I, B. Joyce Woodward Wesbrooks, was born May 4, 1928, in Medicine Lodge,
     Kansas, the 12th child and 6th daughter of Darius Vernon Woodward and May
     Isabel Axtell Woodward. I spent the first fifteen years of my life in
     Medicine Lodge, where I attended grade school junior high school, and a
     part of one year in high school. My mother died in 1940, and my father 
     died in 1942, so I made my home with my sister, Virginia Newton Measday.
       I moved to Deming, New Mexico, in 1943 with Virginia and her family. I
     graduated from Deming High school in 1946 and then returned to Kansas and
     enetered the School of Cosmetology in Emporia, Kansas. While there I met
     my future husband, Bill Wesbrooks, who was a student at Kansas State
     Teachers College. Bill is from Burden, Kansas. We were married in Emporia
     on October 8, 1947.
       After Bill graduated from college, we moved to Pratt County, Kansas, where
     we lived for four years while Bill was principal and 7th and 9th grade
     teacher at Coats Elementary School.
       Our two sons, William Woodward (1950) and Wesley Hollis (1953) were born
     in Pratt, Kansas, while we were living in Coats.
       In the summer of 1953 we moved to Silver City, New Mexico, so Bill could
     work on an advance degree in education.
       In August of 1953 Bill accepted a teaching position in the newley completed
     Martin Elementary School in Deming, New Mexico. He taught there until 1959,
     when he became principal of the school. He remained as principal until he
     moved to the new Chaparral Elementary School as Principal in 1967, a position
     he still holds.
       Our son Bill graduated from Deming High School in 1968, and Wesley graduated
     in 1971. At the present time Bill is an actor in New York City, and Wesley
     is an engineer in a television station in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
       In the fall of 1968 I enrolled as a student in Western New Mexico University
     in Silver City, New Mexico, after being out of high school for twenty-five
     years. I completed my work for my degree in 1961 with a major in elementary
     education and began teaching in Smith Elementary SChool that fall. I continued
     working on an advanced degree by attending night classes and summer sessions.
     I received my Master's Degree in 1973. In 1972 I transferred from Smith School
     to Memorial School, where I am teaching at present time.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas, pg.  
     Submitted by: B. Joyce Woodward Wesbrooks