Birthdays: Edna Harlan McLamore, 1988, Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: October 26, 1988 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Mrs. Edna McLamore: Local Woman Celebrates 100 Years by Margaret Simmons Enterprise Society Editor It is hard for Mrs. Edna Harlan McLamore to fully realize that she really will celebrate her 100th birthday, though she recalls with a chuckle that her husband had forecast it. She first overheard him in their living room tell an insurance salesman that she would live to be 100. Her earliest recollection is a visit to Couley Community to visit her Grandmother Harlan. She remembers being impressed with his long white beard and warmly recalls him taking her and other children to the barn to see the chickens, ducks, geese, and other farm animals. She doesn't think she was much over three years old. A bit later, seeing her grandfather's body laid out on the "cooling board" with money on his eyelids to keep them closed (burial customs of the day) made an unforgettable impression on her as a small child. She attended school at old Sanders Chapel with Judge Cas Moss as her teacher. Her father had bought a big farm in the area between Calvin and Goldonna where they lived in a log house. She vividly recalls her mother having a long table in the hall. She had three brothers, John, Bill, and Eugene. Later she had two sisters, Lois Mercer, the youngest, and Eva who lived in Houston but is now deceased. Later she remembered traveling by ox-drawn wagon to visit her Grandfather Mitchell in the Wheeling Community. It moved so slowly that the boys would walk along side and play in the adjoining woods. Her mother took their clothes in a trunk carried on the back of the wagon. She commented that her own mother was very pretty, with black hair and blue eyes, but she never had a blue-eyed child, all six had brown eyes. Her Grandfather Mitchell had gone into the Civil War while he was too young to serve on the firing line so the army had trained him as a butcher. Upon his return, Grandfather Mitchell butchered winter meat supplies for many families in the area. Mrs. McLamore's parents were declining in health by the time she reached the 8th grade in school so she felt the necessity for herself to begin to work to help out. She worked in 1909 and 19010 in Winnfield at Rouse's Furnishings Store when the only other businesses were W. W. Kelly's, C. B. Cole's, and Grand Leader. Mrs. Frank Shaw, Sr., the former Allie Mae Neal of Wheeling Community, was her cousin. She remembers once visiting in Winnfield and going on a hayride. She knew Nettie Teagle (Mrs. W. R. Horton, Sr., mother of Margaret Simmons) who arranged a date for her with Curt Sowers for this outing. After she married Weldon Hargis McLamore (Doris Jean Sikes refers to him as Uncle Weldon) in 1919, they moved to Shreveport. He worked for the old Pierce Oil Co., traveled a lot (measuring and recording oil production). She worked at Rubenstein's in Shreveport for 39 years and over this period made sales from the china and housewares department to many Winnfield residents. She had two sons, Edward and Merrell. Edward died at age 6 from pneumonia complicating whooping cough. He had just entered first grade at Parkview where his teacher was impressed with his learning ability. Her son, Dr. William Merrell McLamore, earned a BA and MA degree from Rice Institute in Houston. He worked in Berkeley, California during the war and afterward was sponsored by Standard Brands to attend Harvard where he earned his PhD. He worked 36 years until retirement for Phfizer Chemical Co. and lives in Gales Ferry, Connecticut. Dr. McLamore and his daughter, Alison Dorner of Madison, Wisconsin, will arrive in Shreveport on Wednesday to participate in the birthday celebration, and Mrs. McLamore is related. After her husband's death and Mrs. McLamore's own retirement, she moved to Connecticut with Dr. McLamore where she remained less than a year in 1971. She simply was "too much a Southerner", finding it too cold, the snow too bright, and she did not find a church to her liking. A reception to honor Mrs. McLamore will be held in the A. Leonard Allen Building this Sunday from 2 until 4 p.m.