Audio Description: Stella Gets Wired by Sherry Pettey
Press play and discover Sherry Pettey's painting Stella Gets Wired. Hear a detailed description of the artwork, descriptions of the colors and forms in the painting, and how the artist made the work. (Close captions available on video.)
Stella Gets Wired, Sherry Pettey, 2008, Mural
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Stella Gets Wired by Sherry Pettey is a 10’ x 6’ mural painted with oils in 2008. It is located inside the Le Ru Telephone Company in Stella, Missouri.
The telephone industry developed throughout rural America early in the 1890s and reached Stella in 1899. Pettey’s mural tells the story of how the telephone impacted this small, rural community. She used a series of vignettes skillfully woven together to tell the history of telecommunication and its impact on the history of Stella, Missouri.
Starting at the mural’s center, we see a taut string with a tin can on each side connecting the two most prominent portraits of the overall work. Left of center is Stella Eagle, for whom the community is named, she holds a silver can up in her right hand and speaks into it. She wears a red dress with white piping and a matching, red bow that holds her light brown hair back. Right of center, Leon Millikin, who ushered the town’s telephone service into the modern age, uses his right hand to hold his can up to his right ear to receive the message from Stella transmitted across the string. He wears a blue suit with a white shirt and black tie. He gives a thumbs-up gesture with his left hand. Leon purchased the Stella phone company in the early 1960's. This visualization represents the connection from the past to the present through their use of two tin cans and a string stretched between them.
In the mural’s center, behind the taut string, is the water-powered grist mill built on the banks of Indian Creek in 1867 by Moses Eagle, the town’s founder and grandfather of Stella. Early settlers of the area gathered here to have their grain ground into meal and catch up on local news. The white, wood-frame building is three-stories and powered by an undershot water wheel on its left turning in the waters of Indian Creek. By the mill’s front porch is a horse hitched to a wagon being loaded by one man. Three other men are looking on nearby from the raised loading dock at the front of the building. Moving to the right, in a field in front of the mill, a second loaded wagon is pulled by a brown horse driven by two men sitting in its buckboard seat.
Directly above the girl's head in the upper left hand side of the mural is the banks of Indian Creek where the town of Stella was founded. Native American hunting parties visited this area often prior to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. After that hunting parties still made occasional visits here and made contact with European settlers. The only means of communication with the outside world was face to face often meaning miles of travel. Here in the upper left corner, a white sawn lumber bridge, with double board railing, extends many feet across the creek growing smaller until it disappears into rows of lush green trees on the far bank in the distance. The bridge crosses above the glimmering light and dark blue rippling waters of a sunny Indian Creek. Above the bridge is a majestic tree with dark green foliage, brown trunk, and limbs that rise from the bank and disappear off the top of the mural. Bushy shrubs and grass grow on the left and right of the bridge’s entrance. A lone male on horseback is dressed in brown trousers with black suspenders that cross on his back against a white, long-sleeved shirt. He wears a simple, wide-brimmed, flat-top hat and holds the reins of the horse in his left hand as he sits in a black, western-style saddle on a light brown horse with black mane and tail. Two Native American males paddle a brown canoe towards the left bank to communicate face to face with the man on horseback.
Directly below this scene, we see the upper half of a man with black hair, black muttonchop beard, and black mustache dressed in a black suit coat, bow tie and vest. This is Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone in 1876. The telephone’s use spread quickly through the United States reaching Stella in 1899. Below him is pictured an early liquid transmitter telephone. It has a black, trumpet-shaped mouthpiece attached to brass-colored mechanisms which are attached to a brown wood, circular base. In the background of the device, we see fluffy clouds against a bright blue sky and trees of fall foliage in reds and yellows. These make up the background of the scene that fills out the bottom left corner of this work that will be described after we move back to the top center of the work.
Here we see the grassy hillside of Indian Creek merge into a yellow-green wall where a woman is speaking on a brown wooden wall telephone. The phone’s rectangular base is attached to the wall and has two raised sections. The top section has two round, brass gongs on the front’s top. Below this section, and extending towards the woman, is a black, cylinder-shaped mouthpiece with a brass switch hook for holding the headset to its left. The woman is holding the cylinder-shaped, black headset receiver in her right hand which is connected by a cord to the phone. On her face is an expression of excitement as the first call from Stella is made on August 31, 1899. Behind her is the inside of the Lentz & Carter Mercantile store containing tall shelves full of various merchandise. A shaft of bright light spills into the scene from the open doorway. The woman has curly blonde hair in a bun on the top of her head and a beaded necklace around her neck. She wears a dress with a fitted blue bodice that has a high neckline and long sleeves that puff at the shoulder. A red belt is fastened at her waist with five white buttons and her bell-shaped skirt is a matching red.
Around her is a crowd gathered to see this exciting, new device in operation in their town. In front of her a small, black-haired boy, wearing overalls and a white, short-sleeved shirt, is reaching up toward the phone with his right arm. To his left, is a slightly taller girl looking up. She is dressed in a purple, short-sleeved dress that has ruffles over the shoulder and her long, blond hair is pulled back with a purple bow. Behind the woman stands an older child with her left hand held up to her mouth. She is dressed in a calf-length green dress with three quarter sleeves and a white collar that is closely fitted at her waist and has ruffles on the hemline and cuffs. She wears black, high-topped shoes and a brown, wide-brimmed hat over her short, curly, blond hair. Moving to the right, we see a teenage boy, with his hands in his pockets, intently looking at the women on the phone. He is dressed in black pants, a black jacket, a white shirt with tie, and a black, round-crowned hat. Behind him stand three adults all looking at the woman on the phone intently. The first on the left is a man, with black hair and a black mustache, tipping his black, flat-top hat with his right hand. He is dressed in a black jacket and pants with a white shirt and black tie. A white handkerchief is seen in his front jacket pocket pointing upright. Moving right stands an older, well-dressed woman in a dark blue dress with a high, tight-fitting collar adorned with a round, white broach. The dress is tightly fitted at her waist and has a bell-shaped skirt. Its sleeves are puffy at the shoulder, tapering down to a long sleeve fitted at her wrist. The bodice has a row of white ruffles from the shoulder draping across the mid-chest of the dress. Upon her head is a wide-brimmed, blue hat adorned with dark pink flowers and a white feather plum. She wears white gloves and is holding a brown handbag down at her side with her right hand and she holds a white handkerchief up in her left. Continuing right, is an older gentleman with a white beard and mustache. He is dressed in a black suit and tie, white shirt, dark blue vest, and a black, derby hat. His hands are in his pockets as he cranes his head and leans into the scene. This is Moses Eagle, the early settler upon whose land the village was founded and named after his young granddaughter Stella.
Back to the bottom left, we find the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store. It is a white frame, rectangular two-story building with a gabled roof and narrow parapet. On its second story, there are two windows on the front and three windows on its longer side. The lower story is a storefront with a recessed entryway and a large four-pane display window that flanks the doorway. There is a raised porch on the front and side of the building. On the long side, in black letters, it reads “Lentz and Carter General Merchandise” above a selection of displayed goods including a basket of apples, ladder, and bags of grain. In addition to being an outlet for essential wares and groceries, the store was the location where locals would congregate for social gatherings and to share the news of the day. It was such an important meeting place that the first telephone in the village was installed there. This scene, depicting early 1900's life in Stella, shows two local women, one in a long green dress and the other in a long blue dress with matching hats, holding their purchases in their arms as they visit in front of the store. A boy stands to the left of the pair in dark overalls and cap holding a broom. Below them, a black, Model T pickup truck is backed up to the raised porch where a man in dark pants, white shirt with rolled up sleeves, and a dark hat loads a box into the vehicle. In front of the pickup, a black, two-seated surrey is moving past pulled by two brown horses. In the front seat is a man wearing a black suit and hat with a white shirt holding the reins in his hands and seated next to him is a woman dressed in a long, dark red dress and hat. The surrey has red cushioned seats and a black cloth canopy. Coming around the store’s side, toward the two horses, is a black, Model T with wooden-spoked wheels. A man, dressed in dark clothing, is seated beside a woman wearing a white, long-sleeved top and a hat. They both ride in the front seat of the open-topped vehicle. In front of the Lentz and Carter store, we see many telephone wires stretching between two tall, wooden poles that have triple wood braces on top. By now, phone service was growing in Stella - other businesses and some homes had it. To the right of the street scene, is a large, 1920's model, candlestick-style telephone. This was the first type of phone to reach ordinary homes and businesses and was common from the late 1890s to the 1930s. In the 1930s, local telephone calls in America could typically be dialed directly, but long-distance calls still required the assistance of a switchboard operator. The black phone consists of a circular base with a rotary dial on top used to dial the phone number. A vertical, candlestick-shaped neck extends upward from the base with a cone-shaped mouthpiece mounted at the top. The mouthpiece hangs from a fork-shaped, switch hook that extends from the left side of the phone’s neck and is attached to the base of the phone by a heavy cord.
In the bottom center of the mural, to the right of the candlestick phone, is a one-story, rock building with cars parked in front, models spanning from the 1920's to the late 1950's. Yellow light fills the windows along the building's front streaming out. This is the Cardwell Hospital that was opened in 1920 by Dr. Clarence C. Cardwell, who had been born only two miles outside of Stella in 1892. As the hospital expanded to meet the growing medical needs of the local community, its need for telephone service grew as well. The hospital is depicted as it looked in late 1957, a man is shown holding his pregnant wife's arm as they hurry inside the hospital to have their baby delivered on a dark rainy night.
Moving back up the mural, (to the right of the first phone call in Stella scene), is a white house with shiplap siding and a single door flanked by two windows with black and white striped awnings. A sidewalk extends from the door’s two steps. A small, white dog on a leash is waiting for his owner on the sidewalk. The owner is shown in silhouette inside a tall, red phone booth that has a white sign with the word "Telephone" on it in red, block letters. Green shrubs sit below the home's windows surrounded by green grass. Two spindly trees, with yellow green leaves, stand on either side of the lawn by the road framing the scene. This house is the Millikin family home where the Le-Ru Telephone Company, owned by Leon and Ruth Millikin, was housed in the home’s back room from 1962-1969. The Le-Ru Telephone Company got its name by using the first two letters in Leon and Ruth's name to form Le-Ru. In its front yard stood the first public phone booth in Stella, which became a focal point in the small town. Here Ruth and Leon raised four children who are seen painted directly below this vignette. Going left to right(and tallest to shortest), Jim is in brown trousers and a blue and white striped shirt, Bob in a green shirt with dark pants, Rick is in a yellow shirt and blue jeans, and last is their little sister Vicki wearing a pink dress with a wide, white collar. Continuing right is a portrait of the top half of their mother Ruth dressed in a scooped-necked, red dress, white, dangly earrings, and wire-rimmed glasses. She has curly, short, brown hair and a bright smile on her face. While her husband Leon acted as lineman, brush cutter, repairman, and supervisor for the company, Ruth filled the roles of switch board operator and bookkeeper while raising their four children.
At the top right hand corner of the mural, the trees of the Millikin house fade into the inside of the house to the yellow walled room that housed the telephone switchboard in the 1960s. A tall, black, vertical panel containing an array of round metal jacks, plugs, and switches make up the switchboard on the left. Seated on the right in front of the panel, is an older woman, with her hands resting on the wood desk in front of the plugs. She wears a short-sleeved shirt with a floral print of greens, purples, and blues and glasses. Resting over her short, curly brown hair is a black headset, its microphone extending down in front of her mouth from a curved arm connected to the ear piece over her left ear. This is switchboard operator Zella Mae Raulston who worked for the local phone company for 24 years. While automated switching was becoming more common, small rural areas like Stella still relied on switchboards. When the caller wanted to place a call they picked up their phone and waited for her to answer and then connect them to the person they were trying to call. Standing behind Raulston is Leon Millikin. He is dressed in a light blue work shirt, the sleeve of his right arm turned up at the cuff, and brown trousers. He holds the receiver of a 1960s, rotary dial, desk phone in his right hand up to his left ear. He’s facing the viewer, but his gaze is to the mural’s left. The 1960s marked a turning point in communication history, where the landline telephone became an essential tool in households and businesses.
Moving down the work are the four Millikin siblings as adults clustered together. The brothers stand in a row behind their sister, who is in front of them in the center. Her hair is sandy blonde and she wears a purple patterned blouse. The brothers all wear glasses, the two on either side wear dark suits with ties and the brother in the middle has a mustache and wears a long-sleeved, white shirt. Behind them are bushes painted with dots of red, yellow, and green. At the time this mural was painted, they were all co-partner owners of Le-Ru Telephone Company. Under their leadership Le-Ru entered the modern communication age. Directly above their heads on the right edge of the mural, a tall, metal cell phone tower rises into the sky. Towers like this ushered in cell phone service and represents just how far telecommunications had come in the tiny village of Stella by 2008.
Moving down and to the left, the future generations of Stella are represented by the East Newton R-VI School District's Triway Campus building in Stella. It is a single-story, brick school with a white stone facade running along the top of the building with the name of the school in large, blue letters. Wide concrete steps lead up a landing with two central glass doors with glass windows on either side that form the entrance to the school. To the left of the landing is a ramp that leads to the sidewalk below the steps. Two classroom windows are to the left of the entrance and above the ramp. There are blue railings around the ramp and steps and green shrubbery landscaping. Out front two students walk past the school. On the left, is a girl in a t-shirt, calf-length, maroon pants, with a purple backpack and behind her on the right, is a boy dressed in a red t-shirt, knee-length, denim shorts, white sneakers, with a blue backpack.
Just below the school, long-time Le-Ru Telephone Company employee Carolyn Dyer sits at her desk with a 1990’s era desktop computer, keyboard, and mouse. She’s facing the viewer with a bright smile on her face wearing glasses and a short-sleeved top with yellow, red, and blue swirls. With her left hand, she holds one of the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phones up to her left ear.
To her right, in the lower right hand corner of the mural, we come full circle with yellow and green tree foliage shading the waters of Indian Creek, which has snaked its way through the history of Stella.
The telephone industry developed throughout rural America early in the 1890s and reached Stella in 1899. Pettey’s mural tells the story of how the telephone impacted this small, rural community. She used a series of vignettes skillfully woven together to tell the history of telecommunication and its impact on the history of Stella, Missouri.
Starting at the mural’s center, we see a taut string with a tin can on each side connecting the two most prominent portraits of the overall work. Left of center is Stella Eagle, for whom the community is named, she holds a silver can up in her right hand and speaks into it. She wears a red dress with white piping and a matching, red bow that holds her light brown hair back. Right of center, Leon Millikin, who ushered the town’s telephone service into the modern age, uses his right hand to hold his can up to his right ear to receive the message from Stella transmitted across the string. He wears a blue suit with a white shirt and black tie. He gives a thumbs-up gesture with his left hand. Leon purchased the Stella phone company in the early 1960's. This visualization represents the connection from the past to the present through their use of two tin cans and a string stretched between them.
In the mural’s center, behind the taut string, is the water-powered grist mill built on the banks of Indian Creek in 1867 by Moses Eagle, the town’s founder and grandfather of Stella. Early settlers of the area gathered here to have their grain ground into meal and catch up on local news. The white, wood-frame building is three-stories and powered by an undershot water wheel on its left turning in the waters of Indian Creek. By the mill’s front porch is a horse hitched to a wagon being loaded by one man. Three other men are looking on nearby from the raised loading dock at the front of the building. Moving to the right, in a field in front of the mill, a second loaded wagon is pulled by a brown horse driven by two men sitting in its buckboard seat.
Directly above the girl's head in the upper left hand side of the mural is the banks of Indian Creek where the town of Stella was founded. Native American hunting parties visited this area often prior to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. After that hunting parties still made occasional visits here and made contact with European settlers. The only means of communication with the outside world was face to face often meaning miles of travel. Here in the upper left corner, a white sawn lumber bridge, with double board railing, extends many feet across the creek growing smaller until it disappears into rows of lush green trees on the far bank in the distance. The bridge crosses above the glimmering light and dark blue rippling waters of a sunny Indian Creek. Above the bridge is a majestic tree with dark green foliage, brown trunk, and limbs that rise from the bank and disappear off the top of the mural. Bushy shrubs and grass grow on the left and right of the bridge’s entrance. A lone male on horseback is dressed in brown trousers with black suspenders that cross on his back against a white, long-sleeved shirt. He wears a simple, wide-brimmed, flat-top hat and holds the reins of the horse in his left hand as he sits in a black, western-style saddle on a light brown horse with black mane and tail. Two Native American males paddle a brown canoe towards the left bank to communicate face to face with the man on horseback.
Directly below this scene, we see the upper half of a man with black hair, black muttonchop beard, and black mustache dressed in a black suit coat, bow tie and vest. This is Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone in 1876. The telephone’s use spread quickly through the United States reaching Stella in 1899. Below him is pictured an early liquid transmitter telephone. It has a black, trumpet-shaped mouthpiece attached to brass-colored mechanisms which are attached to a brown wood, circular base. In the background of the device, we see fluffy clouds against a bright blue sky and trees of fall foliage in reds and yellows. These make up the background of the scene that fills out the bottom left corner of this work that will be described after we move back to the top center of the work.
Here we see the grassy hillside of Indian Creek merge into a yellow-green wall where a woman is speaking on a brown wooden wall telephone. The phone’s rectangular base is attached to the wall and has two raised sections. The top section has two round, brass gongs on the front’s top. Below this section, and extending towards the woman, is a black, cylinder-shaped mouthpiece with a brass switch hook for holding the headset to its left. The woman is holding the cylinder-shaped, black headset receiver in her right hand which is connected by a cord to the phone. On her face is an expression of excitement as the first call from Stella is made on August 31, 1899. Behind her is the inside of the Lentz & Carter Mercantile store containing tall shelves full of various merchandise. A shaft of bright light spills into the scene from the open doorway. The woman has curly blonde hair in a bun on the top of her head and a beaded necklace around her neck. She wears a dress with a fitted blue bodice that has a high neckline and long sleeves that puff at the shoulder. A red belt is fastened at her waist with five white buttons and her bell-shaped skirt is a matching red.
Around her is a crowd gathered to see this exciting, new device in operation in their town. In front of her a small, black-haired boy, wearing overalls and a white, short-sleeved shirt, is reaching up toward the phone with his right arm. To his left, is a slightly taller girl looking up. She is dressed in a purple, short-sleeved dress that has ruffles over the shoulder and her long, blond hair is pulled back with a purple bow. Behind the woman stands an older child with her left hand held up to her mouth. She is dressed in a calf-length green dress with three quarter sleeves and a white collar that is closely fitted at her waist and has ruffles on the hemline and cuffs. She wears black, high-topped shoes and a brown, wide-brimmed hat over her short, curly, blond hair. Moving to the right, we see a teenage boy, with his hands in his pockets, intently looking at the women on the phone. He is dressed in black pants, a black jacket, a white shirt with tie, and a black, round-crowned hat. Behind him stand three adults all looking at the woman on the phone intently. The first on the left is a man, with black hair and a black mustache, tipping his black, flat-top hat with his right hand. He is dressed in a black jacket and pants with a white shirt and black tie. A white handkerchief is seen in his front jacket pocket pointing upright. Moving right stands an older, well-dressed woman in a dark blue dress with a high, tight-fitting collar adorned with a round, white broach. The dress is tightly fitted at her waist and has a bell-shaped skirt. Its sleeves are puffy at the shoulder, tapering down to a long sleeve fitted at her wrist. The bodice has a row of white ruffles from the shoulder draping across the mid-chest of the dress. Upon her head is a wide-brimmed, blue hat adorned with dark pink flowers and a white feather plum. She wears white gloves and is holding a brown handbag down at her side with her right hand and she holds a white handkerchief up in her left. Continuing right, is an older gentleman with a white beard and mustache. He is dressed in a black suit and tie, white shirt, dark blue vest, and a black, derby hat. His hands are in his pockets as he cranes his head and leans into the scene. This is Moses Eagle, the early settler upon whose land the village was founded and named after his young granddaughter Stella.
Back to the bottom left, we find the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store. It is a white frame, rectangular two-story building with a gabled roof and narrow parapet. On its second story, there are two windows on the front and three windows on its longer side. The lower story is a storefront with a recessed entryway and a large four-pane display window that flanks the doorway. There is a raised porch on the front and side of the building. On the long side, in black letters, it reads “Lentz and Carter General Merchandise” above a selection of displayed goods including a basket of apples, ladder, and bags of grain. In addition to being an outlet for essential wares and groceries, the store was the location where locals would congregate for social gatherings and to share the news of the day. It was such an important meeting place that the first telephone in the village was installed there. This scene, depicting early 1900's life in Stella, shows two local women, one in a long green dress and the other in a long blue dress with matching hats, holding their purchases in their arms as they visit in front of the store. A boy stands to the left of the pair in dark overalls and cap holding a broom. Below them, a black, Model T pickup truck is backed up to the raised porch where a man in dark pants, white shirt with rolled up sleeves, and a dark hat loads a box into the vehicle. In front of the pickup, a black, two-seated surrey is moving past pulled by two brown horses. In the front seat is a man wearing a black suit and hat with a white shirt holding the reins in his hands and seated next to him is a woman dressed in a long, dark red dress and hat. The surrey has red cushioned seats and a black cloth canopy. Coming around the store’s side, toward the two horses, is a black, Model T with wooden-spoked wheels. A man, dressed in dark clothing, is seated beside a woman wearing a white, long-sleeved top and a hat. They both ride in the front seat of the open-topped vehicle. In front of the Lentz and Carter store, we see many telephone wires stretching between two tall, wooden poles that have triple wood braces on top. By now, phone service was growing in Stella - other businesses and some homes had it. To the right of the street scene, is a large, 1920's model, candlestick-style telephone. This was the first type of phone to reach ordinary homes and businesses and was common from the late 1890s to the 1930s. In the 1930s, local telephone calls in America could typically be dialed directly, but long-distance calls still required the assistance of a switchboard operator. The black phone consists of a circular base with a rotary dial on top used to dial the phone number. A vertical, candlestick-shaped neck extends upward from the base with a cone-shaped mouthpiece mounted at the top. The mouthpiece hangs from a fork-shaped, switch hook that extends from the left side of the phone’s neck and is attached to the base of the phone by a heavy cord.
In the bottom center of the mural, to the right of the candlestick phone, is a one-story, rock building with cars parked in front, models spanning from the 1920's to the late 1950's. Yellow light fills the windows along the building's front streaming out. This is the Cardwell Hospital that was opened in 1920 by Dr. Clarence C. Cardwell, who had been born only two miles outside of Stella in 1892. As the hospital expanded to meet the growing medical needs of the local community, its need for telephone service grew as well. The hospital is depicted as it looked in late 1957, a man is shown holding his pregnant wife's arm as they hurry inside the hospital to have their baby delivered on a dark rainy night.
Moving back up the mural, (to the right of the first phone call in Stella scene), is a white house with shiplap siding and a single door flanked by two windows with black and white striped awnings. A sidewalk extends from the door’s two steps. A small, white dog on a leash is waiting for his owner on the sidewalk. The owner is shown in silhouette inside a tall, red phone booth that has a white sign with the word "Telephone" on it in red, block letters. Green shrubs sit below the home's windows surrounded by green grass. Two spindly trees, with yellow green leaves, stand on either side of the lawn by the road framing the scene. This house is the Millikin family home where the Le-Ru Telephone Company, owned by Leon and Ruth Millikin, was housed in the home’s back room from 1962-1969. The Le-Ru Telephone Company got its name by using the first two letters in Leon and Ruth's name to form Le-Ru. In its front yard stood the first public phone booth in Stella, which became a focal point in the small town. Here Ruth and Leon raised four children who are seen painted directly below this vignette. Going left to right(and tallest to shortest), Jim is in brown trousers and a blue and white striped shirt, Bob in a green shirt with dark pants, Rick is in a yellow shirt and blue jeans, and last is their little sister Vicki wearing a pink dress with a wide, white collar. Continuing right is a portrait of the top half of their mother Ruth dressed in a scooped-necked, red dress, white, dangly earrings, and wire-rimmed glasses. She has curly, short, brown hair and a bright smile on her face. While her husband Leon acted as lineman, brush cutter, repairman, and supervisor for the company, Ruth filled the roles of switch board operator and bookkeeper while raising their four children.
At the top right hand corner of the mural, the trees of the Millikin house fade into the inside of the house to the yellow walled room that housed the telephone switchboard in the 1960s. A tall, black, vertical panel containing an array of round metal jacks, plugs, and switches make up the switchboard on the left. Seated on the right in front of the panel, is an older woman, with her hands resting on the wood desk in front of the plugs. She wears a short-sleeved shirt with a floral print of greens, purples, and blues and glasses. Resting over her short, curly brown hair is a black headset, its microphone extending down in front of her mouth from a curved arm connected to the ear piece over her left ear. This is switchboard operator Zella Mae Raulston who worked for the local phone company for 24 years. While automated switching was becoming more common, small rural areas like Stella still relied on switchboards. When the caller wanted to place a call they picked up their phone and waited for her to answer and then connect them to the person they were trying to call. Standing behind Raulston is Leon Millikin. He is dressed in a light blue work shirt, the sleeve of his right arm turned up at the cuff, and brown trousers. He holds the receiver of a 1960s, rotary dial, desk phone in his right hand up to his left ear. He’s facing the viewer, but his gaze is to the mural’s left. The 1960s marked a turning point in communication history, where the landline telephone became an essential tool in households and businesses.
Moving down the work are the four Millikin siblings as adults clustered together. The brothers stand in a row behind their sister, who is in front of them in the center. Her hair is sandy blonde and she wears a purple patterned blouse. The brothers all wear glasses, the two on either side wear dark suits with ties and the brother in the middle has a mustache and wears a long-sleeved, white shirt. Behind them are bushes painted with dots of red, yellow, and green. At the time this mural was painted, they were all co-partner owners of Le-Ru Telephone Company. Under their leadership Le-Ru entered the modern communication age. Directly above their heads on the right edge of the mural, a tall, metal cell phone tower rises into the sky. Towers like this ushered in cell phone service and represents just how far telecommunications had come in the tiny village of Stella by 2008.
Moving down and to the left, the future generations of Stella are represented by the East Newton R-VI School District's Triway Campus building in Stella. It is a single-story, brick school with a white stone facade running along the top of the building with the name of the school in large, blue letters. Wide concrete steps lead up a landing with two central glass doors with glass windows on either side that form the entrance to the school. To the left of the landing is a ramp that leads to the sidewalk below the steps. Two classroom windows are to the left of the entrance and above the ramp. There are blue railings around the ramp and steps and green shrubbery landscaping. Out front two students walk past the school. On the left, is a girl in a t-shirt, calf-length, maroon pants, with a purple backpack and behind her on the right, is a boy dressed in a red t-shirt, knee-length, denim shorts, white sneakers, with a blue backpack.
Just below the school, long-time Le-Ru Telephone Company employee Carolyn Dyer sits at her desk with a 1990’s era desktop computer, keyboard, and mouse. She’s facing the viewer with a bright smile on her face wearing glasses and a short-sleeved top with yellow, red, and blue swirls. With her left hand, she holds one of the first commercially available handheld cellular mobile phones up to her left ear.
To her right, in the lower right hand corner of the mural, we come full circle with yellow and green tree foliage shading the waters of Indian Creek, which has snaked its way through the history of Stella.
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Mural Location
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Le-Ru Telephone Company
555 Carter Street Stella, MO 64867 Monday - Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm |
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Additional Content
Historic Stella Photos
Lentz-Carter building History
Constructed in 1890, the Lentz-Carter building is the oldest building standing in Stella, a small town in the southwestem comer of Missouri. It is located at the south end of Ozark Sfreet, close to Indian Creek, which meanders south of the property. The building sits on a limestone foundation on the comer lot on the north edge of the property. The south edge was intentionally
left vacant for displaying farm machinery.
J.G. Lentz and James Carter opened the building in 1890 to provide the community with general goods and wares and as a market for the local farmers. In addition to serving as an outlet for essential wares and groceries, the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store was also important as a location for social gatherings. Like most general stores of its time, locals would congregate in or outside the shop to share the news of the day. The Lentz-Carter building was also utilized as a meeting hall by the community and by organizations. For instance, its upper floor served as a Masonic lodge for over sixty years. It was such an important meeting place in southeastern Newton County that the first telephone in Stella was installed in the building.
According to the August 31,1899 Newton County News, "The hustling little town of Stella is jubilant over the completion of her telephone line to Neosho. It is a great convenience... Jas. Carter informs us that great care will be necessary to prevent injury to the instrument which has been placed in the Lentz-Carter building." Having served the community for over fifty years the Lentz-Carter General Merchandise Store closed its doors in 1940. Shortly after ( in the 1940s), the building was reused as a dry goods and shoe store on the lower floor while the Masonic Lodge continued to utilize the upper floor for thirty or more years.
left vacant for displaying farm machinery.
J.G. Lentz and James Carter opened the building in 1890 to provide the community with general goods and wares and as a market for the local farmers. In addition to serving as an outlet for essential wares and groceries, the Lentz-Carter Merchandise Store was also important as a location for social gatherings. Like most general stores of its time, locals would congregate in or outside the shop to share the news of the day. The Lentz-Carter building was also utilized as a meeting hall by the community and by organizations. For instance, its upper floor served as a Masonic lodge for over sixty years. It was such an important meeting place in southeastern Newton County that the first telephone in Stella was installed in the building.
According to the August 31,1899 Newton County News, "The hustling little town of Stella is jubilant over the completion of her telephone line to Neosho. It is a great convenience... Jas. Carter informs us that great care will be necessary to prevent injury to the instrument which has been placed in the Lentz-Carter building." Having served the community for over fifty years the Lentz-Carter General Merchandise Store closed its doors in 1940. Shortly after ( in the 1940s), the building was reused as a dry goods and shoe store on the lower floor while the Masonic Lodge continued to utilize the upper floor for thirty or more years.
The above black and white photos show the Lentz-Carter Building in 2007-2008 prior to it's restoration.
Here is the Lentz-Carter Building in 2025.