Joseph Lee and Wilma (Wickizer) Rodgers, 1970, Hugo, OK (at the funeral of Bud Fly)
Letha Mae Bledsoe (relative of J. Lee Rodgers), Wilma Wickizer Rodgers, and Wilma's sons J. Lee Jr., Bill, and David, taken Aug. 23, 1946 in Chambersburg, PA
Joseph Lee and Wilma (Wickizer) Rodgers and Family, Easter 1948
Wilma was born at her grandparents home where her parents were living
while they were pastors in Des Moines, IA. Wilma lived in several places
growing up as her parents moved to other pastorates. She started school in
Bloomfield, IA, then moved to Kirksville, MO. She attended high school in
Tulsa, graduating from Norman OK high school in 1915. She was on her class
debating team when she was a senior.
Wilma attended the University of Oklahoma and graduated in 1920 with an
A.B. degree with a major in sociology and a minor in history. She was
inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa scholarship society at the same time as her
future husband and her brother.
When her mother died in 1917, Wilma took on the work of keeping house and
assisting with church work. She had to give up many outside activities and
concentrate on her school work. There was also the strain of the war, and her
brother went into training in the Student Army Training Corp. She was very
ill for several months in 1918 and not expected to live. Her Aunt Clara came
to take care of her and she recovered.
Wilma won many rewards for scholarship, but claimed no musical or
athletic talent. Because of this, she has counseled many people to use the
talents they have and not be envious of others.
She met her husband when he started attending her father's church. Their
friendship grew through correspondence and brief visits after they left
college. She worked as Executive Secretary for the Oklahoma Women's
Missionary Societies of the Christian churches in Enid, OK, and resigned in
1922 when they decided to get married.
They were married by her father in the Ravenswood Church in Chicago. They
lived in Hugo, OK for 17 years. During this time she cared for her husband's
parents.
J. Lee entered Civil Service with the Dept. of the Army and during the
WWII years they lived in El Reno, OK,; Rock Island, IL; Metchen, NJ;
Chambersburg, PA; Louisville, KY and then Washington, DC from 1948 to 1963.
Here they were able to visit with relatives who lived near by and received
many visitors.
During this time they lived in Hyattsville, MD. They became active in a
nearby Methodist Church where Wilma taught a membership class for 11 year
olds.
When her husband retired in 1963, they moved back to Norman, OK, where
their son, J. Lee Jr. lived. There Wilma stayed active with projects at
home, which included writing the Morgan and Wickizer family histories.
Much of the material about the descendents of Nancy Jane Matthews and
William Allen Morgan is from a family history assembled by Wilma.
