"Gone But Not Forgotten"

Thank you to Cheryl Baber for writing the article and Chuck Baber who found the grave.

At the turn of the century, pre-statehood, the family of Isaac W. Reece arrived in Walters (or McKnight) by covered wagon. They staked tents here, hoping for a better life than they knew in Kentucky and Missouri. Polly Anne Reece Walton, or "Annie" as she was known, arrived with her five-year old son and three-year-old daughter, but without her 27-year-old husband. Born in 1872, she was the eldest daughter of the seven Reece children, and she had married Lee Daniel Walton on Christmas, December 25, 1894 in Metcalfe, Kentucky. Floyd George Walton was born in 1896 and, for reasons unknown today, Annie, Lee Daniel, Floyd and the rest of the Reece family moved to Black River, in Wayne County Missouri. A daughter, Lilly May Walton, was born in March of 1898. Lee worked as a teamster, became ill, and died near a place called Taskee Station, Missouri on March 21, 1901, leaving his young family. He was buried in a small family cemetery back in the woods, with only a small rock to mark his grave.

Heartbroken, Annie came in 1902 with her two small children, her father, I. W., her mother, Sally, and several siblings to Walters, then in Indian Territory. It is not known if all of her siblings came to Walters, but three are buried in the Walters Cemetery. Her brothers were William Wesley Reece, George "Curt" Curtis Reece, James "Jim" Allen Reece, Virgil Stewart Reece, and Isaac Luther "Luke" Reece, and her sister was Lula, "Lou Ella" Reece.

By 1910, Annie was working as a cook and residing in a place called "Strauss," which is shown in old maps as north of Walters, on the north side of East Cache Creek, but no longer exists. Sometime after that, however, she became the proprietor of a boarding house in Walters, which stood, until recently, about a half block west of Broadway on Oklahoma Street and, after her death, housed the Cotton County Health Department. She never remarried because, as she told her great-grandchildren here, Lee Daniel was her one and only true love.

Annie eventually made enough money to buy a tombstone for her true love, have it engraved, and travel with it on a bus back to Missouri to put it on his grave. She returned to Walters and lived until the ripe old age of 97. She passed while living at the nursing home in Walters, and she is buried in the Walters Cemetery. She didn't tell anyone exactly where she placed Lee Daniel's tombstone, however, and her grandchildren were unable to find it, until recently.

[Anna's son, Floyd George Walton, went to World War I as an ambulance driver and, when he returned, worked in the oil fields of Burkburnett. He met Myrtle Louisa (or "Mae") Gibson here in Walters at a roller-skating rink. They married and had two children before moving to Pruitt, Arkansas, and having seven more children. All of the daughters except one moved back to Walters to attend and graduate high school, and many worked in the boarding house with Annie. Walters Herald readers may remember them as Evelyn Colston, Anita Hardy Cook, Katherine Nance, Shirley Cooper, and Wauhillau Dotson.]

This past Christmas, Shirley Cooper told her son-in-law, Chuck Baber, about how family members had tried to find their grandfather's grave in Missouri but were unsuccessful. Her son-in-law enjoys tracing family genealogy, and, with the help of on-line sources and a telephone call or two, he was able to find the grave in an abandoned, overgrown, unkempt cemetery in a fairly remote, wooded area of southeastern Missouri. No other family members are buried there. A trip was planned with Shirley, her daughter Cheryl Baber and Chuck, sister Katherine and husband Joe Nance, a distant cousin, Temple resident Virginia Dupler, whose grandfather was Luke Reece, sister to Annie.

This past President's Day, they traveled to Missouri and managed to find the grave, although, as they were to learn later, nearby residents were unaware that the cemetery even existed, as few people are buried there and even fewer markers are visible from a short distance. Shirley had read that, even shaving cream is applied to old tombstones and wiped away, the markings often become clearer. Applied to Lee Daniel's grave, the image of the pearly gates and the heavenly city came into view. [see photo] With the help of nearby residents, Shirley was able to load and transport the tombstone back to Walters, so that it could come to rest next to that of his sweetheart forever, Anna Reece Walton.