A life, recovered / 1921–1999
Euna Mae Carden Perry
The work that held the ranch together
Euna Mae Carden Perry in a restored and colorized portrait.
01
Across the field, the books and the kitchen
Euna Mae Carden Perry’s work did not fit a single job title. Family recollections describe her pulling cotton, sacking peanuts, keeping books, sewing clothes, preparing meals and carrying lunches to the fields. She hauled water and heated it on a wood stove.
These were connected tasks in one household economy. The farm needed food, accounts, clothing and water as surely as it needed a crop.
Sources: Distance Is an Operating Expense
Euna Mae holding a baby. The family album inscription reads “Mickey 1950”; the baby’s full identity is unconfirmed. HIM restoration.
View the source record →02
Raising a family near Aspermont
Euna Mae and Raymond Perry married in Stonewall County on December 6, 1935. Their daughters’ recollections preserve the ranch as a place of field work, long school-bus journeys, swimming and parents who improvised opportunities.
In the family group photograph dated approximately 1950, Euna Mae is identified holding Sandra. The photograph brings the remembered work back to the people who did it.
Sources: Distance Is an Operating Expense · UNSUPERVISED* family register · Recovered family photograph register
03
The family they raised
Euna Mae and Raymond’s children were Barbara Gayle, Wanda Dale, Deloris Ann, Sandra and their only son, Mickey Joe. Barbara and Wanda were both born on December 1, two years apart, sharing their mother’s birthday.
Euna’s own account follows the family from Stonewall County to Spur and later to a ranch in Hamilton County. She recorded Raymond’s death on July 12, 1974, and his burial in Aspermont Cemetery.
Sources: Raymond John D. Perry family record · Julia and Euna Perry in A History of Stonewall County · Services Held Monday for Raymond Perry
04
Holly
The family later knew her as Holly. Holly’s Snack Shack carried that nickname into another family place, near Lake Whitney.
A storefront name can be a modest memorial. In this case it kept a familiar name in everyday use, attached to the practical business of feeding people.
Sources: UNSUPERVISED* family register
Look a little closer
The photographs
hold more of the story.
Open any image to see the complete photograph. Captions name the people and places in each photograph.
Clayton’s great-grandparents Raymond Perry and Euna Mae Carden Perry with their daughter Sandra, Raymond’s brother Otis and other Perry relatives.
View the source record →
Euna Mae Carden Perry at left and Raymond John D. Perry at right.
View the source record →A life in the landscape
The places in this story.
Explore this person’s places in the shared family atlas, or choose All people to follow the wider record.
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One life leads to another.
Behind this biography
Sources & further reading
These sources support the biography and its continuing research.
- Distance Is an Operating Expense ↗
Published family recollections of Perry Ranch work, school travel and the harvest photograph; recollections are oral history.
- UNSUPERVISED* family register ↗
Existing family record supplied and maintained by Clayton Hollingsworth; conclusions retain the stated evidence limits.
- Recovered family photograph register ↗
Photograph identifications and dates retain their stated family-memory or documentary status.
- Raymond John D. Perry family record
Family-tree export supplied by Clayton Hollingsworth, October 25, 2026. The original and detailed research notes remain private.
- Julia and Euna Perry in A History of Stonewall County ↗
First-person family accounts published in 1979, page 254.
- Services Held Monday for Raymond Perry ↗
The Aspermont Star, July 18, 1974, page 3. Contemporary funeral and surviving-family report.
More from UNSUPERVISED*