Cora Mae Wilkey was born 23 January, 1889 in Morley, Scott, Missouri. She was the daughter of James Virgil & Rachel (Acord) Wilkey. Grandma was a feisty woman. She loved to sew on her old treadle sewing machine. She would work for hours piecing together quilts and making aprons and bonnets for those she knew and loved. She lived in a little tar paper house there in Bernie, Stoddard, Missouri next door to her Daughter Laura and her husband George Wright. Grandma didn't have indoor plumbing for as long as I could remember up until I guess I must have been about 8 years old. My mother and aunt Laura went together and had an indoor toilet installed in Grandmas house. I can still see that old house to this day. She burned wood. Every time I smell wood or leaves burning it transports me back to the early seventies and I can see Grandmas old home place. My brother used to go over every morning on his way to school and pack in wood for Grandma to burn. Grandma did not have much material wise but she was (as she always said) "Happy as a dead pig in the sunshine!". I can still see her kitchen. She had a pump indoors with a handle that she used over the sink to get water with. She had a boxed in back porch. She always had these little cans of comet cleanser that were pastel colored with a Daisy shaped lid. They dont make those any more that I am aware of. But I can still see them in my minds eye. Grandma loved Dr. Pepper. That was her favorite soda. I remember one time she sent me down to the little corner store to get a bottle for us. When I came back she heated it up on the stove top. She liked to drink it warm. Grandma had a few outbuildings on her property and my mother turned one of them into a playhouse for me. So that when we would go to visit Grandma Id have a place to play. It didn't stay long though because Grandma got aggravated about it for some reason and so I wasn't allowed to go back there and play any more. I remember spending the night at her house one night when she was sick. I slept on her big iron bed that night with my Mother. Grandma was always making and saving things for me. She loved to eat Bunny Bread. She would cut the Blue Rabbits off the outside of the wrapper and stick them on her refrigerator. Im not sure how she got them to stick on there but I always thought that was the neatest thing to see when I would visit her. Grandma loved the outdoors. She had just about every flower and herb you could imagine. She knew what each of them did too. She believed in a lot of herbal remedies and folk medicine. Im assuming much of it came from her Cherokee roots. A lot of it was just plain ole backwoods ways I presume though as well, She had these big ole pink Cabbage Rose bushes in her yard. They were just full of beautiful pink blossoms. They smelled so sweet. She had Honeysuckle and Wisteria Vines. It was like walking through a flower garden. There were all kinds of little paths here and there. Such simple but beautiful times. Unlike it is today. Grandma collected the Cicada shells. She was always cutting out the bottoms of her milk boxes or cracker boxes anything cardboard really. She would keep those bug shells in them until I visited and then she would give them to me. I carried on her tradition of collecting the Cicada Shells with my own children and grandchildren as well. There really was no purpose other than it was something that my Grandmother did with me so its something I shared with them as well. We always called the Cicadas "Whee Uh Whee Uh Bugs" because it sounded like that was what they were saying when they hollered. She used to cut out little animals from the thin cardboard boxes and glue material on them from her scraps. Then she would glue the tiny little eyes on them that rolled about. She would give me a handful of those little animals to play with. I had a time with them too. It doesn't take much to make a child happy and my grandmother knew that in her keen wisdom. She bought me my first Children's Bible and my first Disney Storybook. The story of Cinderella. That has always been my favorite of the Disney stories. I bought my granddaughters a copy of the very same book that Grandmother bought for me as well. As grandma grew older and could no longer live alone she moved in with my Aunt Laura in her house next door. Grandma used a walker to get around. She chewed tobacco and carried a paper flour sack to spit in. She always kept a washcloth or a handkerchief draped across the top of her head. She wore an apron for as long as I can ever remember. She kept a bag of lemon drops in her apron and peppermint stick candy. When she drank her hot tea she dropped a few lemon drops in them. I love my tea the same way today. Grandma had an old German Clock on her front porch. I loved that clock. The door would open and the little people would come out and dance about when the chimes went off. I thought it was one of the neatest things. She cut pictures from Magazines and glued them on thin cardboard and that was how she decorated her walls. She had very little means but she was always happy as a lark. Its funny how certain sounds and smells can trigger memories of our loved ones. Every-time I hear a turtle dove cooing it also reminds me of Grandma. I guess that is why people say our loved ones are never really gone as long as we have their memories they live on.
Things that remind me of Grandma.....
Grandma when momma was young....
Grandma & Grandpa lived on the Ditch Bank in Manila Arkansas near Big Lake in the 1930`s. That is where they live when my Aunt Geneva caught her long hair on fire at the wood stove and she died as a result of infections from the burns. She was just nine years old. Grandma & Grandpa didn't get along too well to hear my mother tell it. They were always "spatting back and forth" with one r another.Till one day in 1939 Grandma had had enough and she kicked Grandpa out, threw his clothes out the front door and sent him on his merry way. They Divorced in October of 1939. Grandpa remarried the very next day to a woman named Annie Ray. It didn't take Grandma long to remarry either. This time she married a man named Charlie Farries. Charlie died shortly thereafter and so Grandma took Mom and moved to Ash Hill, Butler, Missouri.She worked as a housekeeper for the Roark family.
Grandma & Mr. White......
Grandma married several times after she and Grandpa divorced. Her final husband was Mr. William Henry White. They were married 10 October, 1949 in Arkansas. She and Mr. White made their home in Bernie. They raised Chickens and Turkeys and a big garden every year. Mr. White eventually passed away and Grandma remained a widow for the rest of her life.