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| Research Note | Oliver and Ardelia (Preddy) Tucker - They were fondly call Ol and Deal by their friends and family.
Oliver Tucker was born September 25, 1894, to Francis and Emily Tucker, and was a grandson of a Roaring River pioneer, James Tucker. Ardelia was the youngest daughter of George Frank and Haidee (Linville) Preddy and was born May 7, 1904 in Hammond, OK. She was living in Cassville when she was about 10 years old. Her father got sick and wanted to go back to Hammond, Ok, but he died when she was about 12 years old. She and her mother went back to Cassville to live because the three other children were living there. Ardelia went to work wrapping bread at a bakery in Cassville and later she went to work at the Cassville Democrat paper, and she worked there a few years. After that she got a job at the local telephone office. She worked there until she and Oliver got married. It was when Ardelia was about twenty-one years old that she met a local boy who lived about 12 miles southeast of Cassville in the Roaring River and Eagle Rock communities. His name was Oliver Tucker. Over the next couple of years Ardelia and Oliver and her group of friends starting running around together and then Oliver and Ardelia were married on June 5, 1926. Ardelia resigned her job at the telephone office and they moved about 12 miles southeast of Cassville near the Roaring River Community, which was near Oliver’s home. Sometime around 1928 they moved to the Horner community. They lived in a log cabin owned by E. K. Horine, and farmed the land. While living here their first son Jackie was born. Twenty-two months later their second son, Floyd was born. Shortly after this, Oliver and Ardelia moved to another farm, the Clarence Beck Farm. They rented the Beck, 40 acres, for about 2 years but in 1934 they purchased a hill farm for the taxes and moved there. It was about 20 acres. They only stayed there about a year. Mr. Horine offered to sell 20 acres of land where they had lived and where their children were born, so they were able to sell their little farm and moved back to the Horner community. They had moved back in March of 1936. Jack Tucker, their son, was in the first grade at this time. The summer of 1936 was very dry year. The family barely survived, even with the kindness a neighbor Mr. Jim Brown who furnished hay to fed the animals during the winter of l936-37. Through the years after the sons were born Ardelia began having health problems, finally in late 1938 she had to have emergency surgery. She stayed in a hospital at Stella, MO, for many weeks. Jack and Floyd, her children, stayed with several different relatives and friends. When she came home from the hospital she was unable to do any housework and was not very well. Oliver hired a girl to come and stay for several weeks. She did house work and took care of the boys. Ardelia had to give herself shots for many months after surgery. The surgery and hospital stay were very expensive. The doctor, who did the surgery, owned the hospital and he owned a farm. He took payment for the hospital and surgery expenses by taking all the animals Ol and Deal had accumulated -except two cows and a horse. Mr. Horine, owner of the land, was very kind and did not require any money paid on the principal of the note of the twenty acres. Every fall Oliver gave Mr. Horine a calf to pay the interest on the note against the twenty acres. They still owned a horse and their only form of transportation was by horse and buggy. Since the family lived five miles from Cassville, it took most of a day to go to Cassville to buy groceries and other supplies. In early 1940 the owner of the Cassville telephone company needed a night telephone operator to take care of the telephone switchboard at night. The Tucker family did not have a car so the owner of the telephone company had his repairman pick up Ardelia at 5 P.M. before he left for the day. In addition, in the morning he took her home at 8 A. M. On weekends, the owner and his wife would make the trip out to the Tucker farm, get Deal in the evening, and take her home in the morning. Since the income from her job enabled Oliver and Ardelia to get ahead a little, she worked as a telephone operator for the next couple of years. Tragedy hit the family when Tom Preddy (Ardelia’s brother) went to Michigan to work in a factory. He had three sons and his youngest son was a teenager. One day he went swimming, immediately after eating a large meal, and so he was unable to swim and drowned. His body was brought back and buried in the Horner Cemetery. Tom and his wife did not go back to Michigan and so he started a fruit stand. He often went to Joplin, Monett and other places to purchase fruits and vegetables for resale. About this time, Oliver and Ardelia bought a 1932 model A Ford. Tom Preddy needed someone to work in the fruit stand when he and his wife went into the business of wholesale houses and so he asked Ardelia to work for him. Since she wanted to be at home at night more, so she stopped working nights at the telephone office and begin working during the day at the fruit stand. Tom Preddy did very well with his fruit stand and so he soon moved into a nearby store building. Ardelia continued working for him for several more years. In the late forties, probably about 1948, the Cassville Democrat, (weekly newspaper) needed a person to feed the printing press. Since the newspaper paid more money than Tom could afford to pay, she went to work at the newspaper office. Her job with the paper was feeding the newspaper-printing machine. Previously, she had worked for them, around 25 years earlier, and she worked for them several more years. When the Cassville Democrat paper started printing the paper by a power machine, Ardelia went to work at Cassville Republican, a rival newspaper and finished her working days at the Cassville Republican helping to prepare the weekly newspaper. Then she retired at the age of 62. Oliver and Ardelia had remained on the farm until the early 60's when Oliver suffered a heart attack. He retired and moved to Cassville. They both enjoyed several years of retirement in Cassville enjoying many visits from children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and friends. We write this article with pride and appreciate in how Ardelia and Oliver endured hardship and loss that came from illness, The Great Depression, the dust bowl and other things we will never know about. They never gave in or gave up on life they just endured knowing some day there would be a better day. Oliver died in April 24, 1980, and Ardelia died in Sept. 9, 1987. Their examples of endurance and courage to over come should inspire the present generation and future generations. Sarah (Tucker) Poff and Jack Tucker compile these memories. |
| Date Taken | Not Dated |
| Resource | Family Photos |
| Submitted by | Submitted in 2007 by: Sarah Tucker Poff |
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