No history of the Dave Kooken or Clarence Peacock families would be complete without a little background on the Italian boy Clarence and Anna raised with the help of her parents, David and Jennie Dykstra.

       Sergio Collo was the son of Frank and Antonia Collo who emigrated from Italy to the United States in 1907 with their oldest daughter, Felicia Patricia. Frank was a miner and went to Haileyville, [Pittsburg] OK to work in the mines there. After coming to the United States they had Fauncy, a son; Albena, a daughter; and Sergio, all born in Haileyville. When Sergio was only 1 and 1/2 years old, his mother died. His father was unable to take care of the children and he placed Albena and Sergio in an orphan's home thinking they would be taken care of until they got a little older and he was able to care for them himself. This was a custom in the old country. He had a hard time with the English language and did not realize he was placing them up for adoption.
     Albena was adopted by Mr. & Mrs. Bert Foreman of El Reno. Sergio was taken by Clarence and Anna Peacock and raised as one of their own although they never adopted him.
     The Peacocks gave this small boy the name of Paul Gray but the name never became official and he was always known as "Buster". Buster stated he was named after two of their children who had died in 1918 during the influenza epidemic. The son who died at that time was David Hugh; later a son by the name of Ralph died.
     Buster always felt out of place among all his blond, blue-eyed foster relatives and due to his dark coloring was thought to be a Choctaw Indian. After some diligent searching by his foster grandparents, Albena was located and Buster was told of her existence but no contact was made with her for many years. They also learned he was Italian. When he became older and went into those troubled teen-age years, his foster grandmother, Jennie, realized he needed to meet his sister and learn more about his own family. She wrote the Foreman's and requested permission for Buster to make contact with Albena.
     When the meeting between the brother and sister took place it was reported in the newspapers and from the disclosure of his real surname an old Sunday School teacher, who had only known him as a Peacock, called him to her and told him that she had lived by a man with the last name of Collo in Haileyville, [Pittsburg] OK. Buster hopefully, but fearfully wrote a letter which his father, Frank, quickly answered.

The following newspaper article appeared when he finally met his real father:

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Buster Peacock Finds Father after 18 Years

      Buster Peacock, who has made his home with Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Peacock for the past 18 years, is about the happiest young man in Jefferson county this week, after having located his father at Haileyville, Oklahoma, after 18 years of separation. Buster lost no time in going to see his lost "dad" and left last Friday for Haileyville to see him.
      This is the second time within the past year that a thrill of this kind has come to Buster. Last December he located his sister at El Reno, whom he had not seen for 18 years. The brother and sister were sent to an orphanage at Putnam City on the death of their mother more than 18 years ago and were later adopted into homes. Buster into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Peacock and the sister into a good home at El Reno.
      The father and children lost track of each other. A check of the records at Oklahoma City last fall located the sister and the father was located only recently by the merest accident. Buster was attending church at a school house near Randlett, where he met a lady that told him she knew of a man at Haileyville, who bore the same name as his. Buster lost no time in writing the man, who turned out to be his father. The father is also happy over the turn of providence and said that he felt like he had found a million dollars.
(Waurika News Democrat, Mar 22, 1935, pg 1)

     Fauncy had lived with his father, Frank, all the time but the older sister, Priscilla, had been placed in the Whitaker School, in Pryor. She had not been heard from since she was 10 or 11. Buster was finally able to locate her in 1935 by appearing on a missing persons radio broadcast in California.
     When Buster found his father, he took the name of Sergio Buster Collo.
A more thorough history of the Collo and Peacock families has been published -SERGIO - The Life Story of Sergio ("Buster") Collo, by  his nephew, David L. Fletcher - 1986.
     It is from Buster's recollections, as told to be published in this book, that many of the early Peacock history has been drawn.   He was three years older than their oldest natural child, so he remembered a lot she could not.

        After a very restless year, in the fall of 1933 Buster had set out on his own to make a life for himself. With $15 in his pocket  and his clothes in a flour sack, he set out with a goal of California. He rode the freight trains as a hobo through Amarillo TX and Portales, NM on to Dexter, NM where he stopped at the home of a family he had known when he lived there with the Peacocks. He stayed only a few days and set out again. His goal of California was never realized because he ran out of money and was hungry in Tucson. The railroad officials put him in a "transient camp" and he decided it was time to go home - not to Clarence and Anna's home, instead to his Aunt Lily and "Shorty" Phiester's home at Randlett, OK.
     When Clarence and Anna learned of his whereabouts, Anna came and begged him to come home or at least to visit. He couldn't quite do that but early in 1934 he did go back to Waurika and worked for his Grandpa and Grandma Kooken for a while. It was during this time that the wheels were set in motion to find his real family.
     In 1935, he was one of the many jobless young men who worked for the Civilian Conservation Corp. (CCC). He went to Cheyenne, Wyoming where he helped build a new park, Cheyenne State Park. He was paid $30 a month with $25 of that sent home to his family. He and five other boys were sent to Cody Wyoming where they were Junior Forest Rangers under the authority of the Forestry Division. While there he helped fight a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park. There is a memorial at the Park dedicated to these Junior Forest Rangers.
     After a stint with the CCC he returned to Waurika and helped his grandparents finish the new home they had built after their two-story house had burned. Part of the help was to fasten sheets on the walls with tacks to prepare them for papering - never dreaming this would be experience he would use to get his first steady job.
     By the time Buster was 20 years old he had done many things he knew he shouldn't do. In 1936, through the prayers of his Grandmother Kooken and many other church members he became a Christian. Although the Lord forgave him, he never forgot some of the foolish things he had done.
     Buster visited with his father, Frank Collo as often as possible and still had the strong desire to find his missing sister, Priscilla. When Frank told him there was a possibility that she was in California he decided to go there and see if he could find her.  He and a couple of friends, Cecil Woods and Marvin Sumpter, pooled their money and made the trip in Cecil's Model-A Ford coupe. When he got there he applied for a job at the Studebaker Pacific Corporation. They needed someone who was short like he was to tack heading in the cars they were building - did he have experience in `spitting tacks' - sure he knew how! His new found religion was strongly against lying but he had USED a tack hammer! He had used it when he hung sheets on the walls of the Kooken house to prepare them for papering. He bought a tack hammer and box of tacks, spent hours learning how to `spit tacks' and got the job.
     He appeared on the "Radio Bureau of Missing Persons" a couple of times searching for his sister. While he was in the studio the last time, a lady who was from Ft. Smith, AR called the station saying she thought she had known Priscilla in Ft. Smith and that her married name was Fletcher. Again he wrote a stranger with hope and fear in his heart and again it was the person he was for whom he was searching.
     Just before the model changes of the Studebaker cars in 1939, he was able to buy a brand new Studebaker Commander and make the trip back across the country to Arkansas to meet his long lost sister and her family which included David Fletcher who later wrote the book of Sergio's memories.
     His job was being held for him back in California - after his return he again appeared on the radio station to tell about the success of his missing person search.
     He met his wife, Allie, in Bethany, OK and after their marriage, they returned to California where they still live.
     During WWII he worked in the defense industry by installing electrical wiring in airplanes. Buster's short stature came in handy again as many of the areas were so small that most people couldn't get in them. He was working for Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA in 1971 when he became ill with lobar pneumonia. He was able to return to work, but on Sep. 12, 1972 he suffered a severe heart attack and had to retire.
     Around 1982, Buster and Allie sold their home in Norwalk, [Los Angeles] CA and moved to Walters Camp on the Colorado River near Palo Verde, CA. The camp is a fishing camp owned by their daughter and son-in-law, Patty and Frank Doktor.
      Buster became jack-of-all-trades and master-of-most around the camp and Allie often works in the camp store and office.
      In 1991, they celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary at the Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA.