Kathy and Julie Neal

by Ken Neal

May 2012

​I am writing about my daughters in one remembrance because most of my memories are of them together. After all, their mother and I had barely gotten used to Kathy Rene when Julia Lorraine came along.

​So for more than 50 years now, it has been “Kathy and Julie.’

​Kathy arrived nine months and two weeks after our wedding, only because February was a short month. I am reminded of my mom’s wry observation any time a baby was close to the wedding.

​“Well,” she would say when the aunts were clucking and counting months, “it never takes as long for the first one.”

         Kathy was an early college graduation present for me.

        We lived in an upstairs apartment at 910 S. Indian Ave. in Tulsa. That apartment house was on the site of the present parking garage at the current OSU hospital.

        It was Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital in 1957 and our family doctor, Ivan Penquite, was chief of staff there.

​Kathy’s mom, Patty Jeanne, was not quite 20 and I was 21. Looking back now from the vantage point of 55 years, I realize we were all children together.

​Patty was an instinctive great mother and at 90 pounds and a bit over five feet, delivered a 6 pound, 14 ounce baby girl with ease. At least it seemed easy to me. In those days, fathers were not allowed in the delivery room but kept at bay in the waiting area.

       We walked out the back door to the hospital at about 6:30 a.m. and Kathy came bouncing into the world at about 12:30 p.m.

       Her mother and I were in the waiting room together and after a bit we decided we weren’t helping anyone and took off for breakfast! Patty never forgave us!    

Mother's Day 1960

Sapulpa Herald Article

Mother's Day  (May 1960) featuring Kathy Neal and Julie Neal

Kathy R. Neal - Letter From India

September 17, 2007

Today I'm wiped out after the weekend in Araungabad. I knew but had forgotten what an assault on the senses India is.

Araungabad is the starting point for visits to the cave temples at Ajanta and Ellora. The caves temples range from 200 BC to about 700 AD and are Hindu, Buddhist and Jain. They are a series of monasteries and worship halls, some very simple; others incredibly elaborate. At Ajanta they overlook a the horseshoe curve of a river and have more paintings. They are much more sculptural and intricate at Ellora. After they were abandoned they were overtaken by the jungle and lost. They were "discovered" in the mid-1800's. I kept
thinking that people had been pissing in them for thousands of years until I realized that what I was smelling was bat guano. These temple caves were on the short list of the new seven wonders of the world. They were beat by Petra in Jordan but it would be a close call for me. The most magnificent was carved from top to bottom. A photo is attached.

We were stopped by Indian families on holiday who smiled, asked where we are from, took photos of us, and offered us food. You'll see a photo of me with a sweet family who was having a picnic. We made the
mistake of asking a couple of LOSER guys who were obviously American where they were from then spent the better part of both days avoiding these guys. We should have known better from the "Bass Pro Shops" t-
shirts one of the guys was wearing BOTH days that he was goofy. When you're one of a handful of foreigners in a place like this it somehow seems impolite not to acknowledge each other.

Patrick Neal Letter to Kathy Neal

Approximately 1979

Neal R. Johnston - Cascia Hall Preparatory School

High School Graduation - May 2011

Cascia Hall Preparatory School - Tulsa, OK

Neal R. Johnston

December 16, 1994

Neal R. Johnston (1994)

As told to Abby Neal Johnston and Ken Neal at Papa Ken's House

My sister, Abby, and my papa, Ken, won't let me do all the things that I want to. They continually interfere with my activities. They won't let me put ball point pens in the pencil sharpener, which is very frustrating.

Nor will they let me shove papers in the wrong end of the printer. And, they keep telling me what to do in two languages. It's enough to make a grown man cry, not to mention a little guy like me.

For the past hour, they have been trying to con me into taking my bottle. But I refuse. I know they are trying to lull me to sleep.

Earlier, we played with the tinker toys. I squeezed big bird's hand and he talked to me. I played with the bulldozer, the wagon, ate a banana, drank some orange juice and smeared an ice cream bar all over me. Grandpa changed me.

Abby and grandpa are pretty nice but I can't wait until I can do things myself. When I can, I believe I will run their little fingers through the pencil sharpener!