Notes for Helen Agnes Labadie: Osage Indian - My paternal grandmother (David L. Jarvis).
Born Helen Labadie, in the c. mid 1930's, trained as Registered Nurse in Texas at Ballard, where all the Indian nursing students went then. On one rotation, she took care of a white medical student with an eye infection. They fell in love, and she married Dr. Joseph Bennett Jarvis, MD. In those days in Texas, their marriage was not considered legal as she was Native American and he was white. She never forgave Texas or his family that, and as long as she was alive, we never learned about the non-Native side of our family, meeting only one Jarvis Aunt once when I was a kid.
"Granny" as we kids knew her, worked on the tuberculosis ward of the Puyallyup Public Health Hospital in Tacoma, Washington while raising 2 sons and keeping up the social position of being the wife of Dr. Jarvis. The PHS hospital had Natives from the Northwest and Alaska in it for months at a time for TB, and the Jarvis' often had family members of patients staying at their home waiting for their loved ones to get well or pass on. I still have an Alaskan Native wool sweater given to my father by a family that stayed with them. Before the PHS hospital, during World War II, Dr. Jarvis was an Army doctor. The 2 of them were known to get in trouble for rendering free medical care to people who "didn't qualify for it" and especially providing care to migrant farmers and their families, delivering their babies, etc. My grandmother said that their patients honored them with that trust, and to always treat them like you would your own family.
As a child, Helen was known for running quite a trap line, and later hunting hounds, possibly giving her the nickname "Houney", though the other story on this is that one of her younger sisters couldn't pronounce Helen, and said "Houney" instead, which stuck with her. On her horse, once chased her teacher out of the schoolhouse - but wasn't allowed to ride to school after that! While Dr. and Mrs. Jarvis lived in Washington state the rest of their careers after WWII, they retired back to the Osage reservation in Oklahoma. There they restored the old Labadie home on Wild Horse Creek, bought horses, and had grandsons and family over as much as possible. Grandpa Jarvis passed on about 1981. Granny had become centrally blind of macular degeneration and possibly diabetes, and started to have heart failure and strokes. In about early July 1983, while riding her faithful horse Sassafrass (Sassy) in our hills, she had another stroke which left her pretty much totally blind and partly paralyzed. Sassy took her into the home, where she called for help. She was hospitalized, and died July 17th. My Uncle Pat (David B. Jarvis) made a song for her funeral called Every Springtime.
B and D dates from Source: Annetta (Labadie) Holt's Labadie family history, c. 1998
Every Springtime (Little White Flower)
C 1. Eagles circled in the sky F Leaves grew old and time blowed by G7 C When the Little Ones climbed down the Red Oak Tree, F and the grasses covered all there was to see G7 C and nature went her way on Wild Horse Creek
And...
(Chorus) F There's a little white flower grows on Wild Horse Creek, C G7 In the Springtime, in the Springtime C and whatever comes and goes, it always blooms and grows G7 every Springtime, every Springtime.
2.Though they always claimed the land It seldom showed the track of man Till the Osage moved down from the Kansas line. Then they walked the land so free They covered all there was to see, And the water still was clear on Wild Horse Creek.
(chorus)
3.Well then the family of a man Took up living on this land When the Little Ones set down their Agency and they walked this land so free, Land of prairie, sky and tree, and they built their home right there on Wild Horse Creek.
(chorus)
4.They had to struggle with the land, Even more to understand How to move from Osage ways to Allottee But the children played so free They covered all there was to see and then the oil came in on Wild Horse Creek.
(Chorus last 3 lines)
5.Magic millions from the sand Indian blankets, cowboy bands Life started looking easy after all Fancy schools and cars no doubt But then the price dropped out And then the times got hard on Wild Horse Creek.
But... (chorus)
6.It ain't easy you must know To see which way to go When the times and ways are changing every day. There are some that went away There are some of them that stayed But all of them grew up on Wild Horse Creek.
(Chorus last 3 lines)
7.And this I truly know Because someone told me so About the way it was on Wild Horse Creek About old One-Lamp Louie About Bus and Smoke and Dewy and the sport of riding greenhorns under trees About riding clear and free As far as you could see and watching fluffy pictures in the sky
About a horse named Star About how times got hard and the water running clear on Wild Horse Creek and about
(Chorus, repeat last every Springtime line)
8.Eagles circle in the sky Leaves grow old and time blows by Whichever way you go from the Red Oak Tree Generations come and go Live and love but you should know There was one that started out on Wild Horse Creek.
(Chorus - 3rd line
A generation comes and goes, but it always blooms and grows Every Springtime, every Springtime
Dedicated to Helen (Labadie) Jarvis
by her son,
David B. Jarvis, MD Seattle WA Copyright 1983
Notes- The little flowers of the Plains are special to us. They are bright and pretty, and just make things seem better.
An Osage ritual explains our affection for the little white or yellow flowers in another way.
“When the Little Ones make of me their symbols, They shall become a people of the days that are gentle and peaceful. Of a little pale flower, I have made my body. The Ba-shta', that stands amidst the winds...”
David L. Jarvis, MD Baraboo, WI
More About Helen Agnes Labadie: Burial: Unknown, Pawhuska, OK. Degree: Abt. 1935, Registered Nurse, Baylor University, Dallas, TX.
More About Helen Agnes Labadie and Joseph Bennett Jarvis: Marriage: June 15, 1934
Children of Helen Agnes Labadie and Joseph Bennett Jarvis are:
Helen Agnes Labadie (b. January 12, 1910, d. July 17, 1983)
Notes for Helen Agnes Labadie: