| Notes |
According to a tribute given by her grandaughter, Thelma CeceliaLangston she was nicknamed
"BIG MAMA." by family members.
TO THE MEMORY OF MRS. MARY B. WILLIAMS:
Mrs. Williams was born eighty-one years ago, and her entire life wasspent mostly in the vicinity of where she first saw the light. In herearly teens she was happily married to Mr. John Drew Williams, somewhather senior, but congenial.
To this union was given a family of seven bright sons and daughters,Charles, Zula, Drew, Evie, Clyde,
Chalmers, and Hartsell..... Of these, three have passed over the river,the others remain to sorrow for a beloved mother. Mr. Williams was apopular fiqure in his neighborhood, and by a keen sense of businessability was prosperous, and died while yet a man in the prime of life,having added a large landed estate his possessions. Thus, Mrs. Williamswas left while quite young with seven children, and a entanglement oflarge finances, all of which she directed with such care and prudencethar success crowned her efforts and her large family was reared underher guidance alone. There was something about the calmness, sureness, andsimplicity of Mrs. Williams that always inspired an unusual confidence,and to an extraordinary degree this feeling was shared, by all who camewithin the radius of her splendid personality.
She was a consistent Christian, but not narrow in her outlook,therefore, indulged her children in every legitimate pleasure that couldbe conscientiously blended with Christian virtues. In her hospitable homethe young people of her community spent hours in pastimes incident toyouth and happiness. For her children she was quite ambitious, andsurrounded them with every educational and cultural environment, and herbest efforts were given in their advancement. Long after she was old inyears her heart was young, and she radiated brightness in every circleand was tenderly loved by scores of friends who will ever cherish thememory of this saintly woman.
On the 27th of a December sunset she was laid to her eternal rest inthe old home cemetery just under the shadow, as it were, of the oldcountry church she loved, not far removed from the haunts of her happychildhood near "by the old mill stream." Lonfellow never wrote more trulythan these words:
Life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal."
To the bereaved loved ones many hearts add their bitter tears,sweetened by sincere sympathy.
One who knew and loved her, MRS. CLARA PETTY CLAY.
IN MEMORIAM
Born September 18,1851, in DeSoto County, Miss., of Kentucky andVirginia parentage, Mary Botner Stafford was married to John DrewWilliams, a native of North Carolina, in February, 1868.
After nineteen years of happy wedded life, she was left a widow, withseven children, four of them surviving her death on December 27, 1932.Charles Drew Williams, of Hernando, Miss., Mrs. Guy Bowen Langston,Byhalia, Miss., Mrs. Jake Oswald, Byhalia, Miss., and James ChalmersWilliams of Ripley, Tenn.
The beautiful network of her life laid in both DeSoto and MarshallCounties and for eighty-one years won hosts of friends who evidencedtheir devotion in the sacred hush within the precincts of the littlepioneer church of Emory Chapel, where her mother, grandmother, children,and great-grandchildren hold their memberships and attend upon itsfunctions, where her pastor, Rev. E. Shaw, who had kept in close
touch and had tenderly prayed for and with her during the long weary daysof suffering, said the last sad rites, and where the voices of lovedones, wafted in soft, sweet tones the hymns she loves so well;
the same solemn hush kept the tears of grief and love and the sustaininggrace of God in His divine hold, and breathed a "Peace Be Still" to all.
Her precious, pain-racked body was consigned to its last resting place,with new earth, lovely flowers,
and stars to keep watch, for the beautiful spirit had gone home to Godand His angels.
ZULA W. LANGSTON.
IN TRIBUTE
Today, as I hear the rain falling, tap, tap, my heart almost breaks,for our precious Big Mamma is asleep out there beneath the cedars of dearold Emory. Then comes the blessed thought from God that bids me lookabove. What happiness and peace she is enjoying in that glorious Beyond,the sweet companionship of her husband and children, and God and Hisangels, and friends who have gone on before. For her faith and love andtrust in God held steadfast and true all the eight-one years of herbeautiful life. No matter what troubles, or how great the suffering, herlovely soul never wavered, and her presence always was a benediction inour homes. God grant us all the blessing of emulating her noble example,and when our pilgrimage is over, we too, may be as ready and willing to"cross over" into that beautiful homeland of the soul to dwell with Godand His angels.
THELMA LANGSTON.
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1851 - 1932 (81 years)
