Margaret March Platt
and Ralph Compton
Contributed by her daughter, Delores Winston
Margaret March Platt Compton was the fourth daughter and seventh child of Papa and Mama. She was born March 22, 1900, on the homestead at Crystal, the first child born in "the new board house", a successor to the log house and earlier tent that sheltered the family.

She had a small cart, pulled by a "Billy goat". Papa told her once not to ride some piece of machinery Raymond was using (probably pushed by hand) She disobeyed and rode on it. Papa saw her, picked up a cornstalk and gave her bare legs a real spanking. She said it "drew blood".

Once, Papa took Margaret on a train trip. The conductor came to check their tickets but Margaret did not have one. The conductor asked "Little lady, where is yours?" Papa spoke before her and said "Oh, she doesn't need one, she is just four years old". Margaret spoke up and said "Oh, no, Papa, I had a birthday. Remember, I am five now". So Papa had to buy her a half price ticket. He also told her clearly, she should let him do the talking!

Jim Nixon, Wella's husband, was her school teacher at Bethel school, just east of the homestead. The school was for grades one through eight. She got to ring the bell. Arlie Nixon has that bell now. ( Richard Leland Bradley, our editor for these biographies, also started school there at Bethel) It was a large stone building, two rooms, one for the lower grades, another for the upper. (Pictures of Bethel are on Wella's page

After their move to Stillwater, Margaret would accompany Papa and one or more brothers to Kansas City or Oklahoma City to pick up new Fords for the agency. They would go on the train, and each would drive a car back. She was reputably the first woman to drive a car in Stillwater. She ran taxi service from one end of town to another. Somehow, she picked up the nickname "Geets".
She and sister Elizabeth used baking flour for face powder, applying it after they left for school in the morning. Cosmetics were not allowed at home. The details are vague, but about this time, Margaret and another sister, possibly Elizabeth, ran away from home! They didn't run far, to some friend in Stillwater, nor for very long, only a few days. Either Papa or Mama was "tipped off" or they got tired, or scared and came home. The repercussions were apparently slight.

When Mama was pregnant with her fourteenth child, Margaret got to pick the name, and she selected Thelma Lucille.
Margaret and
Elizabeth
While WWI was on, a farmer south of Stillwater, Mr. I. W. Compton, bought a Ford from Papa. Their son Ralph served in the Navy, but was home on leave when he met Margaret. Papa and Mama were fond of Ralph and a wedding was soon planned. They were married at the family home on Main Street with Papa performing the ceremony. Margaret told of how Aimie and others in the back of the room held cut onions in their handkerchiefs to make themselves cry.
Papa had encouraged Margaret to enroll at Oklahoma A&M in Stillwater and she was in classes for only a short time before her marriage. Ralph in his Navy uniform, and Margaret, in her traveling clothes, went by train to Norfolk, Virginia, where Ralph served on the battleship Wisconsin, making several trips to France. When the war ended they returned to Stillwater.

Little sister Thelma was badly burned about November of 1918, and Margaret and Ralph provided a lot of her care.

Melvin was born in 1920, with Delores appearing in 1921.

About 1924, they moved to Newkirk, Oklahoma. Ralph ran a taxi service Many of the clients were Indians who needed rides home after too much firewater.
Returning to Stillwater in 1928, Ralph ran a Skelly service station at 14th and Perkins Road. At first, they lived next door, but then bought a house on Lewis Street. Ralph leased the Cities Service gas station at 6th and Main, close to the Ford agency. Margaret was active in the Christian Church, American Legion Auxiliaries, and the children's school activities.

With the Depression, their lease was canceled! The house was lost. Margaret and Ralph had talked of going west and Ralph left in June, 1933, for Washington State where work was supposedly available, but he didn't like Washington - too much rain. Letters and consultation with a cousin in San Bernadino led to the decision to move to the Los Angeles area.

Margaret, with the children, drove their Model A Ford to meet him. Margaret was enterprising and short on money as well, (In common with almost everyone else at that time) so when she saw an ad in the paper where a young man wanted a ride to Los Angeles, she called him and set up an interview. He "looked OK" and she arranged for him to ride along to San Bernadino for $15 in advance. In mid August, 1933, they set out on Route 66, some of it paved, some still gravel with potholes, dry and dusty. She had to pay 25 cents at one place in the desert for radiator water. They stayed overnight several times in modest "tourist cabins". Bill, her passenger, had to pay his own way. They carried a skillet and a pot or two and she cooked potatoes and veggies. Margaret drove every mile, with the children and Rex, their dog, in the back seat.
Ralph at his Service Station
There was a great celebration when they arrived at the cousins. Ralph was already there. Margaret had several jobs, even ringing door bells, selling a product called "Sew-No-More", a glue-on patching kit. It made a few dollars.A house was soon found and Ralph started with a meat packing plant.
Ralph traded the Model A for a beautiful Chrysler Phaeton convertible. They traveled around in it looking very affluent, which they were not. But they were still very happy!

During WWII, they were hosts to many of the family who were in the service in California. Margaret worked at an electrical plant nearby, making products for the war.
After the war, they operated a real estate business in Montbello and kept very busy.

In 1948, they packed the car and moved back to the farm in Orlando, Oklahoma. They had some good reunions there, good foods, good laughs.

Story:
The farm in Oklahoma had only the normal sanitation of the rural period, namely an outhouse. One morning, Margaret went out to use it and found, to her horror, that a snake already occupied it. She raced back to the house, screaming to Ralph for help. Ralph, being man of action, grabbed up a shotgun (some accounts say a double barrel, but others say a Browning 16 gauge auto), aimed at the snake and pulled the trigger! The snake was killed but the side effects of the shotgun blast lingered for awhile.

In the summer of 1953, they sold the farm, stock, implements, everything, and returned to Los Angeles, but spent the summer in Honolulu "on the way". Pretty good planning.

Ralph died in February, 1964. Some years after she became a widow, Margaret moved to Bayside Village, in Newport Beach, California, a very up-scale trailer park. She had many friends there, in the Presbyterian Church, and various clubs, such as the 'knit-wits', who made knit covers, afghans, etc. for shut-ins. (She also made them for her grandchildren) She swam frequently, and enjoyed a very healthy lifestyle.

Margaret died on her birthday, March 22, 1992.
Delores, Melvin, Margaret and Ralph
Ralph & Margaret in Hawaii!
Melvin, Margaret and Delores
Melvin