My Brother Albert Marlen - 1920 -1995

Albert born on June 5, 1920 was eight years old when I was born. One of my earliest memories was the time at the Ostwalt Farm when Albert wanted me to go to Moose's store with him. I told him that I had no money and he said just come on, so I went with him. On the way, we had to pass through a farm that was run by a local woman. Albert had a pocket full of shelled corn and when we passed through the barnyard he started dropping grains of corn on the ground. One of the chickens took the bait and started following us into the woods. When we were there, Albert took out a fish hook and put a grain of corn on it. When the chicken grabbed it, he pulled that chicken into the woods and we took it to the store and traded it for some candy for me but I don't know what else he got. He told me that if I ever told Mom about it he would beat me up. It was only in this blog that I shared this story!

When I was eight, he left to work in Cannon mills in Kannapolis and shortly afterwards he joined the Navy on July 23, 1940 with his brothers Paul and J.D. He trained with them at Quantico, VA Naval Training Camp. All three brothers were assigned to the Battleship USS New Mexico. Albert served on the USS Coos Bay, the USS Gladiator Mine Sweeper, and on an APA Transport ship to transport troops back after the war. His was Chief Commissary Officer. We did not have many years together, as I remember he was a good brother and did not boss me around very much. As it was back then as in my family everyone had to fend for himself; Albert helped me to learn that.

One night we had a big rain and the road in front of our house was somewhat of a grade. At 4 a.m. there was a knock on our door; someone was stuck in the ditch of the old dirt road and wanted him to hitch up the mules and pull him out. Albert got out of bed and pulled the man’s car up the hill. The man tried to pay him and he said that he could not take pay for helping someone even though our family could have used the money too. That was Albert, he was always helping everyone all the time expecting nothing in return. Pictured here is Pauline (left) with her sister Jennie Ellis.

When he would come home on leave he would do something special like bringing something to me or doing something special for us. One time he took me to Statesville to Farlay's cafe and bought me a great big T-bone steak and taught me how to cut and eat it, my first steak ever. From time to time he would bring me a pair of shoes and other clothes. He always would buy a car to drive while he was home and then give it to us to drive when he went back, a 1931 A-Model Ford to a 1936 Ford Coupe . I did not get to spend much time with Albert since he had joined the Navy for six years and when he was to be discharged I joined for two years.

Albert married Paulene Catherine Ellis (born 10-31-1914) on March 1, 1947. They had two children, Clyde Sidney (11-25-1948) and Catherine Pauline (9-5-1952). After I was discharged, I drifted around a little while with some of the other brothers. It was not long that Albert asked me to come and live with him. At that time he helped me to sign up for the 52-20 government veterans program; Uncle Sam would pay veterans $20 dollars a week for 52 weeks if they were seeking work. This was a good deal because it was about as much you could make if you were working. I did this for a while, but I started laying brick with Fred and Mark for Joe Brown, a brick contractor doing brick work for G.L. Wilson in Statesville. I was paid $1.25 per hr. and Albert was doing labor, $1.00 per hr. Albert was doing such a great job for Joe Brown that in about two weeks G.L. Wilson ask him to work for him. Albert did and It was not long he became one of G.L's best foremen. As time passed he did most of the larger jobs; the years before he retired he built all of Lowe's big stores. Clyde and Catherine are pictured below.

Living with Albert and Pauline was the best thing that could happen to me, it was God sent. They treated me like I was important. We did a lot together, I was there when Clyde was born and over the years he was like my own boy and I still think of him as that.

While I was still staying with them, one night I met this girl and at breakfast the next day Pauline ask what I did last night and I said that I had met my wife, she ask me what was her name and I had to say I do not know but I knew where she works and was going to call her as soon as I could. I found out that her name was Hazel Gentle. While I was still staying with them, Albert, Pauline, and I would go pick up Hazel and we would go to a drive-in movie a couple times a month. They would sit in the front seat and watch the movie, Hazel and I would be in the back seat not watching the movie, or not much of it.

Albert would let me borrow his car for me date and that was great. One day Hazels co-workers were going to Morrow Mountain Lake for an afternoon picnic and she asked if I would go with her which meant that I would have to miss most of the day at work. Albert said that I needed not to miss work and he would not let me use his car. That struck a nerve so I just walked over to Sunny Sheerl's used car lot and bought a 1941 Ford. It was the prettiest thing that I ever saw other than Hazel; I took her to the lake and had a car for all future dates. Albert understood and all was well with us. I only stayed with Albert and Pauline for the next three months. Hazel and I were married on October 7, 1949. Just a few weeks later I moved to Charlotte since there was not much work in Statesville. We never went to Statesville without visiting Albert and his family.

Albert was always active with the school that his kids attended and other organizations they were involved in. One of Catherine's girl scout leader that ask Albert to be in charge of the cookie sales for the troop. He said OK and asked the girl scout leader how many boxes they were planning to sell. The lady told him being a business man, asked how much money would selling them bring and he wrote the school a check for the whole bunch. He took them to the job that he was working and set them out. He told the workers they were free cookies but if some of them felt they would like to donate to the school, they could just throw some money in the box and he would give it to the school. I heard that the workers gave more money than if they had all the kids out selling the cookies.

Albert built Mother a house behind his house where she spent her last years. Pictured above are Albert and Clyde standing in front of the house.

The little church that Albert attended out on the Salisbury Highway wanted to build an addition and Albert was asked to be the chairman of the building committee. He declined because he was a superintendent of the construction company and thought that it may look like a conflict of interest. However, he volunteered to be the chairman of the finance committee and planned a kick-off for the following Sunday. That day he woke up to a very deep snow. He knew every member of the church and where they lived, so he loaded the back of his pick-up with concrete blocks and start out to visit the members. He knew that they all would be home and before the end of the day he had been to see everyone and had more than enough pledges to build the addition to the church. That is how Albert did things.

Albert would give you his shirt off his back if you needed it; he would give you his last dollar too. He never seemed to think about himself and always of others. He never thought off owning anything permanently and felt free to give away to others in need. He was an excellent example to me.

Albert with his grandson Scott.

My Brother James Duke "JD" - 1918-1987

James Duke “J.D.” was born on February 26, 1918 and was the middle child in our large family. There are two sisters and three brothers before him and five brothers born after him. Three of them, JD, Albert, and Paul were very close to each other growing up.

Shortly after J.D. finished high school, he left home and moved to Kannapolis to work in Cannon Mill. It was no surprise when Albert and Paul left home to join him working at there too. It did not take them long to find out that working inside a cotton mill was not what they wanted to do the rest of their lives. Soon Albert, with a World War II going on, decided to join the Navy. He asked Paul and J.D. to go with him when he went to sign up to give him support. They all ended up signing up the same day, the three trained at Quantico, VA, and all assigned to serve on the battleship U.S.S New Mexico.

Shortly after their assignment, rules were changed about assigning brothers to the same ship. The Sullivan brothers were five siblings who were all killed in action on 11-13-1942 during or shortly after the sinking of the light cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52), the vessel in which they all served in World War II.

J.D. was a big brother to me when we were growing up on the family farm. I looked up to him as a father figure and thankful that he was a great example to follow. He was a hard worker and could always do more work than anyone else. We share cropped on an old two horse farm where the land was so poor that we could hardly grow enough food to eat. With Moms determination and God's help we made it through the very difficult years. One memory that stands out in my mind is when I was about 13 at hog killing time; there was a job that had to be done. J.D. took me down to the hog pen and gave me a big real sharp knife to carry from the kitchen. When we arrived, he took our rifle and shot the hog in the head and told me to hop into the pen and slit its throat to let out all of the blood. It did not take but seconds for me to look at the hog and hand the knife back to my brother. He did it for me and never told anyone that I had not grown up enough to do the job. He was always there for me. Pictured below - J.D. on the left and

Albert on the right, Paul is taking the picture.

I did not get to see him very much once he left home to work at Cannon Mills and then joining the Navy. Just about the time for him to come home I joined the Navy which made about 8 years we were apart. He was in the navy for the duration of the war. He joined 7-23-1940 with his brothers Albert and Paul. He trained at Quantico, Virginia and served on the battleship US Mexico and air craft carrier USS Swannie. He served on the U.S.S New Mexico which was hit by a Japanese kamikaze suicide plane in the south pacific. Many men were killed; thankfully he was down below decks then. While on the U.S.S. New Mexico he served as Chief Machinist Mate Officer and developed something to distill sea water more efficiently for the ship. He was discharged after the conclusion of the war. He never really shared much about the war though and was glad when he was able to complete his tour of duty and return home.

He came back to Charlotte and worked for the War Assessment Administration for a while. Later, he joined Albert and George in running a restaurant business which was located on Highway 64 in Statesville. When J.D and Albert came out of the Navy they were both chiefs; their experiences changed how the brothers worked together. It did not take long to find out there were too many chiefs trying to run that restaurant. J.D. sold out his share and moved on.

By the time I was discharged from my service with Navy, J.D. had married Colean Stewart (born 8-21-1925) from west Statesville, had a son James Duke Gurley, Jr. “ Jim” (8-19-1946), and lived at the old Propes Farm with Mother. He tried farming for awhile but could not make steady income. His son Jim bought his first bicycle by picking cotton for his father. He was paid the same wages that anyone else that picked for him. J.D. eventually bought the house and 50 acres. They lived there for quite a while. J.D. worked for Southern Fasteners over 20 years before he retired and moved down the hill. Colean enjoyed flying and had her pilot license at one time.

Pictured are Colean and Jim at the old family homeplace, the Propes Farm.

He, like his brothers, loved to fish. His family would go to the coast many a weekend just to fish. I really think that he just liked to be on a fishing pier to talk to everyone. He would walk up and down the pier shouting “here spot – here spot” calling in the fish. He also walked up and down Hunting Creek and the PD and Rocky Rivers catching catfish on the weekends. He loved a good picnic, enjoyed eating and fishing outdoors. Pictured here is J.D. with Colean and Mother.

He and Colean worked full time so I still was not able to spend much time with them. However, I knew he was always there for me if I ever needed anything. When possible we would do a little fishing or just get together and visit. J.D. was a pretty good gardener and always planted too much. He found joy in giving the vegetable away, a good neighbor to everyone around him. One time Hazel and I went to visit him when he was home alone. He boiled a dozen ears of good white corn which I remember was the best corn that I had ever eaten over my lifetime. In the picture below, J.D. and Colean are preparing green beans for canning.

I believe that he never met a stranger and had a little mischief in him. He would hide coins in his gravel driveway and tell any visiting kid that they needed to check out the drive way for buried treasure. He sure had a lot of fun for 30 cents he would hide.

He was a very supportive and patriotic man and father to his son Jim. He and Colean would worry like crazy when their son had to go in service. One of his proudest moments was when his son finally received his degree from Appalachian State University. He definitely was a good family man. He seemed to always wanted to be doing something for someone all of the time.

As I think back over time, I remember when he would come home on leave from the Navy he would always bring me some things like hard chocolate candy and clothes. He gave me my first set of underwear, up until this time I had only outer clothes and in the winter long handles buttons in the front and a flap in the rear. One time when he was on leave, he bought a 1931 Ford and left it with Mark and Mother, and me. Here is a picture of the car in rear of our house showing Mark and Mother, I was behind the camera.

Later on when he was in the hospital with cancer, I would visit him and he always told me not to worry because he had already turned everything over to God and He would do for him what was the best and I am sure that he did. At the same time I was trying to get over about fifteen years of medical problems. We had moved to North Myrtle Beach before he died on 8-4-1987. When you get old you always look back and say why I did not spend a little more time with the ones we love, we just think we are going be around forever, so untrue.

My Sister Ola Bell - 1915-2000

Ola was was born on May 12, 1915 and was 13 years old when I was born, the age that girls began to think of getting married back then. From the point that I was old enough to retain memories, I remember her very well. For a while I thought that I had two mothers. I imagine that mother gave Ola the job to take care of me so she could do all of the work that she had to do. Pictured Ola with Mother and Ola and her husband Collis shortly after they were married.

I remember Ola as someone that always worked hard; she did her best to stay in school and graduate. Ola had a best friend in school, Nancy Goodman, the two did everything together. They were two of the best players on the basketball team at Cool Spring High School. They remained friends through life. Ola was the first person in our family to complete high school and was the only person in my family that encouraged me to finish high school which I did. See diploma at the end of this post.

I do not remember going to visit Ola when I was very young after she moved from home. However, she would come up to visit us quiet often and would always bring me something. One time when I was around eight or nine, she gave Mark and me a bicycle for Christmas. I remember it being one of the nicest bikes I had ever seen; it had big tires, headlight, horn, and luggage rack. We rode it everywhere we went, when you would see that bike you saw us two on it. It took couple years of heavy use before we wore it completely out.

From about this time, there was not much contact Ola and her family. I would see her again after I returned home from my tour in the Navy. I spent a good bit of time in Kannapolis with Ola, Edna, Paul and others. I remember she seemed to be constantly going to or returning from work. Ola, like the rest of the family, grew up in some very hard times and I guess that had an effect on all of our lives.

Ola married Collis Frank Christian on December 14, 1940. They had three children, Nancy Louise (12-21-1941), Paul Daniel (03-12-1943), and David Ray (03-22-1948).

This is a picture of Mother and the five oldest children. Brothers on the back row left to right are Fred, George, and Howard. Sisters and Mother in the front, Ola, Mother, and Edna.

This is Ola's high school diploma, the first one in our family to graduate from high school.

My Brother Ernest Howard - 1912-1967

Howard was born on November 26, 1912 and was about 17 years my senior so I did not get to know him very well when I was growing up. The first I remember of him was hearing this story. At the time he was working on the little farm where my family lived. It all started one day when he was walking home from a visit to town. Back then you walked about everywhere you went and as often as you could you would travel as the crows fly so not necessarily staying on the main roads. On his way home he passed through a field and found a maddox pick in a field; he picked it up and brought it home. The next day Father asked where it came from and Howard said that he found in a field on the way from town. Immediately he and his son took the maddox back to the farm, gave it to owner, and Howard apologized for picking it up and taking it home. The two continued their trip as they went on to the general store and bought a new maddox pick. After they returned home, Dad took him down to the new ground that he wanted to cultivate for a garden. He made his son dig up roots and break up clods in the field until the tool was worn out. I think that is what made Howard not like living at home because he soon left and joined the Marines on 7-13-1929. Shortly he left for training at Parris Island, SC. He served in the Republic of Haiti guarding the Presidential Palace. Once he left home, we would not ever see much of him around the old home place.

After being discharged from the Marines he went to work and married Janice Nerine Carter (born 8-2-1917), they had five children. Janie Frances (8-23-1936), Faye Jeanette (12-27-1937), James William (4-26-1941), Linda Dianne (6-7-1944), and Earnest Howard, Jr. (4-14-1949).

Howard, like most those days, had a hard time growing up during the Dust Bowl Depression. He and Fred were pretty close, along with Fred, he took up the brick mason trade and was one of the best. They both enjoyed fishing more than laying brick so the two enjoy many days at the lake.

During the time I was in the Navy he lived in Kannapolis. A short time after I got out of the Navy, some of my other brothers and I helped him to build a house out on Mocksville Highway US-64, just past where Albert lived. Later he moved to Charlotte.

Howard was living on Atherton Avenue off South Boulevard. He learned early in life how to take care of himself and thought others could do the same for themselves and that went for his family. When I moved to Charlotte he helped me get a job laying bricks for a man he knew Rob Mullis who was a good man that treated me really well. Later I started contracting some and Howard laid brick for me from time to time, but work was not on top of his list of things to do. It seemed that Nerine and children sorta had to do for themselves and they sure did a great job.

One Sunday afternoon Hazel and I were over at Howard and Nerine's house. The had moved to another house on Kennelworth Avenue off East Boulevard in Charlotte. He knew that I had been cutting hair and that I had my barber tools in the car so he asked me to give him a haircut. All went well and he liked what I did. He noticed that I needed a haircut and told me that he could return the favor and cut my hair since he cut Jim and Ernest's hair all the time. I agreed and he started but after he cut for a little while I could tell that he was unsure of the cut and that was not going well. He finally said that he had cut off too much and that all he could do was a flat top or crew cut. I told him either would be fine but to do his best and I could tell that he did. On the way home, Hazel said that I would need to wear a cap for a couple weeks if I went anywhere with her. That brought back memories of Mark and I cutting each other’s hair and I remember saying to myself, "When will I ever learn, too late now." Pictured here are Nerine and nephew Wayne at a family reunion.

One thing about Howard he would see that all of the labors that worked with him would always get some food every day. In those days most folks heated with oil. If someone he knew was out of oil he would fill up their tank. I know of a time that one of his neighbors died and he would have Nerine take the best food over to his wife and they took care of her for quiet a while. Howard always remembered how tuff it was when he was growing up so he would try to help others that was having hard times. Sometimes that took away for his family but in the end everything turned out OK. I still remember that no matter how things went, Howard would always have a smile for everyone.

Howard's life was cut a little short and I think he knew that would happen so he lived as much as he could in that short time. From the time that Hazel and I moved to Charlotte until he died in 1967, we spent many Sunday's and other times with their family. Nerine was a great cook and host. She died in August 1990. Eda, George, Fred, and Howard ended an era of hard times. Things started to get a little better, there was hope, a chance for an education, and a better life.

Pictured: Earnest, Faye, Linda, Frances, and Jimmy

My Brother Fred Lewis - 1910-1993

Fred was born on September 28, 1910 and was eighteen years old when I was born. Shortly after I was born, he joined the marines on January 16, 1929, trained at Parris Island, SC, and spent eight years in service. He served in China during the Chinese Civil War , in Washington at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and on the USS Wyoming. I can remember his coming home looking great in that uniform with the polished shoes and big brass buttons. He would tell us stories about where had been during his tour of duty. One time it was that he had been to China and I thought that was the greatest thing that had happened.

At the end of his time in service, he married Bona Lee Carter (born 9-19-1919) they had Fred Lewis Jr. (7-20-1937), Barbara ( 6-24-1939), Henry Wayne (8-13-1942), Virginia (10-17-1944), and Brenda (7-16-1952). See family pictures below. They moved to Kannapolis, NC for work since Edna was already living there and working in the mill. Fred did not like working in the mill. He decided to partner with Curt Coley, a brick mason, and started laying brick. Fred became one of the best mason around under the leadership of Curt and they became best of friends. The only thing was that our Dad had taught him to fish and I think he liked that more that laying brick. He would work some and than he would fish some. He always said that when the weather was right for laying brick it also was good for fishing.

Later Fred moved to Charlotte, NC to work for the War Asset Administration, it was a job that he could depend on all thought the winter months. With the old car that Albert had left with us we could drive down to see them from time to time; it was something for Mom and me to drive all the way to Charlotte from Statesville. Fred would always take me on a ride on the Duke Power Bus to the grocery store which cost 5 cents both ways. During this time Fred built me quite a few rabbit boxes and this is where he had the five hunting dogs (beagles) that he was going to give to me but sold them before he left home. He was a great big brother to me.

He moved back to Kannapolis and lived about a couple blocks from Edna. When we went to visit him one afternoon, he and I walked to the movie. While we were watching he bought me 12 chocolate covered Popsicles. The movie was 15 cents and the Popsicles were 5 cents each. Fred liked to hunt about as much as he liked to fish, He and some of his friends would come up to the little farm and hunt for rabbits,birds and squirrel's.He liked hunting, fishing, and resting and then bricklaying. Sometimes he with others would go up to Washington, DC where they could make about three times as much and would work 10-12 hours a day for a few weeks and come back home to fish and hunt till he ran out of money.

As time passed I joined the navy. I remember trying to enroll quickly before my older brothers found out because I did not think they would let me join. Around that time Fred moved back to Statesville bought a

farm not to farm but for hunting and fishing. He still followed the brick trade I think just to make enough money to keep him in hunting and fishing equipment and help feed his family. He would have not been able to do this if he had not had Bona Lee as his faithful wife. His children liked to fish, one time two of them were digging worms behind the barn when Virginia bent down to pick up a worm; Wayne was the digger and he dug right into her head. I remember it being pretty bad. The doctor said that if it would have gone in a little bit futher like as thin as a piece of paper it would have killed her. Virgina thinks God wanted to keep her alive to have a longer life. This is where he was living when I got out of the navy. I went to work at the JC Penney's warehouse and that lasted for one week. I went to work before day break and got out after dark; I could not stand to be inside all day so I went to work with Fred and learned to lay brick. I was trained to lay brick under Fred's leadership and worked with for a while with him.

Fred had an old 1934 Chevy and he would let me borrow it from time to time until I was able to buy my own car. One night I wanted to borrow Fred's car. He and Albert wanted to go fishing down in Hunting Creed in Davie County. I took them down and was to meet them at the drop off at 1 a.m. I arrived on schedule and waited for them until 2 a.m. and they never showed up. I went back home. It turns out they were catching fish and would not leave until 3:30 a.m. When they walked back to where I was to meet them, I had left so they had to walk five - six miles home. They were kind of upset at me, but understood and were not mad at me.

Fred was a great big brother,I owe him a lot for what he did for me. When he would come home on leave from the Marines I thought that he was the greatest that ever was. and he always brought me something. I always loved to get to go visit him wherever he lived I had so much fun with his children. Later Fred married Ethel Crater. Both wives died before he did. I got married, moved to Charlotte, and did not have much contact with Fred and family.

Fred is pictured here with his two sons Freddy and Wayne.

Pictured above are Barbara, Virginia, Brenda, Henry Wayne, Freddy

Fred and Bona Lee. A current picture of the children is below:
Virginia, Barbara, Brenda, Wayne, and Freddy taken on October 1, 2010.

My Brother George Monroe - 1908-1971

My Brother George was born in 1908 on September 23 in Mecklenburg County. Since I arrived on the scene twenty years later, all the things I know about him are hearsay. When George was a young boy somewhere around three or four, our family’s only mule got out of the barn and was eating in the turnip patch. George

took a hold of the mules tail to pull him out of the turnip patch; that old mule kicked him on the forehead which later caused him to have seizures from time to time. This event was the reason he could not do many things that others could do. He was away from home about all the time that I was growing up so I did not know him very well. George is pictured here in our garden with the corn crib behind him.

He married Amanda Beatrice Carter (11-19-1910) on July 15, 1939. This was the first of three brothers marrying three sisters. Beatrice, Bona, and Janice Carter married George, Fred, and Ernest Howard Gurley. Beatrice and George stayed with us for a while before finding a place for their own. They had two daughters, Beulah Estelle, called Cricket (10-9-1944) and Emma Louise (7-18-1946). Beatrice worked in a mill in Statesville and George worked with a crew on men clearing right of ways through the mountains for the Duke Power Company.

One time when the crew was coming home, three of them were in an old Ford pickup truck. They had the windshield opened as wide as it could be to get as much air as possible. It seems that they ran into a swarm of honeybees on the road trip home. I remember thinking that it would have been fun to see them along the side the road getting all those bees off of their skin and out of their clothes. Needless to say, they got stung all over and were hurting pretty bad by the time they arrived home in Statesville.

George was able to make it on his own. He was a good horse trader, one time Henry Carter had an old mule that was so old and skinny that he gave his son-in-law George five dollars to take it off into the woods to kill and bury it. He took the old mule but he didn’t kill it. Instead, he fed the old mule a big mess of dried peas and gave it a lot of water. The old mule swelled up and really looked good! He took it up to Beavers Store and sold it for twenty dollars worth of $1 raffle tickets. In about three days that old mule died. The fellow that won the mule felt like he got cheated so George gave him his dollar back and everyone was happy. He made 24 dollars on the scheme; from that point on, it was obvious to me that George could take care of himself. Listen as I share this story.

If you would like to know some of the things that my family had to live through, watch the movie Grapes of Wrath. George was the neighborhood barber, every Saturday he would set up shop on the front porch. The men around us would come over for a haircut which cost them ten cents. There were times when George would be gone from home for several weeks at a time while cutting right of ways through the mountains. During those long absences, the men talked me into cutting their hair since we had the barber tools at our house. That is where I got my start cutting hair.

George went to work for Archie Crouch who owned Crouch's Tavern up on Highway 64. It was a restaurant that included several small cabins for tourist to rent that were passing that way and needed a room overnight. Listen as I tell about my experiences working for Mr. Crouch. As Mr. Crouch got older, George took over running the tavern. The tavern was destroyed by a fire. Shortly afterwards, George just moved across the high way and built Gurley's Tavern. Sometime later, someone broke into the Tavern and shot and killed him on April 24, 1971.

Here is a picture of Gurley's Tavern and one of George kidding around in a grass skirt with his friend Tom Thorpe.

Pictured below is a picture of Cricket and Emma taken in 2010.

My Sister Edna Ellen - 1906-1984

Edna was born on November 14, 1906 in Mecklenburg County, NC, the first child born in our family. I was the youngest of eleven children in our family so she was 22 years old when I came along. This was about the same time she married Seth Odell Sigmon (born May 4, 1904 in Catawba County) on May 17, 1925. and moved to Kannapolis, NC. They had two daughters, Mildred and Ruth during the time they worked in Cannon Mills. This mill, like all mills, was a hard place work. It was a means to putting food on the table and providing for the family.

Their first child, Herman Long (2-23-26) died in childbirth. Mildred Viola (4-7-31) and Ruth Lee (12-8-32) were just a few years younger than me so I was their best uncle. Edna never did seem like a sister, she was more like the mother to of Mildred and Ruth. I always enjoyed going about once a year to Kannapolis to visit then. I remember thinking they were very rich; they bought most of their food from a McNeil Petri Grocery Store and I thought that was great.

The girls would come to Statesville and visit us for a couple weeks in the summer. They would say how lucky we were able to just go out into the garden and get our food. All we ever bought from the grocery store was each year in the fall. Mother would buy a 100 pound sack of pinto beans, sugar, coffee, a little stew beef, and a few other things she needed for baking. One time the girls were at our house visiting, Ruth came down with acute appendicitis. We ended up rushing her to Davis Hospital in Statesville and the doctor took them out as soon as they could. Both family pictures on this page are of the Seth, Edna, Mildred, and Ruth.

One time when I was about six, we were down visiting Edna and mother saw a patch of turnip greens in the yard behind us. She said that she sure would love to have some of them so I went over and pulled some up and brought them to Mother. I got scolded and had to take them back to the lady who owned the garden. The lady was nice to me about what I had done and gave them to me to take back home.

Another thing happened on this visit. Edna had electric lights and they had fuses in a little box on the back porch. The fuses were the same size as light sockets; I took one of the fuses out and screwed it into a light socket. You can imagine what happened! I got a good scare and a good spanking. I think it was about this time Edna did not like to see me coming to her house because she would never know what I would do during my stay.

A little later, Seth and Edna bought a six room house for $900.00 and moved over on Bethpage Road in Kannapolis. This is where they lived happy ever after until Seth died 8-28-54 and later Edna married General Lee Scarborough who was born 8-7-98. I am pictured here with Ruth, Mildred, and Mother.

Edna and second husband, General Lee Scarborough.