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On December 13,
1903, Leonard Harris was born to George
Bryson Harris and Minnie Jones Harris.
Minnie Jones Harris pas sed
away when Papa Harris was about 7 yrs
old. On her death bed she asked her
boy to promise her to be good and meet her
in heaven.
Papa Harris
and his siblings lived with relatives for a
time after her death Leonard,
Nolen, Eunis, Mert, and Nina were their five
children. After about three yrs, GB
Harris published an ad for a mail order
bride to take care of him and his five
children. A lady named Ida answered
the ad, days later, GB Harris gathered
up his five kids, met her at the train
station and married her that very day.
Ida failed to mention she only had one arm,
(she lost the other at a young age when ran
over by a train.) The five children
returned home with them and they went on to
have three more children....Fred, Emma and
ILabee.
Ida treated
all eight children as if they were her own,
she was known to their children as 'Grandma
Harris' and they loved her alot. In
the mid 50's, GB Harris was hospitalized and
Papa Harris would have Ruby sit in the car
with Judy while he went in to visit his dad
in the hospital.
There aren't
any known photographs of Minnie Jones,
hopefully we can recover one of Ida Harris.
After his mother
passed away, Leonard lived with his Uncle
Will Hunter until GB married Ida. The
Harris' were Church of Christ and the
Hunter's were Baptist. Leonard Harris
became a Christian and always gave credit to
his Uncle Will as being a huge influence in
his salvation. In his late teenage
years, he felt God had called him to preach.
Papa Harris'
Grand Parents were Henry James Jones and
Sara Holbert Jones.
On June 23,
1907, Charles Nathan Allen and Mary Jane
Allen had a daughter which they named Ruby
Dell.
Ruby's
grandparents were Wiley Jones Allen and Mary
Ann Tisdale Allen.
Ruby was raised
in western Oklahoma. She was the
youngest of eight siblings. Ruby's
mother passed away when she was a young
girl. Being the youngest, she took
over cleaning and cooking for her dad and
brothers. A couple days out of the
week, she would go to her older sister,
Mattie's house and stay with her and help
her with her children. Ruby's oldest
brother, Charlie did not care for Leonard,
and forbid her to see him. Each month
there was a Barn Dance. Ruby would go
with a boy named Leo and Leonard would go
with Leo's girlfriend. Once they were
at the Barn Dance, they traded partners and
Leonard and Ruby would get to visit with
each other. Leonard realized this
couldn't last forever, so he talked to Ruby
about marriage. She told him when she
turned 19 years old on June 23, 1926 she
would marry him. He quit coming around
and on her 19th birthday he drove up in the
drive way. Ruby went out to see him,
and he reminder her of what she had said and
he asked her to marry him. She went
in, packed up her belongings and he took her
to her brother Oscar's house. Ruby
stayed with Oscar and his wife Eunice until
her and Leonard married 2 months later.
They married on August 21, 1926.

Leonard knew God
had called him to preach but his family was
Church of Christ and he felt more inclined
to follow in the Baptist faith. His
father, GB Harris, did not want him
preaching so about six months after they
married, the couple moved to California.
Leonard went to work in the Orange groves
while holding revivals preaching the gospel.
Their first
child, Evelyn Modell, was born August
11, 1927.
Their middle
child was a son, Leonard Carroll, born July
22, 1929.

On Sept 6, 1942 Judy Roceal was born
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