Ramona Bell Wilhelm
Ramona was born to Lowern and Eva (Seamon) Wilhelm on August 1st, 1931 at home, 721 E Ridge St. Harrison AR.
Their parents got married on September 28, 1924 in Jackson County, AR, near Eva's childhood home of Olyphant, Arkansas. They moved to Harrison, Arkansas in 1925 as they appear in Harrison city directory residing at the above Ridge St home, where Lowern paid $5 monthly rent. At this time their dad Lowern worked as a planer at the mill.
During their move to Harrison, Eva was pregnant with Araminta. They likely took a train to either Bergman or Leslie then a stagecoach to Harrison, as the railroads didn't yet go through Harrison.
Their neighbors were Jack Brown and his wife Grace Hudson with their daughters Dorris and Joyce, Elizabeth Jackson and her son, AD Taylor and his wife Josie, and The Martin family, John, Eva, Jessie, Vada, and Arlie. This neighborhood was in the Eagle Heights area.
Ramona is the youngest of the Wilhelm sisters. The other girls are Araminta Lou Wilhelm, born February 6, 1926 Betty Jean born on New Year's Day of 1928, and Oma Lea (she later changed that to Lee) born July 12, 1929. The 4 Wilhelm sisters all graduated from Harrison High School.
Araminta and Betty are 22 months apart, Betty and Oma are 18 months apart, Oma and Ramona are 22 months apart. Minta was 5 years old when Ramona was born. Their mother, Eva, passed away January 31, 1938. At this time, Ramona was six years old, Oma was 8 years old, Betty was just turned 10, and Minta was about to turn 12. Eva was only 34 years old when she passed away, leaving behind their dad a widow at 31 years old.
When Eva passed away, the family moved to Harrison to help with the 4 girls, as Lowern was struggling with tuberculosis . Eva’s dad Julius Seamon moved to Harrison in 1938 next door to Celia Wilhelm; Lowern’s mother. Two of Eva’s brothers, Loyd Seamon and Claud Seamon also moved to Harrison in 1938 to help with the Wilhelm sisters. They lived on the same street, E Bunn Street. So on Bunn Street in the 1940 Census, at 225 E Bunn Street lived the 4 Wilhelm girls, Minta, Betty, Oma, and Ramona with their grandmother, Celia Wilhelm, their dad Lowern, their uncle and aunt, Bill and Aline Smothers, their cousins Thelma Corene and baby Billie Charlene, and their other set of cousins James and Gene Howell.
So in that one house, there was Celia, Lowern (starting to get sick with TB), Bill and Aline raising 8 children in all, in a 3 bedroom house, so it’s very likely the 8 children shared a bedroom, growing up as brothers and sisters. At this time, Lowern was still working at the stave mill, Celia was working as a laundress on the square of Harrison, Bill was a truck driver back and forth from Texas. The children were Minta Wilhelm, 14 years old, 6th grade, Betty, 12 years old, 5th grade, James Howell, 11 years old, 5th grade, Oma Wilhelm, 10 years old, 4th grade, Ramona, 9 years old, 3rd grade, Gene Howell, 9 years old, 3rd grade, Corene Smothers, 5 years old, and baby Charlene born shortly after census taken.
James and Gene Howell’s father Voyd Howell abandoned Thelma when she became ill with TB, so Celia took them in because Thelma was in the hospital at this time, where she eventually passed away from TB. This house was not too far from the hospital.
Next door at 223 E Bunn Street lived Eva’s father and brothers Julius Seamon, Claud and Loyd Seamon. The Seamons shortly thereafter moved to the greater Seattle area way up northwest in Washington state.
Across the street lived Nellie Jones with her children Lester Jones, Fern Jones, and Charles Jones, all around the ages of the 8 children living together. They likely walked to school together. The other children up and down the street within the same ages, meaning they were in the same class were: Edna Fullerton, age 9, 3rd grade, Charles and Herman Freeman, ages 11 and 10, 4th grade, Gerard James and Lewis James, ages 11, 5th and age 5, not in school yet, Charles Pierce, age 11, 4th grade and Hoyt Freeman, age 11, 4th grade. The distance from Bunn Street to the school is 0.8 mile, down Main Street, past the government building, the hotel seville, through the Harrison square, then up Stephenson Ave to Cherry Street. So the square was on their way.
Minta, being the oldest at 14, likely herded the children to and from school and probably stopped at either Bennett’s drug store or Coffmann’s Drugs for sodas on the way home from school until their grandmother Celia got off work at the laundry on the square where she worked as a laundry to help escort the children home. My grandma has told me stories about how back then she wished and wished she had a bicycle and when she got a job, that’s the first thing she saved up for. That is how I know for sure the Wilhelm clan did not have a car or bicycles- it would’ve been too expensive to buy eight bicycles all at once at the time.
Their dad, Lowern Wilhelm, entered the hospital alongside his sister Thelma Howell where he passed away March 5th 1942. Ramona was 10 at the time. Aline raised the Wilhelm girls alongside her own daughters and the Howell brothers.
Ramona was known as Mocha when she began working at the Bennett’s Drug Store as a soda jerk. Araminta was given the nickname Minty. Betty and Oma were still Betty and Oma. Her live-in cousin James Howell got a job as a paperboy. Based on this, I assume all 8 children got little jobs by 14. Ramona told me she bought her bicycle by the time she was 16 and she loved that bicycle. She passed it on to Charlene when she graduated and moved away. At this time, Charlene was likely around 10. Mocha’s boy interest at this time during high school was Ron. At this time, the Harrison Library was across from the Hotel Seville. Her sister, Oma was a waitress at the Hotel Seville, which was right behind the Bennett Drug Co. Fun fact, there used to be a bowling alley upstairs of the drug store. They all attended the old first Christian church, on W Stephenson Ave.
Ramona “Mocha” Wilhelm’s workplace had a stickup and I can’t find information on this situation. My grandma refused to talk about it.I’m still searching for the story on it. Surely this was featured in the Harrison Daily Times.
After she graduated high school in 1948, she enlisted into the women’s service corps and they sent her to Fort Hamilton in New York. There, she met my grandfather, “Sonny”- (Real name Lloyd Worth Turbyfill). Ramona married Sonny on March 9, 1951 and had their first daughter, Marcella Jo on August 19, 1951. They both left the service and moved to North Carolina to be near the Turbyfill family. Starly came a year later on August 9, 1952. 2 years later, Gary Kent Turbyfill came along on September 23, 1955.
During the years of 1957-1960 Sonny vanished. He reappeared back in North Carolina and then along came my uncle “M” in 1961. He asked me to not use his name online as he is living and I respect that. My grandpa then again vanished and my grandma followed him to Indiana.
I still haven’t identified WHY they moved to Indiana. My cousin told me it was for the steel plant jobs there. I believe him, but I haven’t found anything to confirm this. While they were living there, Tammy was born 1967 then Loyd Harold (Not Lloyd as often mis-spelled, he’s named after uncle Loyd Seamon and aunt Loyd (Bare) Hagie.
I have no records of what Ramona “Mocha” or “Lum” as she was called in North Carolina was up to from 1970 to 1976, but in 1977 she appears in Harrison, Arkansas working at the Boone County Hospital, later changed to North Arkansas Regional Medical Center as a janitor. In 1982-1984 she and Sonny moved to Enid, Oklahoma. I haven’t find out why.
In 1985, she moved back to Harrison alone, leaving Sonny behind in Enid with some of their children. They remained married to his death a year later. I haven’t found out more information if they separated or if it was some other reason they did not live together the last few years of grandpa’s life. At this time, grandma owned 2 homes- a pool house on Skyline Drive and the house on Circle Drive. This could be why she had to come back to Harrison.
In 1986, the youngest child got another child pregnant and Grandma had them both live with her and she helped raised her grandson from this union. In 1990’s, her eldest bought a store and campground and Ramona moved back and forth between North Carolina and Arkansas to help her eldest run the business while maintaining her home in Harrison. She brought 2 of the grandchildren with her back and forth between Elk Park, NC and Harrison, AR. In 2000, Ramona began experiencing kidney damage from adult onset diabetes and could no longer do the back and forth between two states, and she gave up her properties in North Carolina to live full time in the Circle Drive home in Harrison, Arkansas until she passed away in the hospital.
When she passed away, Ramona had her eldest sister, Minta Winner and her granddaughter, Tishia Bell at her side. She was cremated and I believe her eldest son has her ashes.
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