Spencer - Ida 1884-1956

1909 - Ida Spencer married William Durant Green Whaley - Redwater, TX

Wife of Wm. (DG) Whaley (his second marriage, from North Carolina)

Mother of Mary (Marya) Samantha Whaley Clark Hickson, William Tammy Whaley and Lucien Orville Gale Whaley

Grandmother of Karen Lee Clark Jacobs, Alan Spencer Clark, Ronald Tammie Whaley, Michael Whaley, William Whaley, Margaret Whaley and John Spencer Whaley.

The Spencer family lived in Tuscaloosa when Ida was born... north of the Black Warrior River, probaby near Ralph, AL. When she was eight, the family left for east Texas. It's said that she walked most of the way. Her mother was sickly and she assumed many of the chores.

Ida and DG lived in southeast Arkansas and she sometimes took the train back to Maude to visit family (south of Texarkana on the Red River.) They had strawberry fields and a general store. DG bought the first automobile in the area, a Studebaker, though he couldn't drive it. He had a relative in Florida (cousin?) and decided to move his family there. He hired a driver for his car and when there were no roads, they loaded the car on a train.

He prospered in Florida as a cattle rancher, it is said that at one time he was considered one of the wealthest men in Florida. He died about the time of the great depression and Ida struggled to keep the farm together. Tammy had to come home from the University of Florida in Gainesville to help when it was discovered that the forman, a black man, was rustling the cattle.

On Saturdays, a cow was slaughtered and taken to market in Ocala on a flatbed truck rigged with screening to keep the flies away from the raw meat.

A hard worker all her life. She loved to fish and could sew very well, able to copy anything she saw ready-made.

She was buried in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, in 1958 at age 72. Taken to hospital with bronchitis, died from pneumonia.

=================

Early years of marriage spent in SW Arkansas where daughter, Mary Samathana was born.

DG, 20 yrs older than Ida, died as the depression began and the foreman took advantage, stealing cattle from their herd. Her oldest son, Tammie, had to leave his studies at University of Florida to take care of the family business. I understand they had a flatbed truck rigged with screening to keep flies out and would butcher a cow and take it to the Ocala market on Saturdays. Her youngest son, Lucien, would often go to a movie during this time.

Daughter Marya married Charlie Lee Clark in 1938, during WW2, and worked in Jacksonville. When I was born in 1939, I lived with Mama and Tammie on the farm in Ocala for 2-3 yrs. Lucien was in the Navy at this time. About 1942, Mama and I went to live with Marya and Charlie in Jacksonville. I imagine I called my parents "Mother and Charlie" because while on the farm she would tell me "your mother and Charlie are coming..." I later changed to calling him "Daddy" because that's what my friends called their dads. But I always had both a Mama and a Mother in Ida and Marya.

This Ocala farm photo includes the dog, Hitler.

More later...