The day was a special one as friends and family gathered at the First Methodist Church in Cache to celebrate Thelma Jane Simmons Callicott’s 100^th birthday.  She is known to her extended family as Aunt Jane.

She was born on February 3, 1906 in Greenwood, Texas, which is located about 15 miles northeast of Decatur.

Her family moved to the Cache area when she started in the first grade at a one-room school south of town.  She doesn’t remember the name of the school, but she does remember that her first grade teacher was Rachel Cook.

Later, Thelma Jane’s family lived in Grandfield for two years and then in Spencer, Oklahoma before moving back to Cache where she graduated in the Class of 1926.  She played on the girl’s high school basketball team and recalls winning the State tournament.

Her family lived on a farm northwest of Cache in what is now the Quanah Range of the Ft. Sill Military Reservation.  She remembers riding to school in a horse-drawn covered wagon with only a coal oil lantern and quilts to keep them warm in the winter.

In the early 20’s, her father, McCajah Pope Simmons and her brother, Judson bought two trucks and made seats and converted them into school busses.  These “busses” were rented to the Cache School, and Thelma Jane, who was still in school at the time, and her brother Allison “Hans” drove them.  She had what was called the cemetery route and her brother drove the southeast route.  No driver licenses or insurance were required in those days.

 In February 1929, she married Walter Burton “Boots” Callicott.  They were married in Duncan. 

 For a while, she ran the Simmons Gas Station on the northwest corner of State Highway 115 and old Cache Road while her husband “Boots” owned and operated a dump truck and hauled sand.

 In about 1952, she built and operated the Dairy X located at the corner of 15^th and Cache Road in Lawton.  This writer remembers begging his mother for a nickel and walking down to the Dairy X for an ice cream cone, and on the days the Cubs Scouts didn’t meet   taking his dues money (10 cents) and slipping off to the Dairy X and getting a “gret big’en.”

 In 1964, when Lawton widened Cache Road, she moved the Dairy X to Cache and located it across the road west of the school campus where she ran it for 2 years.  Then it was sold to Jess Tidwell. 

 The secret to her longevity seems to be; staying active- recovered from two broken hips and she still gets around, planting a garden –she still plants a garden, eating well – she eats lots of vegetables and she starts off each morning with a bowl of fruit, and always continue to have plans – she is now planning to use some of the money given to her for her birthday to buy a new lighter weight vacuum cleaner.