Uncle Sox

    Mother's mother Maud Livingston had one sibling, her sister Dorothy. Dorothy and Maud mostly grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Dorothy continued to live there until her death in 1983. I met her just once, as a small boy visiting her with Mother, flying to Muskogee from Kentucky. I wish I could remember more about the visit, and her and her husband "Sox." His name always stuck in my mind, as it seemed funny to me as a boy!

Sox's full name was William Sargent Gage. At some point as a young man he was so enamored of the Boston Red Sox ball team that he started being called "Sox," and was known by that name the rest of his life, and even when he died in 1964 his tombstone read "W. S. 'Sox' Gage." (He is buried in Greenhill Cemetery in Muskogee, with Dorothy and many other Livingstons, Gages and Crooms.)

This photo is from a 1926 newspaper story about him. I wish I had a better photograph, but this is all I have. I never knew much about his life other than a few stories my mother told. Researching him it turns  out that he was born in Gridley, Kansas in 1894. His father, also William, died in 1950, in Muskogee, and his obituary said that he came to Muskogee in 1919 as the manager of "...the old Mackey Telegraph Company." William Sr. was from Kansas, had worked as a telegraph operator, and over time acquired a fair amount of real estate. 

Sox followed in his father's footsteps and was a telegraph operator in the Navy in WWI. In an April 15, 1929 article in the Muskogee Daily Phoenix, Sox recounted some of his wartime experiences as prompted by reports of a new ambassador to Great Britian. It turns out that Sox had spent two years in London, 1918-1919, at the embassy, as the chief Navy telegraph operator there. In that capacity he met many prominent figures of the day, including King George V, General Pershing, and many others. 

After the war Sox came to Muskogee and began a career as a newspaperman. He worked for the Muskogee Daily Phoenix and later for the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company. He also managed a number of real estate properties he owned. He was active in the Elks, American Legion and Presbyterian Church.

   He seems to have been quite a lively and colorful man who was well known about town. In one rather startling 1922 article, when he was a bachelor, he is described as having staged a hoax wedding to a girl he was acquainted with a way for them both to attend a couples event! (In 1926 he married, for real, Dorothy Livingston.)

   Even after his wedding his reputation from his bachelor days lingered, as a newspaper article from about six months after his wedding headlined "Sox Gage Issues SOS Call For Fifty Dancing Beauties" would seem to indicate! Apparently Sox had thrown out his old bachelor address book and needed help lining up girls for a Lions "Night Owl" dance. The article said that in his old bachelor days finding girls would have been "soft custard" for Sox...

   He and Dorothy only had one child, a daughter who died as an infant in 1934. They lived a full life it seems like, with much socializing, bridge parties and more. They were dog lovers, and a 1932 article mentions Sox and his white "spitz" dog named Doodle. Apparently Doodle had gotten loose and Sox looked for him for a day or so, when, walking through downtown Muskogee, he "heard a happy bark" and there was Doodle. There were a couple of stories over the years too about Sox finding a stray dog and taking them in until their owner could be found. In another story it was said that Sox and Dorothy invited another couple over, telling them there would be a special guest that evening. When the couple arrived Sox ushered them into the dining room where Doodle sat in a chair at the table!

 In an April 1937 article entitled "Trailer Tripping" the Muskogee Daily Phoenix described Sox and Dorothy as having taken a trailer from Muskogee down to Galveston Texas, to New Orleans, and then to Daytona Florida. Sox was quoted as saying, "This trailer life is funny, we went to Houston to stay two days and stayed three weeks..." It would be fun to know what kind of a trailer they had, perhaps a teardrop style like the one in the accompanying illustration.

   In a July 1939 article Sox and Dorothy were said to be managing the heat by leaving their house at 10pm, driving out to Honor Heights park with the trailer and sleeping there! While they were the only people there with a trailer, they said there were many other people sleeping up there on blankets and such to escape their hot houses in those days before air conditioning became common.