Biography: Adah Vinson Delay, Caddo Parish La.
Submitted by: Thomas J. Casteel



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ADAH VINSON DELAY

ADAH VINSON DELAY is the daughter of a former mayor of Shreveport, Richard
T. and Sallie Hill Vinson. Capt. Dick Vinson was a man of wonderful
magnetism. He received his education in Centenary College, Jackson, La.,
and volunteered in the Confederate army when in his Junior year. He was a
member of the Washington Artillery, organized a battery and carried it to
Missouri but resigned on account of ill health. He was later appointed
captain of the Shreveport department, surrendering at Marshall, Texas, in
1865. After this he engaged in planting and often brought in the first bale
of cotton from Bossier parish. He was married to Miss Sallie Hill of
Tennessee, August 4, 1864. At his death he left one daughter, the subject
of this sketch, and one son, Allen.

Miss Adah married Cyril Scott DeLay, editor of the Shreveport Times.

Although she had been reared to have every wish gratified, loved life and
was a society belle, she turned to worth-while things and soon gave up all
pleasures for work of the hardest kind without any compensation. Perhaps
her first big work was fitting up a baby ward in the Charity Hospital,
supplying even a baby incubator, many wheeled chairs, cheer every day to
the inmates of the entire building. And a Christmas tree which grew with
the years. For a number of years these trees have been given in the
Auditorium of the City Hall, sponsored by the Mayor and other officials who
are enthusiasts about this tree. She has had her eighteenth tree. No doubt,
she will give them so long as she lives.

Christmas tree giving is only once a year but caring for babies lasts all
the year and all day and all night, if necessary.   If Mrs. DeLay really
might be said to have any one work which is dearer to her heart than
another, it is in caring for the unfortunate baby. She seems to know how to
bring them to perfect health and how to select the good homes for them. She
has placed hundreds and hundreds of babies in lovely homes. Often times it
is necessary for her to keep a baby in her home many weeks ere it is in
perfect health-and she never places one until she has had a doctor-usually
Dr. Lucas goes over her babies for her-give it a thorough examination.
Several times she has saved the eyesight of babies. She has risked almost
her own life for them, washing, nursing and buying their food from her own
purse. She is tireless in this, her work she has found for her hands to do.

Another work that Mrs. DeLay has been doing for the past 19 years is that
of caring for Oakland Cemetery. Every week she pays off the men and
superintends the work for which she has never had a cent of compensation.
Her loyalty is very unusual. One day Dr. Kendall, who felt he might not be
able to place the flags on the beloved Confederate graves another Memorial
Day, took Mrs. DeLay out there and showed her the graves and requested her
to do it for him if he were not there the next time. So, his grave was one
of the number to need a flag the next year and it was Mrs. DeLay who placed
it there. He also requested her to carry out a promise he had made to a
"Yankee" friend who lies among those who wore the Grey and ever since there
is always a United States flag flying from the grave of him who wore the
Blue.

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From Chronicles of Shreveport and Caddo Parish, Maude Hearn O'Pry, 1928,
Page 345

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