Spotlight Upon Unsung Heroes

Amanda Marie Hunter Titus:

Community Leader, Entrepreneur, Christian Wife and Mother

By Wilbur Thirkield Titus

Recently, Sherry Byrd informed me that she would like to see Walter F. Cotton
and Mrs. A. M. Titus in the spotlight because she believed them to be special.
She admired their accomplishments and the contributions that they made to 
their respective communities. We have already published an article on Mr.
Cotton , in which I expressed my appreciation of his contributions. Now, we 
are placing the spotlight upon Mrs. Amanda Marie Hunter Titus.

Mrs. Titus,, a member of the third generation following emancipation, was a 
native of Fairfield, Texas and spent her long life providing service to
others. She was talented, ambitious, industrious, and had administrative 
ability. She believed in education and had the desire to own a nice home and
to give back to the community. Her character traits of perserverance, 
resilience, generosity, kindness, reliability, love of God, family, and 
country enabled her to begin life under humble conditions and develop into a
person who impacted the lives, positively, of many people.

She was born on February 6, 1896 and grew up, with her thirteen siblings, on 
a farm in the Youngs Mill Community, in Northeast Freestone County, Texas.

After completing the courses offered by Titus Farm School, she attended the
Prairie View Normal School, Prairie View College. The skills she learned 
there helped her to develop into a good housekeeper and seamstress. She was 
an avid reader and took every opportunity to improve herself: by taking 
correspondence courses, attending seminars and meetings, etc.

She married Governor R. Titus and they raised six children during the "great 
depression." Their oldest son became a college professor and writer, their 
daughter, Catherine, taught at Dogan High School, Fairfield, Texas, Cornelius
became a welder and worked in the defense plants in Los Angeles, California. 
Loreta retired as an assemblyman from Texas Industries of Dallas, Texas and 
spent her time as a stay at home wife and mother. Joe Pierce made a career of
the US Navy and specialized in airplane maintenance.

Dorothy Earnestine spent more than 45 years as a nurse of the Recovery Room
of St. Paul Hospital, Dallas.

To supplement the family's meager income, she raised and sold chickens and 
turkeys and their eggs. She raised hogs for the market. She established a 
seamstress practice and sewed for the public. She was a good quilter and made
quilts for sale. Some of her quilts have been on exhibit in the Bob Bullock 
Museum in Austin, Texas, and in the compositions of internationally renown 
folk artist, Sherry Byrd.

Mrs. Titus was a good business woman. She bought land and owned a rent house.
She was an agent for various organizations and businesses. She worked for 
Cloverine Salve, and Bermarine Perfumary Companies and sold their products
for commissions and prizes. She was an agent for the Dorsey Burial Club. This 
club enabled low income families to bury their dead.

When the crops of their farm were laid by, she would take her children and 
chop cotton for others. In late summer, she would take her children out West 
on cotton picks and would remain until schools began. This enabled them to 
purchase winter clothing and school supplies.

She was a leader in the educational, religious, political, and fraternal life
of the community and engaged in them with vigorous fervor.

She supported the school and its activities and school children knew that 
they could get help with assignments from 'Miss Sweet," as she was called. 
She was a menber of Hope Well and Jones Chapel United Methodist Churches, 
wherein she taught sunday school, was church secretary, a lay speaker, and 
held other offices on the local and conference levels.

She was a good Samaritan. She spent much time in caring for the sick. 
shut-ins, aged and handicapped citizens. She and her husband shared their 
home with old, sick and retired relatives. (There were no "homes" to which 
they could go.) She visited the sick and shut-in and would carry some special
food to them. She helped her siblings with the raising of their children, 
taking the children when necessary.

She was a charter member of the Princess Court of the Heroines of Jericho. In 
this court, she held most of the administrative offices and served as Deputy
Matron of several districts.

Mrs. Titus was well known and loved through the state and has received
numerous honors, citations and awards. A court of Heroines of Jericho, a web 
site, and a cultural center of Fairfield, Texas have been named in her honor.
When she died in May of 1992, ending a long life of remarkable unselfish
service, she left an estate worth more than $200,000.00.

I join Mrs. Byrd in appreciating her. You see, she was my inspiration, my 
darling mother!