Popcorn Mary Had Many Names

Popcorn Mary couldn't see Marlee very well from her stand. She closed up shop since the movie was about over anyway and went over to the tree where Marlee was eating her popcorn. Well, Marlee was still awake. She was watching the people with wide open eyes. Mary sat down beside her and said, "How ya doin' little one?" Marlee  shook her head and said, "I have never seen cars and horses on the same street before. Your cars are funny looking too. Hey, you got any little kids like me?" Mary chuckled and said, "No, but I used to. I had two (2) little boys. One of them died when he was just a baby, but the other one I named Richard Owens. Folks called him Dude. Marlee said, "Why did you come to this place anyway? It sure doesn't look like my small hometown."

Rick and Mary
and son "Dude"

"Oh my goodness, I've been here a long long time. Say, what's yer name anyway?" Marlee was so proud because she knew her complete name. She said, "My name is Marlee Ada Weaver and I have a baby sister, Whitlee Jo. She cries a lot, but mama says she'll get over it. Whew, I sure hope so. What's your name?"
Mary said,  "I have lots of names. Are you ready?" Marlee nodded her head yes. "Okay, here goes. My legal name is Mary Ann Dabney Culler Owens. My husband's name is Glen, but folks call him Rick. He has a painting and decorating business down the street. I help him sometimes. Someday I will tell you all the different things that he paints. He is pretty talented, my guy is.
You know little Marlee, I just love this town. I was just a newly wed when Rick and I came to town. I think we were only married for two (2) weeks. I was 20 years old when we got here. We wanted an adventure. We traveled quite a ways to get here. Yeah we did. Clear from Kansas City, Missouri.  I remember leaving at 9:15 in the morning and we didn't get here until 4:45 in the afternoon. My husband said it was a bad day because it was raining. I didn't think so I felt like I was coming home. I loved everything about it.
 I was born in a little town called Edina, Missouri. But we were young and excited to get on with our lives. We've been here ever since. That was in 1922."
"Well, how did you get here, Mrs. Mary? Did you drive one of those funny looking cars? Mary answered her with a smile and said, "We came on a train. Oh it was a drizzly rainy day. That old train leaked like an old tin can. But we are happy here and so busy. Lookit here, little one. I have a picture of my husband and my son and me at my popcorn stand. What ya think of that?" (Mary often gave pictures and booklets to folks, so Marlee was no exception to the rule for her.)
Marlee looked at it and said, "You said you have lots of names how many others do you have?"
Mary chuckled and said, "Well, sometimes people called me Greyhound Mary and Poor Mary and some just say "there's Mary."
"Why would they call you Greyhound Mary?"
"Well when I got older after my husband passed away and I was all alone I just got this feeling that I needed to go places. I traveled all over the place. Most of the time I wouldn't stay where I traveled to. I would just get on the bus and take another one right back home. I just loved to ride on those big buses for some reason. I went to Memphis, Tennessee a lot. Pretty country down there. I always took a Greyhound bus. They were so nice to me. They didn't charge me anything for my rides. Good people that's what they were. One day they even gave me a plaque that hangs in the City Hall up the street a ways."
One day I got a telephone call from a television station in New York. They wanted me to fly there on an airplane, but I was scared to fly. They talked to me on the telephone. The man that was the head of that show was called David Letterman. They put that conversation on television. Not a big deal. I'm glad I didn't go there. Not worth the time and effort. He only talked to me a couple of minutes. Not my kind of idea of an interview in my estimation anyway."
It seemed to Marlee that as Mrs. Mary visited with her she started to change. Her brown hair started to turn a little bit gray kind of like Grandma Lu's.
 Marlee thought that this adventure was really fun. A little scary, but lots of fun. She wanted to find out more about Mrs. Mary and this place that looked a little bit like her small hometown, but it was very very different.
                              ***********************************
These stories were given to me by friends of Mary Owens during her later years as well as Google. I will be adding pictures of not only Mary but of other founding fathers to this lively small town that Marlee knows now as her hometown in these stories.
As Marlee visits with Mrs. Owens she will become older as she was in her later years.
Mary will show Marlee some little booklets that she wrote. Marlee will be told these stories in the future posts. Thanks for reading.