Ida Thelma Ferris

Thelma worked in the Sausalito Shipyard in the Service Division in Oakland during WWII. She was chosen for the cover of a trade magazine for Mothers' Day for her patriotic contributions and ties to service members. Thelma trained as a practical nurse at a hospital in San Francisco.

Thelma and her daughter, Jymme, moved to San Francisco at the beginning of World War II to work. Jymme was fourteen, but when she was a teenager she worked as a secretary and clerk at Bergermeister Beer Company in Oakland.

She saved her money and bought a large home in rural San Martin, California. She operated it as a rest home (now known as assisted living) in the 1950s until her retirement in 1962. She had cottages built in the back yard and planted beautiful gardens. Inside, lived single, elderly people. In the cottages lived elderly couples. She did all the work: cooking, cleaning, laundry, serving, gardening.

She moved back to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, bought a new house, planted a large garden and kept a greenhouse, too. She boarded college students from the college down the street, Northeastern State University. And that was retirement.

In 1967 she moved to Tishomingo. Her high school boyfriend, Charlie Beane, was recently widowed and came to visit . Her sisters giggled like school girls when she and Charlie eloped in Madill, ages 70 and 72ish.

Top left to right:

Helen Jones, AdaBeth (Becky) Gorhansson, Iantha Hill

Bottom left to right:

Louise Hughes, Ida Thelma Follis, Jymme Kunze

These shots were colorized by my teenaged cousin on the Follis side, Brandon.

Thelma Ferris is standing behind her father, William Thomas Ferris, seated on the right. The other two men worked at the mill co-owned by Tom Ferris.

The other two men are Tom Zone who ran the Ferris saw and corn mill and cotton gin. The one by himself is Mr Zone, the Mechanic at the gin and lumber mill.

Leonard, on the left, is holding his son, Dick Stewart. JD is in the middle, then Ada. Archie is holding his oldest child, Patsy.