Forsyth-Wilkes County NcArchives News.....Bedridden 4 Years, She Can Still Sing (Julia Horton) November 1, 1954 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Bunny Horton phinhorton@bellsouth.net March 29, 2007, 1:11 pm Winston-Salelm, N. C. Newspaper November 1, 1954 Winston-Salem, N.C. newspaper November 1, 1954 Bedridden 4 Years She Can Still Sing (Under Picture) Mrs. Julia Horton, above, of Lomond street, has spent the last four of her 91 years in bed, but she is still cheerful and still interested in what’s going on in the world outside the narrow confines of her room By Annie Lee Singletary (Staff Writer) “What do you want to do with my pictures – scare the chidkens out of your garden: ;the little old lady asked from the bed where she lay propped up on her pillows in the same position in which she has lain ever since she broke her hip four years ago. Her snow-white hair was brushed neatly back, and her twinkling blue eyes were the same color as the blue bed jacket that lay across her shoulders. Not only are her eyes blue and merry; they are good eyes too. For Mrs. Julia Horton has used them for 91 years now and can still keep up with all the news in the newspapers without the aid of glasses. There’s nothing wrong with her voice, either. She demonstrated this fact by singing her own version of an old song which went “We’ll hand Jeff Davis on a sweet apple tree.” “My mother said that I was born singing,” she stated proudly and after 91 years she still sings and laughs although she has spent the last four of them flat on her back as a shut-in and an invalid. Her birthday was on December 23 which almost made her a Christmas present upon her arrival at Old Fields in Ashe county ten years before the Civil War broke out. “What would I do if the Japs came: Just give me a gun and I’ll show you,” and she lifted an imaginary rifle to her shoulder and sighted the barrel at a point through the window. “I could hit them too. I used to carry a pistol and shot me a rooster once when I got tired of eating greens and pork. I almost shot a Yankee officer, too, when he tried to take a big bay horse I was riding. He must have thought I meant business when I pulled the gun, for he let me along.” Mrs. Horton keeps up with the present war all the time but she likes to tell about Civil War days too. “I saw some Yankee soldiers coming up one day and I told Ma that if they got into the smokehouse we wouldn’t have enough ham left to season a mess of cabbages. So I grabbed as much of the meat as I could and took to down in the field and hid it under some brush. When the officer asked me why my dress was so greasy, It old him it was none of his business and that he wasn’t going to get any ham there to make brown gravy out of. He didn’t either.” She also told of wearing all the jewelry belonging to the neighbors in a bag under her hoop skirt for safety while the troops were in that vicinity. She was born Julia Gentry, and her father was a captain. Her husband served as second lieutenant in the war and was seriously wounded but recovered. She has been a widow for 42 years and has three children, one of whom, a daughter, she lives with on Lomond street. She is a member of Burkhead Methodist Church. The thing she likes best now, in addition to singing and keeping up with the news, is having company, but she prefers preachers to newspaper reporters. And doesn’t mind saying so. She’s a game little old lady and a lively and likable one too. And if those Japs don’t start behaving she’s likely to have to go out after them with her gun, too, just as she had to go after the Yankees. Then they’ll be sorry. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/forsyth/newspapers/bedridde96gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb