The kids in order of birth are: Austin, Eddie Ray (Peg), Alma Lee, Lois Lodenia, J.W., Robby Joe, and Bobby Gene (Coyote).Ma Laster was a fantastic cook and Pa was a avid gardener, domino player and fisherman. All of the men in the family liked to hunt and fish. Ma could shell more black-eyed peas than most anybody. She sewed on a treadle machine and loved to quilt and embroidery and canned anything she could. The thing that impressed most everybody about her was the love that she had for her family.
During the time that they lived in south Texas, Austin and Peg were walking down a new road that was being constructed and picked up dynamite caps and stuck them in their pockets. Wash day came and Ma was with a group of women washing clothes. She cleaned out the pockets and found the dynamite caps, and not knowing what they were, she pitched them into the fire under the washpot. Nobody got hurt but it sure made everybody sit up and take notice. Blew a BIG hole in the bottom of the washpot.
Later on, when they moved to Dickens, Ma was trying to figure out what to make for supper. It was a hot day and very humid and she walked over to the pantry in the kitchen and grabbed hold of the pantry curtains and fanned herself with the curtains saying "Wonder what I'm going to fix Eddie B. for supper"? Just then a rat jumped out of the pantry down the front of her dress. During all the hollering and a fast watusi, she grabbed the mouse through the front of her dress and literally squeezed the life out of the creature, walked out the back door and let it drop out the bottom of her dress, much to the surprise of the dog. Of course there was much hilarity going on inside the kitchen as there was an audience who saw the whole performance and Ma was scared to death of a rat.
Peg went to work pulling bolls, or farm work wherever he could find it, on his own at the age of 14. From then on he supported himself. He later paid for the major part of the house that his parents lived in at Dickens. The family moved back to Dickens County where the McCarty family resided and the rest of his brothers and sisters went to school in Dickens County. During this time, his dad ran a service station for a time.
DICKENS — Services for Eddie B. Laster, 77, of Dickens, will be at 3 p.m. Saturday in the First Baptist Church here. with the Rev. C. L. Atkinson, pastor officiating.
Burial will be in Dickens Cemetery under the direction of Campbell Funeral Home of Spur.
Laster died at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday in Methodist Hospital in Lubbock after a lengthy illness.
A member of the First Baptist Church, he married the former Willis Lorene McCarty, August 6, 1927, in Spur. The couple moved in 1947 to Dickens County, where he later retired.
Survivors include his wife, five sons, Austin of Henrietta, Eddie Ray of Dallas, Roby Joe of Amarillo and J. W. and Bobby Gene, both of Dickens; two daughters, Mrs. Alma Paschall of Dicekns and Mrs. Lois Leugers of Abilene; one sister, Mrs. Beatrice Palmer of Dickens; 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
©Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 1977
Transcribed by Kay Laster
Dickens - Willis Lorene McCarty Laster, 76, of Dickens died at her home Saturday morning. Services will be Monday at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of Dickens with the Rev. C.L. Atkinson officiating. Burial will be in Dickens Cemetery under the direction of Campbell Funeral Home of Spur.
Born in 1911 in Afton, Mrs. Laster was a lifelong Dickens County resident. She was a homemaker and a Baptist. Her husband, Eddie B. Laster, died in 1977.
Survivors include four sons, Eddie Ray Laster of Balch Springs, Robbie Joe Laster of Amarillo, J.W. Laster and Bobby Gene Laster, both of Dickens; two daughters, Alma Lee Paschall of Dickens and Lois Leugers of Abilene; 11 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
©The Lubbock Avalanche Journal, December 1987
Submitted by Kay Laster
© Dickens County Historical Commission 1997-2022
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