Velma Love (Cobb) Womack Round 1921-2013

My mom, Velma Louise Cobb, was named after two of her aunts. Her first name came from her father's sister, Velma Love (Cobb) Womack, and her middle name from her mother's sister-in-law, Betty Louise (Kinser) Powell. Mom was called by her middle name Louise throughout her life. She used to joke that it could have been worse, she could have been named "Betty Love". But the jokes were all in good fun, as the two namesake Aunts were extremely close to my mom, and she to them. I was blessed to grow up with both of these great aunts in my life.

It's always been common in families to name children after a family member. Velma, the first child born to Henry Clay "Kay" Cobb and his wife, Hattie Eugene (Nicholas) was named after Kay's little sister, Carrie Love (Cobb) Shofler. Velma, like my mother, was named after a much-loved Aunt with whom she was very close.

Aunt Velma

Velma Love Cobb was born on 3 December 1921 in West Plains, Howell County, Missouri. The family, with the addition of sons LeRoy, John David (J.D.), and Bobby and another daughter, Vera, lived on a rural farm in the Ozarks. The family was poor, but they scraped together enough to survive by working together.

Excerpt from a letter Velma sent me years ago.

We "lived 5 miles South of West Plains, Mo. on the old Cobb farm. John and Nancy Cobb (Dads parents) lived there before us. They were farmers. I was 2 years old when Grandpa died & 6 years when Grandma died. They are buried at Evergreen Cemetery, 3 miles South of the old Cobb place. 8 miles from West Plains. It was a two Room House with a cellar. Mom & Dad raised 5 kids there. When I was 13 years old we moved 10 miles West of West Plains in a bigger House."

After attending the Bolivar Baptist College for a year, Velma married Wayman L Womack on 9 September 1939. They moved to Kansas City where Wayman found work at the Bomber plant before he joined the Army. Velma's dad, Kay, also moved up to Kansas City and took a job at the Bomber plant while her mom stayed in West Plains until the house was sold. Wayman's military service took the young couple to northern California where they welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Carolyn, in 1944. After his service, they settled back into life in Missouri where three sons, Larry, Steve and Gary, completed the family. For many years Velma worked at Katz and Skaggs Drug Store, or simply "the dime store" as we called it.

The Cobb kids in July of 1957.
Back: Bobby, LeRoy, and J.D.
Front: Vera and Velma.

When I was a child in the 1970s, I remember Velma and Wayman's house in North Kansas City. They lived next door to Velma's mom, Hattie. They later moved to a home on Lake Waukomis where visitors could fish or go boating on the lake. Family gatherings were important to my Aunt Velma and I fondly remember lots of special times with cousins there. Wayman died in 1980 and Velma married Harry Round in 1988. They enjoyed more than twenty-five years together before Velma passed away in 2013.

Aunt Velma loved reminiscing about the past as she looked at old photographs and our Cobb family reunions were something she truly enjoyed. Since the late 1990s, we've been getting together every few years for a long weekend. Even though she was one of the eldest family members there, she would never relax and let the younger ones do the work preparing the food and setting it out. She insisted on helping. We all learned to just give her something to do because she wasn't going to stop asking how she could help. We always spend a reunion afternoon playing BINGO and that's when we miss Velma the most. She really enjoyed BINGO - especially when she was winning!

Velma never lost her thick Ozarks accent or the odd phrases she had learned as a child. I can still hear her voice as I read her words in the old letters she wrote to me to share some of her stories:

"One of the most scary things I can remember is we had a Tornado when we lived in the 2 Room house at West Plains. It blowed our Chicken House away, Blowed our orchard up by the roots, Tree on the House, Blowed window lights out, We got under the Bed. None of us got hurt. J.D. was 11 yrs old he was praying. When I was growing up My Mother would buy enough flour with the same pattern & make me a dress, Table Cloths & sheets & curtains. My Brother & I used to take a basket of eggs, walk to the Country Store & exchange them for things we needed. We used to walk Three miles to Church & Three miles back. My dad never owned a car. He had 2 mules & wagon. It took them all day to go to town & buy Groceries. We had kerosene lamps. I used orange crates to nail on the wall to put dishes in. We made curtains out of flour sacks."