Fair's May Fair

 Ralph James May

"MAY Ralph James, born Dec. 31, 1907 in Thomas, OK to John Harry & Emma Elizabeth (Luderman) May.  

He died Sat. at the Stillwater Nursing Home in Stillwater, OK. He married Dorothy Champlin in 1931 in Enid, OK.

 He grew up in Oklahoma City and graduated from Classen High School. He received a B.A. and an LLD from OU in 1931. 

He was an assistant city attorney in Okla. City. He was with Shell Oil in Tulsa '35-'45. 

He was in private practice in Okla. City from 1945 until his retirement. He was with Bulla, May and Byman and later alone in private practice. 

He moved to a farm near Hydro, OK in 1965 and came to Stillwater in 1977 to be with his daughter.

 He played Baseball in high school and at OU, and was also Team Manager for basketball at OU. A member of Crown Heights Christian Church and a former Deacon and Elder. He was active in the United Way, and a 32 degree Mason in Guthrie. 

He was preceded in death by a brother, John H. May. He is survived by a son, Ralph James May, Jr. Memphis, Tenn. Daughters Janice Louise May Tollas, The Woodlands, Tx., and Melanie Ruth May Bloodgood, OKC, OK. 6 grandchildren. 

 Memorial services will be 2:00 PM Tues. 9-29-92 at Crown Heights Christian Church with interment in Rose Hill Cemetery." 

"Lily-of-the-valley and Hawthorn are the May birth flowers."

(Fair's fair. ) 

"In ancient astrology, Lily-of-the-valley was said to be protected by the son of the goddess Maia. In Greek mythology, that son was Hermes; for the Romans, it was Mercury.

According to legend, Lily-of-the-valley fell in love with the song of the nightingale and only bloomed when the bird returned to the woods in May.

It is also believed that Apollo created the ground cover flower for nymphs to walk on.

This flower has been associated with motherhood, sweetness, purity, and humility. It signifies a return to happiness, likely due to its time of bloom and the anticipation of summer.

In Christian lore, Lily-of-the-valley came to be from Eve’s tears after she was expelled from the Garden of Eden. It has also been said that Lily-of-the-valley sprouted from the tears of Mary at the site of Christ’s crucifixion."

"David May was born to a Jewish family in Kaiserslautern, then located in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany. In 1854, he immigrated with his family to the United States and settled in Cincinnati. As a young man he worked at a clothing factory, while attending night school at Cincinnati's Nelson Business College.  

May Company went on to become one of the largest department store chains in the United States through organic growth and acquisitions. Some of the chains acquired included: Bernheim-Leader in Baltimore, Maryland; Kaufmann's in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; The Daniels & Fisher Stores Company in Denver, Colorado; Hecht's in Baltimore, Maryland; G. Fox & Co. in Hartford, Connecticut; and Meier & Frank in Portland, Oregon."

 "On February 28, 2005, Federated Department Stores, Inc., announced that they would acquire the May company for $11 billion."  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_May_(merchant)

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"Samuel Abraham Marx (August 27, 1885 - January 1964) was an American architect, designer and interior decorator. He is generally considered a modernist, influenced by the International style. House Beautiful magazine (1948) said about his works “it’s frequently hard to say where the architecture ends and the furniture begins.”

"Marx was born to a Jewish family in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1885. He graduated from MIT's Department of Architecture in 1907, with his thesis Design for a Synagogue. He then went studying to Europe for eight months." 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Abraham_Marx

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'Kathy May Fritz (born June 18, 1956) is an American former professional tennis player. She reached three Grand Slam quarterfinals, once at the US Open in 1978 and twice at the French Open in 1977 and 1978. She won seven WTA singles titles during her career, and achieved a career-high ranking of world no. 10 in 1977."  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_May

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'May was born to a Jewish family, the son of Sarah (née Hirsch) and Morton J. May. He was the grandson of David May, who started the family in merchandising from a canvas-roofed makeshift shop" 

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The Wilbur D. May Center is an attraction located in Rancho San Rafael Regional Park at 1595 North Sierra, Reno, Nevada.  

The facility comprises the Wilbur D. May Museum and the Wilbur D. May Arboretum and Botanical Garden. Previously, it also included the Great Basin Adventure, a children's park." 

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May Name Meaning

'English: from the Middle English male personal name May a pet form of Matthew (see Mayhew ).  

English Dutch and German: from a personal name or nickname taken from the month of May (Middle English Old French mai Middle High German meie from Latin Maius (mensis) from Maia a minor Roman goddess of fertility).  

This name was sometimes bestowed on someone born or baptized in the month of May; it was also used to refer to someone of a sunny disposition or who had some anecdotal connection with the month of May such as owing a feudal obligation then.  

In England this name was possibly also a pet form of Mary or Margaret. This surname is also found in France (Alsace and Lorraine) and Denmark. 

 English: nickname from Middle English mey may ‘kinsman’. English: occupational name from Middle English mei Old French mege meie ‘physician’ a side form of Mee . Irish (Connacht and Midlands): when not of English origin (see 1–4 above) this is an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Miadhaigh ‘descendant of Miadhach’ a personal name or byname meaning ‘honorable proud’.  

French: habitational name from any of various places called (Le) May. Compare Dumay and Lemay .7: French: from an old vernacular form of the Latin personal name Marius (see Mario ).8: Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name from Mayen a place in western Germany.9:  

Americanized form of Polish and Jewish from Poland) Maj ‘May’ a cognate of 2 above.10: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surnames 麥 (see Mai ) and 梅 (see Mei ). This form occurs more often for the personal name than for the surname. 

1 Amerindian (Mexico): Mayan name from maay ‘cloven hoof’ by extension also ‘young deer’."

https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=may 

"Another frequent source for Jewish and German-Jewish surnames is the names of trades and occupations; 

 such names as Kaufmann and Marchant ("merchant") became prominent. Others of the same kind are: Bialasik, Banks, Brauer, Breyer, and Brower ("brewer"); Spielmann ("musician"); Gerber ("tanner"); Goldschmit (Goldsmith); Silverschmit (Silversmith); Steinschneider ("stonecutter"); Graveur ("engraver"); Shoemark or Schumacher ("shoemaker"); Schuster ("cobbler"); Schneider, Schneiders, and Snyders ("tailor"; in Hebrew חייט‎, Chait/Khait (and at times Hyatt[citation needed])); Wechsler ("money-changer"); Zimmermann ("Carpenter"). Related, and likewise generically German, names are derived metonymically for a common object or tool of a profession: e.g., Hammer for a blacksmith, Feder ("quill") for a scribe, and Lein ("linen") for a dealer in cloth; Balsam a dealer in Balsam." 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_surname 

"Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, often spelled Cornelius Jacobsz May 

 in Dutch, was a 17th-century century Dutch explorer, captain, and fur trader.  

Mey was the first Director of New Netherland and was stationed at Fort Amsterdam.  

Mey was the captain of the ship Nieu Nederlandt which delivered the first boat load of colonists to New Netherland in north-east America." 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Jacobsen_May

"Jan Jacobsz May is best remembered for giving his name to the island of Jan Mayen. As part of an exploratory expedition for the Noordsche Compagnie, May visited the island in July 1614. The highly regarded cartographer Joris Carolus was on board, and made a (now lost) report and (still existing) map of the voyage" 

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"Hawthorn have long been a symbol of hope.  

Other associations include its ability to mark the entrance to other worlds, with a strong connection to fairies.

Ancient Greeks were said to use its branches during wedding processions, while in Celtic lore, Hawthorn was thought to heal a broken heart.

According to Serbian lore, it was once believed that stakes made from Hawthorn could slay vampires.

Hawthorn are associated with the pagan symbol of fertility.

It was once thought that bringing a hawthorn blossom inside would be followed by illness and death. During medieval times, the smell of Hawthorn blossom was associated with the Great Plague.  

Many have believed that a Hawthorn’s bloom marked the point of change from spring to summer.

Hawthorn in History

The Hawthorn’s link to May Day is undeniable.  

For this reason, it has been customary to decorate the celebration with flowering Hawthorn branches, most notably in the form of May Day garlands." 

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"He brought provisions like a drunken sailor, and potted flowers for the months at sea, so his daughters could smell earth while a thousand miles of ocean carried them toward hope. "

"She checked the seed vault shortly before lift off, all phylum intact, every species earth once bore, and a true repository of human DNA eggs and sperm unaltered, no family left out. It was better than an ark and closer to an encyclopedia with thrusters and spinning rims. "