Barnes Family History: Chapter 4: The Day After

This chapter will bring us to what happened after Grover Sr. was granted guardianship. Grover placed Myrtle in a home somewhere in the Tulsa area. I do not know what kind of place it was, I only know that it was in Tulsa. I learned this after talking to Eloise "Pennie" McCormick Barnes.
Now that we have determined what happened to Myrtle the day after the guardianship, let me put in prospective what I speculate happened a little before and after with Grover Sr. and the children.

Arnavay "Arnie" Dulce Tyler

I will start with Grover Sr. and I would like to introduce you to his girlfriend, Arnavay Dulce Tyler Benge Minter, known to everyone as Arnie. In Grover Sr.'s own words later in a Court statement he said, "We had lived together as man and wife since 1941 and lived and resided in many places as man and wife, such as Jackson, Tennessee; Knoxville, Tennessee; Clinton, Tennessee and Camden, Arkansas." Arnie was born in 1903, she had three sisters and two brothers and they were all raised in Sallisaw, Oklahoma which is less than an hour from Muskogee. She also lived in Braggs, Oklahoma which is just minutes outside of Muskogee and that is where she was buried at the age of 92 in 1995. She married a Jim Benge, however, the family does not have a record of their marriage and divorce. She married her second husband, Johnnie Minter in Muskogee in 1933. He was ten years older than her and she filed for divorce January 11, 1940 in Muskogee. With all of Arnie's ties to Muskogee that I have just mentioned and then the fact that she initiated the divorce from Johnnie Minter in 1940, I think there is a very good chance Arnie and Grover Sr. were seeing each other well before they began living together in 1941 and well before Grover Sr. took guardianship over Myrtle August of 1939 and had her put away.

Arnie's 1st husband Jim Benge

Arnie's 2nd husband, Johnnie Miner,
who she divorced in January 1940.
Just 4 months after Grover Sr was granted guardianship over Myrtle

This also gives me reason to believe after Grover had Myrtle put away in 1939, he left Betty, Buddy and Grover Jr. to live at the house on Victor. At this time, Betty had started her Junior year at Tulsa Central; Buddy graduated from Tulsa Central in 1938, was working at Barnes-Manley and dating Pennie McCormick; and finally, my Dad had graduated from Tulsa Central in 1937 and I'm not certain but I feel like he was working in the Tulsa area.

Betty at house on Victor

Buddy at house on Victor. Looks like he may have just got home
from working at Laundromat.

Grover Jr. at house on Victor

When I visited with Pennie, she said her mother Effie McCormick was working out front at Barnes-Manley while Buddy was working in the back pressing pants. Pennie was 15 almost 16, attending Tulsa Central and Buddy was 19. It was because of her mother working at the Laundromat that she and Buddy met. He asked Mrs. McCormick "about her cute daughter" and she said "why don't you come by the house and find out for yourself." Buddy and Pennie dated until 1942/1943. Pennie said she did not have much of a remembrance of Buddy's dad being around. However, many times when they were on a date, he would stop by the home where Myrtle was put to check on her and bring her a hamburger. Pennie said Buddy never wanted her to come in, so she would wait in the car. He didn't want her to see what had happened to his mother.

My Aunt Betty is confused on the time frame, but she cannot remember either of her parents at the house during high school. She just remembers her Dad on the road working and figured that is where he met Arnie. She said she remembers several of her Aunts wanting her to move in with them, but she didn't do it. She said she can't remember when, but she moved into an apartment with her girlfriend Florene. I'm wondering if she did this in 1941, because I found on Ancestry.com that she graduated in 1941 from Will Rogers High School in Tulsa instead of Tulsa Central.

My Dad, Grover Jr., took to the road in 1941 working for the Electrical Union. He wrote in a letter to my mother in 1942, that he had driven through 14 states during 1941. In 1942 he worked in Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas and when there was a break in a job, he would come back to Tulsa. In early summer of 1942, he was at the Cains Ballroom in Tulsa. This particular night he noticed my mother, Barbara Loy across the room and asked her to dance. Barbara was awfully quiet and shy, but he thought she was very pretty and a great dancer. They begin talking and realized that they lived only a couple of blocks from each other. My mother, Barbara, lived at 431 S. Xanthus and my Dad said he lived at 530 S. Victor. Although Buddy and Pennie along with Grover Jr. and Barbara had what I would consider romantic beginnings, I shared their stories for a particular reason. Grover Jr., in 1942, is still connected to the house next to Barnes-Manley; and Pennie can remember Myrtle being in some type of home while Grover Sr. is living with Arnie in other states.

I also wonder if Grover Sr. was even helping his three children financially. I wouldn't doubt that Buddy and Grover Jr. were actually the ones paying the rent on the house on Victor or possibly Lewis wasn't even collecting rent from them. I know my Dad was making good money working from job to job. He had bought himself a brand new Buick he was so proud of.