I guess I should start by telling everyone all of the
information I have about the adoption itself and the birth family and then I
will tell you a little bit about why this search has become so important to me.
Please keep in mind that most of the information I have is not confirmed. The
two people who would have been able to give me specific information passed away
more than 10 years ago, so most of the information I have has come from my
grandma, and since it's only been in the last several years that I have been
interested in finding my mothers birth family my grandmother was well into her
nineties by the time I asked her to recall any of the details. Although my
grandmother remained very sharp mentally until her recent passing I take any of
this information with a grain of salt. Mostly because it was my grandfather who
handled most of the details and she was mainly only involved in the very
beginning from what i can gather.
So here goes...
My mother was born on February 11, 1958 at Stillwater Medical Center in
Stillwater, Oklahoma, Payne County. The adoptive parents were Earl Taylor
Fairchild, a retired serviceman in the army/real estate broker/self-employed
and Mary "Eleanor" (Robinson) Fairchild a long time school teacher at
Ripley Public Schools in Ripley, Oklahoma where they lived most of their
married life 5 miles north of town. The Fairchild's had tried for many years to
conceive a child and although they'd both seen doctors and were told that there
was no reason they should not be able to conceive a child it never happened.
They had been trying to adopt a child for several years but as anyone who has
adopted a child knows it was a very long process that involved a lot of
heartache for both of them and they had almost all but given up. They had
stopped actively pursuing adoption figuring that it just wasn't in the cards
for their life and that god must've had a different plan for them, and no
matter what they would always have each other. Then an acquitance of my
grandmother's who was the head cook of the cafeteria at Ripley Schools where
Eleanor had worked had told Eleanor that a fellow cafeteria worker named Mrs.
Phillips had been asking around to see if anyone knew of a couple who would
want to adopt a child. Mrs. Bean told Mrs. Phillips about the Fairchild's as
well. Within a day or two later my grandmother went to Mrs. Phillips house
which she remembers was just a few blocks from the school near the Church of
God. She told Mrs. Phillips they would like to adopt a baby and left Mrs.
Phillips with their attorney's card and told her if the birth mother was
interested in letting them adopt the child to contact him. My grandmother
didn't get her hopes up and didn't expect anything to ever come of the
conversation but within a few days the birth mother did contact their attorney.
The attorney who handled the adoption was a local Stillwater attorney named
Everett Berry Sr. and in addition to being the Fairchild's personal attorney he
was also Earl's nephew, the son of his eldest sister. The rest I guess is
history and they did end up adopting the child. After the initial conversation
with Mrs. Phillips my grandmother Eleanor. After that most everything else was
handled with the attorney and Earl. As far as I know my grandmother never
actually met the birth mother herself, but when the birth mother went into
labor the attorney Everett Berry was supposed to drive her to the hospital
however he was stuck in court in Oklahoma City when her water finally broke so
Everett called my grandpa Earl and he went and picked her up and drove her to
the hospital. Four days later my mother was brought home from the hospital by
her adoptive parents the Fairchild's.
The information I have about the birth mother is again not confirmed, but I've
heard it from a few different sources so I believe at least most of it to be
true in some way or another. The birth mother I believe was an older woman
possibly between 35-40ish, and was divorced with 2 older children. The baby I
don't believe was her (ex)husbands. The birth mother kept this pregnancy very
secret not even telling her children or any other family members. The daughter
was approx. 13 at the time and was sent to stay with family, possibly in
MaComb, Oklahoma where we believe the birth mother possibly grew up or lived at
some point in her life. The son who was approx. 17 had just joined the military
and was getting ready to leave for bootcamp or deployment at the time of the
birth. My grandma remembers that the birth mother was in a hurry to leave the
hospital after the birth because she wanted to get to Oklahoma City to see him
off that day. One rumor is that the reason the pregnancy was kept so secret was
because the birth father was of importance in the area and may have had a lot
to lose if word of the pregnancy ever got out. I also believe that the birth
mother was either full or part Native American. I do know for a fact that the
birth mother did leave the state shortly after the adoption was finalized
because the original adoption decree states that the mother was granted
permission to leave the state for employment seeking purposes. So, that is
pretty much all of the information I have regarding the adoption itself. Please
continue reading the next paragraph and I will explain where my research has
taken me.
Naturally not having much information to go only place I could think to start
my search was by trying to track down who this Mrs. Phillips could've been and
then researching her children to see if any of them could be the birth mother.
Ripley being a small town, where not only was my grandmother a teacher for 30+
years, my mother was raised there her entire life graduating from Ripley High
School in 1976 and also where my brother and I were raised most of our
childhood. When I say it's a small town, I mean that very literally! We have 1
stop sign, a gas station, about 30 churches, and of course 1 school that holds
pre-kindergarten through the 12th grade. Everyone there knows everyone else and
most of the people who live there, especially the elderly have lived most of
their lives there. So, I started my search looking for Mrs. Phillips and I
called about 100 people literally trying to see if anyone remembered a lady by
that name. I called every student I could find who was still living and
would've been in school around the time of my mothers birth. I also spoke with
various teachers and staff including Mrs. Bean's (the head cafeteria cook who
introduced my grandmother to Mrs. Phillips) children to see if anyone could
help me. I found several people who did remember a Mrs. Phillips, but being the
50's children certainly didn't refer to their elders by first name, so I was
pretty much at a dead end. Then I did find someone who remembered a Mrs.
Phillips who worked during the years surrounding my mothers birth whose name
was Emma Phillips. Emma had worked at the school for several years, she had 3
daughters and one son who all attended Ripley for at least some of their
education and her husband Noah had passed away about 10 years earlier. Using
ancestry I was able to find out the married names of her daughter's, who all
but one had passed away. From there I was able to find the name and phone
number's for one of Emma's daughter's daughter (Emma's grandaughter). She
seemed very willing to help and gave me all of the information I asked for
however from what she told me, and all of it I was able to verify on ancestry
and various other websites it would be impossible for any of Emma's children to
be a biological parent to my mother. First of all none of her daughter's had
been divorced which pretty much ruled them out. One daughter was married to the
same man for 40 years and had 4 children, before and after my mother's birth
date one also being born right around the time my mother was born, so that
ruled her out. The other daughter was also married to the same man her entire
life, but she was unable to have chilren and ended up adopting one son
eventually. The last daughter is still alive in her eighties, but she has mild
alzheimers/dementia. She was divorced more than once however she never had any
children. The lady that I spoke with was around the age of 11 during the time
all of this would've been happening and although she couldn't be sure because
they didn't live near Emma she didn't recall any of their immediate family
being pregnant back then. She did provide me with some other information about
Emma that did prove to be somewhat helpful. From what she told me Emma Phillips
lived just a few blocks from the school and used to walk to and from work every
day. She also attended the Church of God regularly which she lived just down
the street from. She was an elderly lady in 1958 in her 60's and she had long
hair that she used to wear up in a bun most of the time. So with this new
information I had about Emma I went back to my grandmother to see if she could
remember anything else about Mrs. Phillips to see whether or not I could either
confirm this was at least the correct Mrs. Phillips and that the birth mother
may have been another relative or maybe even a friend or if I needed to keep
looking for a different Mrs. Phillips all together. My grandmother was able to
confirm to me this was the correct Mrs. Phillips. Without me putting any of the
information out there that I had learned about her she told me that she
remembered that Mrs. Phillips did attend the Church of God, the area her house
was in, she was even spot on with her description about her hair being long,
but worn in a bun. Normally it would be exciting to at least be able to confirm
that I'd found the right Mrs. Phillips, but it was also heart breaking as well.
Knowing that I was so close to finding out who the birth family was if it had
been a child of Mrs. Phillips, but knowing that it wasn't one of her children I
now am basically back to square one because it will be almost impossible to
find out the identity if it was just a friend or even a distant family member
especially if it was kept as secret as I believe it was.
So, hopefully now you are able to see why I've created this website and
why I am having to look for a miracle to be able to find this information. If
there is anyone out there who has any information about this adoption or this
family please contact me. No matter what the information might be or how
insignificant you might find it please don't hesitate to contact me! Any
information I find out will mean a lot to me. Even if I'm unable to actually
locate this family I'd like to know anything about them that I can. In no way
shape or form am I trying to find this family for any kind of personal or
financial gain! I want nothing more than to know where my mother came from and
to learn about our heritage and background. I want to be able to see where my
mother came from. Most importantly I'm hoping to find any member of her
immediate biological family. Although I assume that the birth parents are
probably deceased already I am hoping that her supposed siblings might still be
alive. Finding her brother or sister would mean more to me than anything else
in this entire world. I want to be able to look her siblings and see a hint of
my mother in their eyes, or their nose, or at their "man hands" that
I myself have also inherited.