Tracy Hess:  

Hi guys. I don't know if you all will remember me; I moved back and forth between Broken Arrow and Bartlesville. Was born in Tulsa 9-10-65 (can you believe we're this OLD?). My biological parents split up when I was 6 mo's old and my mother and I lived in Broken Arrow. She married my step dad when I was 2 1/2. Until I was 14, I used his last name, (Tracy ANN) Booth, and I went to Broken Arrow schools. Then I moved to Bartlesville (Madison and Sooner) and started using my biological last name, Hess and during the 1/2 year I went to Col-Hi our junior year, I lived with my grandparents, whose last name I legally took a few years ago, Mills. To jog your memories, in BA elementary and middle school, I was friends with Kim Keel, Lisa Broadhurst, Pam Blevins, Gerri Anderson, Robin Tate, Julie Bennett, Tracey Eaton, and those guys. We were goofy and we had alot of fun. Remember, my mother would bring sugar cookies on my birthday at exactly 10:30 (or somewhere right around that time), which was when I was born. A lot of you told me you wished she, (you addressed her as Mrs Booth) was yours. :) Jodie Michelle, my sister and I took gymnastics and spent alot of time playing out in the woods near our house. Our mother and my step-dad, Jim Booth, got divorced when I was 11 and we all pretty much fell apart after that. And then when I moved to Bartlesville in with my biological father Jim Hess, step-mom Linda and brother David Lee (they own the 5th and Shawnee Liquor) after 8th grade, I was friends with Juli Shinn, Barbie Jones, Suzanne Iglehart and that whole gang at Madison and Sooner, and my first boyfriend was Brian Jeffers. I have to say that Brian J. was the nicest guy I ever met. We all went to the movies every Friday night and then hung out at McDonald's afterwards and Sooner pool every day in the summer. Ahh, those were the days....before getting "old" and being full of physical problems, huh? I was in choir with Judy Sartor and Jayme Spangenburg. Ken Koch and Judy, Troy and I had a great time in Galveston on our choir trip that year. When I moved back to BA and was there for the 1st 1/2 of our junior year, I had come back as Tracy Hess and you know how kids are; there were all kinds of rumors that I'd gotten married or something; lol. Anyway, I was friends with Gretchen Gray, Roxanne Hager, Lori McIntyre, Tammy Holms (who also moved back and forth between BA and Bville as well as Chipper Degeer) and the whole "Junior Civitan" group. Remember, we used to hang out in the Wal-Mart parking lot and party on weekends and then we JC'ers would go clean it up on Sunday mornings. I can't believe they let us do that! Then I moved back to Bartlesville, lived with my grandparents, went to Col-Hi, hung out with Kelly Schmidt and Marti DeSalme and dated Doyle Brookshire for the rest of that junior year. Remember him? Wild child that he was; I remember that he hand picked (hee,hee; I'll save that story for him to tell) roses for me and snuck them over to my place as a surprise and I actually wrote him a poem. Weren't we sweet? LOL And well, you know how that year ended. There's no point in sugar coating, so I won't. I was a messed up, extemely depressed kid and just like now, I always tried to be smiling and laughing so no one knew, but the overdose told the truth. Anyway, thank you so much for the ones who came to the hospital to see me; I haven't forgotten. I sustained multiple physical problems from that, including a chemically burnt lung, messed up kidneys and bladder, eye issues (the left one was totally blind at first but isn't anymore, thank God), and especially nerve damage that resulted in total paralysis in my ankles. I was in Jane Phillips Hospital for 5 weeks, then I went back to BA to live with my mother and sister, Jodie Booth. I had home tutoring our senior year and as a result, had a 4.0! :) I went, with my mother and sister's help, and the friendship of Tony Kountoupis and Jeff Christian, who came to visit me, from not walking at all to using a walker, then four-pronged cane and leg braces, to just leg braces. I moved back to Bville in with my grandparents the 2nd 1/2 of our senior year and graduated from Bartlesville High (the new school consolidated from Col-Hi and Sooner). :) Well, hardhead that I am, I stopped wearing the braces a few years later after Brian Hadden (some of you might have known him; he is a few years older than us and he graduated from Col-Hi in '79 or '80. I can't remember; he was born in '62.--Tall, brown hair, green eyes) and I got married in '84. I still have partial paralysis and other physical issues that are residual effects of that little episode, but I'm still going and there are so many people with worse problems, I know. Some days it's really, really bad and other days I do okay. One thing that I found out during all that is that all the bones on my left side are longer; my left leg is 1 3/4" longer. So, ha! THAT's why I was so uncoordinated. My spine's curved and it gives me fits some days because of it. Anyway, I went to OSU for one year after we graduated while seeing Brian H. all year. Judy Sartor and I were buddies again at school. Brian and I got married the following June. Anyway, he and I did it all the right way at first; we had a gorgeous wedding in Bville and lived in Tulsa. Then we had some trouble but couldn't stay away from each other even after a divorce. B and I have two beautiful boys, Brandon Austin and Jesse Taylor, who are young adults now as a result. I kept my name Hadden and lived in BA and worked in Tulsa for years, raising the boys. And you know, I am definitely my mother's daughter because she never got over her first true love, my father (who she grew up with and dated from age 14 on in Bville), and I never got over Brian Hadden. Terrible what pride does to people. And it took me 25...Expand for more