora Delane Fennell
Ora Delane Fennell was born on 13 December 1921 at Rufe, a farm settlement in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, near Valliant. She was the youngest of the children of Thomas Marion Fennell, a farmer from Tennessee, and his wife Minnie Belle, from Texas. Her parents had come up from Fannin County, Texas, about 1914 to 1916 and farmed in the Valliant community for the rest of their lives.
She grew up with older brothers Leonard, Clarence and Harold and older sisters Gertie Mae and Alta Mae, called Allie. In 1920, the year before she was born, the household held her parents with Leonard, Clarence, Harold and the baby Allie.
On 21 December 1946 she married Loyd Luther Smith in Sevier County, Arkansas, just over the state line from McCurtain County. Loyd was a log hauler from Lockesburg who had served in the Army during the Second World War. She was 25.
In January 1950 she gave birth to twin boys, Lonnie and Johnie. On 13 April 1950 the census found the family in Fowler township, McCurtain County, west of Slim: Loyd, 37, hauling logs for a sawmill, Ora, 28, and the two babies, under three months old. Next door lived Velma Scott, born a Smith in Arkansas, with her husband Roy.
Her father died in September 1951 and her mother in November 1956. In both obituaries she is listed among the daughters as Mrs. Smith, of Valliant in 1951 and of Mound Grove in 1956.
Loyd died in 1993. Ora outlived him by nearly nineteen years and died at Hugo, in Choctaw County, on 14 May 2012, aged 90. She is buried beside Loyd in Moran Cemetery at Valliant, where her parents also lie. Their shared headstone reads "ORA D. (FENNELL)", keeping her maiden name, and carries a small oval photograph of the couple set into the vase between their names.
Sources
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Cite: Heirology, "Ora Delane Fennell (1921-2012)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/ora-delane-fennell-1921-2012-8d9de4.