Bienville Families: Myrtle Tilley Sutton interview, Bienville Parish Louisiana Submitted by Donna Sutton ladyhawke1214@hotmail.com ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Interview with Myrtle Tilley Sutton 1994 On September 14, 1997, Myrtle Tilley Sutton was honored with a 100th birthday celebration at the Arcadia Baptist Retirement Center. The party was attended by her friends and family, which included four generations of her descendants. Her husband is the late George Cecil Sutton, Sr., of Bear Creek in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Their children are: the late George Cecil Sutton, Jr., the late Harold Sutton, Bill Sutton, Mary Sutton Byrd, Dixie Sutton Wright, and Jack Sutton. “Granny Myrt” has 12 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren, and 14 great-great grandchildren. Granny Myrt was born September 16, 1897, in Bear Creek. Her father was Edwin Moses Tilley, who attended Mt. Lebanon College during his youth. Ed was born August 2, 1871 in Bear Creek and died May 1957 in Bear Creek. His parents were Benjamin Wesley Tilley (b. 14 October 1843 AL, d. 1 January 1922 Bear Creek) and Elizabeth Susan O. “Betty” Boddie (b. 30 August 1850 South Carolina, d. 6 January 1902 Bienville Parish). Granny Myrt’s mother was Emma Sarah Boddie, who was born August 22, 1873 in Ruston, LA, and died in 1957 in Bienville Parish. Emma’s parents were James Henry Boddie (b. 2 January 1848 Batesburg, South Carolina, d. 1945 Lincoln Parish, LA) and Mary Emma May (b. 12 March 1851 South Carolina, d. 16 May 1912 Lincoln Parish, LA). Ed Tilley and his wife Emma Sarah Boddie were cousins through the Boddie family. On October 20, 1994, Margaret Stewart Sutton (wife of George Cecil Sutton, Jr.) conducted the following interview with Granny Myrt. Granny was 97 at the time of the interview. Describe your favorite childhood Christmas. Christmas was my favorite time of the year. Papa would clean out the fireplace and would make footprints of Santa and tell us to go to bed and go to sleep and Santa would come. I heard Mama whisper “I think they are all asleep” to Papa, and brought us all a gift and put it under the tree. I was too excited to sleep. But I didn’t let anyone know about it. Describe a typical dinner. I didn’t like meat when I was little. My favorite food was buttered biscuit with syrup poured over it. I also liked fried chicken and pie. What was your favorite thing to do when you were little? We built playhouses. We raked and cleaned a big place. Mama gave us some broken dishes. We made mud pies. My name was Miss Katie, my sister Ruth was Miss Simmons, my sister Fairy Mae was Miss Hammons. Sometimes Mama would bring us some cookies and milk and visit us awhile. We named Mama Mrs. Goodards. Can you remember a story about your mother? I remember at night Mama would tell us to gather around her rocker and had each one of us to get on our knees and one at a time we would say our prayers. Then she would sing us a song. My favorite song was “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder”. Mama could sing real good. Can you remember a story about your mother’s parents? Mama said Grandma told her about how bad the wolves were around their place. They always rode horseback and once she saw a wolf behind her. She pulled her bonnet off and threw it down. The wolf stopped and tore it up. A little later she saw the wolf coming behind her, and she pulled her apron off and threw it down. She made the horse run fast as she could and got home. Can you remember a story about your father? Papa always believed in hard work. We had to all pick cotton. His big saying was “Let’s bit and scratch”, he meant get busy and pick cotton while it was cool. My sister Ruth could not stand the sun and she would faint every time she got in the field. I asked Papa how she did that. I sure tried hard to faint but I never learned how she did it. Can you remember a story about your father’s parents? Papa said he looked forward to going to the cotton gin. When they picked the cotton they’d leave it in the wagon until it was full and they would ride on top of the cotton to the gin. They had a big tube that they sucked the cotton out with and made it into a big bale. On the way back home Grandpa would stop at a little store and buy all the kids a stick of candy.