George Warren Gable Home

Have you ever driven by a house that you used to live in?  Or returned to pass by a house you visited time and time again to see aunts, uncles or grandparents?  Maybe,  if you are like me, you have even thrown the address into a search engine and perused real estate pictures of homes you once knew inside and out. Nostalgia pulls us to places where our histories were made.  

A passerby in our neighborhood stopped to say hello to a family outside their home on 14th Street. The woman explained that her grandfather had built the home and her father had grown up there.  She followed up by sending some photos of the home and family.  This was all passed on to me and I am setting it down for posterity.  Another win for neighbors, connections, oral history and the Renaissance Neighborhood History Project!

                                                                      *****

The Tudor brick bungalow home at 2714 E 14th Street was built by George Warren Gable between 1928-1930. The Gable family, Mr. George Warren Gable, Mrs. Sue Ethel Collins Gable and three sons, Collins, Ellis and George Warren Junior first lived at 1343 South Florence Avenue in a large American Foursquare home. The family may have been renting the Florence Avenue home as they had moved from Muskogee and were building their new home.  

2714 E 14th Street
Porch to left of the front door is open and brick detail on chimney is visible.

The home in 2017 before a remodel. 
Home was briefly painted a dark blue grey.

The home in 2024.

Note:  Chimney no longer has brick work detail.

George Warren Gable Sr. was born in 1876 and grew up in rural Mississippi and Texas.  In a time when higher education was rare, Gable graduated with a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago in 1913. Gable taught Latin and Greek at the University Training School in Blooming Grove, Texas. Later, he moved into administration and served as the superintendent at Duncan and Checotah, Oklahoma school systems. From 1914-1919 Gable was the president of Northeastern Normal School in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Today we know know this institution as Northeastern State University. All of the three Gable boys, Collins, Ellis and George Jr,  pursued the study of law.  Sadly, the oldest son, Collins, died from meningitis in 1926 at age 23.

1922 University of Oklahoma Yearbook Entry with Collins Gable

The 1930 US Census shows the family living in the home they built, 2714 E 14th Street.  The Census lists Gable as working in life insurance,  Sue Ethel a homemaker, Ellis working as an attorney and George Warren Junior is 12 years old.  George Jr attended Kendall Elementary School, Wilson Junior High, Central High School and the University of Oklahoma for Law School  The family pictures introduce another, no doubt very important, family member = Pepper, the family boxer.  

Pepper on a tricycle on the home's porch/patio- now enclosed.

George Jr with Pepper

George Warren Gable Jr with Pepper on east side of the home before porch was enclosed and fence was added.

George Warren Gable Jr. in cap and gown. 

Note brick detail on chimney that no longer exits.

Chimney must have been rebuilt at some point.

George Warren Gable Senior

                            

Sue Ethel Collins Gable

 

George Warren Gable Senior passed away in February of 1940.  The 1940 US Census suggests that  George Jr and his mother continued to live in the home. Gable Jr was listed as a law student at that time. Sue Ethel lived until 1961 and is buried next to her husband and son, Collins, at Greenwood Cemetery in Muskogee.

In 1947 George Jr married Dorothy Scudder.   She had been married previously and had a young son, but tragically, Lt. William Stoland Scudder, a paratrooper, was killed in action in France on July 3rd, 1944.  He was 29 years old.  

Tulsa World January 11, 1947

The 1950 US Census shows the Gable Jr family with two young sons living at 1439 S. Delaware Place in the Renaissance Neighborhood.  (The home was demolished in 2019 and today a new build sits on the lot.) In 1957 the family moved to the Florence Park Neighborhood.  Gable Jr. became a prominent Tulsa Attorney.  He was a member of Boston Avenue Methodist Church and an active volunteer in his later years.  He died in 2000 and is buried next to his wife at Woodland Memorial Park in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.  Their daughter Lee Ann, was the passerby who shared the story and the wonderful pictures included here.  

Tulsa World 
April 2000

Ellis Gable lived 96 years, passing away in 2001. He was president of the Tulsa School Board from 1956-1957 and served as president of the Tulsa County Bar Association and Oklahoma Bar Association. 

When and where Pepper was laid to rest is unknown.  Perhaps, the playful companion was buried at 2714 E. 14th Street, forever guarding the Gable home.   

References:

Ancestry.com

Findagrave.com

Newspapers.com

Personal communication with Lee Ann Daugherty