BIOGRAPHY:  Martha Ellen Lewis Davis - Coke County, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
15 May 2002
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The Observer/Enterprise, 26 April 2002, Robert Lee, TX

Out at the Ordinary

by Jane Austin Bruckner

(We are celebrating Women's History Month by featuring Robert Lee 
Mayor Gadand Davis' Grandmother Martha. This story was written by his 
oousin Joydell Kinsey Deen for Grandmother Stories from the Heart of 
Texas, Eakin Press, 2002.  Joydell, a loving grandmother and a 
geriatric nurse, died last year before seeing it in print).

Gmndma Matt

by Joydell Kinsey Deen 

Grandma Martha Ellen Lewis Davis, called Matt, of medium height and 
sort of plump, would shake all over when she laughed, which caused her 
blue eyes to twinkle. She had snow white hair and wore it up, with a 
wave on the top. When she hugged me, she smelled of lilac and sunshine 
and starch.

My Grandma Matt was moth­er of ten children and "Matt" to twenty-four 
grandchildren. Besides all of the first cousins that lived in Robert 
Lee, Texas, we were kin to the Wallaces, Williams and Lewises, and 
they had large families. And we were often at Matt's house where a 
lavish amount of love and family togetherness seemed to flow from Matt.

Grandma Matt's mother lived with them and when we stayed the night, the 
lucky one got to sleep with Grandma Lewis in her soft, fluffy feather 
bed. The rest of us slept on pallets or the big black divan that 
opened out.  There would often be three or four to a pallet. Grandma 
Matt never seemed to be out of quilts, pillows or patience for us.

Grandma Maft's breakfasts would wake us up before day-light with 
smells and sounds of coffee perking, bacon or sau­sage sizzling, and 
the wonderful smell of the big melt-in-the-mouth biscuits baking. We'd
hurry, sleepily, to the kitchen where all the grown-ups were talking, 
laughing and helping. We'd sit on the long bench or in our parents' 
laps.  Grandma Matt would fix us children a cup of milk with a little 
coffee and sugar in it. There were Crystal bottles with syrup, jams 
and honey... and a butter dish with real churned butter.

She maintained a large veget­able garden, had peach and apricot trees. 
We ate the fresh vegetables and she canned the rest for Winter.  But 
she always had enough of canned vegeta­bles, jams or eggs or butter to 
take to a neighbor's when we'd go visit. Further, she had lots of 
areas for growing flowers: roses, lilacs, crepe myrtles, phlox, 
petunias and zinnias.  Her fresh cut flowers were arranged for home, 
with a big bouquet to take to church on Sunday mornings.

Grandma always included us children when she was rolling pie crusts, 
shelling peas, gather­ing eggs, tasting fruit as she cut it up, cutting 
flowers and arrang­ing them in vases. We would sit beside her while 
she did her tat­ting or while she showed us how to sew on buttons or 
cut quilt blocks and stich them together.  And on hot summer days, 
she'd let us lay on the still wet, wooden porch floor after she 
scrubbed it'.  Now, that was cool!

Best of all was the music that was always there. Grandma Matt might 
be humming or whis­tling while she worked in the kitchen, or garden; 
nearly every Saturday night family and friends came to play guitars, 
fi­ddles, spoons, harmonicas, the saw, even a broom handle on a tub.  
Everyone would sing, including the children and Grandma Matt.

On Sunday mornings, the house would be clean and tidy; Sunday lunch 
was prepared before we left for church.  Most of our family went to  
worship at the Church of Christ with the Williams, Wallaces and 
Lewises and Grandna's dear friends, the Keys, Lowrances and the 
Gunnels. Grandma taught us to sit up, listen to the sermon and to 
sing the songs and to know the Golden Rule. We nearly always had 
company for Sunday lunch often including the preacher and his family. 
Sunday lunch was often fried chicken, fresh vegetables in season and 
peach cobbler and cornbread.  When I was ten, Grandma had been 
diagnosed with breast cancer and was treated in Houston with surgery 
and radiation.  When she returned home and was confined to bed and 
needed care givers, we moved in with her and Grandpa to help take 
care of her.  She made me feel that what I was doing made her feel 
so much better.  Perhaps that is why I chose geriatric nursing as 
my profession.  I have found a lot of personal satisfaction caring
for older people.  When I care for older adults, I in some way am 
caring for my grandmother or someone else's grandmother.

Next read abour Rancher Garland Richards' Grandmother Lucinda buying
Fort Chadbourne.

Permission granted by Observer/Enterprise for publication in the
Coke County TXGenWeb Archives