Parsley Rice

The card is postmarked March 4, 1969.

The back says:

Word has come to us that Rev. Minor E. Hickman, retired minister, died Monday, March 4. Mrs. Hickman’s address is Box 629, Dodge City, Kansas.Funeral services will be held in the First United Methodist Church in Dodge City at 10:30 A.M., Thursday, March 6. Kansas West Conference

Although this correspondence took place entirely within Kansas, Minor E. Hickman was born in Miller County, Missouri, on Sept. 22, 1886. There’s a great deal of information about him online, pieced together by his family. If curious, you should visit that link, but a couple highlights:

His son John: “Dad believed his profession required a certain style of dress. […] For many years a summer required a straw “sailor” with felt hats for the balance of the year. As a young boy, I was fascinated by his wearing gaiter and spats. Through the years he stopped the spats but the gaiters remained. We kidded him about being a “pessimist” as he used both suspenders and a belt at the same time.”

His son Clarence: “I recall Dad said he was sickly as a youngster. […] This must have affected him because he told me that I should never quit school to go to work. Having money is too much temptation not to continue school.” Clarence went on to be a school superintendent in Overbrook, Kansas.

Finally, Minor Hickman became a minister around 1908, and at the time, he rode a circuit, traveling from city to city for services in places that might have been too small to merit the investment in a physical structure. An item on the page discussing this circuit: No one ever saw a more bounteous feast than that was set out by those pioneer women. They spread white table cloths, then brought forth platters of golden brown, fried chicken or home-cured ham, bowls of cole slaw and potato salad, pies, cakes, and everything imaginable. Watermelon pickles and pickled cling peaches were special delicacies but beet pickles were common and a general favorite.

From the box of L.S. from Joplin, Missouri.