DeHart -- my birth surname

I was born Dennis DeHart, and after the intervention of Cherokee County officials, I was adopted by Mildred and Ralph Henderson in September, 1951. My twin sister Donna was also adopted by Mildred & Ralph (hereafter and forever, 'Mom and Dad'.)

I have always known I was adopted, and while my blood family lived within 2 hours of my parents, no contact was made until Donna received permission from Mom to start the search for her blood sisters. Surprisingly, only a single phone call was needed to learn the whereabouts of the "new" sisters we'd never met.

A single phone call? One of our Mom's sisters, Georgia, had married a guy named Glenn Robison. Guess who Glenn's sister, Ruby, had married?? Ruby had married Lester DeHart, one of my blood dad's brothers!! Thus, Ruby opened the road to find the blood sisters we didn't know, had never met, and half of whom hardly even knew the twins existed.

Soon, the snowball for a sibling reunion started rolling. Due to the timing, however, I didn't want to meet them. Mom had just passed away in January, followed by Dad in July. I really didn't need "another family", and Donna was forced to persuade me. She offered 3 arguments: (a), these were not the people who had hurt us [Donna and I were adopted because of child abuse]; (b), Donna did not want to go alone to meet her 'new' sisters, who we discovered numbered four; and, (c), the oldest of the 'new' sisters wanted to meet me, as she was convinced she remembered me.

So, on Labor Day Sunday, 1993, Donna and her husband Kirk, met Jan and myself for the journey to meet the assembled DeHart sisters, along with their spouses and various kids. After paying respects to our parents, now buried in Columbus, Kansas, we drove south about 45 miles to Afton, Oklahoma, coming to a stop in front of Connie Clinton's house. I got out, walked in, and said, "Hi, I'm the boy twin." (As if they couldn't tell us apart!)

Of course, there are a myriad of details, stories, problems, and discoveries associated with this kind of family reunion. For now, I'll let a picture speak it's proverbial thousand words. This photograph was shot by Sally's husband Steve, that fateful Labor Day afternoon, within a couple hours of our first meeting ever.

(Photograph by Steve Armstrong)

Top row, left to right: Lynda, Donna (twin sister), and yours truly, Dennis.

Front row, left to right: Mary, Sally, and Connie.

We are an interesting bunch. For our very first photo, we arranged ourselves in date of birth order, of all things. Lynda (upper left) is the oldest, then the age decreases to Lynda's left. Continue back down to Mary (lower left), ending with the baby sister, Connie, in the lower right. Eight years separate the six of us.