ESTER ELIZABETH YONKER KIRKPATRICK was in the Ranger
High School Class of 1923 at Ranger, TX. She was born
March 5, 1905, in Sisterville, WV, to Helen Catherine
Cleary and Fritz Yonker. She married Samuel Lawrence
Kirkpatrick at Ranger in Sept. of 1928. He came from
Kentucky to work for Lone Star Gas. They had two
daughters: Jeanette "Cookie" Cason (RHS-1952), who
died in 2000, while living at League City, TX, and
Mary Helen Short (RHS-1948) who died in 2012.
Ester's father, Fritz Yonker, was the superintendent
of Lone Star Gas until he retired. He brought his
family to Ranger from Bartlesville, OK, via New York
& Pennsylvania. The oldest of seven, Ester's siblings
included Tom Yonker (RHS-1925), Frederick Yonker (RHS-
1932), Margaret Yonker (RHS-1931), Mary Alice Yonker
Ferrara (RHS-1934), Jeanette Yonker (RHS-1929), &
Gene Yonker.
Ester was the consummate mother and wife of the 30's
& 40's. She worked for Lone Star Gas until just prior
to her first child's birth in 1932. An accomplished
seamstress and a cook extraordinaire and very socially
adept, she hosted dinner parties, teas, showers, wedding
receptions, farewell parties, and special occasion
celebrations that delighted all who attended. Her two
daughters were her great pride and delight and she was
active in the St. Rita's School PTA & the Catholic
Church's Women Altar Society. She was an avid reader
and bridge player, belonging to both types of social
clubs. Interestingly, she was an ERA activist and
feminist long before the words were coined.
Her two grandsons, Bob Short of Frisco, TX, and Glen
Cason of Edna, TX, have four daughters, Kaila Short,
and Karin, Monica and Georgann Cason who would have
greatly delighted Ester Kirkpatrick; however, she
died just two days before she would have been 54, on
March 3, 1959, in Range. Mr. Sam Kirkpatrick died
in 1969, at Eagle Lake. Both are buried in Evergreen
Cemetery at Ranger.