| Marie Farrell bought the stock from Dr. P.T. Morgan and the property itself from P.W. Jenkins in 1946. Marie's husband George had died suddenly the year before. She continued running the drug store. Later her sister, Helen Atwood, installed a dress shop in the hall on the east side, the front part of the dance hall, called Helen's Shop. Helen had come to live with Marie at age eight. She traveled alone by train to Opal then came to Big Piney with the Chrisman sisters. Helen lived with Marie and George in one of the houses behind the Farrell Bar. Helen came back to Big Piney in 1948 from Pinedale where she had been working first for the welfare office, then later as a Deputy County Clerk and finally she was appointed County Clerk to finish out the term of Karen Faler who resigned. Helen and Marie made living quarters out of part of the old Hook Dance Hall. The building had seen other uses also, such as a Penney's store, American Legion Hall, and a bar. It burned on the evening of 27 March 1961. At the time of the fire, it was owned by George and Edythe Barp. Marie had sold it to them in the spring of 1956 and had built her new home in connection with Helen's Shop on Budd Avenue, on the ground where the block building stood that was built by Charley Clyde in the twenties. |