George Ussary Bateson, born July 4, 1909 at Tryon, Oklahoma in Lincoln County.

Son of Mollie Ann (Ussary) and Charles Henry Bateson. He met Tillie Mae Hagar while he was working for a carnival at Tryon,OK. He and Tillie married on December 20, 1927. George was 18 years of age and Tillie was 16. They married in the home of a Church of God minister, J. W. Garner at Perkins, OK. in Payne County.

To this marriage nine children were born. They were:

Anna Bell, born June 7, 1929, died August 14, 1993;

John, born 1931;

Pauline, born June 8, 1933, died March 7, 1996;

Wanita, born October 10, 1935, died January 15, 1944;

Leon, born 1939;

Bonnie, born 1943,

Janell, born 1945;

Gary, born 1951;

Richard Lee, born March 15, 1956, died March 15,1956

George had blues eyes, brown hair and ruddy complexion and was five feet nine (5’ 9") tall. In the early 1930’s he worked for the WPA, building bridges in the Payne County area. In the late thirties he worked for the railroad for a short time. He and his family moved to Roswell, New Mexico and worked for a farmer. Then moved back to Oklahoma and started to work for DX Oil in October 7, 1942, in the refinery and as a truck driver.

He enlisted in the Army March 8, 1944 at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. He got an Honorable Discharge from the Army at Separation Center, Ft. Sam Houston at Houston, Texas on October 23, 1944. Then George returned to work with Sunray DX Mid-Continent Oil Company and retired from it on July 1, 1955. In 1956 he worked for a construction crew, helping build the meat packing house in Perkins, OK, ( Ralph's Packing Company after 1959) He farmed for himself and did some custom hay bailing for other people. He kept busy, but always had time for his family. George and Tillie and children all attended the Assembly of God Church at Perkins.

George passed away April 23, 1960 with Colon cancer.

At the time of his death he had sons-in-law, Roy Pennington and LeRoy Harting and a daughter-in-law, Imogene (Harting) Bateson. Five grandsons, Eugene Harting, born 1956; Dale Bateson, born 1956; Dean Bateson, born 1957; Eddie Harting, born 1958 and died 1992; and Rick Pennington, born 1959.

Here is a couple stories about George

The family had moved to New Mexico for a while and they were on their way back to Oklahoma. On the way back the car broke down. It was late and it was cold but the car had broke down near the end of a long driveway. George had walked up to the house to seek help and a warm place for the kids to stay. He was not treated well when he asked and was told to go away. The driveway had a wooden bridge at the road and the house could not be seen from the road. George gathered up limbs, old bridge timbers and anything else he could find under the bridge to build a fire to keep the kids warm and went to work on the car. He had the car fixed and was on the road before daylight.

It seems that there were a couple of brothers who thought that it would be fun to tip over everyone’s outhouses on Halloween. George, guessing who it was went to their house and saw that their outhouse was the only one in the community that was not turned over. So he turned it over and hid so that he could see them come out in the morning. It was said that the brother remarked that they did not remember turning their own outhouse over.

Special Thanks to Bonnie, John & Rick for supplying info for this page

Mom & Dad

Pauline, John, AnnaBell, Bonnie, Leon,Janell and  me Gary (in walker)