The Bateman Story



This family history was first developed in March 1987 at the request of Cleo and Ruby Bateman. They wanted their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to know their family history.

At that time (March 1987), Ruby and Cleo signed copies, and they were distributed to Nancy, Tonya, Amber, Linda, C.R., Lory, Marilyn, Kelly, Kevin, Korey, Jerry, and Jared.

The original publication contained photographs of some of the medals earned by Cleo in World War II, along with copies of other documents from his Army days. The format has changed over the years. The photos are no longer available, but the content is basically the same, just updated with new information.

The history was revised in January 1989 with signed copies given to Lantz and Trevin.

The history was revised in February 1990 with signed copies given to Luke and Brandy.

The history was revised in January 1996 with signed copies given to Timmy, Haley, Dylan, and Ta’ah.

The history was revised in December 2002 with signed copies given to Coda, Casee, Cadee, Mikayla, and Jadyn.

The history was revised in January 2003 to correct some typographical errors, eliminate a few pieces of unnecessary information about failed marriages, and include the information about Ruby Bateman’s death.

The history was revised for the final time in December 2005 to include the information about Cleo Bateman’s death and some information recently obtained about his grandparents and great-grandparents

WALTER CLEO BATEMAN

Cleo was born October 1, 1914, in Stilwell, Oklahoma (Adair County) to Walter Bateman and Ursula Pamela White Bateman. He was a 1/32nd Cherokee Indian (Registration #C0126030).

Walter Bateman (Cleo’s father) was born in Crawford County, Arkansas, on April 19, 1887. He died on May 9, 1959.

Walter’s parents were James Andrew (Andy) Bateman and Mary Francis (Bacon) Bateman. They came to Indian Territory (from the Lee’s Creek township in Crawford County, Arkansas) and settled in the Chalk Bluff Community in 1889. Andy was Postmaster and County Commissioner of Adair County in 1911 and 1912. He was known around Stilwell and Adair County as “Uncle Andy.” Andy died January 19, 1934. Mary Francis died December 16, 1924. Both are buried in Stillwell Cemetery.

Andy’s parents were James Dunn Bateman (born November 11, 1804, in the State of Delaware and died November 11, 1862, in Crawford County, Arkansas) and Margaret (Roberts) Bateman (born August 1, 1817 in Tennessee and died January 4, 1883, in Evansville, Arkansas, Washington County). James and Margaret were married in Tennessee June 14, 1835. Is it believed they are buried in the Bateman Cemetery located in Crawford County on the Fay Tibbet Farm. The cemetery was near the Bateman School, which was consolidated into the Cedarville, Arkansas District.

Ursula (pronounced Ursley) Pamela White Bateman (Cleo’s mother) was born in Rome, Georgia, on April 15, 1888. She died May 26, 1969.

Ursula’s parents were W. H. White and Mary (Tidwell) White. Ursula was a 1/16th Cherokee Indian (Roll No. 26179, Book 70, Page 180).

Walter and Ursula were married on September 23, 1906.

In addition to Cleo, their other children were:

• Mary Edna was born July 17, 1907. She married Ray Farbro. They had two children: Mary Sue and Bette Rae.

• Robert Earl was born November 12, 1909. He married Ruby Martin. They had four children: James Robert (Sonny), Phyllis Jolene, Richard Joe (Dickey), and Walter Eugene (Gene).

• Jessie Clorean was born November 9, 1911. She died August 29, 1913.

• Elmo was born September 8, 1913. He died September 13, 1913.

• They also raised Maxine Holloway (born March 19, 1921) from the time she was twenty-two months old. Maxine was the daughter of Matthew and Mary Pearl Holloway. Mary was Ursula’s sister who had died January 23, 1923. Maxine married Harley Ghere. They had two children: Harley Dale and Paul.

Cleo moved with his family from Stilwell to Drumright in 1916 and lived there until they moved to the Oilton/Crow area in 1936.

Cleo and his dad bought the rock house and six lots at 111 E. 3rd in Oilton for $400 in 1937. They each paid $200. For that reason, Walter always wanted Cleo to have that house for his own once his parents no longer needed it.

Until he entered the Army, Cleo worked for his brother Earl at their service station in Oilton located close to where the Legion Hut is now. The station burned to the ground in later years.

RUBY BELL SMITH

Ruby was born May 12, 1916, in Sterling City, Texas. She was a 1/64th Cherokee Indian (Registration #C0100932).

Her father, William Arbie Smith, was born in Habersham County, Georgia, on May 29, 1882. He died on October 20, 1963. Arbie’s parents were Jim Smith and Nancy M. Smith.

Her mother, Maggie Maze Shoemake Smith, was born on October 14, 1890, in Gritts, Indian Territory. She died on September 5, 1977. (Gritts no longer exists. From 1896 until 1909 it was a post office in Muskogee County four miles southwest of Webbers Falls. It was named for local merchant Franklin Gritts.) Maggie’s parents were John Wesley Shoemake and Elizabeth Shoemake. Maggie was 1/32nd Cherokee Indian (Roll No. 32138, Card No. 10798, Book 70, Page 147). Maggie’s father, John Wesley Shoemake (born in 1822, died in 1908), was 1/16th Cherokee Indian (Roll No. 32133, Book 70, Page 147).

Arbie and Maggie were married on May 20, 1906.

In addition to Ruby, their other children were:

• Holman Sequoyah (Coy) was born August 27, 1908. He married Frances Smith. They had two children: William Arlis (who died when only a few months old) and Robert Joe (Bobby Joe).

• Troy Wayne was born July 12, 1910. He married Gertrude Allen. They had six children: Joan, Waynie Joe, and Veda Marie all died as infants, then Ronald Gerald (Ronnie), Donna June, and David K. They also adopted Lota Mae Watkins.

• Porter Burl (Dick) was born July 10, 1912. He married Emma Lu Olsen. They had two children: Bessie Lee and William (Billy).

• Margaret Elizabeth (Bessie) was born November 14, 1914. She had three husbands: Short Schuler, Coy Newsom, and Byron Beeson. She had three children: Gerald Coy (Buck) Schuler, Mona Gayle Schuler, and Durward Allan (Dobie) Newsom.

• Calvin Taylor was born January 4, 1919. He died March 20, 1920, from pneumonia and is buried at Bald Hill Cemetery east of Morris.

• Ronald Glen was born April 2, 1921. He married Edith Bevel. They had two children: Danny Glen and Patricia Ann.

• Alba Harless was born January 17, 1923. She married Barney Bevel. They had two children: Betty Carolyn and Dennis Glen. Barney died May 23, 1982. Alba later married Willis Allred.

• Della Mae was born March 7, 1927. She married Roy Parker, Sr. They had two children: Roy Eugene, Jr. (Bimbo) and Ricky Joe. Roy, Sr. died April 12, 1967.

Ruby came with her family from Texas to Oklahoma in 1917 in wagons. They settled in the Webbers Falls/Bald Hill area. They attended grade school at Fairview (east of Morris) before coming to Oilton in 1931.

Ruby married John Elmer (Bud) Osborn, Jr. on December 3, 1932, in Oilton when she was 16 years old. Bud was the son of John, Sr., and Lottie Osborn. They were married for nearly seven years. When he was 25 years old, he was fatally injured in an oilfield accident when some nitroglycerin exploded while working with his father west of Cushing. Bud lived for three days after the accident, being conscious most of the time before his death on September 13, 1939. John, Sr. received only minor injuries in the accident and lived until 1955. In later years, Lottie seemed to love the Bateman children like they were her own grandchildren, and she treated Cleo like part of her family. Lottie was responsible for getting the Bateman family to attend the Church of God. Lottie died on April 26, 1969.

In 1941 and 1942 after Bud died and before she married Cleo, Ruby worked at the telephone company in Oilton, which was located behind the old Post Office building. She worked for $.20 an hour. Temple R. and Beulah Smoot managed the office. While she worked there, the family lived one mile east of Crow (three miles south of Oilton), and she had to walk to and from work most of the time. Her brother Coy would give her a ride sometimes when it was rainy and the roads were very muddy.

CLEO’S ARMY DAYS

Cleo was drafted into the United States Army on March 15, 1941, in Oklahoma City (Serial No. 38020257). He was sent to Fort sill for ten days then to Fort Knox, Kentucky, for 13 weeks of basic training. He returned to Fort Sill where he spent eight months in the 753rd Tank Battalion under the command of Col. Robert R. Glass. He went to Camp Polk, Louisiana, where the 748th Tank Battalion was formed, then to Camp Rucker, Alabama.

Cleo came home on furlough and married Ruby Bell Smith on October 27, 1942. Rev. Coleman L. Eckles married them at the Methodist parsonage in Oilton. Alba and Barney Bevel were their witnesses. They spent their honeymoon visiting Aunt Eddie and family in the Oklahoma City area.

Ruby returned to Camp Polk, Louisiana, with Cleo. They also rented apartments at New Brockton, Alabama, and Fort Knox, Elizabethtown, and Springfield, Kentucky. They met Sgt. Donald G. Tuttle and his wife Floy, with whom they had some good times and stayed in touch over the years. (Floy died in March 1986.) They were also good friends with Sgt. Elbert Moseley, his wife Rubye, and Sgt. Robert Platt and his wife Cleta.

Ruby stayed with Cleo until he went to Needles, California, to the Mojave Desert where he was in training for nine months on a secret mission. When Cleo left for California, Ruby contacted her father who came by train to Fort Knox, Kentucky, to meet her, and then they drove Cleo’s 1936 Ford back to Oilton. They were using gas ration cards for the trip and used their last card when the filled the gas tank up in Muskogee prior to reaching Oilton. They barely made it.

Cleo and Ruby’s first daughter, Nancy Jo, was born February 2, 1944, at Walter and Ursula’s home at 111 E. 3rd in Oilton. Dr. Orange Walter Starr delivered her. Cleo came home on furlough from needles to see her on February 6. She gave him a big smile the first time he looked at her. He enjoyed ten day at home with her, Ruby, his parents, and other friend and relatives in Oilton.

Sgt. Robert Meister of Tulsa accompanied Cleo to Oilton on leave. Because of the secret mission for which they were training, it was necessary for them to travel in pairs. Cleo returned to California on February 17, 1944. They then moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky, to practice the secret mission before departing for Europe. Many men were killed and wounded during the practice session.

Cleo left the United States from New York City in March 1944 aboard the Queen Elizabeth. She was carrying 17,000 troops, and it took six days to travel to England. Ruby received a cablegram from him dated April 16, 1944, saying he had arrived safely and was well. She got her first V-Mail letter from him dated April 21, 1944. Cleo was on combat duty for 18 months during World War II in the European Campaign in France and Germany. His group was attached to the Third Army under General Patton. He went to France in August 1944, to Germany in March 1947, to Luxembourg and Austria in May 1945. While in Germany, Cleo rode on a train for six days and nights with 28 soldiers in each boxcar. During this trip, many of them got sick. He crossed the Rhine River on a pontoon bridge built by the engineers. They crossed on the bridge in half-tracks and jeeps while the tanks floated across. They went through one concentration camp somewhere close to Linz, Austria, where they saw some 3,500 burned bodies stacked in deep holes and trenches. They learned there were only 37 survivors in that prison camp. They were in Linz when they got the news that the Germans had fallen and the War was over.

Cleo returned home on the U.S.S. General J. C. Breckenridge. It carried 8,000 troops, and the trip took nine days. He lacked two “points” having enough to get to fly home instead of traveling by ship.

AFTER THE WAR

When Ruby returned to Oilton from Kentucky while Cleo was still in the Service, she lived with Cleo’s parents in the rock house at 111 E. 3rd, which is where Nancy was born. For a short time after that, Ruby and Nancy lived at a place in Drumright with her sister Alba and her daughter Carolyn after Barney went into the Service. When the War was over, Cleo, Ruby and Nancy lived at several different houses in Oilton and in the Coppage Apartments. The family moved into the rock house at 419 S. B Street in Oilton in 1947.

When the War was over, Cleo went to work for Pure Oil Company and worked there until 1960 when the Oilton branch was shut down and the company merged with Union 76. He then worked for the Big Four Oil Company and Hubbard Oilfield Supply for a few years. He went to work for Leonard Lauener at the Economy Supply Company in Oilton in 1965. He finally officially retired in 1995.

• Nancy Jo was born February 2, 1944, in the rock house at 111 E. 3rd in Oilton, delivered by Dr. Orange Walter Starr.

• Linda Joyce was born November 1, 1946, in Dr. Starr’s office in Drumright.

• Marilyn Jean was born March 31, 1948, in Dr. Starr’s office in Drumright.

• Jerry Lee was born August 19, 1953, in the Cushing Hospital, the fourth Bateman Child to be a “Starr Brand Baby.”

The Batemans moved into the rock house at 111 E. 3rd in Oilton in July 1959 after Walter Bateman’s death. Cleo and Ruby moved from Oilton to Sapulpa in November 1982.

Each of the Bateman girls was valedictorian of her eighth grade and senior graduating classes. While Jerry was not valedictorian, he did marry someone who was. All of them graduated from Oilton High School; Nancy in 1962, Linda in 1963, Marilyn in 1966, and Jerry in 1971.

THE END OF TWO REMARKABLE LIVES

Ruby Bell Bateman died on May 18, 1996 at the age of 80 due to complications of lung cancer. She was first diagnosed with the disease around 1990 and underwent surgery at that time to remove a portion of her lung. She fought a brave fight for many years, never wanting to have chemotherapy or radiation treatment, and spent her last days at home. Cleo, Nancy, Linda, Marilyn, Jerry, and Jorg were by her side when she passed away. Her funeral was held at the Sapulpa Church of God on May 20, and she is buried in the Oilton Highland Cemetery.

Walter Cleo Bateman died on November 1, 2005 at the age of 91 after enjoying excellent health for most of his life. He suffered with congestive heart failure in early 2003 and had a pacemaker installed. He did very well after that until becoming ill in August 2005 when he was diagnosed with lymphoma in the lung tissue. He was bravely facing radiation treatments to reduce the size of the tumor, but several other complications resulted due to age. He passed away in St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa with most of his family at his side. His funeral was held at the Sapulpa Church of God on November 4, and he is buried beside Ruby in the Oilton Highland Cemetery.

Ruby and Cleo are both missed terribly but will not be forgotten.

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE CONTINUES

Nancy married Donald Ray Bateman (born November 4, 1942) at the Oilton Church of God on June 2, 1962.

• Tonya Jo was born in Sapulpa on September 9, 1965. She married Patrick O’Dell (born October 26, 1957) on July 1, 1985.

o Luke Patrick was born October 20, 1989, in Tulsa.

o Dylan (born September 3, 1992) was adopted.

o Coda (born October 17, 1989) was adopted.

• Amber Jo was born in Sapulpa on November 23, 1971. She married John Baldwin on June 2, 1995.

o Casee Jo was born on November 12, 1996 in Tulsa.

o Cadee Jo was born October 12, 1999 in Tulsa.

Linda married Walter Charles Williams (born November 13, 1937) in Yukon on August 30, 1969.

• He already had a son, Charles Ray (C.R.), born in Oklahoma City on June 2, 1966. He married Jacklyn Janae Johnson (Jan) on April 24, 1993, in Hammon.

o Timothy Ray was born August 23, 1993 in Dodge City, Kansas.

o Ta’ah Brooke was born November 20, 1995 in Dodge City, Kansas.

• Lory Lynn was born in Oklahoma City on June 30, 1971. She married Mark Anthony Estep (born November 19, 1968) in Shawnee on April 16, 1988.

o Trevin Anthony was born March 27, 1988 in Midwest City.

o Brandy Lynn was born January 5, 1990 in Midwest City.

o Haley Spring was born May 2, 1995 in Cleburne, Texas.

Marilyn married Jimmy Howard Spradlin (born January 30, 1946) in Okmulgee on January 21, 1966. Jim died on March 24, 1982, while piloting an airplane on company business from Oklahoma to Grand Island, Nebraska. She married Richard Lovelace on April 8, 2000 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

• Jimmy Kelly was born in Sapulpa on July 27, 1966. Kelly married Angela Dawn Johnston (born February 23, 1968) in Mannford on July 22, 1995.

• Kevin Lee was born in Bellaire (Houston), Texas on July 28, 1968. Kevin married Karen Diane Potter (born April 9, 1971) in Mannford on July 22, 1989.

o Mikayla Grace was born on June 25, 2000 in Tulsa.

o Jadyn Harmony was born on May 2, 2002 in Tulsa.

• Korey Adam was born in Overland Park, Kansas on March 26, 1975.

Jerry married Nancy Alma Bryan (born August 29, 1955) at her parents’ home in Oilton on November 21, 1973.

• Jared Dale was born on August 4, 1981 in Stillwater. He married Dawn Christine Ruppel (born January 13, 1981) on October 8, 2000 in Nuyaka.

• Lantz Evan was born on December 30, 1987 in Tulsa.

This is the story

of the Bateman family

to date.

This may be the last page

in the book,

but the rest of the story

is yet to be written –

by YOU!

The Bateman Legacy

will continue with pride

that comes from knowing

our heritage.

................
................

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