Obit of Millie Martin, 1927, Winn Parish, Louisiana 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 the December 30, 1927 Winnfield News-American AUNT MILLIE, NEGRESS, FORMER SLAVE DIES; SERVED WHITE FOLKS A slow procession composed entirely of negroes wove its way over the hills and hollows and around the curves of Ward 8 Saturday afternoon-a procession lead by a hearse which was followed of a cosmopolitan assortment of vehicles, buggies, wagons, automobiles and a few men and women on horseback. The procession drew up at length at the old Union Cemetery. Five husky colored men lifted a box from the hearse and to the cadence of a solemn chant lead a march into the cemetery depositing the casket beside a new made grave. Then followed more singing which had the weird cadence of the tribal songs of the primitive black. The beat of hidden tom-toms echoed ghost like in the wailing strains. The colored parson delivered a funeral oration assisted by the entire assembly which chimed in at intervals. The casket was slowly lowered into the grave. An L. & A. freight train whistling as it sped westward broke the silence that followed. The funeral was over. Thus ended the life of Aunt Millie Martin who had been born in slavery almost ninty-two years, and who though had been freed by the legal edict of President Lincoln had continued a servant all of her life remaining true to the traditions of a race of whom the scriptures say have been "hewers of wood and drawers of water" since time immemorial. Aunt Millie known even to the little boys and girls of Winnfield was born on the Jackson plantation of parents who had roamed the restless wilds of Liberia as primitive tribesmen. As a child she was given to Mrs. John Dickerson as a present. When freed she married Ike Martin who survives her and with whom she lived happily and faithfully until her death. Aunt Millie has never wanted to be and has never been anything more than a servant. She has served in the homes of Edward Eagles, Tom Milling, Riley Bevill, John Abel, and Fate Tannehill. Since their marriage, she and her husband Uncle Ike have served Mr. and Mrs. B. W. Bailey. In her later years Aunt Millie became almost entirely an object of charity. The Morning Star Methodist Church, of which she is a member, contributed to her support as well as the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, also Mr. and Mrs. B. W. Bailey. She was a good old darkey honored and respected by white and black alike. Aunt Millie's life had indeed been one of service to white folks. She had assisted in bringing them into the world, she had nursed them along the way and helped when it had become necessary in their burial. Hundreds of white people were indebted to her for her fidelity, efficiency and kindness. While none of them did, if all of the white folks for who she had "done some loving kindness carried a blossom to her grave she would have slept Christmas eve beneath a blanket of flowers." Aunt Millie was born in slavery. It was her job to serve and she did her job well earning the rest which Mother Earth gives when at the end she calls back to her bosom all of her children, discriminating neither between white or black, master of servant, hunter or hunted nor rich or poor. She rests now in the same kindly embrace and in the same manner with the masters who owned her decades ago. (Submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, Winn Parish, LA.)