Eva Fern (Crissman) Howard (1911 - 2002)

Born 3 Apr 1911 in Fowler, Meade, KS, USA

Ancestors

Wife of James Wesley Howard Sr — married 7 Sep 1932 in Johnson, Stanton, Kansas, United States

Descendants

Died 12 Jul 2002 at age 91 in Scott City, Scott, KS, USA

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Billy Day [send private message] and Sara Anderson [send private message]

Biography

“Fern” Eva Fern Crissman was born on April 3, 1911. She married “Wes” James Wesley Howard on September 7, 1932 in Johnson, Kansas. Probate Judge John Allen presided.

The family of Wes Howard had moved to southwestern Kansas and then to southeastern Colorado from Sparta, Tennessee. Prior to their marriage, Wes had served in the US Army as a private during WWI in France.

Fern was a homemaker and restaurant cook. She was well known in the community and around the area for her cooking, especially for her large, fluffy cinnamon rolls, made daily.

After getting married, Fern and Wes made their home in Stonington, Colorado and started a family there. They had six children, five living to adulthood. Wes was a farmer and Fern was a homemaker. After a serious injury left Wes disabled in 1947, the family moved from Stonington to Springfield, Colorado in 1949, where Fern worked as a restaurant cook for the next 33 years.

Fern first cooked at the Dinner Bell Cafe at the airport, two miles north of Springfield, owned by the Hyman family. The Hyman family picked up Fern every morning at 4:00 from her home in Springfield to take her to work. (Fern refused to learn how to drive a car, after witnessing her brother Elmer decapitated in a car accident while they were children.) Fern worked at the Dinner Bell Cafe until the cafe closed. Fern then went to work for the Uptown Cafe on Main Street in Springfield, owned by Bill and Alice Lookabaugh. After Alice passed away, that restaurant closed. Fern then started cooking at the Ideal Cafe on South Main Street in Springfield, owned by Poe and Marie Ballard. The Ballards sold the cafe to Wayne Kelly in 1975 and changed the name to the Chuck Wagon Cafe. Fern cooked there until her retirement in 1982, at the age of 71. She walked approximately a mile to work at 4:00 every morning and the mile home each day, 7 days a week, for over 20 years. The exception was on days with bad weather when the restaurant owner would pick her up and take her to work or home.

Her husband Wes passed away in 1958, and Fern continued to raise her three daughters and lived in the same house until she moved from Springfield.

In 1987 she moved to Dighton, Kansas to live with her daughter Kay and Kay’s husband Frank. She developed Alzheimer’s Disease and moved into Park Lane Nursing Home in Scott City, Kansas in 1997. She passed away in 2002. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Personal recollection of Kay Day, daughter of Fern, during interview with Bill Day, son of Kay. Lyons, Kansas, 4 April 2021 (Easter).

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 04 April 2021), memorial page for Eva Fern Crissman Howard (3 Apr 1911–12 Jul 2002), Find a Grave Memorial no. 27240905, citing Stonington Cemetery, Stonington, Baca County, Colorado, USA ; Maintained by Leon Barton (contributor 46904326) .