One of my dearest cousins, Wynonia Rosamond Mohr, passed away yesterday, August 8, 1997 at 1:30 am in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her parents were Edward Madison Rosamond and Dullie Woodard Rosamond. The Rosamond family was born and raised in southeastern Newton County until 1943 when they moved to Oklahoma. Surviving are sisters Shirley Rosamond, Rose Carnes and brothers Edward Rosamond, Jr, of Oklahoma and Vernon Rosamond of Lurton, Arkansas. Surviving also are her sons, Norman, Rory and Raymond and her daughters Sharon and Gaylinda, her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Her funeral was at Broken Arrow, Oklahoma on Monday 11th August, with burial service at 4 pm at Tarlton Cemetery, Lurton, Arkansas. Tarlton Cemetery is located on the edge of a family farm now owned by the Daniels cousins once owned by our Grandpa Ephraim and Grandma Martha Ketcherside Woodard.

Wynonia was born October 14, 1927 in a log homesteader's cabin a few hundred yards down the hill from Tarlton Cemetery where she was buried. Her mother was Dullie Woodard Rosamond, sister to my mother, Iva Woodard Haynes, both buried beside our fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in this cemetery.

I was born in the same log house a few months after Wynonia. By then, the Rosamond family had moved to Ketcherside Tower and other places around Newton County until the nineteen thirties when Uncle Ed built a new house where the old log house stood and they lived again on the old place where we were born.

Four Woodard sisters had babies within the same year...Dullie Rosamond, Ethel Sutton, Iva Haynes and Dorothy Haynes. James, Lloyd Ray and me were first babies for Ethel, Dorothy and Iva, Wynonia was Dullie’s fifth child. As babies, the four of us had our first pictures made together before we were a year old, sitting with Grandpa and Grandma Woodard on the front porch. As children, each year Aunt Ethel made pictures of the four of us, to see how much we had grown.

Children of the Woodard sisters:
Phyllis, James, Wynonia, Colleen and Lloyd

Phyllis and I are daughters of Errol Haynes and Iva Woodard. James was son of of Ethel Woodard and Andrew Sutton. Wynonia was daughter of Dullie Woodard and Ed Rosamond. Lloyd was son of Dorothy Woodard and Coleman Haynes.

Wynonia and I played together in the fields and woods beside Tarlton Cemetery where I will also be buried one day. Two months ago as we visited on the mountain on Decoration Day, we laughed about the days we spent as little girls making play dishes from clay we found in a road ditch in front of her house. We baked our clay dishes and baby dolls in the sun, guarding them from the curious hands of our little sisters.

In our teenage years, we all moved away from the mountain and lost touch except for occasional letters. Now after fifty years, we meet again each year to visit at our family reunion on Decoration Day for Tarlton Cemetery. We lost James in a car accident in 1951, Lloyd to a heart attack in 1994, and now Wynonia to kidney failure this week, on August 8, 1997.

When I heard about her death, I wanted to write a little about her life for the Ketcherside Newsletter for Summer 1997. This piece was what I wrote. Everyone will miss Wynonia, she was good and sweet and fun. I miss her already.

Submitted by Colleen Haynes Rongey. Colleen, Thanks again for sharing...