Knowing that a friend's family had early ties to Tulsa, I ran some names through databases after reading his relative's recent obituary. An excerpted copy begins with:
Obituary for Russell Wayland Nixon August 24, 1935 – May 17 2016
Russell W. Nixon, age 80, left to be with the Lord on Tuesday, May 17, 2016. He was born and raised in Tulsa and graduated from Central High School and OSU. He is survived by his wife Patricia...his sister Colleen Bethel, and brothers Norman Nixon and Harold Nixon.Russ married his high school sweetheart Patty Jean just about the time they graduated from Oklahoma A&M College, now known as Oklahoma State University. After graduating from OSU, they had their only child Phyllis. Russ began his first employment at the very top - of an oil derrick working first for his dad and then in the oil patches in New Mexico and North Dakota. He and Pat saved enough money so they both could quit work and attend college full time to pursue Masters Degrees. With his hard-knocks experience in the oil fields and a newly minted Masters in Business Education from Easter New Mexico University, he started a long and successful career as a Senior Systems Analyst, first for Sinclair Oil Corporation and then under Atlantic Richfield Company. Using his experience gained working with computers, he then worked as a Senior Systems Analyst at the Southern Baptist Convention Annuity Board in Dallas, Texas.
Looking to broaden his horizons, he became the business manager at Judson College in Marion, Alabama. As a last hurrah, and to the delight of tens of thousands of children in the Tulsa area, he installed the first merry-go-round in Woodland Hill Mall. He is remembered for his friendly smile and a hearty "Here we go!"
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Even though this obit of Russell Nixon, Jr. does NOT mention names of his parents, it is easy to find their names on censuses BECAUSE Russell was born before 1940. Census pages are now online from 1790 to 1940. I quickly gathered the census pages and added them to a family "tree" at ancestry.com, and some of those census pages appear here further down on this page.
But first, here's a screen shot of that family tree showing Russell's parents, Wayland and Viola, and then Wayland's grandparents:
Wayland was born in Marion County, West Virginia in 1869. The 1910 Federal Census finds him in Kansas City, Missouri. By 1912, he and wife, Viola, are living in Tulsa, The occupation given for Wayland is "real estate." Their home address is 710 South Maybelle, according to this copy of the Tulsa City Directory for 1912:
We next find Wayland and Viola in the 1920 Federal Census with their 15 year old son, Russell:
A 1920 Tulsa City Directory shows the Wayland Nixon family living at 718 South Maybelle Avenue:
Happily, yearbooks from around the country are going online. I found young Russell in Tulsa's Central High School yearbook for the year 1926. He's at the top left. Get a load of these photos and comments!
Having difficulty reading it? Here's a snipped version showing Russell, Sr. PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE to enlarge it:
Having difficulty reading it? Here's a snipped version showing Russell, Sr. PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE to enlarge it:
MARRIAGE OF RUSSELL TO WILLA MAE: Creek County Courthouse in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, has an April 7, 1927 document showing T.L. Dilbeck applied for a marriage license for Mr. Russell L. Nixon, age 22, of Tulsa, and Miss Willa Mae Donavan, age 18, of Tulsa. I've not seen someone make application for a license other than the groom or bride to be, unless it was a parent on behalf of an under-aged bride. Not applicable here. The license was granted, and as to when the couple got married may have been soon after. If I didn't know that they went on to have children together and appear together in censuses, I would wonder if they did indeed go through with the marriage. Because the Certificate of Marriage was not completed or even returned to the Clerk for filing. Mr. T.L. Dilbeck's failure perhaps? Perhaps they actually did marry somewhere else at a different time?
Moving along, it's 1928 in Tulsa and young Russell Nixon, Sr. is working as a clerk and living with his parents at 101 North Denver. He is probably in law school, as a later census indicates he completed five years of college. See this page from the 1928 Tulsa City Directory:
The 1930 Federal Census shows Russell, Sr. living with his parents, Wayland & Viola. It doesn't give an address, but it does list Russell as a lawyer. Russell is age 25, and his dad is 60. Russell's bride, Willa (Donavan) is age 20. Here's a snippet from that page. Look for Wayland's name beginning on Line 10:
The 1934 Tulsa City Directory shows both the Russell Nixon family and his parents, Wayland & Viola Nixon. Dad & Mom are living at 101 North Denver. There are two pages within this "gallery." Please click on both to see the FULL page and the snipped page. Click again to return to this page:
The 1940 Federal Census finds the Russell Nixon family living at 820 Elwood Street in Tulsa: Russell, Willa, Colleen, Russell, Jr., and one-year old Norman. See Russell's name beginning on line 2 of the three census pages. Because the whole page is too small to read here, I've snipped and re-sized two parts here:
See on line 2 where it asks for the occupation of the "head of house?" Lawyer.
This is the whole page showing all the families living in this particular neighborhood.
I will add more later, as I hope to find burial places for Russell & Willa online along with biographical records. Interestingly, a cousin of Russell, Sr., who also left West Virginia and moved out west, was James Truman Nixon. MUCH has been written about him in Tulsa's early history.
Wayland Loman Nixon and his wife, Viola, are both buried at Oaklawn Cemetery in downtown Tulsa. Wayland is in an unmarked grave according to his memorial page on Findagrave.com/ His wife, Viola, and their daughter, Mildred, are also interred at Oaklawn Cemetery--in unmarked graves. Young Mildred died August 27, 1919 at about age 11. Please click this link to see Wayland's cemetery page. Links to his parents' graves--with photos of interesting grave markers, are also on Wayland's memorial page.
http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=97610842
http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=97610842
WANTED: on the Findagrave memorial page for Wayland's father, there is mention of a family history book entitled: The story of the Robert P. Nixon family of Boothsville, West Virginia published in 1961 by Justin Wroe Nixon. UPDATE: This book is online via ancestry.com/ Awesome!
