Mia, aka WebbieGirl

Transcribed from a letter my Aunt Vicki wrote as told by my Grandmother Bessie. Grandma Bessie is alive and well at 90 years old. She has been deaf since birth.

Bessie King and Wilmer Thomas in 1939, two years before they were married.

I went to speech school at the age of 5 years to 7 years old. Sometimes sister Faye would walk me from the Baltimore Hotel to school (Allen school on St. Francis street in Wichita). I stayed with Grandmother Hill at the Baltimore Hotel. Meeting another deaf person in Wichita, they told us about a deaf school in Olathe, Kansas. I started there when I was 7 years old. I went and stayed at school all year, and then came home for the holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving and during  summer closing in May or June. This went on until I was in the 8th grade. I had been sick all the time, so I dropped out of school in 8th grade. Wilmer stopped going also because he missed me.  He left when he was a Junior.

Wilmer’s parents and mine decided we should get together riding to school since we were both deaf and attending the same school, and we lived close to eachother. Wilmer lived in El Dorado, and I lived in Leon. Raymond Whitlock, John Sailor, Wilmer and myself rode to the deaf school in Olathe together. We rode back and forth to school from September until June for 3 years. Then 3 years later Wilmer and I got married, on Decmeber 6th, 1941. I worked at Lentz Alterations, a local cleaners and then Kern’s in the Alterations department. Wilmer worked at Culver Aircraft, Beechcraft and then working for a shoe repair shop. He later decided to buy the shop.