Adelbert HOOKINS (Tree I)

Adelbert HOOKINS was born in March 1881 and is the father of John Scott HOOKINS in the previous post. Adelbert was born in Oil City Pennsylvania one of 5 children of Isaac Frank HOOKINS and his wife Elizabeth Ann both of whom are said to have been born in England but that has not yet been proven. Neither is the fact that Elizabeth had been married prior to this marriage. Adelbert migrated to Kansas in the early 1900s to work for Prairie Oil & Gas Company which made the town of Independence its Headquarters from 1905. John Scott HOOKINS was born there in 1921 and Adelbert eventually died in the town in February 1950.

John Scott HOOKINS (Tree I)

John Scott HOOKINS (known as Scott) was born in 1921 in Independence Kansas the only son of Adelbert HOOKINS (not to be confused with his nephew Adelbert Mitchell HOOKINS) and Mary Irene (formerly SCOTT). The adjacent picture is said to have been taken in 1934 when Scott was approaching his 14th birthday but he looks quite mature for his age in his smart suit. Scott married and had one daughter and later went to live in Arkansas from where he wrote to me on a few occasions. He died in 2001.

Ardelle HOOKINS (Tree I)

Ardelle HOOKINS was a renowned flautist and in some articles is described as "the legendary Ardelle HOOKINS". She studied with George BARRERE - reputed to be the best flautist in the world at the time - when she was only 12 years old at the Chautauqua Institute. She was one of the youngest flautists in the world in 1931 and was considered too young to travel on her own so required a chaperone. She was a member of The Hookins Entertainers Deluxe with her father and brothers and performed lunch and dinner music at the Athenaeum Hotel in New York. Barrere insisted that she complete high school before entering the Institute of Musical Art so she auditioned for William Curtis at Kincaid at Curtis. She spent 6 years as the only woman in the Curtis wind department, graduating in 1934. Later she played in the Boston Women's Symphony under Ethel Leginska.
Ardelle was born in 1913 in Oil City Pennsylvania, one of 2 sisters and 3 brothers born to Frank and Mable HOOKINS. She married Arthur Donald BOWERS IN 1938 and they had 4 children. She was then known as Ardelle HOOKINS-BOWERS. Ardelle pre-
deceased her husband in 1995 in Mooretown New Jersey at the
age of 82 years.



Ardelle is pictured her with Georges BARRERE at the Athenaeum Hotel in 1925