Friday, May 31, 2013

Ma' Curry a Versailles Icon

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She was born in Switzerland County April 20 1893. Her maiden name was Armstrong. We moved to Versailles from Correct when I was 5. 83 years ago. She was widowed at the age not quite 32 with 6 kids. Halstead was 14 (the oldest) I was 2 months (the youngest) Clara Belle,Isabelle,Bob,Dorothy were the other 4. D Q Wilbur had a meat market in the building where Mom started her ice cream parlor when I was 12..1937. When he passed she rented that bldg.  She married Vernon Secrest (a WW1 Veteran) in 1941 and that's when she started the restaurant. Up until that time she sold mostly ice cream. She loved you kid's...she was a people person for sure. It was a sad day for her when the new school was built and you kids couldn't come anymore. She was also very unhappy when the Walter Smith family gave that whole corner to Masons and Jack Raney's wife bought the old
Methodist church and donated that to the Masons to build their Lodge. She lived for awhile where Jerry Wilson lives and later moved to the Project. She lived there until she passed Jan 2 1978. Her strong Faith carried her through some tough times. One of my fondest memories is her kneeling by her bed giving thanks to HIM.
By: Jo Westmeyer

Yes them were the days, the school bell would ring for the noon hour and out the door we would run on our way to Ma's. We always run our hand across Mrs. Jackson's hedge on the way. Entering the door we would meet all of our school friends. The most ordered was a fish sandwich with tarter sauce, we would yell fish with and a RC. If you could not barrow from a friend Ma would let you charge it but you had to pay up when it ran a dollar. I remember one guy that would barrow a nickle or a dime from several others to buy the lunch. He seldom payed you back. RC cola was in a cooler filled with cold water. At one time RC had free ones if there was a red RC logo under the cork in the bottle cap. One kid could pick out every free one in the cooler, till this day I never figured out how he did it. Ma bared him from the cooler after she caught on to him. Ma always had some very nice waitresses working the noon meal. They were very nice to us routey kids, I don't know how they put up with us. After lunch if you had a nickle or dime you could get a pack of baseball cards that may contain a Red Legs player, or a hand dipped ice creem cone. She always had the best icecreem in town. Most all the school kids eat there at one time or other, and Ma knew most of their names. Great people like Ma' Curry made growing up in Versailles wonderful ........ Jack