Arthur Carthel Jenkins was a son of Joseph Asa Jenkins and Julia Virginia (Terry) Jenkins, and a brother of my father Orville Lee Jenkins.  Arthur Carthel was born in Marlow, Oklahoma, in 1909.  My father Orville Lee was born in Mountain View, Oklahoma, in 1912.  Bud's name is spelled Carthal in some sources.

Uncle Bud
We all called Arthur Carthel "Uncle Bud," because all his brothers and sisters called him Bud.  I remember Uncle Bud and his children very well.  Here is what I know about his family and children.

Weak Heart
When I was a child, my father told me that Uncle Bud had rheumatic fever when he was a child.  I also remember talking about that with Uncle Bud.  He survived, but with a weak heart, which gave him some periodic problems as an adult.  The main thing I remember is that he could not overexert himself.

I remember them telling us kids that when Bud was a youth, he strained his heart in a tug-of-war match with a horse!  One of the kinds of stunts rural kids commonly pull.  I can't remember for sure if they meant that this was the strain that led to his coming down with the rheumatic fever, or if this was a later injury due to the injudicious struggle with the horse, with his weak heart.  I tend to think of it as the latter.

Marriage
He married Eyline Lynch.  I found this spelling in some family info from my cousin Harold Christian, and was surprised to see this spelling several times on name searches.  I remember the name as Eileen.  I remember that is how I thought of the name, and I think my memory includes seeing my parents write her name in that spelling.

We knew Uncle Bud and Aunt Eyline well, because they continued to live in Chickasha, Grady County, Oklahoma, where my grandparents lived.  They were Joseph Asa Jenkins (Pappa Joe) and Julia Virginia (Terry) Jenkins (Mama Jennie).  They continued to live in their same house on 20th Street, all my life until they had to move to special care.

Children
Bud and Eyline had married earlier than Dad (mostly due to a long illness my father had in his teens), so his three children were all older than me.  The two boys were Trent and Mike. Mike was about 5 years older than me.

Their last child was LaRhonda Eyline.  As far I remember, LaRhonda was named after my dad's older sister Rhonda.  Everybody called LaRhonda Dinky as long as I knew them.  I remember she had a slight lisp.  LaRhonda was three years older than me, but I remember her as about one year older than me.  I was surprised when I found family informtaon that indicated her actual birth date, three years to the month before my birth.

LaRhonda and I played together all the time when our family was up at Chickasha.  She was over at Pappa Joe's (our grandfather, Joseph Asa Jenkins) a lot when we were up there, and I would go over to there house a lot.  They lived within walking distance.  I have been back up there in recent years and seen the house where they lived then and where they later moved after Aunt Eyline remarried.

Death
I did not personally remember the year Uncle Bud died, but family records indicate it was in 1955, when I was only 7 years old.  In my memory, it seems like I was much older than that.  In my memory I knew Uncle Bud a much longer proportion of my life than that.  In 2008 my cousin Asa Lee Jenkins told me he died in a medical center in Temple, Texas. I then found the Texas Death Index information on that. Bud died 19 October 1955 in the Scott White Hospital, Temple, Bell County, Texas. He wa buried in the Fairlawn Cemetery in Chicaksha, Oklahoma.

I only recently learned the actual date of Bud's death from my cousin Harold Christian's family research done some years ago.  When the date of 1955 registered on me, it seemed so strange to think of the time I had with him as only 7 years.  I remember the event, and I was at his funeral.  It made a big impression on me, because he was the first person close to me that I remember losing to death.

Our family saw them a lot after that time also, while Aunt Eyline continued to live in Chickasha with the children for some time.  At some point, Aunt Eyline remarried.  I cannot remember the new husband's family name, but it seems we called him Uncle Nick.

Eyline's new husband was a car dealer from Oklahoma City, but he moved to Chickasha and they continued to live there for some years.  We all had good relationships with him, and he was always welcoming and good to me when I would go over there.

At some  time after the marriage, they moved next door to a bigger house, and I remember being there several times with Dinky (LaRhonda).  In my memory it seems like they continued to live in Chickasha a long time, but I can't say for sure how long a time.

I remember seeing them many times later in Chickasha, in the old house, and in the new house next door.  Before Eyline, her new husband and the kids moved to Oklahoma City, the family lived a considerable time in Chickasha.

Move to the City
Some later time, then, they moved up to Oklahoma City, where he had continued running his Jeep dealership by commuting from Chickasha.  After they moved, they virtually cut themselves off from the family.  I recall family members lamenting that.  I missed Dinky, since she was the only one near my age.

One More Visit
I remember that after they had moved to Oklahoma City Aunt Eyline came back for my grandfather a funeral with the kids.  I can't say for sure if that was Pappa Joe's funeral or not.

But I remember seeing them at Pappa Joe's house at a funeral time, and have it connected in memory with the time other previously unknown family members came, like my father's much older half-brothers Uncle Ben (Joseph Benjamin) and maybe Uncle Everett (James Everett), to that little house on 20th Street in Chickasha, where our grandparents had lived since my father was a teenager.

I don't remember seeing them or even hearing news, after Pappa Joe's funeral.  It was the next year when moved to Arkansas, and our parents divorced.

I have looked up news in recent years, but have been able to find no trace of them.  I remember that at some point, the new husband adopted at least Dinky, maybe Mike also.  I think Trent was too old by then to be adopted.  I cannot remember the new last name.

I am not certain, but my memory of it is that this adoption and name change came after the family moved to Oklahoma City.  This might have been in 1961?  I don't know if they had been moved to the City a whole year when Pappa Joe died.

Orville Boyd Jenkins
boydorville@gmail.com

Original notes written 1 September 2006 in an email to Michele Jenkins Park and Greg Jenkins
Last edited 16 July 2008

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