A Bit About Sue Vaught

Some things about me, Sue Vaught, writer of “This & That” in the RattleCat.

I came to Logan County, Labor Day weekend – September 1969, by way of the Rock Island Railroad. My husband James was a Lineman for the RR. We came to Booneville, trying to get closer to home, which was and still is in Perry County. We had lived the previous 7 years in Herington, Kansas.

At that time the new toy plant was being built (where Rockline is now). Unable to find housing in Booneville, we moved into an unfinished rental house in Magazine.

We arrived with 4 daughters and after 2 years here we welcomed a son. The children were affectionally known by the family as the 5 J-Birds: Jamie, Jennifer, Julie, Joni, Jimmy. They are all graduates of Magazine’s J. D. Leftwich High School, as it was called back then.

We eventually bought property and built a home in 1973. The last day of operation for the Rock Island RR was on March 31, 1980. That same day Jamie started her 1^st job working at Walmart. Booneville’s first Walmart store was located in the building where Logan County Day Service Center is. James worked several odd jobs then, and in August of 1980, I went to work at BHDC for $3.27 an hour. I was employed there for 11 years. James later got to go back to work in the Railroad Industry for KATY RR as a member of the signal gang. KATY was later bought by the Union Pacific Railroad.

The McBrides, Bob, and Dee moved back home to Logan County from California. Dee took over writing the Magazine News article that was published weekly in both the Booneville Democrat and the Paris Express. She did the article for many years and as she aged and her health was failing, Florene Foshee, Pat Corbitt, and myself helped to keep the news going for her. When Dee passed away, 95 years young in 2009, I officially took over writing the Magazine News until December 2020, when my last article was published.

Then the COVID-19 virus came along and has been making it a bit difficult at times for me to keep up with my 10 grandkids and 11 great-grandkids. (#12 is due in March).

I was approached about writing for The RattleCat and agreed to give it a try.

By the way, I have very old ties (lineage) to Logan County. My great-great-grandparents were lifelong residents of Logan County. Henry and Lidy Jane Fox whose graves are located in Liberty Cemetery, near the Driggs Community. This is my 5^th generation picture. I was 21 when my grandmother Fox died.

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