The O. W. Childs Family

Facts furnished by Myriam Childs Sage

Obie W. Childs moved to Jacksonville in 1900, at age 15, with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Childs, brothers, Carter and Edgar, and three sisters, Lorena, Zora and Myrtle. C. C. Childs purchased a grocery store at 221 South Main Street, which he sold to his sons, Obie and Carter. With Obie's son, Oakley, and Carter's son, Alvin, as partners, the business expanded into twelve retail stores, a wholesale grocery warehouse and a wholesale bakery, by 1943, the year O. W. Childs and Oakley Childs sold their interests to Carter and Alvin Childs and Crawford Godfrey. Later, the Childs Grocery Company was sold.

In 1943, O. W. Childs and Oakley Childs became owners of Childs Home and Auto Supply Store, from which Obie retired in 1957. In early 1970, Oakley Childs retired, closing the Childs store, thus ending a long and successful era of merchandising in Jacksonville.

In 1903, Obie W. Childs married Minnie Holland after a short courtship. A favorite story of the couple was how they met. Minnie and her girl friends played "mumble peg," a game in which a knife is spun into the ground. One day at school, Minnie seized the opportunity of meeting Obie by asking to borrow his knife, and this led to a marriage that lasted 63 years, until his death in 1967. In 1910, they moved into the home at 329 Neches Street, where relatives honored them on the occasions of their 40th, 50th and 60th wedding anniversaries.

Mr. and Mrs. Obie Childs joined the Central Baptist Church shortly after its organization in 1906. He served as deacon and on the construction committee for the Educational Building in 1956. As a member of the Jacksonville School Board, he saw the erection of a new high school, now a junior high. He was a Mason and a Kiwanian.

In addition to Oakley, Mr. and Mrs. Childs had another son, Canon, who died at the age of 18 months, and a daughter, Myriam.

Oakley Childs married Ellen (Peggy) Nesbitt of Philadelphia, Penna., in 1925, and they have three children: Peggy Ann, who married Paul Morrison of Greenville, Tenn.; Nancy Beth, who married Wayne Loper of Jacksonville; John Oakley Childs, who married Thelma Ruth Stephens of Leesville, La., and who is a Lieutenant Colonel making service in the Army his career. Both daughters teach school in Tyler. There are ten grandchildren.

Myriam Childs married Ben I. Sage of Little Rock, Ark., in 1928, and they had four children: Ben Sage, Jr., who married Eva Farnsworth of Anson, and is in public relations in Richardson; Frances, who married Bill Joe DeWeese of Gonzales, a major, making the Air Force a career; Glen Obie Sage, who married Alice Tramell of Jellico, Tenn., and who is a captain for Delta Airlines; Minna Jane, who married Max C. Odom of Jacksonville, employed by the Federal Government in Dallas. Mrs. Sage has ten grandchildren.

All seven grandchildren of Obie and Minnie Childs have college degrees. Oakley Childs attended Baylor University and Myriam Childs graduated from Lon Morris College in 1927. She was a partner with her aunt, Kate Holland Tucker, in the L. C. Tucker Flower Shop for 18 years, and presently resides with her mother in the family home. Oakley Childs serves on the Cherokee County School Board, was for many years a deacon and Sunday School superintendent at Central Baptist Church, and now is an active member, as is his wife, of Evangelical Methodist Church. He is a Mason, was a Kiwanian, an executive of East Texas Scout Council, named Man of the Year, director of Chamber of Commerce, still is active in community life. The 29 descendants of Obie W. and Minnie Holland Childs can proudly salute their forbears at the 100th anniversary of Jacksonville!

C. C. Childs (foreground, left) in the first Childs Grocery Store in Jacksonville. Carter, Obie and Edgar Childs are in the background along with a group of customers.

An early photo of the O. W. Childs family; Mr. and Mrs. Childs with their son, Oakley, and daughter, Myriam.

Second dwelling to be constructed in "South Side Heights" was the original O. W. Childs home at the corner of South Jackson and Henderson streets. It no longer is standing.