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L. to R.: Pop, Henry Welborn,
Dan, Charles, Donald, Paul
The nationwide family of The MidSouth Rankins that developed in eastern Texas, southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana is an outgrowth of the marriage of Frank E. Rankin, Sr. of Troup, TX and Candace Johniken Rankin of Pelican. Candace’s parents, Burket L. Johniken and Isabel Gregory came from Mississippi in the late 1800s. They were a part of the Mississippi Settlement group.

FAR LEFT: Elvin and Jeannette - ca 1940
LEFT: Frank, Jr., Helen and Family - ca 1948

LEFT: James, Eleanor, Paul - ca 1943 or 1944
RIGHT: Jesse's experience in CA

The older children - Margaret, Jesse and David - all moved to the West Coast except for Jeannette, the oldest of the clan, who settled with her husband, Elvin P. Byers, in Kansas City, MO after a stint in New Orleans. Elvin was a Mississippi Settlement descendant of the Williams family. Frank Jr. went into the army in 1940 which eventually took him to the west where he met Helen.

Frank E. Rankin, Sr. and
Candace Johniken Rankin - ca 1916

Frank and Candace Rankin met at Goss near where Frank was working in the oil fields. Candace was teaching in the area. From there they lived in Oil City, El Dorado and several locations in Texas. Finally, they came to Louisiana in early 1934 and moved into the Johniken homestead property where Candace was raised. The house, which was recently demolished, was built in 1899, we are told. Nine children came with the parents to Louisiana, as Paul and Donald were not yet born. Paul, born in October 1934, was the last child of the family to be born at home. Donald was born in December 1935 at the Shreveport Charity Hospital which was then on the corner of Texas and Murphy streets.

Margaret met her husband, Pat Garvey, through his friendship in Oregon with Jesse and they later married in New Orleans where Margaret had moved sometime earlier. She and her husband later moved to Oregon. In the early 1960s the family moved to west central Arkansas. Jesse did not stay long on the west coast as he spent almost a year there in each of the years 1942 and 43. He married Lizzie Fox in 1945 and spent most of his adult life at Pelican and vicinity and later to Shreveport-Bossier City. David came home about 1949 bringing his son, D.Allen Rankin, Jr. to live with his grandparents and David went on to a new job in Chicago. D. Allen’s mother, Irene, died a couple of years earlier.

LEFT: David, Dan, Gertrude, Danny - ca 1950; MIDDLE: Charles ca 1945 or 1946 - Right: Dan ca 1968

Charles left home after graduation in 1944 a short time before the family moved to the Burns property near Pelican. Dan joined the navy in 1945 before his graduation from high school. Charles and Dan attended Louisiana College in Pineville. Dan married Gertrude Mercer of Winnfield, LA and Charles married Gladys Minor of Winnfield. Both attended Louisiana College. Graduate school was done for Charles in New Orleans and for Dan in North Texas. Charles started out his career after graduate School by taking a teaching position at the Texas Military Institute in San Antonio. After a year, Charles and Gladys moved into the Social/Language Mission field, starting at Hatch, New Mexico and moving later to LaJunta, CO and finally to Topeka, Kansas where he died in 1972 and Gladys in 1978. Dan spent his entire career in Texas schools in teaching and administration starting in Agua Dulce. He moved a short time later to Corpus Christi and then in 1968 he and Gertrude moved to north Texas. His post retirement work was in DeSoto schools after his retirement in 1981 and his subsequent move to Pelican. Gertrude worked as a nurse during many of those Texas years.

LEFT: Eleanor - ca 1945 or 1946 RIGHT: Eleanor and Ruth ca 1937
.We children grew up in pairs and Eleanor and Ruth were paired. Eleanor finished high school in 1945 and went to New Orleans for a time and then on to Chicago and Birmingham. She married U. S. Martin during the early years and both retired from the Baltimore office of Social Security. Eleanor and "Marty", as he was called, retired to Sun City Center in Florida. After Marty's death she moved back to Baltimore and later to Shreveport and then a goodly number of years back in Baltimore where her son and grandchildren resided. She moved to Paris in 2004.

Ruth was the last of the gang to spend just 11 years in school and she graduated in 1946. She joined the Social Security administration soon after school and later worked in Kansas, Chicago, and back to Kansas for a long number of years where she retired. She moved to Paris, Texas in 2003

RIGHT: D. Allen, Jr., Paul, Donald - ca 1953
LEFT: Paul and Donald - ca 1948
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Paul (Robert to some) and Donald squeezed out of school in 1953. Donald went to Alexandria for a short stay and then to New Orleans and after a year went into the Army. Paul went into the Air Force shortly after high school and later attended Northwestern State University. He took a school job in Houma, LA in 1962 and went on to finishe his Master's degree at NSU. Donald attendend Louisiana College after a 23 month tour in the Army. Soon after leaving college he joined the state Division of Blind Services. His job brought him to Sheveport in 1971.

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