Tiffany Campos Tammy Davis Composition I 10 October 2013

Biography of Patsy Loyce Askew On June 21, 1940, Patsy Loyce Leatherman was born to Carl and Nannie Leatherman. Patsy was born in Floydada, Texas and lived there for two years until she moved to Amarillo. She has an older brother, Thomas; and older sister, Peggy. When she was nine years old, her father was involved in a wreck, and he passed away after being taken to the hospital. When she was around 10 years old her mother remarried to Johnny Graves. In 1952, her younger brother Johnny Jr. was born. She met her husband (Doyle) Wayne Askew when she was 16; they were married on June, 21, 1958, her eighteenth birthday. When she was 28 years old, her stepfather Johnny passed away. Wayne and Patsy had three children Doyle, Tony, and Stacey. She has four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren: Alan, Susan, George, Tiffany, Mason, Jacqlyn, and Hunter. Her husband passed away in 1998 of Stomach Cancer. Today Patsy is 73 years old. Peggy In order to tell and understand Patsys story, her older sister Peggys story must be told. In 1936, Carl T. Leatherman and Nannie Wallis were married. Nannie was the daughter of a farmer and met Carl when she was seventeen and he was fifteen; his family worked on her familys farm. Around a year after their marriage, Nannie and Carl were blessed by the birth of their first child, Peggy Joyce Leatherman. Nannie was in labor for 1 week before the doctor finally induced her. When Peggy was being delivered, it is said that the doctor pinched a nerve in the back of her neck, but there were definitely complications during the delivery. The doctor never came out and said that he did anything wrong during the delivery process, but this could have been because

Nannies father threatened his life only a day earlier. He did, however, tell them that Peggy would not live long so for them to make her happy, while she was here. It was evident soon after her birth that she had a disability of sorts; she, also, suffered from seizures until she was about thirteen years old. Everyone wanted a say in what would happen to Peggy; people constantly tried to get Nannie to put Peggy in an institute. They would make statements, such as it is not worth your time to take care of her, someone else can bear that burden, she cannot learn why waste time on her and other statements to this effect. Nannie refused to do so; she was raised to take care of her family, and she often stated that Peggy would not be taken care of properly in one of those institutes. Nannie had good cause in not putting her in one those places; in this time period there was little known about disabilities/illnesses, and it is human nature to fear the unknown. This ultimately led to disabled people being human Guinea pigs; and misguided procedures, such as: lobotomies, trepanning, and electro-convulsion therapy were performed on them. The scientists of this time rationalized their behavior by saying it was for the good of the patients and for the good of society. Later, when the mistreatment of those who were sent to institutions was known, Nannies actions were justified to most who had suggested sending Peggy to live in one. On September 20, 1938, Peggys younger brother Thomas was born, and on June 21, 1940 her younger sister Patsy was born. When Peggy was around eight years old, her father was called to serve for the Navy in World War II; after returning, he was a gasoline truck driver. On December 23, 1949 around eight P.M., Carl was involved in an accident on his way his way to drop a load off before returning home. The family who caused the accident all died on the scene; he, however, jumped out of the truck and rolled down a hill. Carl was severely burned but hung on; someone in a passing car saw him jump out of his truck and took him to the hospital. Around two A.M., later that night, Carl passed away. In 1951, Nannie married

Johnny Graves; then in 1952 Peggys younger brother, Johnny Jr., was born. Despite, Peggys medical problems, she had a happy-go-lucky personality. That same year Peggy was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. In March 1968, two weeks after the birth of her daughter, Patsy started helping with Peggy on a regular basis. In 1987, Nannie was no longer able to take care of Peggy because of her own ailments. However, her sister Patsy stepped up to care for her fulltime. When Patsy was a child, she too made a promise to her family and herself, stating she would always take care of her older sister Peggy. At the time Patsy, her husband, Wayne, and their youngest child Stacey lived in Oklahoma. In 1995, three weeks before Patsy had a hysterectomy, Peggy was put on inhome healthcare to help Patsy out during her recovery. In 1996, Peggy started having Chronic Aspiration Pneumonia. At the end of year, Peggys brother-in-law, Wayne, had a routine hernia surgery. Three days after the surgery, he started to have intense stomach problems and lost twenty pounds over the next month. He began having tests done, and on February 14, 1997 he had an Endoscopy; that afternoon he found out he had Stomach Cancer. This came as a shock to everyone, and later that year, Peggy had a feeding tube inserted to help with the aspiration. Waynes treatment seemed to be helping, but he was the kind of man who planned ahead; so, November 1, 1998 Wayne, Peggy, and Patsy moved in with Nannie in Amarillo, Texas. Stacey and her children, George and Tiffany, followed shortly on November 23, 1998. Soon after moving Wayne took a turn for the worse; he was placed on in-home Hospice February 10, 1999. He passed away March 20, 1999 at the age of 60. In the spring of 2000, Peggy was again put in the hospital for Aspiration Pneumonia; that summer they decided to perform a Tracheotomy on her. She did fine until 2002, when she went back to the hospital. She was put on oxygen during the day and wore a ventilator at night. She did great for five years, but in 2007 she

was in and out of the hospital. In March of 2008 she was put on in-home Hospice, and at the beginning of September, she went to the hospital. On September 21, 2008, she passed away at the age of 71. Peggy was an extremely happy and caring person. Peggy loved babies, if there was one in the house, she was probably holding it. Peggy may not have been able to do much, but she definitely impacted all those that had the pleasure of meeting her especially her family. She lived to be the second oldest person with Cerebral Palsy; she was two years younger than the oldest, Henry Bartlett, who is still living today. Patsy Askew described her childhood and her life as being normal; this speak volumes about the kind of person she is. She said her mother was the most influential person in her life because she taught her how to care for people, especially her family. Patsy cared for her children, her grandchildren, her sister, her husband, and her mother, often at the same time. After she moved back to Amarillo, Texas in 1998, she was taking care of her mother. Her definition of normal is most peoples definition of selflessness. When asked how she wanted to be remembered, she stated that she wanted to be remembered as a loving and caring person. She has definitely accomplished that. She has taught others the importance of family and overall how to be a good person. She said the happiest moment of her life was becoming a granny, and she is most proud of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She can be quite the character sometimes. When I asked her if there was anything she had never told me but wanted to tell me now, she looked extremely serious and stated, you are adopted no Im just kidding, no I tell you what is on my mind. Patsy had many great stories to tell. There is one story in particular that comes to mind, the day she met Johnny Cash. Every time she tells this story, it is hard not to feel her emotions. It was October 10, 1955; she was fifteen years old. She and

some of her friends went to see him perform. After she had made it there, she found out she knew someone, who knew someone, that was working backstage. Once backstage, she quickly realized she did not have anything for him to autograph she decided he would have to autograph her hand. Patsy said he was really nice and stated matter-of-factly that it was before he went to jail. She was so proud of that autograph, but the next day at school, the worst event that could happen happened; Ms. Testerman saw it. Now, Ms. Testerman did not care anything about Johnny Cash, so she told Patsy to go wash it off. Her reasoning was that it did not look nice on Patsys hand. Patsy, not wanting to get in trouble, did as she was told and washed it off. She is still bitter about this today. Let me finish by introducing myself; I am Tiffany Campos, and I am Patsy Askews granddaughter. I was born March, 5 1993 to George and Stacey Campos. I have an older brother, George; and a younger half-sister, Isabella. I grew up in Edmond, Oklahoma and lived in Amarillo, Texas for three years when I was younger. My parents were divorced when I was 1 1/2 years old. I spent a good portion of my childhood living in the same household as my granny, and she has had a tremendous influence on my life. I graduated from Edmond Memorial High School in 2011, and I currently attend Northern Oklahoma College Stillwater campus.