Colfax Woman Bids Farewell To Century
Times Picayune 04-12-1996

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If Nicy Bowie of Colfax was right, she was 116 when she died April 5 while
staying with daughter Mattie Thompson of Houston.

But Bowie's recently found marriage license lists her birthdate as Aug. 12,
1882. That would make her 113.

The debate over Bowie's age had been a lively topic among family members since
the long-ago day the Red River flooded her hometown of Colfax, destroying all
records of her birth.

"The water rose and ruined all our Bibles," Bowie said during a 1988
interview. "They had all our names and ages in them."

Bowie said she couldn't remember how many brothers and sisters she had, since
some had died before she was born, but she felt certain of her age because "my
mama said I was born the 11th day of 18 and 80."

Bowie spent the winters with her daughter Phoebe Johnson at her house in the
Lower 9th Ward, but home was the 30 acres in Colfax she farmed with her
husband, Louis, who died in 1947.

"My husband wanted something, so we worked hard," Bowie said. "He wanted to
make me a home."

Together, they raised 10 children, five boys and five girls, though only three
daughters are living.

Bowie has left them a century of memories.

Growing up in the late 1800s was rough, she said.

"We didn't have much back then. My mama was a slave. When peace was declared,
she was only 12."

Food was scarce when she was a child, Bowie said, and her mother would send
her into the woods to pick leaves to eat.

"She'd say, 'If they smell sweet, put them in the pot; if they don't, throw
them away.' "

There were no schools for African-American children, she said, but her father
was a schoolteacher from the North who "made sure his children learned."

As a teen-ager, Bowie worked as a live-in housekeeper for $5 a month, until
her husband-to-be asked for her hand in marriage when she was 19.

Her mother didn't want to see her go, Bowie said. But her father decided it
was best she marry when he pulled a brick from the chimney separating his
bedroom from the front room and caught his daughter and her intended kissing.

"My dad told my mama, 'She's grown,' " Bowie said.

Besides Thompson and Johnson, survivors include daughter Henrietta Boyd of
Houston, 12 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-
grandchildren.

A funeral will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Union Baptist Church in Colfax.
Burial will be in Ravencamp Cemetery in Colfax. The Rev. Otha Watkins will
conduct the services, and Winfield Funeral Home of Alexandria is in charge of
arrangements.