"They say that I'm too old to work now; so I can't make nothin' to
keep my home goin'. I have five children living. Two are away from
here--one in Michigan, and another in Illinois. I have three others
but they don't make enough to help me much. I used to work 'round the
laundries. Then I used to work 'round with these colored restaurants.
I worked with a colored woman down by the station for twelve or
fifteen years. I first helped her wash and iron. She ironed and hired
other girls to wait table and wash dishes and so on. Them times wasn't
like they are now. They'd hire you and keep you. Then I worked at a
white boarding house on Second and Cross. I quit working at the
laundries because of the steady work in the restaurants. After the
restaurants I went to work in private families and worked with them
till I got so I couldn't work no more. Maybe I could do plenty of
things, but they won't give me a chance.
"I have been married twice. My second husband was John Jones. He
always went by the name of his white folks. They were named Ivory. He
came from up in Searcy. I got acquainted with him and we started going
together. He'd been married before and had children up in Searcy. He
got his leg cut off in a accident. He was working over to the shop
lifting ties with another helper and this man helping him gave way on
his side and let his end fall. It fell across my husband's foot and
blood poison set in and caused him to lose his foot and leg. He had
his foot cut off at the county hospital and made himself a peg-leg. He
cut it out hisself while he was at the hospital. He lived a long while
after that. He died on Tenth and Victory. My first husband was Henry
White. He was a shop worker too--the Iron Mountain.
"We went to school together. I lost my health before I married, and I
had to stop going to school. The doctor was a German and lived on
Cross between Fifth and Sixth. He said that he ought to have written
the history of my life to show what I was cured of because I was
paralyzed two years. My head was drawed 'way back between my
shoulders. I lived with my first husband about six years. He died with
T.B. in Memphis, Tennessee. He had married again when he died. We got
so we couldn't agree, so I thought it was best for him to live with
his mother and me to live with mine. We quit under good conditions. I
had a boy after he was separated from me.
"I don't know what to say about the people now. I don't get 'round
much. They aren't like they used to be. The young people don't like to
have you 'round them. I never did object to any of my children gettin'
married because my mother didn't object to me.
"I know Mr. Gillespie. (He passed at the time--ed.) He comes to see me
now and then. All my people are dead now 'cept my children."