Biography - Part One

As I begin writing this, I am hopeful that some of my descendants will read this and gain a better understanding of some of the rituals and beliefs in this family. I am Roy Raymond Keaton and Irma Candis Cook Keaton’s oldest child. I first saw the light of day at seven o’clock, July 3, 1948 in Hotchkiss, Raleigh County, West Virginia. Doctor Roland P. Sharp from Mullens had just finished delivering another baby a few miles down the road at Maben. My parents were living in a small two-room house owned by my Grandpa, Lonnie Cook. The house was torn down in the early 1960’s when WV Route 54 was widened to two lanes and paved. Hotchkiss had a post office in my great-uncle Lacy Cook’s store until about 1960.

Daddy was born April 26, 1927 and grew up about a mile up a hollow called Old Slab near Hotchkiss. All but the head of Old Slab is in Wyoming County. Hotchkiss is in Raleigh County. Daddy attended a one-room school, the Birchfield School for eight years. It was located about half-way between his home and the mouth of Old Slab. Daddy’s Grandpa Keaton, Henry Jared Keaton, had provided some of the books that were in the school’s library. Daddy attended Mullens High School for almost three years. He interrupted his education to enlist in the US Navy in the spring of 1945. Daddy’s older brother Henry was killed in Europe August 9, 1944. His oldest brother, Basil, was killed in Europe February 8, 1945. Daddy told me that he felt like he had to do what he could to take their place and continue the fight. World War II ended before Daddy finished basic training at Great Lakes. He crossed the Pacific Ocean on the USS Pine Island, a seaplane tender. The ship visited the Japanese island of Saipan and Shanghai, China. After his discharge from the Navy, he began working as an underground miner at Slab Fork, WV. He worked the evening shift in No. 8 Mine for more than thirty years. Both of my grandpas worked in the preparation plant at Slab Fork.

Mommy was born August 16, 1932 at Hotchkiss. She attended the one-room school in Hotchkiss. She stayed at Glen View with her sister Eunice and attended Glen White Junior High School for a year. Mommy was barely fifteen when she married. Daddy told me that he, Mommy, and my Grandpa Lonnie Cook drove to Stewart’s Creek, North Carolina, near Mount Airy, to get married. The date was September 12, 1947. I think they stayed a few days with relatives in the area before driving back to West Virginia.
Mommy and Daddy were acquainted with each other for several years before they were married. The Keatons got their mail at Hotchkiss and everybody knew everybody who lived within a five-mile radius. In addition, Daddy’s brother Henry had married Mommy’s sister Eunice April 18, 1942.

My parents spent about $1,000 at Modern Furniture for their household furnishings. Some of the items were a couch, a matching chair, a full-size Simmons bed, a floor lamp, and a chest of drawers. Kitchen items included a wood stove, a Hoosier cabinet and oak chairs to go with a kitchen table (We didn’t have a dining room.) they got somewhere else. Daddy used to joke that somebody had made our kitchen table from a toilet in Hotchkiss. We got along without a refrigerator until I was about four years old.