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Irene, papa's second wife took Elma when she was three years old and went to her fathers & mothers and later on they all moved to Austin, Texas. So that was the last time he saw his beautiful daughter. Irene and papa corresponded for some time after she left. She'd even send him a birth day present. So then when Elma was 16 years old Irene wrote my daddy and told him if he'd send the money for her to come on, she could come and stay a month. But after he sent the money she never did come till she was 18 years old but it was too late then he had already passed away. He died a disappointed father.
When she was eighteen she come to her Aunt Lillie Eaves who lived quite a few miles from Picayune. Her mother came with her and not long after she arrived at her aunt's home she saw in the paper where they were wanting two school teachers so she applied for the job and in the mean time Leah Lundy from Gulfport saw the same add so she applied for the job and they both taught in the same school and so Elma's mother heard that there was a house real close to sister Emma's and so she came with them and cooked and kept house and all three of them were happy. Emma had a house full of boys and girls so they had the time of their lives. So when Elma went back up to her Aunt Lillie's she met Archie Lott a fine looking man and it wasn't long before they were married and went to live with his mother.
The way she slept, she sat in a chair and had a pillow on the back of another chair. She didn't want to go to the hospital so Jewel wouldn't make her go, so Jewel nursed her through the months of her illness. Now the whole family is gone excepting two and that is Forest (Mutt) and Laura. Jewel had been engaged to Walter Keyser since right after her mother died and Walter wanted her to mary her and he said he'd help with the children but she said no; they are getting along fine. She told him if he wanted to wait till they could get on their own, she'd marry him and if not O.K. So he kept going to see her and after Lilly died and Laura got married Horace and Forest was old enough then to get little odd jobs so Walter and Jewel got married. But I think Forest stayed with them until he and Tut got hitched. She was a "Jewel". That was the right name. Her daddy used to call her Sod Pross because one day an old fellow at dinner with them and Mrs. Miller had made a bowl of grave, she called it bat-eye grave and the old man pulled
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