Jean Morgan Westfall

Betty Jean Morgan was born the youngest of eight children to Bob Edward and Lela Dell (Mitchell) Morgan. Bob Edward was rather well to do. He owned three sections of land with options to buy two more sections, and he was farming all five sections. He also had one third interest in a butcher shop, one of the first automobiles in Dickens County, and a two-story house in Spur, which even had running water.

Bob Edward was robbed and brutally murdered on Valentine’s Day in 1927. Jean was less than two years old and never remembered having a father.

At that time banks would not loan money to women. Thus, the banks quickly began to drain away the family assets. Banks would not take the home place from a widow woman with seven children. (One of her children died young.) So, they left her with a half section of land and an old farmhouse. She farmed a quarter of a section and grew feed for her teams of mules and horses on the other quarter section.

Lela refused to remarry to save the family’s assets. So, she took over the “male” farming duties and her sister Ada moved in and assumed the “female” duties. Lela learned to plow the fields with a team of mules. Later she used a team of horses. She finally bought a tractor and released the quarter section that she used to raise feed for the mules and horses.

Jean was allowed to run wild and was never taught any household duties. She grew up wild and stubborn and remained that way until she died. She loved horses and did learn to drive a team of horses. She was rarely told what to do and hated to be told to do anything for the rest of her life.

After the death of her husband, Lela became very bitter and Jean became very stubborn. I asked my grandmother what the stock market crash of 1929 meant to her. She said that it only meant that a lot of other people in Dickens County joined her in poverty. Thus, Jean grew up in poverty.

At age 16 Jean married James Ira (Sam) Marchbanks. She had very poor vision and he promised her that he would buy her a pair of glasses, which he did. At age 19, she gave birth to James Neal Marchbanks. Sam was inducted into the Army and fought in the “Battle of the Bulge.” When WWII ended, but before Sam returned to the States, Jean “Dear Johned” him and married Richard Frances Westfall. They had one son, Richard Randell Westfall. She was married to Richard Westfall approximately 40 years.

At the time she married Richard Westfall she did not know how to cook. Her mother-in-law taught her to cook. Jean hated to be told what to do and by the time she learned to cook she and her mother-in-law hated each other. She was never a good cook, and she never really cleaned any house. Also, bugs did not bother her. So, we grew up in shacks that had cockroaches and termites. I have even seen cockroaches in her purse.

After Richard’s death she moved to Lubbock and lived alone for the remainder of her life. She told me that she didn’t want a man around to try to tell her what to do.

At age 62 she learned to play Bridge and really enjoyed the game. One of her goals in life was to become a Life Master. It took her a while, but she accomplished that goal.

At age 97, she had knee replacement surgery. She was always independent and always maintained a little of the girl that ran wild and free on the farm.

She is survived two sons, Neal Marchbanks, his wife Christy and granddaughter Ryan; Richard R Westfall, his wife Louise, and three grandsons, Shane, Douglas, and Justin; and a few remaining nieces and nephews.