Lola Frances Diffendaffer

Lola Frances Diffendaffer, 85, passed away on Saturday, November 1, 2014. There was a chill in the air that almost Fall day, the 20th of September, 1929. It was almost Sunrise, when Macie Lee (Swing) and her husband Dudley David Atkinson knew that it was time for the birth of their fourth child.
They lived near the banks of the North Fork of the Red River, South and West of Retrop in Kiowa County, Oklahoma, about a mile from what was called 'Cedar Top Mountain'. Their home was a half dug-out, and they were share croppers for a man named Charlie Dunn.
Dudley took a lantern and went to the lot to get the 'milking' done before he had to go to Lone Wolf for the family doctor. House calls were normal procedure in that day and time. Meanwhile at the house, Macie realized that the time was near and sent their almost four year old son, Jacob to go and bring his daddy from the lot. Macie called their 'old bulldog' to protect the little boy from any rattle snakes that might be on the path.
Before Jacob could get back to the house the little girl was born. Macie covered her with a blanket, and Dudley and Jacob went to a neighbors house and brought back the lady, Mrs. Lola Wilson, to stay with the mother and baby, then proceeded on to bring the doctor. The doctor arrived to find the little girl and her mother well taken care of, and the baby was sleeping peacefully. That was that start of the first day of Lola's life. She was named for the neighbor and her middle name came from Dudley's mother Kanzada Frances (Weaver) Atkinson.
Besides Jacob, Macie and Dudley had a set of twin boys who died at birth. They were buried in a single coffin at Retrop Cemetery. When Lola was four months old the family moved six miles northwest of Sentinel in Washita County. They lived on 80 acres until she was 14, and moved three miles northwest of Sentinel. By then, there were two more siblings, a sister Zadie Ruth and a brother David Dean. Later another brother, Richard Lee was born.
Lola started and finished school at Port. She had many memories of her school days from 1935-1947. The family were farmers, and she worked in the fields along with the rest of them, chopping cotton in the summer, and pulling a cotton sack during cotton harvest. She learned to milk the cows, feed the pigs and chickens, gather the eggs; cook, clean and do laundry. It was the way all the neighbors lived and had a way of working together to make a living.
There was no electricity on the farms when Lola grew up. Everyone worked hard and were tired enough at night that they were glad to go to bed an sleep. In the summer time the beds would be moved outside, to be cool enough to sleep at night, and in the winter quilts and blankets were used in sufficient quantity to keep warm.
Lola remembered the 'Dust Bowl' days in Oklahoma. The houses weren't built as well as they are now, and the dust would blow in around the doors and windows, so bad that shovels and buckets were used to remove it from the house after a storm.
She remembered her mother having one of the first gasoline powered washing machines in the neighborhood. The water was heated in a huge pot in the yard and carried to the washing machine in the back room of the house. Lye soap was used to clean the clothes, laundry was hung on the clothes lines to dry. The lye soap was the best disinfectant around in those days, and was used along with sulfur, quinine, and 'coal oil' (Kerosene) to keep down colds and flu. Cod Liver Oil, and mineral oil, along with a dose of salts were stand-by medications. Somehow they all survived.
One December 31, 1947, Lola was married to Chauncey Allen Diffendaffer, Jr. They made their home five and in a half miles south of Cordell, until 1968, when they moved three northwest of Rocky, both locations in Washita County where they farmed and raised their family.
Lola was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and friend to many. She always put others ahead of herself. She was always trying to make life a little better or a little easier for all she knew.
Allen and Lola were blessed with three sons, Edward (Eddie) Glen and wife Jeannette Kay Billman, Barry Neal and wife Rhonda Lee Giblet, and Stanley (Stan) Kevin and wife Elisabeth (Beth) Rose Giblet. six grandchildren, Chip Allen Diffendaffer and wife Megan , Waco Joe Diffendaffer, Abbie Wickersham and husband Jody, Rocky Diffendaffer and wife Leslee, Derek Diffendaffer and wife Lindsey, Sammy Jo Fennell and husband James, and nine great-grandchildren, Marley, Azlyn, Jonas, Evie, and Asher Wickersham, Finlee, Ezra, Thatcher and Millie Diffendaffer.
Lola was preceded in death by her parents, twin infant brothers, as well as brothers Jacob and Richard Atkinson, and infant grandson Rusty Don Diffendaffer.
Lola's Memorial Services will be 2:00 p.m., Thursday, November 6, 2014, at Ray & Martha's Funeral Home in Hobart, OK, under the direction of Ray & Martha's Funeral Home, Hobart, OK.