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Text Box: THE BEST KIND OF WOMAN TO MARRY A great love story, with a question. What is the best kind of woman to marry? A Frenchy McCormick, but with a little more “religion”. Frenchy McCormick was born about 1852, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Probably born Elizabeth McGraw, her family was wealthy, she was well educated, and of Irish descent. “Restless” in nature - as it was referred to in those times - she left home while in her teens to perform in burlesque. At the time burlesque, though not of the “upper echelon” theater, was much more classy than the striptease theater, and actually much more classy and decent than the average movie of today. Frenchy performed on the stage in St. Louis, and the dance halls and saloons of Dodge City, where a cowboy gave her the nickname “Frenchy” because she was from Louisiana and could speak French. Around 1880, she met Mickey McCormick, at the gaming tables in Mobeetie. Mickey, an Irishman, was a gambler who also owned and operated a livery-stable in Tascosa, Texas - in the Panhandle just North and West of Amarillo. Frenchy married Mickey in 1881, and they remained in Tascosa where she dealt monte in the gambling rooms Mickey operated behind his saloon. Mickey said he always won when Frenchy was beside him. They entertained every Western celebrity of their time, Tascosa being the first true city in the Panhandle. During its some forty years of existence Tascosa was the cowboy capitol of the Panhandle, thriving on cattle drives until barbed wore strangled the town. When the railroad bypassed the town in 1887, the town virtually disappeared and Frenchy and Mickey lost their business. But they continued to live in a small adobe house on Atascisa Creek, and their devotion to each other rivaled the

Text Box: greatest romances of all times. Frenchy had promised never to leave Mickey, and when he died in 1912, she continued to live in their cabin, about one-half mile West of Casimero Romero Cemetery where Mickey was buried. By 1915, Tascosa was deserted when Vega became the county seat, deserted but for Frenchy who kept her promise to Mickey. She refused to leave her husband’s grave site, refused to break her promise to him. She live alone in the ghost town of Tascosa for twenty-seven years, without electricity, running water, or any of what are now considered necessities. Finally, in 1939, her health failing, her house crumbling about her, she allowed herself to be resettled in Channing, on the condition she be brought back upon her death and buried next to Mickey in Tascosa. She died on 12 January 1941, and was buried next to Mickey. She was the last of the girls of the Golden West. If you have to ask why a Frenchy, with a little more religion of course, is the best kind of gal to marry - well you do not deserve the best kind of gal. And if you are a woman and do not know why a Frenchy, with a little more religion of course, is the best kind of gal for a man to marry, then you do not deserve the best kind of man, the kind who knows why. When you love someone, you simply love them. You do not concern yourself with what you are able to “get” out of them. Both ways - they are not your possession. Both ways - they are your heart. Bound with God, that kind of love never ends, not even in a ghost town cemetery. Older people often lose sight of this truth. But younger people have the chance, and the choice, of remembering it. Be the kind of woman a man never wants to lose. Be the kind of man a woman never wants to lose. Be a man for one specific woman. Be a woman for one specific man. Become husband and wife under God and never let anyone ever make you less. And don’t gamble.

Text Box: Now, for the important question. Did Frenchy and Mickey go to heaven? . . . . . . . . Hope so. +

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