Genealogy and a Priest in the Mississippi Delta

Siena, Rosone del Duomo. Picture by Softeis

This morning when I signed in to this blog, I found a comment about a post I had written some time ago on my other blog, Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek.  The post was about the discovery of "The Lady in Red" near Egypt Plantation in the Mississippi Delta.  The comment was written by Father Lincoln, who serves two Catholic parishes in Yazoo City, St. Mary and St. Francis of Assisi, along with the parish of All Saints in Belzoni, Mississippi. For those readers outside of Mississippi, the "Delta" region has a number of beautiful, old Catholic churches that were established by the many European immigrants who settled in that area during the 1800s. In addition to his work in these three Mississippi Delta parishes, Father Lincoln serves as a priest in two prisons located in Yazoo City, a federal prison complex and the Yazoo County Regional Correctional Facility. Although Father Lincoln must be a very busy man indeed, visiting parishioners in hospitals as far away as Jackson, he still finds time to write a blog entitled "A Priest in the Mississippi Delta."  Not only does he include the text of his homilies in these blog posts, Father Lincoln also writes posts about parish members who have died. Now any experienced family history researcher knows that Catholic parish records have always been a vital resource in finding original baptismal, marriage, and death records. But Father Lincoln's blog posts about the lives of those who for whom he has said funeral masses contain much more.  He memorializes their lives, their works, and their good deeds in words, details that parish documents do not contain. 

Mont Helena, Rolling Fork, Mississippi

Photo by Marty Kittrell

Mont Helena
Last Home of Helen Johnstone Harris
Located between Anguilla and Rollng Fork, Mississippi

Built on top of a ceremonial Indian mound, Mont Helena is more than a house or a building:  it is the legacy of Helen Johnstone Harris. Also known as "The Bride of Annandale," Helen Johnstone and her husband, George Harris, an Episcopal minister, built the house to be their retirement home.  Located near Rolling Fork, Mississippi, and situated in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, Mont Helena is a beautiful example of Colonial Revival architecture.  Click here to read more about Helen Johnstone and George Harris and the history of their last home, Mont Helena.

"Gary Walters Delta Dreamin'" - Scenes of the Mississippi Delta

Published by Quail Ridge Press

“The most beautiful things on Earth cannot be seen nor touched, but are felt in the heart,” says Gary Walters, a Jackson resident who is also a well-known watercolor artist.

I first met Gary Walters when we were in junior high school, where he was already a talented and promising young artist.  Ironically, our junior high art teacher was a man named Louis Walsh, with whom Gary would later study at Hinds Junior College. A Christian artist, Gary has been married for over 40 years to the former Joan Douglas, with whom he has four grown children.  One of their sons, Jacob, is a well-known Mississippi artist, too.  After receiving a Bachelor and a Masters degree from Mississippi College, where he studied with Dr. Sam Gore, Gary taught at the Clinton, Mississippi school, as well as at Mississippi State University, Hinds Community College, and Belhaven University.  Over the past 35 years, Gary has also taught numerous workshops and has had many one man shows featuring his watercolor works that exhibit unique color and light.  

Known as Mississippi’s premier watercolor artist, Gary's works are included in public and private collections throughout the United States and in several foreign countries. He has also received several noteworthy awards for his artistic labors of love, including being named in 1993 as Art Alumnus of the Year at Mississippi College.  In 2009, Gary was recognized by the Mississippi Senate for bringing honor to the state through his painting and his book, “Gary Walters Delta Dreamin'" published in October 2008 by Quail Ridge Press.  Just last year, on September 11, 2010, Gary was honored by the Deer Park (TX) Education Foundation, when he was inducted into the Felton F. Waggoner Hall of Fame.

"Gary Walters Delta Dreamin'" includes scenes from the Mississippi Delta that feature the characteristic color and light that make his art work so unique. To someone like me who has roots in the Mississippi Delta, the scenes depicted in the book bring back many memories of my childhood in a place where our lives were so dependent on nature and hard work.  For those who are less familiar with the Delta, its history and its culture, Gary’s art work provides beautiful visual insight into a way of life that previously could only be experienced.

To view the galleries of Gary Walters and his son, Jacob Walters, click here. Gary can also be found on Facebook, and an interview conducted by Walt Grayson of WLBT television in Jackson, Mississippi can be viewed below.

Wordless Wednesday

Photograph from Digital Photo Collection - 2009 - 2010
Privately Owned by Janice Tracy

Radio Station Near Greenwood, Mississippi

A Poem by Eddie Draper, a Mississippi Poet

My Angel Must Have Just One Wing

My angel must have

just one wing

She does not visit oft'-

But when she soars

around my realms

my spirits break on loft---

My angel must have

just one wing

my luck no constant streak---

But what beauty - 'neath that wing

Protector's guiding meek---

My angel must have

just one wing

Oh fly my way and light-

And curl your web

and drape my soul

I need your wing tonight---

by Eddie Draper

Mr. Draper, a native of the Mississippi Delta, now lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee where he is a songwriter and musician.

Wordless Wednesday - Delta Flower Bed

Source: Digital Photo Collection (2009) - privately held by Janice Tracy

B.B. King Museum, Indianola, Mississippi

Another of the highlights of our recent trip through the Mississippi Delta was a visit to the B. B King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi. As we traveled from Greenwood to Indianola on Highway 82, we made a quick detour to drive through the small delta town of Itta Bena, the birthplace of the blues musician, singer and songwriter, Riley B. King, later known simply as "B.B."



The home of Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena sits in the middle of the Mississippi Delta, surrounded by flat, almost treeless land. Once inside the town itself, there are many beautiful old trees that line its streets. Besides farming, the major industry in this part of the world is farm-raised catfish. Heartland Catfish, Inc., one of several large catfish processing companies in the Delta, is located in Itta Bena. And the town has a number of small restaurants that specialize in serving up fried catfish, Southern style. Still too early for lunch, we drove on to Indianola, with Greenville, Mississippi, as our final destination for the night.

We arrived in Indianola around noon, so we stopped for lunch at the Gin Mill Restaurant, located at 109 Pershing Avenue, just around the corner from the B. B. King Museum. There we had a delicious pulled pork sandwich, with all the trimmings, washed down with a large glass of sweet iced tea.



The building itself, once the Fletcher-Barnett cotton gin, now houses the Gin Mill Mall, which includes the restaurant and a gallery of Mississippi art, known as Gin Mill Galleries. More about the history of the building can be read on the gallery's website.

Since we had been told that a tour of the B. B. King Museum could take as much as three hours, we had set aside the remainder of the afternoon for the museum visit. But before going into the building, we drove around the block and snapped this picture of Club Ebony, a well-known Mississippi Delta blues club that has hosted countless blues musicians over the years.



As you can see in the photograph here, a Mississippi Blues Trail marker has been erected in front of this well-known Mississippi Delta juke joint. According to the marker, performers at Club Ebony have included Count Basie, Ray Charles, Little Milton, James Brown, Ike Turner, Willie Clayton, Bobby Bland, Howlin' Wolf, and Itta Bena's own B. B. King. Following B. B. King's performance on the evening of the B. B. King Homecoming in June of each year, Club Ebony is the site of a limited seating "after party."



As we left, I couldn't miss an opportunity to snap this photo of a stretch limousine parked just across the street from Club Ebony.



This is a view of a portion of the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, located at 400 Second Street, Indianola, Mississippi. Based on information I have read, the center just opened last year and was built at a cost of several million dollars. As we entered the museum, several staff members welcomed us with smiles and pleasant "hellos" and were ready to explain the tour process.

We were advised the museum is conducive to self-guided tours, so we chose that option. Although adult admission to the museum is only ten dollars, as senior citizens, our rate was reduced to only $5.00 each - very reasonable, we thought, for such a new and unique attraction. We were told that a guided tour by a docent is also available for an additional fee.

The exterior of the museum is contemporary in design, and that contemporary flair continues throughout the interior. Made up of separate, well-lit viewing areas that are centered around specific subjects and events, the layout of the interior is tasteful and well-lighted. Memorabilia that tell a story are on display in large glass cases, and audio and video recordings are used in each area to relate the story behind a particular subject or event.

A replica of B. B. King's home recording studio can be viewed through a glass wall in one area, while other areas display clothing, records, musical instruments, and in one area, an almost life-size semi-replica of B. B. King's bus. No photographs were allowed inside the museum, since most of the displays contain all sorts of copyrighted materials.

Although we peeked inside the Delta Interpretive Center, which adjoins the museum, the center was not open for tour on the day of our visit. Based on information available on the museum's website, the center is used for both music education and dance instruction, and is a worthwhile addition to the town of Indianola.

A trip through the Mississippi Delta would not be complete without a visit to the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center. A museum store is available just inside the museum's entrance. In the store, visitors may purchase books, CDs, and other items to take home as reminders of this wonderful museum in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.

As we drove out of town on Highway 82, headed for Greenville, we made a decision to return to Indianola next June for the annual B. B. King Homecoming festival and concert. And maybe, just maybe, we will be able to get one of those limited seats for B. B.'s "after party" at Club Ebony.

Source: Digital Photograph Collection (2009), privately owned by Janice Tracy

Robert Johnson's Grave and a Trip to Tallahatchie Flats

After leaving the Greenwood Blues Heritage Museum and Gallery, we set out to find Robert Johnson's grave. Although there has been much controversy over the years about where Johnson is really buried, the grave site just outside of Greenwood is believed by many, including Johnson historian and collector, Steve Lavere, to be the actual burial site.

As we drove out of Greenwood on the highway headed to Money, Mississippi ( yes, that is the town's name!) we neared the Little Zion M.B. Church and its cemetery where Johnson is believed to be buried. A Mississippi Blues Trail marker stands on the side of the highway near the cemetery, attesting to the influence of Robert Johnson's music on other Delta Blues musicians, including Son House, Muddy Waters, and Elmore James. According to the marker, Robert Johnson's early and mysterious death occurred in 1938 when Johnson was just 27 years old.



One of a number of Mississippi Blues Trail markers throughout the Mississippi Delta and elsewhere in the State of Mississippi.


Little Zion M. B. Church and Cemetery, where Robert Johnson is believed to be buried. The cemetery is located to the left of the church and is shaded by a number of large, old trees. Johnson's grave is near the back of the cemetery, under one of the largest pecan trees growing there.


The grave stone that marks the grave of Robert L. Johnson, Delta Blues Musician, is pictured above. Followers who visit Johnson's grave often leave flowers and other items to show their devotion to the man and the music that he left behind.


A close-up of Robert Johnson's grave marker that includes a fascimile of words allegedly written by Johnson shortly before his untimely death in 1928. We left the cemetery and headed for Tallahatchie Flats, an interesting new overnight venue near Greenwood. The gravel road that turns off the main highway is marked by a simple black mailbox held up by part of a plow. The name "Tallahatchie Flats" was on the mailbox, so we knew our destination was not far away. Although the actual address does not appear on the mailbox, the physical location of Tallahatchie Flats is 58458 County Road 518, Greenwood, Mississippi 38930.



Situated only a few yards from the mailbox is a large sign, visible from the main roadway, that assured us we were headed in the right direction.


As we continued to travel down the gravel road marked by the mailbox and the sign, we saw yet another sign, this one made out of old-fashioned tin, that guided us around a curve in the
road on the way to Tallahatchie Flats.


As we rounded the curve, we saw a cluster of seven sharecropper cabins that told us we had arrived at our destination. According to Steve Lavere and George Vasquez back at the museum in Greenwood, Tallahatchie Flats is made up of cabins that were moved from their original locations onto this tract of Delta farm land. The location is a short distance from Robert Johnson's place of rest and is used for overnight accomodations for visitors and festival goers from around the world, all wanting to experience the feel of life in the Mississippi Delta. The unpainted and weathered cypress exteriors of the cabins remain unchanged, but the interiors have been "modernized" with heat and air and "indoor plumbing," working appliances, and such, and each cabin has been decorated with furnishings reminiscent of the early-mid 1900s.

Individual cabins have been assigned names that are painted on a wooden marker above each
front door, including such names as "Red House" and "Tush Hog."


Pictured above is the larger of the two types of cabins that make up Tallahatchie Flats. This particular one has two exterior doors. Seen in the foreground of the cabin, just to the left of the walkway, is an in-ground pump once used to pump water for cooking and for baths.

Old-fashioned chairs sit on the front porch of this cabin, just waiting for the weary traveler to sit and watch the Delta sun set over endless flat rows of crops such as milo, soybeans, and cotton. A metal washtub is seen hanging on the left side of the cabin was used for many things, including laundry and baths.


Although this rental cabin now has a working stove inside, an antique one sits on the front porch as a reminder of the value of a wood stove. The stove was used not only for cooking, but it was used for heating the house in the winter and for warming bath water pumped by hand from an outside pump and carried into the house. Since electricity and gas were unheard of in most parts of the rural Mississippi Delta until the 1950s, kerosene or " coal oil" lamps were
used for lighting.

An iron wash pot and an old wringer washing machine, sitting on the porch of the cabin above, are remnants of a time gone by when laundry day really was an all-day chore. And that didn't include the time it took to hang all the laundry outside to dry. When clothes lines were not available, wet laundry was often hung on whatever was available, including the fence or porch rails.


The rural store pictured above, also made out of rough cypress lumber, looks just as it may have back in the 1940s. A "Royal Crown Cola" sign can be seen above the steps of the store, a reminder of the many cold soft drinks, all in bottles, that were sold at stores everywhere, even the Mississippi Delta, in years gone by. The only thing missing in this picture are the people who often lingered on the porch or the steps to drink RC, Grapette, Coca-Cola, or Big Red, at the end of a long, hot summer day.

For more information about festivals in or near Greenwood, including Rhythm on the River and Tallahatchie Flats Summer Music Festival, click here.

To visit the website for Tallahatchie Flats, click here or contact Les Shanks at 662.453.1854.
Next Stop: B. B. King Museum, Indianola, Mississippi
Source: All photos are from the Digital Photograph Collection (2009), privately held by Janice Tracy

Mississippi Delta Tour

During the recent Memorial Day long weekend, we attended my brother's annual Memorial Day Party just south of Jackson. Just like the annual Byron Nelson Golf Tournament, his outdoor party has been known to get "rained out." This year it rained, and everyone, including a gaggle of great-nieces and great-nephews, were confined most of the day to the indoors, the covered patio, or the front porch. But the party was great fun. After lunch, we even had a baby shower for the newest addition to the family, another great-nephew, who already has a name and who is expected to arrive in mid-July in Biloxi.

Early Monday morning, the actual Memorial Day Holiday, we headed out for a trip that would end in Greenwood late that afternoon. Pictured below is how the street to Jessamine Cemetery in Ridgeland, Mississippi looked when we left for a short visit to the cemetery before leaving town.


(Photographed by J. Tracy, May 25, 2009)


Our itinerary for the day included stops in cemeteries around Coxburg, Ebenezer, Goodman, and Ebenezer, all in Holmes County, before arriving at the Bridgewater Inn in Greenwood, where we planned to stay for the night.

Beginning next week, I will be posting photos and articles about our short trip through the Mississippi Delta. I hope you will follow along to see and read about some of the sites that we visited along the way.

Next Stop: Greenwood, Mississippi (Leflore County)

"Horizons of My Heart"

Recently, I ran across a poem written by Mississippi Delta native, Eddie Draper, and I would like to share it with you here today. Draper is a songwriter and musician who lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.

Horizons of my heart
Sunsets of my youth
Landscapes still remembered
Not forgotten in my view--
Panorama's panacea
Promising my plight
I pledge thy podium
Oh tonight--thy pulpit is my might--
Longin' for a laurel world
No speech--no sound-no curse--
A vestige of pious realms
No ignorance--yet verse--
Sonnets on a sunset
Float to truthful plains--
Never waving--constant course
Oh, venue long remain--
Horizons of my heart
Oh, faithful one who speaks--
Tread me not on paradox
But pay my toll to seek---

by Eddie Draper

Claudia Baldridge Branch and Her Only Son

Pictured here are my paternal great-grandmother, Claudia Baldridge Branch, born September 9, 1879, and her only son, Clark Commander Branch, who was born on August 9, 1899. In addition to Clark, Claudia and Edward Arthur Branch had four daughters, Ezma, Catherine, Laura, and Stella. I have previously written posts here about both the Branch family and the Baldridge families.

This photograph, taken around 1951 in front of our house in the Mississippi Delta, is the only one of just Clark and his mother that I know exists. At the time, Grandma Claudie, as she was known to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, was living in Goodman, Mississippi. and was likely visiting our family at the time.

Although I was too young to know the value of asking Grandma Claudie questions about her family and her life before she died in 1964, I have always thought she must have been pretty proud of her son. After she lost her husband when Clark was only 15 years old, as the only son, he became the primary breadwinner for the family, and a farmer like most of his own ancestors. And during his life, it was evident to me that Clark's sisters, too, admired and respected him, not only for his role as a father figure growing up, but for the honest, hardworking, and loyal man he became as an adult.

Clark Commander Branch died on January 19, 1979, in Jackson, Mississippi, of complications from heart disease, the same disease that had caused his mother's death. He is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery, Holmes County, Mississippi, next to his wife of 56 years, Lelia Porter Branch, and near Claudia, his beloved mother.

Smile For The Camera, 11th Edition - My Bubba and Me

The word prompt for the 11th Edition of Smile For The Camera at

Shades of the Departed is Brothers & Sisters.

My submission here is a photograph of my brother, James, and me. I called him "Bubba" until he was old enough to be embarrassed by the nickname and shortened it to "Bub" after we started school. Fortunately, it never caught on with his friends, who called him James, Jimmy, or Jim. The photograph was made on Easter Sunday morning when he was 4 1/2 years old, and I was almost 6, in front of the fence that surrounded our front yard where we lived in the Mississippi Delta. My paternal grandmother was the photographer, and she used a Brownie camera that I recall from my childhood. Since we grew up on a working farm and spent many hours playing outside, I am certain that our grandmother enjoyed snapping a picture of us when we were "all cleaned up." I can still hear her say to me "o oui" when I got "all dressed up," meaning " O yes - you look so pretty." My mother, a talented seamstress, made almost all the clothes we wore during our early childhood, and the white organdy dress and petticoat that I am wearing, as well as my brother's dress shorts and white shirt, were most certainly products of her handiwork. Unfortunately, our younger brother, who was still a toddler, was not included in this picture.

Becoming a City Girl

Left: Downtown Jackson as seen from the rooftop of the 308 Electric Building. (Photo courtesy of Natalie Maynor.)


I didn't realize it when it was happening, but I was very much a "country girl" for the first nine years of my life. City life was non-existent in the Mississippi Delta, at least in the town of only 455 people where we lived. It was not until we moved from the Mississippi Delta to Jackson when I was nine years old that I got my first taste of city life.

We initially lived in a rental house in Richland, Mississippi, southeast of Jackson, while my parents looked for a house to buy. Richland is located in a heavily wooded area of tall pine trees, and at that time, the town still had a "rural" feel to it. It was a long way away from becoming a "city." Many years later now, my brother and his wife have raised their family in that same town. Needless to say, it is somewhat larger and more sophisticated today than when we were in elementary school. Ironically, my nieces and nephew graduated from the same school their father and I attended, and before school each morning, so my newphew told me, students continue the tradition of ringing the old school bell, just as we did, that still sits in its original location on the school's front lawn. Traditions, like this one, are among the many things I treasure about my home state.

In September of the year we moved, my brother and I found out just how rural the area was, when we rode on a school bus for the very first time in our lives. Although we were not sophisticated ourselves, we certainly didn't act like some of the other children who rode that bus. The first morning, we received the "new kid" experience, when a boy on the bus shot corn kernels at us, using a homemade slingshot that was popular with young boys back then. Welcome to the neighborhood, and welcome to fourth grade!

I really don't remember much about our house, school, or neighborhood during the few months we lived there, except that my dad was sick with pneumonia that first month, and we had a goldfish pond in the front yard. I also remember that my teacher, Mrs. Haddon, gave each of her 20-odd students, including me, a small framed picture of herself for Christmas. I thought this was slightly odd; it certainly was not the type of Christmas gift I had expected. I haven't seen Mrs. Haddon since that fourth grade Christmas party, but I still have her picture.

The Richland experience lasted only until the Christmas Holidays of fourth grade. During the Christmas break, in early January, my family moved into the house in northwest Jackson that I would call home until I graduated from high school. It was there that I began life as a "city girl."

Where Do I Begin?

Mississippi is such a beautiful state, from its wooded hills and rich Delta land along the mighty river of the same name, to its sandy beaches that parallel the Gulf of Mexico. And it has such a rich cultural history. When I sat down to write the first real post on this new blog, I asked myself a very direct question: Where do I begin? The answer to my own question was obvious. I would start at the beginning.

For me, the beginning was a small Mississippi Delta town where I was born, a place so small that only a few people in my entire life have ever recognized its name. Those people, of course, were all from Mississippi. I had always believed the name of that town was of Indian origin, like so many other Mississippi towns and counties. Little did I know that many years later, I would find accidentally find out the name was actually an Italian word that means "beautiful island." To me, this information seemed very, very strange, at least for a town in the Mississippi Delta. Interestingly, two other small towns nearby also have Italian names. After searching many places for the answer, I have yet to find out how these towns were named.

Although we moved to the big city from the Mississippi Delta when I was only nine years old, I still have a fairly good recollection of those early years. I recall that our family was a farming family, with the exception of my father, who worked "in town." He drove away to work each day in a new, shiny car, while my grandfather drove a tractor and worked to keep his cotton crop growing. Later, I would learn that my father was one of only a handful of his family who had resisted the occupation of "farmer." I recall my mother and my grandmother working on sunny days in their vegetable garden, and my mother caring for the colorful flowers she grew in our yard. And I remember early summer fields of tall green cotton, with large blooms of yellow and pink, and fall fields of brown stalks that had been stripped of their fluffy white fruits. I also learned from watching my grandfather and those who worked for him that farming was very hard work, with hours that began at dawn and often ended in darkness.

I will never forget my early childhood years in the Mississippi Delta. Those years gave me the foundation for who I am today. And in order to know where we are going, we need to remember where we have been.

Family Cars of Yesteryear

The picture here is of my father and my grandfather taken shortly after my father got his first job and purchased his first automobile. The picture is dated October 1941. My father had driven my grandparents, who didn't own a car at the time, from the Mississippi Delta, where they were living then, to Holmes County and Attala County to visit relatives. I can tell from the picture that his father was very proud of him, and my father must have been proud to be able to show off his new wheels.

My father was about three when this picture was taken of him standing on the running board of a Model T owned by his maternal grandfather, J. J. Porter. He seems to be rather happy posing for the camera from this position, and it may have been from this experience and this moment that he developed his lifelong love for all things cars

To the left, you will see my paternal great-grandmother, Margaret Meriwether Porter, posing in front of a Model A, owned by her husband, J. J. Porter. The snapshot was taken around 1920, and the small child pictured smiling in the right rear is one of her four young sons.

Cars seem to appear often in old pictures, frequently serving as the backdrop for the entire photograph. They were something new and different, and our ancestors were quite proud of them. Not only did they represent a large investment of money at the time, but they represented a significant change in lifestyle, since ownership of a car must have been a "step up the social ladder."

Little did our ancestors know how this new form of transportation would go on to alter the world.

Goodbye Delta, Hello Big City

This post is dedicated to my grandparents, pictured below. They were among the many survivors of life in the Mississippi Delta during the Great Depression in Mississippi.

Clark and Lelia Branch, circa 1945 In 1955, my life, along with the lives of my grandparents, parents, and two siblings would change forever. It was the year they "sold the family farm." In July of that year, we left the only home I could remember and moved to the big city, at least it was a big city to a nine-year old child born on a farm in the Mississippi Delta. We had always lived with my grandparents, or my grandparents lived with my parents. Which of these two situations was true was not really important to me as a child, and since my father was an only child, it seemed logical to me at the time.

As I look back on my parents and my grandparents living arrangement, my parents must have moved into my grandparent's house in the Mississippi Delta the year that I was born. They had married in Mississippi but had lived out-of-state during the first few months of their marriage. Although I was too young to remember specific details about any division of household duties, it is likely that my mother was not the "mistress of her own domain" or the "only cook in the kitchen" until I was in sixth grade, when my grandparents moved into a different house. For the first time since late in the year they were married, my parents were alone in their own home with only their children.

The move from the farm to the "big city" was precipitated by my grandfather's age and health, along with the simple fact that farming was not making the kind of living that it once had. My grandfather raised cotton in the Mississippi Delta, beginning after his move from Attala County in the depression years and continuing until the move to the city in 1955. Cotton was "king," and the entire Delta economy around 1950 revolved around planting, "hoeing" or "chopping" and the fall "picking." We could see the cotton gin in the distance from our yard.

My grandfather also raised soybeans that he sold to the local farmers' coop and corn and sugar cane. The corn was taken to the gristmill for milling into cornmeal, and the sugar cane was used for making syrup. We also had a number of animals that were raised for milk and butter and for meat. And the large vegetable garden and small fruit orchard cared for by my mother and grandmother produced enough fresh vegetables, fruits, and potatoes for our family all year. My mother became a "canning" expert. This farm had enabled my grandparents to make it through the depression years.

The fact that my father did not become a farmer, but opted for a job in a small town nearby, allowed our family to live modestly, but comfortably, in the post World War II years. Their lifestyle was dramatically improved from the depression years my grandparents saw as a young married couple raising a child and what my parents experienced as children growing up during that time in Mississippi. My father's job "in town" enabled our family to have some of the comfort items they did not have during the depression years, including a newly remodeled house with electricity and running water, along with a new car, and later one of the first television sets.

My father's job move from the small town near where we lived to the big city was actually the final decision maker to leave the Delta in 1955. Farm life for my grandparents, as well as my parents, quickly became a thing of the past, leaving behind memories of some difficult years, but taking with them pleasant memories of family and longtime business and personal friendships.

An era had come to an end, and all our lives, particularly the lives of my grandparents, would never be the same.