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DEBBIE BROWNING Editor Guymon Daily Herald
Debbie Browning/Guymon Daily Herald
Margaret Wright, left, donated this heirloom quilt to the No Man’s Land Historical Museum in Goodwell, which was accepted by Debbie Colson, right, museum curator.
It’s hard to believe that such a vibrant, colorful quilt is well over 100 years old, but the family history is there to back it up. Optima native Margaret Wright has donated her treasured quilt to the No Man’s Land Historical Museum in Goodwell. (See related story on Page 5A.) The “crazy” quilt was made by hand by Wright’s grandmother, Annie Eugenia Gilmore. Gilmore was born in Lebanon, Kentucky in 1866 and made the quilt before she married George Wilson Riffe, also a Kentucky native, in December 1891. The family moved to the Oklahoma Panhandle in 1902. In 1907, Annie entered the quilt in the Tyrone, Okla., fair and was awarded the coveted blue ribbon. Over the years, the family established the Riffe & Gilmore Grain Elevators and raised their family in the areas of Tyrone, Optima and Guymon. Annie Gilmore Riffe died in 1939 and passed the quilt to her granddaughter, Margaret, who was raised in Optima and taught driver’s education in the Guymon schools, before making her home in Oklahoma City. “It’s my wish that others might enjoy the beauty and lasting quality of this timeless creation,” Wright said of her decision to donate the quilt to the museum.
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