James Polk Willis, Rapides Parish Louisiana
Submitter: Randy Willis

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Polk Willis was born June 12, 1845 and died November 27, 1921.
Polk married Anna Cannady on October 25, 1868. Polk and Anna's  youngest 
child  was Lettie Caroline Willis. She married Hardy Laird at age 16.  
Three of Lettie Caroline's daughters, Savannah Laird Willis, Agnes Mae 
Laird Johnson, and Billie Laird Arthur, wrote me a series of letters about 
their grandparents, Polk and Anna, in the early 1980s. 
 
Billie Laird Arthur wrote me: "My mother, Lettie, said you could always hear 
him [Polk] coming on his horse singing. His favorite song was 'Wayfaring Stranger.' 
Grandpa was out-going, cheerful, and always helping people." In another letter  
Billie Laird Arthur wrote: "Mama [Anna] believed to her dying day that her 
children and all the ancestors of Joseph [Rev. Joseph Willis] were being blessed
by the prayers of this man." 
 
Savannah Laird Willis wrote me:  "He [Polk] was always in politics and had 
ridden his horse to Alexandria. When he came home he was wet and cold and had 
pneumonia. I remember my mother around his bed helping to nurse him. My grandmother, 
Anna, was a quite person and did not attend his funeral. I sat on the steps with 
her and watched as they carried his body away in a wagon."
 
Polk Willis was a grandson of Rev. Joseph Willis. He and his sister Olive 
tended to Rev. Joseph Willis, in his last days, at their father Lemuel Willis' 
home in Oakdale, La. He was named after the 11th. President of the United States  
James K Polk who was elected only a few months before his birth.