Mattie Lee and Stumpy,
My Grandmother always said that it was a Great To Say that She Was A "Okie" Because That Meant You Were Mighty Tough and could Live though Anything even The Dust Bowl !!!
Bill
Well, the term never bothered me, Bill, even when I was growing up in Oklahoma. As I said earlier, I was born in (east) Texas but all my immediate family members, including my mom, dad, maternal grandma and paternal grandpa were born in Oklahoma. (actually, my grandma and grandpa were born in Indian Territory - before statehood) The only reason I ended up Texas-born was because my dad worked for Halliburton Oil Field Services Co. as a truck driver and they had him working in east Texas at the time of my birth.
The first of my Scotch-Irish ancestors came into the U.S. in the 1700s, somewhere in Virginia. They then emigrated down through the Carolinas into Georgia (where a family legend says one of my female ancestors was captured - and taken as wife - by a Cherokee warrior). My great-great-grandpa and grandma came to Texas (he from Georgia and she from Tennessee) sometime in the 1850s. They settled in Navarro County (Corsicana). Eventually, she and three of their four children (all of whom were born in Texas) end up in the Oklahoma Panhandle. I have papers showing my GGGF served in the 19th Texas Cavalry during the Civil War and he shows up in National Archives records as being in a Confederate hospital in Louisiana but then he disappears, though taxes were paid on their Navarro County farm until the 1870s. And my great-greatpa was born in 1871 near Glen Rose, Texas, so his dad must have been alive then. However, none of the family shows up in the 1870 census. In the 1880 census, my GGGM and all four kids show up but not my GGGF so he must have died sometime between 1871 and 1880. I've found no records of his death or place of burial, though I suspect he's buried someplace in Navarro County. I found my GGGM's gravestone in a cemetery in Guymon, Oklahoma. I also know where all their kids are buried, 3 in Oklahoma and 1 in Texas. Wish I could find his burial site.
Because of my GGGF's service as a Confederate cavalryman, my oldest son recently joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans so he could participate in Civil War reenactments.