Bessie Leona Romines (she preferred to be called Leona) was born in
Mountain Grove Missouri Nov 12, 1896.
At the age of 2 or 3, she traveled with her family into what was then Indian Territory, Cherokee Nation West,
where they settled in what is now Craig County.
In 1920, she married Ernest L. Scott, who was a co-worker at a bank in Kansas City, KS. They moved to
California, where they had two sons, Robert Lee and Donald William.
Ernest passed away in 1989. Leona continued living first near, then with her
younger son, Donald, at his home in Oregon. She died peacefully and swiftly
of heart failure at a care facility in Salem, where she had been moved for
the treatment of leg ulcers and edema. She was 101 years, 7 months, 29 days
of age.
In her lifetime she witnessed many changes: one could say she went
from covered wagons to virtual reality in the span of her almost-102 years.
Her son, Donald, is traveling to Oklahoma to scatter her ashes, along with
those of her husband, over the family plot at Blue Jacket.
While she lived, she was an icon, a living link to the past, to our family's history. Her
memory, the oral tradition of our family, went back three hundred years,
with uncanny acuracy.
Though she is now gone, she remains, in our minds and hearts, the personification of our ancestors and their tremendous
determination and ability to not only endure and to overcome life's
hardships, but to find satisfaction amid the struggles, success amid the
failures, and joy amid the sorrows.
Dohiyi, Unisi Leona...
Before I was born
I was sunlight on a leaf
I was riding the beam of a star
A sound heard in the wind
I was the rushing waters of a river
I danced in the whirwind of the red earth
I was a spark in the sacred fire
I was the stone tip of an arrow
I was the wood of the bow
All because I was a Free Soul
And Creator let me fly free
Now I am but ashes
But wait! Can you hear?
My laughter among the star song?
Nokwisa Tawo'di
Last Updated: December 14, 1998
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