The Longstreet Family

When I was growing up in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, one of my best friends was Walt Longstreet. He and his parents, Walter and Anne, lived just a couple of blocks from us on Grandview Avenue. Walt, Frank Ross, and I would get together to play at one of our houses, or at the nearby Kiwanis Park almost every day. But it was at the Longstreets' house that I felt most at home.

Walter Longstreet was one of the smartest men I've ever known. He had a limited formal education, but was very well self-educated. He's the first person I ever knew who subscribed to and read The Wall Street Journal. He was a formal, imposing man, but he obviously had a liking for me, and treated me in a fatherly way. He had been a painter and wall paper hanger, and then had opened a Ben Franklin paint and variety store. He and his wife ran the store, and he continued as a painting contractor.

Anne Longstreet and Colin

Anne was a very warm, motherly kind of woman. She was usually in the kitchen when I was in the house, or busy doing things around the house. She had an artistic streak, and loved poetry. Being invited to stay for dinner was a real treat for me, not only for the great food, but for the conversation at the dinner table.

After high school, I went away to college, then off to Chicago to work, and didn't see them as much. Walt had gone to another college, Oklahoma A&M, as it was known then, then began teaching band in high schools, then later opened a music store. But after I returned to Oklahoma to work at the Bureau of Mines in Bartlesville, I would often drive over to see them on Saturdays, and stay for dinner and an evening of Canasta with Walt and his parents, and their friends Ray and Madeline Flindt. I wasn't a very good player, and was usually Walter's partner. When I made a bad play, he would just say, in his deep, sorrowful voice, "Oh, Arthur!"

I've recently found that Walt married in 1965 to Joan Carol Voils, a teacher he met while he was band instructor in Billings, Oklahoma. I'm including a link to a transcription of her obituary below.

When I moved away from Oklahoma, I didn't see the Longstreets very often. I don't think I saw Walter again before he died, but did see Anne, and was able to show her my son Colin. I'm presenting this page about them as a tribute to a family who really were family to me.

The Longstreets are buried in the Pawhuska City Cemetery. Click on that link, then search for their surname to find their memorials. Walt's wife, Joan Carol Voils Longstreet, is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Eufaula, Oklahoma. Here's a link to her obituary in pdf format.

I've prepared a register report for the Longstreets in pdf format. I've also prepared an ancestry report showing the results of the research I've done for the Longstreet family. It is available in pdf format from this link: longstreets.pdf

The earliest Longstreet I found was John William Longstreet, who was born in Stuttgart, Germany and emigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio prior to 1825.

Return to Pawhuska page.

This file was last updated on 3/31/2012.