Della Jester and Roy Phillips arrived in Barber County from Missouri
      with their respective parents in the early 1900's. They were married
      in 1918 and had two daughters, Ruth and me (Winnie). My parents lived
      two and one half miles from Medicine Lodge when I was born. When I 
      was two years old we moved near Hardtner. Ruth and I attended Mound
      Center school. This building was used as a school during the week and
      it also served as the site for many community functions, including
      church on Sunday.
        The dust storms and Depression of the 30's made a big impression on
      me, but the things I remember most are the way family and friends
      helped one another through these trying times.
        Later my family moved to the Elm Mills area. Ruth and I attended the
      Elm Mills School. When Ruth graduated from grade school, it was
      determined we should both attend Medicine Lodge Schools. A room with
      kitchen privileges was found with Pearl Murphy and this was continued
      until high school graduation.
        At age eighteen I was off to nurses training at St. Francis Hospital
      in Wichita and became a registered nurse in 1942.
        In January, 1943, I became an Army nurse. In the European theatre I
      was assigned to a field hospital and lived and worked in tents. It was
      exciting to see George Fritz in England and Roy Bauman in Germany. They
      had been high school classmates.
        Following the war at my first stateside assignment, Camp Swift, Texas,
      I met Roy McCracken, a native of Pueblo, Colorado. We were wed in January,
      1946, in the Medicine Lodge Methodist Church by Reverend Brooks. Roy was
      an Army Captain and had determined to make the Army a career.
        For the next fifteen years the change of duty stations came frequently.
      There are many fond memories of time spent in Rome, Vienna, Chicago,
      Medicine Lodge (while Roy was in Korea), Monterey, California, Worms,
      Germany and finally West Berlin, Germany.
        Our first son, Phillip, was born in Wichita, Kansas - the second, David,
      in Vienna, Austria - and the third, Stephan, in Bad Krueznach, Germany.
        Since Roy retired from the army in 1961, we have lived in Long Beach,
      California. A few years I returned to nursing and became a supervisor at
      St. Mary's Hospital.
        When we return to Barber County for vacation, there is still a feeling
      of excitement as we drive through the Gyp Hills and then see the smoke
      from the Gyp Mill. It's always good to visit family and see old friends.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas, pg. 294 
     Submitted by: Winnie PHillips McCracken