SARAH ANN (SALLIE) ANDREWS, A DEVOTED CHRISTIAN
By Hazel Welch Craig, grandaughter, 2000
(article in the Weldon Baptist Church Book)
  
Contributed by Hazel Craig, Camden, TN. 



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Sarah Ann (Sallie) Coleman was born October 24, 1872, near Homer, Claiborne
Parish, Louisiana and died October, 1969, in Bernice, Union Parish, Louisiana. 

Miss Sallie, as everyone knew her, was placed in the foster care of the
John Hammock family when she was 14 years old.  As the story goes, direct
from her, the Hammocks had a daughter die and be buried in the Mt. Olive
Cemetery near Bernice.  They were so heartbroken after her death that they
wanted their minister to locate a young girl, near their daughter's age,
that needed a good home, and little Sallie was the girl chosen.   After
much soul searching Sallie's grandmother Strange, who had raised her,
agreed to let her go live in Union Parish with the Hammock family.  To the
day of Sallie's death she called the Hammocks, Grandma and Grandpa Hammock.
She loved them dearly and at her wedding to W. R. Gray, Mr. Hammock gave
her land, which was to be her home for her lifetime.  Most of the land is
still in the hands of the grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

After Mr. Gray's death, Miss Sallie married James Thomas Andrews, son of
James Monroe Andrews and wife, Mary Ann Carley of the Weldon, Claiborne
Parish area, they had one child which lived to adulthood, Gladys Andrews
Welch, my Mother, who was born February 19, 1906. 

As a child, Miss Sallie was raised in the Methodist faith.  After moving to
the Hammocks and having neighbors attending the Baptist Church at Pisgah,
she joined the church there and remained in the Baptist faith.  She would
walk to church, three and one-helf miles, and was a devout Christian lady.
After Gladys married Willie Welch and moved away from home, Miss Sallie
would walk a mile and half over to her home and all would go to church at
Weldon Baptist Church.  There were times Miss Sallie would walk the three
and half miles on to Weldon when the Welchs were sick or the car was down,
not running.  Sallie still loved the Methodist faith also and would, on
occasion, attend the once a month Sunday service at the Alabama Methodist
Church.  Miss Sallie purchased the first automobile in the Willie Welch
family so all could ride to church.  Gladys had learned to drive and was
going to teach her mother to drive, after the first lesson, which ended up
down through the pea patch, the family decided Miss Sallie would be driven
where she needed to go from then on.  From the mid-fifties until Miss
Sallie's death in 1968, because of blindness, she lived with her daughter
Gladys and son-in-law Willie. 

The Children's Bible Story Book and most of my Christmas gifts came from
this gracious Christian lady.  The lady also opened her home to several of
her little cousins: Morgan, Claude, Delmar and Seaborn Strange of Claiborne
Parish, during the depression years as they were orphaned when small.  She
was a true Pioneer Lady.  

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