2026 - 42 “Silver Dollars and Anna Angels.”

 

Anna Mae Moore Harmon, My Maternal Great Aunt

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 42 of 2026

Prompt: A Life Compared to Mine

My great-aunt Anna and I had some similarities and some differences.

Anna grew up in the Sand Springs Home for Children and Widows with her brother William, her sister Elizabeth (my grandmother), and several dozen other children. I grew up as the youngest of five children in my own family. My extended family, including Aunt Anna, lived about 50 miles away, so we saw them often.

The Aunt Anna I knew was married to Henry “Hank” Harmon. They lived in an upstairs garage apartment belonging to family friends George and Ella Wright. Anna was the aunt who always had a little trinket of some kind to give you as you walked out the door.

And speaking of doors, the doorknobs in that apartment were made of glass. I still think of Aunt Anna whenever I see glass doorknobs in antique stores. I also have a silver dollar she gave me one Christmas, still wrapped in shiny pink paper with my name written in her handwriting. I recently opened the little package and discovered it was a 1921 silver dollar.

As I've gathered bits and pieces about Anna's life, I've discovered some interesting similarities between us.

Hank and Anna Harmon, "watching the wrestling match".
Click on image enhanced by ChatGPT for larger view.

Early Adulthood

The 1930 census shows Anna living with my grandparents, her sister Elizabeth and brother-in-law, and their two young children. Anna's occupation was listed as a teacher at an institution. I suspect she may have been employed by the Sand Springs Home, where she had grown up.

Years later, when I graduated from college, I lived with my Aunt Sue in Sand Springs for about six months and did some student teaching. So we both spent part of our early adult lives living with relatives and working in education.

A Career in Nursing

At some point, Anna changed careers and became a nurse.

My mother's 1942 diary contains several references to letters and telephone calls between her and Anna. An address recorded in the back of the diary places Anna at 1420 Eighth Avenue in Fort Worth, Texas. I haven't yet discovered what took her to Fort Worth, but I wonder whether she was there for nursing training or employment.

By 1950, Anna was back in Sand Springs, working at Still-Hildreth Osteopathic Sanitarium. The census identifies her as hired help at the institution, although her occupation was left blank.

This hospital had a connection to Anna's childhood. Originally known as Sand Springs Home Hospital, and later Oakwood Sanitarium, it had been built by Charles Page to care for children at the Sand Springs Home, particularly those suffering from trachoma, an infectious eye disease. The building stood just down the hill from the Home where Anna grew up.

In 1944, Oakwood became Still-Hildreth Osteopathic Sanitarium, specializing in the treatment of nervous and mental conditions. In 1957, it changed management and became Ridgewood Hospital.

In a January 17, 1960 letter, B. F. Breeding, superintendent of the Sand Springs Home, wrote that Anna had become a practical nurse and was still working at Still-Hildreth. He apparently continued using the old name.

Vintage Postcard of Sand Springs Home Hospital enhanced by ChatGPT. 
Click on image for larger view.

By 1965, a Tulsa city directory listed Anna as a nurse's aide at Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital. I remember her working there, and I especially remember her crisp, starched white nurse's cap.

Anna's nursing career also touched my own family. When my father was serving in occupied Germany and my mother gave birth to her first child, Aunt Anna, a nurse, was there to support her. My mother's obituary specifically mentions that help.

Our careers eventually took very different paths. Anna worked in nursing, while I pursued a career in air traffic control. Both of us, however, had established careers long before we married.

Marriage and Family

One of our greatest similarities is that neither Anna nor I married young, and neither of us had children.

Anna married Henry “Hank” Harmon on August 8, 1953. According to their marriage license application, she was 47 and Hank was 52.

When Bud and I married, I was 57 and he was 59.

There was one interesting difference. Anna continued working after marriage. The 1965 Tulsa city directory lists her as employed at Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital, while Hank was retired. I, on the other hand, had already retired from my career when Bud and I married.

By the time we married, both Anna and I had already spent many years building lives and careers of our own.

Our childhoods were quite different, and we chose different careers, but we shared something important: we both had full lives before marriage and found companionship later in life.

Remembering Aunt Anna

Although Anna never had children of her own, she certainly left memories with the children in her extended family.

When Anna died, Hank gave me her collection of pierced earrings and handkerchiefs. I've since lost the earrings, but I used her handkerchiefs to make little angels that I called “Anna Angels.” I gave one to each of my cousins, attaching a tag that said Aunt Anna was watching over us.

It seemed a fitting way to remember an aunt who was always giving us little treasures.

I still have that silver dollar in its pink wrapping, with my name written in Anna's handwriting. And whenever I see glass doorknobs in an antique store, I think of the little upstairs apartment and the aunt who always had something special to give us.

Anna may not have had children of her own, but she left us all something to remember her by.

The original pink wrapping from a Christmas gift Aunt Anna gave me, with my name in her handwriting. Inside was a 1921 silver dollar.
Click on image for larger view.