Pioneer family member and long time resident of Claremore
Biography
Alice Cline Farbro was born on December 17, 1929, the year of the big depression. When the stock market fell, people committed suicide, and many Oklahomans left the state of Oklahoma to try to find work and a way to keep their families on their feet. Alice had a happy childhood growing up on te Cline farm and enjoying all of the simple pleasures that came along with farm life – along with all the hard work. Following her high school career in Claremore, she graduated from Oklahoma A&M in 1951. She applied with American Airlines to be an airline hostess and also with Stanolind Oil Company. Stanolind hired her and she worked for them for five years, beginning at the bottom of the line and working up to a secretary in the Exploration Department. During her tenure at Stanolind Research Department, she started dating Bill Farbro, with whom she had graduated with from Claremore High School.
On July 3, 1952, we were married in the First Presbyterian Church in Claremore, Oklahoma. They lived at 317 East 12th Street in Claremore. Bill was a construction worker (iron worker) when we were married. He worked at various jobs during their marriage – a car salesman, a service station owner, Skelly Oil Company, manager of a truck stop at Catoosa, real estate, real estate appraiser, and finally at the end of his life, a Rogers County Commissioner for District 3.
They had two children during our marriage, Betsy Ann born in 1956 and later Barry Allen born in 1958. Both children were born in Claremore at the Franklin Hospital. Alice still lives on the Cline farm and am the third generation to live there. She worked for Robson Properties owned by Frank C. Robson, a long-time acquaintance and friend in the latter part of her career. One of the most important things she has learned in her lifetime is that people are much more important than material things and money. If she can only practice the Golden Rule and “do unto others what I would have others do unto me”, she will have finally found the golden fleece.