Ladd Careers
Forrest and Jean (Karns) Ladd
Forrest Jr. was born in a farmhouse on 18 Jan 1927 in the Happy Valley Community near Cushing and Avery, Oklahoma. Click here
The family got their mail from Avery, which was the official city of Forrest Jr's birth.
His parents were Forrest Earl Ladd and Bonnie (Stillwell) Ladd. Click here
They made their home in a two-room house which was located on an upland farm of about 80 acres, owned by Forrest's mother and step-father Will and Mamie Anderson Ladd Hood, who lived about a half-mile away across the county road. Forrest was 19 and Bonnie was 20 at the time. Forrest farmed the land and added to the family income by occasional work for neighbors, selling animal hides, and driving a school bus.
Melva Jean was born on 9 Mar 1927 at home, which was a farmhouse near Kingsdown, Ford County, Kansas. Click here
Parents Elmer and Verna (Dawson) Karns lived on the Clark Place, which was located south and east of Dodge City, Kansas in Ford County. It was a few miles south of the town of Ford, but the closest town was Kingsdown, the town listed as her birthplace. The family, which included older sister Colleen, lived in various farming communities in the area. In 1943 they remodeled the home of Verna's parents, Isom and Allie (Cannady) Dawson, located a few miles east and north of Ford, still in Ford County, Kansas. Both Elmer and Verna had brief careers as teachers, but were a farm family at the time the girls were born.
Forrest completed elementary school at Happy Valley Rural School in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Click here
Jean went to the Ford, Kansas public schools. Click here
Both of them attended Bethany-Peniel College (later names are Bethany Nazarene College and, currently, Southern Nazarene University). Click here
Forrest and Jean were married 20 August 1950 in the Church of the Nazarene, Ford, Kansas. Click here
To see a portrait of Forrest and Jean taken in March of 2014 for our church directory, click here.
To go to Forrest's career story, click here.
To go to Jean's career story, click here.