This is the life history of Mamie Helen Tootsie Walker Cole Mathews, also known as, Mamie Helen Mathews.
As I think back on the COLE Family, there are a few things that stand out in my mind. I don't remember my grandfather Cole (James Riley Cole) at all and first memory of Grandma Cole (Eliza Jane) is the day when I was probably about four years old. Mama and another person were quilting in a room across the hall from where we slept and the "Mail Man" came by. We had a letter from Grandma Cole telling us she was getting married to Mr. Rod Eaves. Also in that letter she had she had sent balloons for us children. I remember her as being a short, stocky lady who was very pleasant. She liked jewelry and usually wore a sting of beads. After I was school, my parents and I rode a train from Pontotoc, Ms to Louisville, Ms to visit her and daddy Eaves. I can see her as she walked down the hallway to the door to meet us. She had a big, jolly smile on her face and wore an apron. In the kitchen was a ream Separator, so they probably had cows and sold milk. Outside by the chimney was a pen made of chicken wire and it had rabbits in it. Just before she passed away, our family went to see her. She was very ill and possibly unconscious. I can remember she had a hard time breathing. Those are the outstanding memories I have of her. Oh yes, another thing I want to include was her love for sewing and needlework. I have some pieces that she embroidered and had appliquéd.
Uncle Spurgon and Aunt viola, Uncle Dewey and Aunt Mary Alice visited with us from time to time, so I knew them better than other members of dad’s family.
Dad and all his brothers and sisters liked music and when they got together they would sing. We have tapes of programs they did on the radio. At times daddy taught music and would travel the county conducting "singing Schools" . He taught shaped notes instead of lines and spaces as music is taught today. My sister, Lillian, accompanied him in the organ. She tells of families they stayed with while being in Singing Schools.
The Coles were a very sweet and affectionate group. good huggers. I suppose I inherited that trait, for is anyone cares anything about me, I like them to show it.
Daddy and Mama worked hard to make our family a happy hone. They would buy a farm, move there, clear land, start orchards and move to another place to try to have things better. I'm told daddy worked at "Saw Mills" and in "Oil Fields" at times so he was away from home some of the time.
Mama stayed home and kept things together and raised the family while he was away. She was a quiet lady, very smart, a wonderful homemaker, a good cook, made all our clothes and gave us love and comfort as we grew. I am the youngest of the six children and I remember her as having poor health most of my life.
The year I finished third grade at Thaxton, Ms, I had my tonsils removed. I had Asthma and a sore throat that I had to be careful as seasons of the year changed, this usually triggered an Asthma attack. I was a skinny, tall little girl. That spring, a neighbor girl, Rachel Fortenberry, and myself shared a room at Pontotoc Hospital for a Tonsillectomy. I was so nauseated as I came out from under the Antiseptic. I can remember hearing the whiz of the fan as it went back and forth. No Air Conditioning at that time. I still have the little Soldier Boy doll that Mama brought to me as a gift at that time. She also brought us Ice Cream in a small paper cup. After that I began to grow and never stopped (never was skinny after that).
When we lived at Thaxton, Ms. daddy supplemented our farm income by selling Watkins Products. He traveled in the surrounding counties with the product. He drove a Model B Ford Car that had a Chicken Coop built on the front bumper so he'd have a place to put the Chickens that he took as payment for the items he sold.
He also held the office of Justice of Peace in one district of Pontotoc County, MS for twelve years. He was licensed to perform weddings and he married many couples. In later years he was a Colonel to the Governor of Mississippi. If he had had a formal education he would have gone far in politics. He knew just about every body in the community and many in the County. If you went to town with him, it took quiet some time to get from one place to another for he had to stop and talk to everyone he met. Mama was not outgoing, she waited to be contacted first, even though she loved people. They believed in sharing their vegetables and flowers with the neighbors, and wherever they were needed. We never went home without going away with goodies. They were very active in the Baptist Church. Daddy let the Music Program in Church as long as I can remember. We all enjoyed attending "All Day Singings with Dinner on the Ground".
Now as I think of Mamas family, The Davis's, I did not have the privilege of knowing Grandmother Davis (Amanda Louise) as she died the year I was born, 1927. I have been told that she had Asthma, and I know first hand that is a horrible illness. My sisters remember how she inhaled smoke for a medication she burned in a saucer when she was sick. From pictures I have seen, she was an attractive lady. I know where she and Grandpa, William Rufus Davis, lived right off Highway 15 between Algoma and Houston, Ms. _There was a tree lined drive from the road to the house. After her death grandpa lived with us and his other children.
My first remembrance of him was a day I was walking down a gravel road and met a Model T Ford car driven by a clean shaven man that had once had a mustache that was Grandpa Davis. We lived on the Carter place at that time. Another time, I had paper dolls set up in the hallway when he came in, he took off his hat and fanned them and said, "It's coming a storm". Blew my paper dolls all over the place. He dipped snuff with a real short black gum stick toothbrush. As a child I'd try to pull it out of his mouth, but he could pull it inside his mouth so I couldn't see it.
He enjoyed fishing, once I went with him to fish in a pond in our pasture. I sat down on the bank and a snake slithered between my legs into the water. He could sit and fish for hours whether he was catching fish or not. In later years after W. H. and I married we went fishing with him in a boat in the Boyou at Marks, Ms.
Some of Grandpas ancestors married an Indian woman, so there was a strain of Indian in his children.
His birthday was July 12th, and each year his families met for a big dinner and get-to-gather to celebrate. I can remember having a wash tub filled with Lemonade and big hunks of ice floating around in it. One year in particular, I remember it being at our home and dinner was spread under some large Black Walnut Trees in the back yard by the Well that had a long tin bucket to draw the water from the well.
When he had Shingles, he was at Uncle Clarence and Aunt Grace's home. They lived near us. Just a field of some kind separated our places. We went there to see him and it was in the spring of the year. My cousins and I took our shoes off and played in a Sawdust Pile that was in the Woods behind their house. We put our shoes through the window in the house when we went to play. I wasn't suppose to take my shoes off, so I got punished for my little bit of fun. When we came into the house Mama and Daddy had gone on home and Aunt Grace told me they had seen my shoes and I better expect a whipping when I got home. I sat on a row in the field between our houses and cried. Sure enough Daddy had me stand on the fireplace and he whipped me with the Razor Strap. Guess that warded off an illness since I didn't get sick. I understand now they were trying to keep me from being sick, but then I didn't understand
William Rufus Davis Family:
Thomas C. Davis married Matilda------, their son William Rufus Davis married Amanda Louise McCullough whose parents were Samuel Durgin McCullough and Sarah Jane Duke. They had six Children:
Clarence Davis, Joe Davis Davis, Mattie Florence Davis, Wilma Davis, Elizabeth Davis, and Montye Davis.
The third child Mattie Florence Davis, born April 20, 1891 and died March 3, 1971. She was born in Chickasaw County, MS. She married James Burton (Burt) Alfred Newton Cole, born December 1, 1890 in Winston County, Al, died April 21, 1970.
They were married September 18, 1909 in Pontotoc County, Ms. they had six children. Lillian Idell Cole, born October 17, 1910 in Pontotoc County, Ms, Lora Lavonis Cole, born March 3, 1912 in Algoma, Ms, Clifton Earl Cole, born January 25, 1914 in Mississippi. Bertice Eliza Louisa Cole was born April 26, 1916, Willie Rose Cole , born June 21, 1920 in Pontotoc County, Ms and Mamie Helen Cole, born July 3, 1927 in Pontotoc County (Toccopola) Ms. She married James Burton (Bert) Alfred Newton Cole, born December 1, 1890 in Winston County, Al, died April 21. 1970. They were married September 18, 1909 in Pontotoc County Ms. Their children are - Lillian Idell Cole, born October 17, 1910, Lora Lavonia Cole, born March 3, 1912, died July 2, 1984, Clifton Earl Cole, born January 25, 1914, died August 2, 1978, Bertice Eliza Louisa Cole, born April 26, 1916, Willie Rose Cole, born June 21, 1920, and Mamie Helen Cole, born July 3, 1927.
Highlights Of My Life; By, Lillian Idell (Cole) Russell
The summer had passed and the trees were beginning to turn red and gold telling us that the beginning of another season was near, and that another life was about to be born.
On October 17, 1910, in a house beside the railroad tracks near Walfield, Ms, Pontotoc County, a baby girl came to live with a young couple by the name of James Bert Cole and Mattie Florence (Davis) Cole and that baby was the first grandchild of William Rufus Davis and Amanda Louise McCullough Davis, my mothers parents.
We lived near my grandparents and I’m sure I was petted, loved and spoiled by them and my mother’s three sisters and two brothers families as they all lived near us too. I was too young to remember, but heard my parents talk about what to name me, and after much thinking they named me Lillian Idell. After I got about two years old another baby girl came to live with us and she had brown eyes and black hair. They named her Lora Lavonia.
One of the things that I remember about my grand parents home was their house was big and had an open hall where they sat to entertain company and just rest and relax as a cool breeze blew through it and kept it cool during the hot weather since no one had electricity nor fans at that time. Another thing that stands out in my memory about their place was a big cistern in the back yard where they got their water. It had a cover made over it like a floor in a room and in the center was a square box like thing called , "a curb" where you let a bucket down with a rope and drew up water. The curb had a lid over it to keep out foreign objects and to keep any one from falling in. I was afraid to even step on the floor part and we were cautioned not to play close to it. Through the years I dreamed of felling into that cistern many times. That's probably why I always have been afraid of getting in water and the reason I never learned to swim.
I have lots of memories of my grandparents home. Grandpa had a blacksmith shop where they fixed the plow tools and shod the mules for the farm. I remember one little old man came there often, he was a funny man and could stand on his head. All us children would beg him to stand on his head every time he came. His name was Edd Burks. He would always do that stunt and laugh with us. I remember grandpa giving us a whipping one time. They had company and I guess I was trying to get attention and was showing off for them, Grandpa was a very lively man and played with us children, but when he got serious about something and told us to stop, he meant it. That time I didn't mind him and he took me by the hand and led me out in the yard to a bush, broke off a limb and gave my legs a good switching. But I loved my grandparents.
Grandma Davis had asthma real bad and would get to coughing so bad she would loose her breath. We would stand by her and fan her so she could get her breath better. She wore a black Bonnet most of the time and the Dr. prescribed some kind of powder similar to loose tobacco in a can, when she would get too bad she would put a spoon of the in a saucer and set a match to it an inhale the smoke. It would always help to quit coughing and breathe better.
I got my face close to a wasp nest in a plum tree and got stung so bad that my eyes swelled closed and they put bluing on my face to stop the pain and I looked blue for several days. I couldn't see myself, but after the swelling went down some of the blue was still on my face. I was climbing the plum tree after plum, didn't get plums, but got a lesson I never forgot.
They had a bob tail cow with long, sharp horns, named Emma. I was afraid of her and she didn't like me. I remember going through the pasture from grandma’s house because it was nearer to our house than to go by the gravel road. I had looked and didn’t see anything and I started on home. They had a big pond of water in the pasture closer to our house. As I was nearing the pond I heard something running, and old Emma, the cow, had spotted me and was running toward me. I ran as fast as I could and climbed up on the gate just as she got to it. The gate was made of planks. I never went in the pasture any more by myself.
We didn't have conveniences like people do now. We raised our meat and lard, chickens and eggs, milk and churned our butter and raised a garden.
We had a puppy that would eat every egg he could find. Papa tried every thing to break it from getting the eggs. One time he boiled an egg and put red pepper in it and put it in the dogs mouth and held it shut so he would have to swallow, but that didn't stop it. Every time he heard a hen cackle he went and got the egg if it was where he could reach the nest.. Mama decided to kill him. She beat him with a ditching shovel until she thought he was dead and instead of burying him we took him off in to the woods across the railroad track and left him thinking he was dead, but when we got back to the house the puppy had gone another way and had beat us back. They then put him in a chicken coop so he couldn't get out.
My grandparents on my fathers side lived a long way from us and we didn't have cars or anything, so we went to visit them on the train. They lived below Louisville, Ms. Papa had five brothers and three sisters. Most of them were married when I was little. He had one sister a few months younger than me, her name was Mildred. The only time I remember seeing my granddaddy Cole was one fall we had gone down on the train and they had picked lots of cotton and stored it in one corner of a room they didn't use until they could take it to the gin. Grandpa Cole had it heaped high, but us children got in that room and shut the door and played on the cotton. We would climb to the top and roll down and was scattering his cotton everywhere. We were so carried away laughing and playing we didn't hear him open the door. Grandpa was a sick man and wasn't much fun about him. When he saw what we were doing he spoke real firm and gave us a mean look, or we thought it was a mean look. He said, "You kids get off that cotton and get out of this room to play". We were so scared we really got out in a hurry.
Grandpa Cole died when he was only 46 years old. His name was William Riley and Grandma Cole's name was Eliza Jane (Curtis). She was part Dutch. She was short and dumpy and laughed a lot. She really loved to wear beads and jewelry. I always liked to go to her house but didn't get to go very often since they lived away.
Papa had lots of relatives in Alabama. That is where he was born, in Lawrence County near Double Springs, AL. We had lots of relatives in Alabama on both sides of his family.
I remember we moved from the house by the railroad to another house not far away and Papa had a job helping haul logs to a sawmill. He and another man, Preston Walls, worked together. They had two yokes of Oxen that pulled the log wagon. Those Oxen were big and strong. I can see them today. Most folk have never seen Oxen work. That was one thing I hope I never forget.
I started to school in the fall before I was 6 years old in October. We still lived by the railroad and had to cross it to go to school which was a one-room building and a one teacher school about a half mile from our house. They let my younger sister, Lavonia, go with me when she was too young to go to school because they were afraid for me to walk by myself. My teachers name Hassie Watkins. She taught from first grade all through for the grown girls and boys.
I remember one year head lice got in school and most all the children got them. Mama would take a fine toothcomb and comb our hair to see if we had lice. When she found them she put kerosene on our head and washed our hair several times, then she had to do that several times because the eggs would hatch out and lay more eggs or nits. It was hard to get rid of them.
We had a little brother by that time whose name was Clifton Earl. The only boy in our family, but he wouldn't let us pet him.
I attended my first wedding while we lived there. Mr. Tice Corder married Lottie Wages on the doorsteps of her fathers house. I'll never forget how pretty she looked standing there in her white dress. I had the privilege of knowing her after I got grown, and on until a year or two ago when she passed away. They were friends of my parents.
Grandpa Davis sold his place near Wallfield and bought a place south of Algoma on number 15 highway near Monroe Church. They moved and we moved near them to a house on his place. We lived about two miles or more from Algoma and walked to school with some neighbors, Mr. Edgar Harwoods children.
Times were hard, Papa hadn't made a crop that year and he couldn't do saw millwork in bad weather, so he went looking for a job. He heard of jobs in the Oil Fields in Louisiana and went there to work one year. We stayed on by grandpa and Grandma Davis.
By this time I had another sister, Bertice Eliza Louisa. This made four children in the family.
When Papa was gone we were lonesome and afraid at times, but the Good Lord was taking care of us. I had bad dreams and got up and roamed about in the house at times. I remember one night getting up and walking out of our room into the kitchen, which was next to the bedroom. People had wood stoves and couldn't set them too close to the wall. They had a bucket or pot to put scraps and stuff in to save for the pigs. That night when I woke up screaming because it was dark and our cat was in the room looking up at me. It's eyes shined and I had one foot in the Slop Bucket, which luckily was empty. Mama lit the lamp and came and put me back to bed.
We missed our daddy so bad while he was gone. He was more out going and would play with us kids. He would get down on his knees and let us ride on his back all around the room and laugh and play with us. Mama was too busy with four children to see after and feed until she didn't have much time to play with us. We had that loved, closeness feeling in our home all through our growing up years. Our parents were strict with us and were always telling us how to live to be well respected by our fellow men. One thing Papa would always tell as we grew up, "If we made our bed hard we would have to sleep in it".
Grandma Davis wasn’t a well woman and as she grew older was less able to do all her work, so every summer after school was out one of the grand girls would go spend a week or two at a time with them. Since there were other grand girls, our cousins, we usually just had one week each. We were spoiled by our grandparents, although before the week was over we were getting homesick.
We moved from that place into the house with Mama's sister and family . They had a big house and we helped make a crop. That fall papa cut his leg while splitting wood. The ax glanced and hit his shin, the end of the bone was showing through the skin. He was unable to work much of that year.
People planted lots of speckled Peas in their corn for a money crop. That year we made a bumper crop of peas. It took all of us and our aunt and uncles families all fall to gather all the peas and other crop. When the peas were all gathered they would hire some one who had a threshing machine to come and thresh our peas. It was fun to watch the hulls blow up in the air and see the peas falling in big containers. I remember we had several bushels of shelled peas for sale that fall.
We lived about a mile from Algoma and walked up the railroad which was near our house to school. We were always afraid the train would come while we were crossing the trestle which was over a creek, or something where we couldn't get off the track if the train came. The reason we walked on the railroad was because the road was muddy and they didn't have gravel or concrete roads anywhere. That was the year Clifton, our brother, started to school. Lots of evenings after we got out of school some of the older boys would start a fight and would jump on some of the smaller boys like my brother and I would get right in the middle and try to stop them from running over the smaller boys. When he couldn't help himself and hadn't done anything to cause a fight anyway.
We moved from that place to the Foster place south of Algoma and made a crop or two, then my sister, Rose, was born. I was ten years old. Mama had some kind of fever and couldn't take care of the baby. She had to stay in bed and couldn't breast feed her baby either. Since I was the oldest girl, I had to take care of the cooking and washing and help wait on Mama too. My sister, two years younger than me helped with the baby's feeding and took care of her while I did the other house work. It was June and Papa would take our brother who was six years to the field with him so we wouldn't have to care for him. That was a real bad year for all of us. We would help Mama up in a chair and she would hold the baby until she went to sleep and we would take her our of Mamas lap and put her to bed. Mama’s illness was such that she couldn't walk by her self for several months. She would lay in bed and tell me just how to cook the food for the family.
One bad thing, we had to carry water from a well a good ways from the house and had to draw it up with a rope and bucket. It was big job for a grown person, much less a ten year old girl. Washing was a big job for me, if I washed at home I had the problem of getting the water there, but if I washed at the well I would have to take the clothes to the house to hang them out since the clothes line was there. There was no washing machines or clothes dryers then and with a baby I had to wash often since there were no disposal diapers and had to boil them in a black wash pot and scrub on a wash board.
Young people this day and time can't realize what it involved to do like we used to as we grew up. We were happy and didn’t know there was a better way to do things. That was 1920.
Papa almost lost his crop that year because he didn't have any help to hoe and couldn't afford to hire help. Our neighbors were good to help out and would cook food and bring to us sometimes. We really appreciated that. Mama was sick almost all that year and had problems with her legs swelling and then getting sores on them which bothered her the rest of her life.
I remember one time when we lived there it came a bad storm and wind blew the windowpanes out of some of our windows. Papa got us up and dressed and took us through the woods at least a forth mile to a neighbors storm house for the rest of the night. The worst was over by time we got there, but Papa was afraid our house would blow away. He had split shingles that year to cover the house or barn and the wind blew them and scattered them about through the woods. Papa had them stacked up so neat until he got ready to use them. We all worked and gathered them up again.
One family that lived near us were good friends. They had boys my age and their girl was younger. One day my sister and I was visiting them and helping them scrape the grass off the yard. People use to have bare yards and kept them swept clean. All their family were scraping the grass and us children were hauling it out of the yard in their little red wagon. I stepped on a broken bottle and cut my foot bad and couldn't walk home. So the two older boys pulled me home in their wagon. My Daddy doctored my foot for me. He cleaned it and poured raw iodine in the cut, it almost killed me it burned so badly, but it killed all the germs and my foot got well real soon.
We had to walk to the school at Macedonia south of Algoma and the roads got muddy in the winter, we had a path on the bank of the road that wasn't so bad. One morning as we were going to school there were some mischievous boys along. One pushed me off the path into the muddy road and got my shoes real muddy. When I got to school I told the teacher on him ,and he and his sister told her that I pushed him off into the mud too, but I didn't. The teacher gave us both a whipping right in front of all the rest of the children. It was a one teacher school and there wasn't but one room, no where else to take us. I never liked that boy any more or his sister either, although they were our neighbors.
That teacher wasn't too lenient with her pupils since she had all ages in that one room. She would leave out of the room to meet the mailman. He passed by the school every day in a buggy with a top on it. She wanted to see if she had any mail and would tell one of the older girls to tell her if anyone talked while she was out of the room. She would paddle anyone who talked in their hand or on their head with a ruler. Lots of us got our hands paddled.
Some times in the spring some of the older girls would hunt turkey nests at recess. One family had lots of turkeys and guineas that lived close to the school. The turkeys would steal their nests out in the woods and lay eggs and set and hatch little ones. It was hard to find their eggs, so you had to be sharp to find them. Guineas nests were harder to find than turkeys. Guineas eggs were small and speckled. Those experiences are so different from todays schools.
TO CONTINUE HIGHLIGHTS OF LILLIAN . I'll relate what I've experienced with her and things I've heard. Lillian was a very smart girl and still is at the age of 88 years. She continues to amaze us with her stamina and ability to care for herself and her home. She has passed her art capabilities down to her children and grandchildren. She has a musical talent and has been pianist in her Church for m any years, along with her talent to sing. My first remembrance of Lillian was when she was a teenager and I was not school age. We lived on the Guthrie Place. Her friends would visit our home and that is where we lived in September 1930 when she and Edgar Clay Russell were married. She tells how he would ride his horse by our house and he would be dressed in riding pants and boots. He had curly hair and was a nice looking young man. He was a Veteran of World War I and had served in France during the War. He drove a Chevrolet Coupe when he came to see Lillian.
They owned quiet a lot of land, but like most other families had a hard time during the Depression. She tells how they had sold cotton in the fall and placed the money in their bank, but when the banks closed couldn't get any out. It was during this time their first child was born. She tells how she bought enough material from the Peddler to make a maternity dress and had only that one dress , so it had to be washed at night so she would have something to wear the next day. They sold enough eggs for Edgar to buy smoking tobacco. They lived in the house with Edgar’s parents when Vernon Eugenia , Donald Reid and Robert (B0bby) Clay were born. Later they moved into another house on their farm and lived there when their fourth child Johnny Cole was born. In 1940 they finished their new house and moved into it. This house was located just off Highway #6 at Toccopola Junction near Thaxton, Ms. I remember the little Coupe they drove even after they had all their family. Some of the children would lay up behind the seat because there wasn't room for all of them to sit on the seat.
Besides raising Cotton and Corn crops they had cows and sold milk.
All their children got extended formal educations and three of them taught school. Eugenia married Donald Faulkner (Sparkey). He was an Air Force enlistee and later became an officer and pilot. They lived and traveled all over the US and lived in England before he retired from the Military Service. At this time they have six children, eighteen grandchildren and one great-grand child.
Donald Reid was a star basketball player at Thaxton High School and later played College basketball. Donald acquired a Doctorate Degree in Biology and taught at the University of Mississippi (Old Miss) until retirement. He married Ann Burrell. They have five children and fifteen grandchildren.
Robert Clay (Bobby) also attended Thaxton High School and after graduation went to college and served in the US Army. He later taught school and coached Basketball. He married Brenda Hill and they had four children, and nine grandchildren. Bobby was in the Mississippi National Guard until retirement and later was employed at the University of Mississippi until retirement age.
Johnny Cole followed the other boys in the athletic field and was also a star basketball player. These boys were all avid hunters. They accompanied their dad on hurting excursions from the time they were very young boys. After college Johnny married Rita Tutor. They lived in Memphis where he was employed at Sears until retirement. They have two children and seven grandchildren. Latonia Jane was born November 1942. She acquired the music talent from her mother and was a dedicated Christian young lady making plans to go into the Mission field when she was killed in an automobile accident at the age of twenty-one.
After Latonia's death , Lillian worked a number of years in a garment factory. She was a very good seamstress on her own as well.
Edgar’s health began to deteriorate and he was bed ridden a few years before his death on September 23, 1984.
Lillian had a heart attack during Edgar’s illness that she overcame and several years later suffered a stroke that caused her to loose her ability to speak for a period of time. She overcame that and regained her speech before having open-heart surgery in 1991. She lives alone and does great caring for herself and her home. There has never been anyone who enjoys traveling and seeing thins more than Lillian. She has had an opportunity to go on a Cruise and vacation in many of the States in the U.S.
She is a sweet, mild mannered lady, never speaks bad about anyone. She takes that after our mother who always said, "IF you can't say something good, don't say anything", and that is what she practiced.
LORA LAVONIA COLE was my second sister. Her birthday is March 3, 1912. My parents lived in the Algoma Ms community when Lavonia was born. Lavonia was a beautiful person with a sweet disposition. She was tall, had black hair and brown eyes. She inherited the love of jewelry from our grandma Cole I believe for she too usually wore beads and ear rings and she liked pretty colorful clothes.
Our parents had moved out of the Toccopola school district , so to finish school there Lavonia was staying with Mamas sister, Aunt Elizabeth. There she met James Adrian Coleman (Jim) and they married quiet young. They continued to live in the Toccopola area their entire life.
When her oldest child, Thelma Juanice was a baby she and Lillian with her two little ones, Eugenia and Donald came to our house at Thanksgiving. Their husbands were avid hunters, so the two of them walked through the woods and bird (Quail) hunted on the way. When the men arrived they were wearing hunting jackets with lots of pockets and those pockets were full of Quail. I was just a little girl, but I remember that occasion well. Later Lavonia and Jim had a son, James Ralph. Ralph had black hair and favored the Coleman side of the family. He grew into a handsome and loving person.
Once they lived in a house across the street from a cemetery. This place had a storm cellar. They were really nervous when the weather was stormy and would go in the cellar until the bad weather passed. I remember being there once and going to the cellar with them.
When Jamie Sue was a baby they lived in the "Mr. Brown" house. Jim worked at a grist mill where they ground corn for meal and made cow feed. He got his arm caught in some of the belts and his arm had to be removed. He learned to do things with just one hand and the artificial hand and arm he wore. He did everything from operating the recreation center, painting, machanicing and operating a store. In his older years he had a rural mail route form Pontotoc to Toccopola.
Getting back to Lavonia… she was an immaculate house keeper. She kept things clean as a pen and a was a good cook. She could make great hamburgers and the best Carmel cake. She never worked out of the home and never learned to drive a car. For many years she was in poor health and passed away at the age of 71 in July, 1984.
Bert and Florence Cole’s next child was a boy, born January 25, 1914. He was named CLIFTON EARL and the only boy in the family. I don’t remember his early years as a boy, but I have heard the family talk about how he disliked having to wear knicker pants.
Once daddy had a man bringing his equipment to our farm to make sorghum molasses. The mill was set up down in the woods. Why I remember this is because I was playing around where they ere working and Clifton told me I didn’t need to be down there and to go to the house. I didn’t go. He took a piece of the cane and whipped me all the way to the house.
We lived ion the "Waldrup Place" when Clifton married Ferrel Graham. They bad been married secretly for a couple weeks before telling us or bring her there to live. The afternoon he was going to bring her there, he had to go to Thaxton and get a globe for the lamp in his room.
They moved to a house just down the road from us, then later to another place near Ferrel’s family. Clifton drove a school bus at one time. Later they moved to Birmingham, AL and were living there when he went to the Navy during WWII. Ferrel continued to stay in Birmingham and worked in a factory while he was away. After the war, and he got home, they bought some land near Thaxton and built a nice house. There their son was born, September 19, 1947. Roger Dean was their only child.
They had a small engine repair business in Oxford for several years where he repaired and sold lawn mowers and chain saws. He also farmed and raised chickens.
In 1962 Roger went camping with the FFA and drowned in Granada Lake. That was a terrible time for Clifton and Ferrel. They left Roger’s room just has he had left it that day for many, many years.
A few years later he sold his business in Oxford and opened a garage near his home. Clifton enjoyed listening to music and bought a piano for their home so they could invite the neighborhood in for singings. He was an active member of Belleview Baptist Church at Thaxton Community. Clifton was a handsome man, always dressed nice and had black hair and brown eyes. He had a giggly laugh. He had a lung problem and died August, 1977, at the Veterans Hospital in Memphis, TN.
I really didn’t get to know Clifton well until I was in my forties. He and Ferrel made some trips with W.H. and me. Up until then they had always been tied down with their business and we lived away much of the time. We went to Texas a couple of times and in 1976 we went to Niagara Fall and Ontario, coming back through West Virginia, and enjoyed the mountains. When we got home he was showing his wallet. He said" This was so full when we left I could hardly close it, not it’s just a flopping".
The following are Bertice’s memories as related to her family on her 80th birthday. BERTICE ELIZA LOUSIA was born April 26, 1916.
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Bertice and Lloyd married very young and had their first children before she was twenty. Wanda Sharon, was the oldest, and a couple of years later Peggy Nell was born. In January, 1942, our parents moved to a farm in the Walnut, MS community, near Clarksdale and Marks. Bertice and Lloyd shared a house with us and we farmed together that year. That is the year Peggy started to school.
In the fall daddy began work at a Kroger store in Marks and we moved to Marks. Bertice’s family stayed on and farmed in another location near by, then moved back to the Thaxton community. In 1944 Patricia Ann (Patsy) was born. Again they moved to Marks, bought a farm and after a while Bertice opened a fabric center. Lloyd operated a service station. After their retirement they enjoyed fishing until Lloyd’s health got bad.
Wanda married Leonard Pritchard, they have one son, Jimmy and he has a son, Trey. They all reside in Marks.
Peggy married Duffy O’Briant, they have three children… Timothy (Tim), Patrick (Pat), and Becky. That family all lives in the Houston, TX area. They have 7 grand children.
Patsy married Donald Pickle and they went to Israel as missionaries for three years. They have three children; Patrick, Kevin and Pamala. They make their home in Georgia, near Tifton.
Bertice has traveled with us and our other sisters over much of the US and we all enjoy spending time together as much as possible. She will be remembered for her beautiful hand work (quilts, crochet pieces and embroidery).
June 21, 1920, FLORENCE and BURT COLE added another baby girl to the family. They named her WILLIE ROSE. Mama had some kind of fever and couldn’t take care of the baby. She had to stay in bed a long time and the other children had to take over the household chores.
Rose and I were the last children living at home. We liked to listen to music on the radio. She had a guitar and we had a mandolin I could play a little. We knew the words to all the current songs so we sang and made music on the instruments to entertain ourselves. Gene Autry was a popular movie star in our growing up years and once in a while on Saturday we got to go to Pontotoc to the movie. We didn’t see many movies. We worked in the cotton fields and day dreamed about our future.
Rose graduated from Thaxton High School in the spring of 1938. She wanted to become a nurse. She went to Bramlett’s Hospital in Oxford, MS for nurses training. That harsh language, disciple and night duty was more than she could take, so she soon quiet the course.
After our move to Toccopola, MS, on March 31, 1941, she married LABON AVERY (LA) KETCHINS. They soon went to Ethel, MS to live with LA’s mother and farmed. WWII began in Dec. 1941 and in a few months LA, along with many other young men, was called to active military duty. He served in the US Army until the war ended in 1945, most of that time was spent in the Pacific area. During the time he was away Rose came back to our parents home in Marks to live. She began her nursing career again at the hospital in Marks and worked there, and for a private doctor, Dr. Franks, until later years when they moved back to Koscuisko, MS. She was employed as a nurse at Montford Hospital in Koscuisko until she retired in 19?.
Rose and LA never had any children of their own, but adopted two little girls in 197?. These girls, CHARLENE (12 yrs) and LOLA (6 yrs), made their family complete, and they raised them to be fine young women. They are married and each have a son. Lola’s husband is ROBERT CAGLE and her son is BENJAMIN AVERY CRITTENDEN. Charlene is married to KEVIN ROBINS, her son is MICHAEL TAYLOR. They all reside in Koscuisko, MS. LA passed away in November 1986 and is buried at Parkway Cemetery in Kosciusko.
Seven years later, on July 3, 1927, Florence and Bert had another child, MAMIE HELEN COLE. They lived in the Toccopola, MS community in a two story house with big trees in the year. In fact the older girls were sitting under those trees snapping beans on the day Helen was born. They lived in several locations before moving to Thaxton, MS where Helen attended school and church until she was in the 8th grade.
In the winter (January) of 1942 we moved to the Walnut community which was in Quitman County, just a few miles from marks. That year we made a big crop of cotton and that is the only time I ever missed any school to work in the fields. That was the year Bertice’s family lived with us.
In the fall of 1943 daddy went to work at a Kroger store in marks and he, mama and I moved to Marks. That was where we lived when I was milking the cow and she kicked me and tore my skirt. Made me so angry that I was sick. Als that year was when Bing Crosby had the hit record "White Christmas".
I went to Marks High School and graduated from there in May of 1945.
My first job was at a Ben Franklin Five and Ten Cent store in Marks. I worked there on Saturday and holidays during my junior and senior school years. After graduation, I got a job at Wosley’s Grocery Warehouse in Marks and was there until just before my first child, Nina Katheryn, was born in 1948.
I met and married W. H. Mathews in 1946. We were married May 11, 1946. We lived in Marks until moving a short distance to Sledge, MS. We lived in Sledge when Nina was born, August 30, 1948 at Hyatt’s Clinic in Marks. Soon afterwards we built a house on Mr. Mathews property and moved there and that was home until April 1953, when W.H. joined the US Air Force. (he had served in the Navy during WWII). Our first duty station was Keesler Air Base in Biloxi, MS. He then went to Korea during the last year of the Korean War, and Nina and I lived with my parents at Toccopola Junction that year.
During this time period, on February 21, 1954, our second child, Phyllis LaNelle was born at Pontotoc Community Hospital, Pontotoc, MS.
W.H. came home in April of 1954 and we were stationed at Greeville AFB. We lived there four years on Tucker Street. Our son, Barry Cole Mathews, was born on March 17, 1956 at Greenville Military Hospital, Greenville, MS. When he was 14 months old, we transferred to Goodfellow AFB, San Angel, TX, where we lived until, W.H. was sent to Taipai, Taiwan for a 24 month tour of duty. The children and I joined him in Taiwan in June of 1959. In May of 1961 we ere transferred to Eglin AFB, Ft. Walton Beach, FL. That was home until July, 1965 when we were transferred to Aviano AFB, Italy for a three year tour of duty. W.H. retired from the Air Force, July 1, 1965, at McGuire AFB, NJ. The family then relocated to Memphis, TN, 5027 Bryndale Avenue, on August 5th, 1968. At this time that was 30 years ago.
I worked as a secretary to the ministers at Colonial Park United Methodist Church from February 1969 through April 1983. Then in the fall of 1983 began working as Financial Secretary at Audubon Park Baptist Church in Memphis. I only worked there one year.
Later, I was a representative for Tupperware for a couple of years and helped my son, Barry, run Movie Mania, his video store in Memphis. Since then I have been a homemaker. I enjoy making quilts and doing crochet pieces. I have had an opportunity to travel and that is one of my favorite enjoyments.
Nina Kathryn married William Lennon (Len) McClintock, September 8, 1970. They have a daughter, Tony Lynn, born July 23, 1971. Len passed away from lung cancer in June of 1995. Nina and Tonya now resided in Nashville, TN.
Phyllis LaNelle married Lamar McRea Nelson on July 17, 1976. They have three children, Evan Blake (b. Aug 25, 1979), Corey Ryan (b. March 5, 1981), and Chelsea Blaine (b. Aug 19, 1987).
Barry Cole married Lori Susan Ritchie, September 25, 1982. They have two children, Travis Ritchie Mathews (b. Nov 17, 1985) and Ashley Nicole (b. June 21, 1991).
Both Phyllis and Barry’s families live in the greater Memphis area.