Pike-Coffee County AlArchives Obituaries.....Rainer, Isabel Jane Smart (Grannie) January 1, 1920
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Alice Folmar Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008183 March 17, 2017, 12:32 pm

Obituary Collection of Kathlyn J Folmar

RAINER, ISABEL JANE SMART (GRANNIE)  (b. 1-7-1825 – d. 1-1-1920)
(Pike County / Coffee County)

Mrs. Rainer was the daughter of Cornelius Smart and Temperance Elizabeth Rushing
and was born in Montgomery Co., Ala.  She married Young Wood (or Youngwood)
Rainer on 12-18-1841.  She died at Elba, Coffee Co., Ala., and was buried in
Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, Ala., Pike County.

The following was written by Mrs. R. B. Stanley, who was a granddaughter of
Isabel Jane Smart Rainer (Grannie Rainer) and a daughter of Lula Rainer Stephenson:


IN MEMORY OF GRANNIE RAINER

“Back of the mist-crowned hill tops,
	Back of the sun-kissed sod,
Back of the beauties of earth and sky
	Back of it all is God.”

	Yes, back of it all is God and, when a little babe, who was called Isabel
Smart, was born in a little country home in Montgomery County in 1825, God alone
knew how great this babe’s life would be before he claimed her again as His own.
 It has been said that “God couldn’t be everywhere so he made Mothers.”
	And this dear little babe who grew to be Grannie Rainer was a Mother in every
sense of the word.  She not only mothered her own twelve children, but every
motherless boy or girl near her and she raised two children not her own.
	There are gray headed men today who say that Grannie Rainer was a mother to
them for thirty years or more.  And when we speak of her as a Mother, we mean
Mother in the highest, noblest sense of the word.  What more could a woman wish
to be said of her than this, for the richest jewel bestowed on man by the
Almighty God is Mother.
	This dear old lady had, since her childhood, given her whole life and soul to
God and her fellow man.  She joined the Primitive Baptist Church at the age of
fourteen and was a consistent member for eighty one years.  No prettier sight
has ever been seen than this bright young girl, wearing a heavy fringed wool
shawl, walk into the stream covered in ice, breaking the ice as she went, thus
by baptism proving her faith in God and acknowledging Him before men.  As she
came from the water, long ice tags hung from the fringe on her shawl.  Since
that day she has fulfilled God’s command:  “Let your light so shine before men
that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven,”
for no one could look into this dear old face and not see the light of God
beaming from it, nor be with her without having his faith in God renewed and
strengthened.  Although she lived to be nearly ninety-five, her faith never
weakened, but grew until she was called to hear the voice of God saying unto
her:  “Well done, thou good and faithful servant enter thou into the joys of the
Lord.”
	When yet a girl she moved with her parents to Pike County and in 1839 was
married to Young Rainer.  Together they built their own little cottage of logs
and when finished her hands gave touches to this rude little home that made it a
place of happiness and love.  There were times in those early days they had to
bar their doors to protect themselves from wolves and other wild animals, the
country being so unsettled at this time. 
	She was the mother of twelve children:  Mrs. Ella Anne Black (deceased), Mrs.
Caroline Sanders (deceased), Mrs. Lucinda Brown, Joe Rainer (Deceased), Mrs. A.
Black, Mrs. M. Sollie, A. H. Rainer (disceased) Walter Rainer, Mrs. J. R.
Stephenson, Frank Rainer, Young W. Rainer, and Miss Sidney Rainer.
	She was the grandmother of 44 children, the great grandmother of one hundred
ten children and great-great grandmother of eleven children.
	After untiringly nursing Granpa Rainer night and day for six long years, when
all the children were still young, Grannie Rainer was left a widow to raise and
care for all her children alone.  Altho adversities came to this grand old lady
she never complained but lifted up her eyes to the “hills” from whence cometh
our help, and found strength to carry her on.
	She lived in a far more trying time than we are living in today, but she
overcame the hardships of the war and in the sixties, from the cotton raised on
her plantation, she spun and wove with her own hands all the clothes for her
large family, cheerfully making a coat for a neighbor’s boy now and then.  She
knitted all of their socks and stockings, teaching them as they grew old enough
how to do this work themselves.  She would card her rolls in the afternoon and
could be found after midnight at her spinning wheel.  And yet she always had a
smile.  Altho she was not blessed with riches and worldly things, she was happy
in her country home with all her bright faced children around her.  She did not
seek happiness away from her home as a good many mothers do today, because she
knew that,

	“In the Place of Duty Done,
	Beside the Door of Home,
	You’ll find the House of Happiness,
	For Happiness does not roam.”

	She always lived close to nature.  She loved even the song birds, the
whispering of the wood, the beauty of the flowers, and when asked the happiest
moment of her life she said:  “Late in the evening when the children drove the
cows home from the pasture, the tinkle of the bells was the sweetest music I
ever Heard.  I believe I was happiest then.”

“The very best within her awoke at Nature’s call,
Of Peace, Good-will to all.”

	And her heart was always filled with kindly thoughts.
	In the evening of her dear old life her children and friends were happiest when
making her happy.  The last Christmas of her life was one of joy and happiness
for, on waking, she was led by the one who always so gently and devotedly cared
for her, into the parlor and there she was greeted by a pretty, shining, little
Christmas tree just loaded to the top with fruits and gifts of all kinds for
her.  Santa Claus even came to her tree to make her happy.
	Every body loved Grannie Rainer.  She always had a smile and a good word for
every one who came her way.
	She lived in Troy until an old lady.  She then moved to Elba where she spent
the rest of her useful life.  Useful?  Yes, for every day even unto the end she
did some little useful deed.  Only the day before she died she went into the
garden and gathered the vegetables for dinner, and only a few weeks before she
made with her own hands two pretty little quilts for two of her great grand
babies.  How she did love little things!  Just a little before she died she
thought of her little chickens and asked that they be fed.  Just as gently and
quietly as the old year faded and died, so did Grannie Rainer pass away from
this old world and on the morning of the bright New Year this dear old soul took
[ ? ] flight back home to God, just as easy and peacefully as a babe falling to
sleep.  And with the same sweet, contented smile on her face that she carried
always.  She smiled because she fell asleep in the arms of Jesus.
	And, Oh, what a beacon light to lead us on and call us home if we will only
follow.
	This grand old lady was never known to complain at anything that happened and
she always believed that:

“There are no errors
	In the great Eternal plan,
And all things work together
	For the good of man.”

And we know as her soul speeds onward,
In its great Eternal quest,
She will say as she looks back Earthward,
“Whatever is – is best.” 

	She was buried in Troy, Alabama, January 2, 1920.  She was borne to her resting
place by eight of her grown grandsons.  And now, wrapped in a blanket of
flowers, she lies peacefully sleeping in Jesus.
	Written by her granddaughter, Mrs. R. B. Stanley



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