As the only blonde in a family of redheads, Vera Hardy stood out. Her father Charlie left the family to seek his fortune in the Oklahoma oil fields at Christmas 1917, and her mother Annie Belle was forced to seek employment as a maid in the former Eisenhower home. Vera and her sister Oleta would slide down the bannister in the home and play in the foyer while their mother worked. They would cross the railroad tracks from their home to get to the house, and it seemed like the railroad surrounded them and was just always there.  Unless a train was about, they gave it little thought.

Charlie tried to get the older boys to follow him to Oklahoma, but being loyal to their mother, they refused to go. Charlie soon started another family; he married Hattie May Silvers in 1919. The boys took on odd jobs to help support their little sisters. 

On June 12, 1925 Vera, a friend, Gladys Robison, and some family left their home on West Owings for a church function at Waples Methodist, and took a short cut across the railroad tracks. Hearing an approaching train, Vera moved to the wrong track of a double track and her foot got stuck in the rails.  Her family could do nothing.

The train was unable to stop until it passed Sugar Bottom, in the vicinity of Armstrong Avenue.  It was said that the engineer, Wiley Pipkin, of the MKT Texas Special sobbed uncontrollably and ran crying back to Vera’s family, who were in shock, still beside the tracks. Vera was 13 years old; she died a few minutes after being struck by the Texas Special. 

Later, the MKT Railroad offered a settlement.  Annie said no; give my sons jobs.

NOTE:  A search of public repositories in Denison, Grayson County, and the State of Texas could find no mention of Vera’s death and no death certificate.  Vera’s death was undocumented except by her grave in Fairview Cemetery, mentions of the tragedy in newspapers, and the memories of her siblings.

 

Sources:

Conversations with Oleta Littleheart Hardy Whaley

The Portal to Texas History https://texashistory.unt.edu/

 

Vera’s family:                               

Charlie Hardy (1870-1927) m. 1890 Annie Graves Hardy (1876-1945).  About 1918 Charlie married Hattie May Silvers (1883-1959).  In 1929, Annie married Charles Wesley Swearingen (1881-1953).  They had no children.

The children of Charlie and Annie were:

Gracie Hardy (1891-1975) m. 1911 Robert Frank Allison (1891-1965)

Ima Hardy (1894-1943) m. abt 1923 William Harvey Menasco (1878-1959)

Vergie Elton Hardy (1896-1946) m. 1917 James Clyde Grundy (1887-1970)

Clounce Edgar Hardy (1899-1974) m. 1918 Eva Fay Kelley (1902-1973). In 1949, he married Bessie Georgia Rogers (1914-1996).

Vivan Clarence Hardy (1901-1986) m. 1925 Lila A. Goff (1904-1987)

Loyce Audery Hardy (1908-1994) m. abt 1934 Ethel Lewis (1908-2002)

Oleta Littleheart Hardy (1909-1992) m. 1931 William Clarence Whaley (1908-1992)

Vera A. Hardy (1912-1925)

 

The children of Charlie and Hattie were:

Charles William Hardy (1921-2008) m. abt 1946 Lucille May James (1925-1963)

Claude Chester Hardy (1922-2006) m. 1943 Frances M. Cook (1923-2019)

Hattie Sylvia Hardy (1923-2013) m. 1940 Harry Leroy Parsel (1915-1976)