Obituaries: Mattie Ruth Cross Palmer, 1981, Winn Parish, LA.
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483
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From: October 7, 1981 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American

Noted Winn Authoress Succumbs

Mrs. Mattie Ruth Cross Palmer, 93, 1005 Elm Street, Winnfield, Louisiana, died
Wednesday, September 30, 1981, shortly after 7:00 a.m. in Winnfield General
Hospital after a lengthy illness.  She had donated her body to the Anatomy
Department of Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport for
medical research.

She was a lifelong member of the Christian Church and had served for more than
20 years as a Bible instructor.  Until poor health prevented participation,
Mrs. Palmer was an enthusiastic member of the Readers Review Club of
Winnfield.

Mrs. Palmer was born December 25, 1887 in Sylvan, Texas, a small rural town in
the black hills farming area near Paris, Texas.  She was the daughter of Dr.
Walter D. Cross and Mrs. Willie Altie Cole Cross, and a niece of the late
Misses Janie and Eva Cole and C. B. Cole who were all well known Winnfield
residents and merchants.  After completion of her early schooling in and
around Atlanta and Paris, Texas, she was graduated from high school at Paris. 
She attended and was graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1911 from the University of
Texas at Austin and began her teaching career in Sweetwater, Texas.

Mrs. Ruth Cross Palmer was preceded in death in 1947 by her husband, George
William Palmer, while residents of New York City.  The Palmers, married
in 1924, lived at Edendale on a 250 acre estate four miles from Winstead,
Connecticut and considered this their home.

After her first novel, "The Golden Cocoon," was published in 1924, becoming a
bestseller which was later made into a movie, Ruth Cross Palmer was
established as a writer and author.  She subsequently had eight other books
published which included recently a revival of "Soldier of Good Fortune" (a
historical novel of the life of Louis Juchereau St. Denis, founder of
Natchitoches) and "Wake Up and Garden" for which Winnfield's Garden Club was
named.

Her survivors are one sister, Mrs. Katherine Cross Turner, a resident of
Arcadia Baptist Home in Arcadia, Louisiana; one nephew, W. Donald Turner
of Winnfield; and give great nieces and nephews, Carol Emmons Turner Matthews
of Virginia, Robert S. Turner, Jr., of Monroe, Dennis Paul Turner of
Shreveport, Kay Lynn Turner Hellers of Texas, and Julia Turner Chandler of
California.  Also she is survived by a number of cousins, which include Misses
Janie and Ruth Wood of Winnfield, and a host of devoted friends.