Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 8
October 25, 1956
NUMBER 25, PAGE 14b

Tipton Orphan Home Loses Court Battle

(Editor's note: The following newspaper account is revealing — and shocking. It reveals the attitude of the orphan homes among us; and it is shocking to every Christian in the land. We will let the story itself give the facts; and the reader can draw his own conclusions.)

"Mrs. Yvonne McDaniel of the firm of Arnett and McDaniel won a case in the Supreme Court Tuesday when the case of the Tipton Home vs. Billy Carpenter, was heard and Justice Harry L. S. Halley affirmed the decision of County Judge Percy Powers, transferring the four children of Mrs. Billie Carpenter from the Tipton Orphan's Home to their blood mother.

"March 18, 1953, Billie Sutherland, now Billie Carpenter, filed a petition in Juvenile Court alleging that she is the blood mother of Sylvia A. Sutherland, Marzell Sutherland, Luther Sutherland and Donnie Sutherland, Minors. That their father, an employee of the city of Mangum at the time, was killed in an accident in November, 1952; that she was financially unable to provide for them, and sought an order of the Juvenile Court sending them to the Tipton Home. She gave the home authority to place the children for adoption, provided that they be adopted as a unit — that is, all four children should be placed in the same family.

"The same day Judge Powers, Judge of the Juvenile Court, made an order placing the children in the Tipton Home, and providing that the home might consent to their adoption, if all of the children were adopted by the same parents.

"In the meantime the mother married Howard Carpenter, a farmer living near Russell, and on November 29, 1955 she petitioned the Court to modify the original order. She stated that she and her husband had a good home and were financially able to raise the children. The Tipton Home resisted the proceedings, but on December 14, 1955, the county judge ruled that by reason of the change in conditions the mother should have the children. The judge seemed to think that blood is thicker than water and the home was unable to give them the same love and as their mother.

"The case was appealed by the Tipton Home and now the Supreme Court of Oklahoma has sustained the action of the Greer County Juvenile Court transferring the children from the Tipton Home to Mrs. Billie Carpenter and her husband."