Lillie Clayton Perry was the daughter of Elisha Jasper Perry & Willard Sylvester Oldham.
We discovered on her birth certificate at her death that her full name was R Lillie Clayton Perry. She never told us about the R in her first name. To everyone who knew her she was simply "Clayton"
She married Robert Dewey Carpenter 3-29-1945. 4 children,
Geraldine
Barbara Ann
Larry Dewey
James Edward "Jimmy"
**************************************************
Mother was a Saint! She worked constantly taking care of her children, doing the best that she could. She worked hard all her life. We were share croppers, raised cotton & also raised our own food. Daddy would plow the fields & lay off the rows for the gardens, corn field etc. we would plant it. We did all the work. Me & my little brother Jimmy never wore a shirt, just shorts & no shoes during the summers. We had a black & white Border Collie/German Sheppard mix named Joe that followed us everywhere.
We lived in a small 3 room house with an enclosed porch/storage room. Momma & daddy slept in the living room & us 4 kids slept in 2 beds in one room with a clothes line & quilts dividing the room. When a bad storm came up she would get all 4 of us in the middle of her bed & sing gospel songs, protecting us. I was scared lightening would strike that old Iron bed & kill us all! It wasn't until I got older that I realized she was scared of the storms too!
We were poor & didn't even know it. We had more food than we needed & gave it away, daddy sold some of it. We rarely ate meat.
Momma was in the fields every day while we were at school Daddy was always in town hustling pool etc.
As we each got old enough she would put us to work in the cotton fields. When I was about 6 she cut off a hoe handle & put me to work chopping cotton. The summer before a big rattle-snake almost got me & Jimmy so after that she kept us with her.
I remember her pulling my little brother Jimmy on her cotton tow sack, asleep while she picked cotton, I followed along & picked what I could. We had hogs & chickens, Momma canned everything.
We had an old white rooster that went crazy; it would chase us to the barn or "out house" & wait for us to come out and chase us back to the house. Daddy thought it was funny until it spurred him & he got out his shotgun & blew his head off. I was glad, that old roster couldn't chase us anymore.
We carried water from down the road. We would sometime have to miss school for a few days picking cotton. Oh! God, how I hated picking cotton.
We went to Big Cove Elementary & Jr. High School. Because we were so poor we got free lunches at school & we worked an hour each day in the lunch room, sweeping & mopping, washing drying dishes, pots & pans, emptying the trash & carrying the left overs "slop" out for the pig farmers in exchange for our free lunches.
In 1963 When President Kennedy got killed I had just gone outside with the trash.
By the time I was 14 we had moved & mama's brother Uncle Peck moved in with us. It was the first time we had a TV.
She made us all go to Church including our Dad, every Sunday morning & evening, Wednesday , Revivals, "picnic on the ground" - that was a lot of fun, all the food you could eat!
I was cutting grass for people at age 15 & earning my own money to buy my lunch etc. growing up that way was fun. We had a deep appreciation for each other & something missing today "Self respect & Pride". She demanded that we respect others, she taught us that being poor was no crime as long as you had pride & never ask for something you wanted, get a job earn the money yourself.
I can still hear my momma say "boy the devil is gonna get you" when I did something wrong. She preached to be respectful, the Golden Rule & don't talk back to your elders - that one didn't take that well -
The one thing that we had was "The Best Mother". Looking back, I guess we were the richest kids in the neighborhood after all!
She was our everything - I miss my Momma! She developed early onset Alzheimer's & died at the age of 64. It was so sad to see her that way.....................
We discovered on her birth certificate at her death that her full name was R Lillie Clayton Perry. She never told us about the R in her first name. To everyone who knew her she was simply "Clayton"
She married Robert Dewey Carpenter 3-29-1945. 4 children,
Geraldine
Barbara Ann
Larry Dewey
James Edward "Jimmy"
**************************************************
Mother was a Saint! She worked constantly taking care of her children, doing the best that she could. She worked hard all her life. We were share croppers, raised cotton & also raised our own food. Daddy would plow the fields & lay off the rows for the gardens, corn field etc. we would plant it. We did all the work. Me & my little brother Jimmy never wore a shirt, just shorts & no shoes during the summers. We had a black & white Border Collie/German Sheppard mix named Joe that followed us everywhere.
We lived in a small 3 room house with an enclosed porch/storage room. Momma & daddy slept in the living room & us 4 kids slept in 2 beds in one room with a clothes line & quilts dividing the room. When a bad storm came up she would get all 4 of us in the middle of her bed & sing gospel songs, protecting us. I was scared lightening would strike that old Iron bed & kill us all! It wasn't until I got older that I realized she was scared of the storms too!
We were poor & didn't even know it. We had more food than we needed & gave it away, daddy sold some of it. We rarely ate meat.
Momma was in the fields every day while we were at school Daddy was always in town hustling pool etc.
As we each got old enough she would put us to work in the cotton fields. When I was about 6 she cut off a hoe handle & put me to work chopping cotton. The summer before a big rattle-snake almost got me & Jimmy so after that she kept us with her.
I remember her pulling my little brother Jimmy on her cotton tow sack, asleep while she picked cotton, I followed along & picked what I could. We had hogs & chickens, Momma canned everything.
We had an old white rooster that went crazy; it would chase us to the barn or "out house" & wait for us to come out and chase us back to the house. Daddy thought it was funny until it spurred him & he got out his shotgun & blew his head off. I was glad, that old roster couldn't chase us anymore.
We carried water from down the road. We would sometime have to miss school for a few days picking cotton. Oh! God, how I hated picking cotton.
We went to Big Cove Elementary & Jr. High School. Because we were so poor we got free lunches at school & we worked an hour each day in the lunch room, sweeping & mopping, washing drying dishes, pots & pans, emptying the trash & carrying the left overs "slop" out for the pig farmers in exchange for our free lunches.
In 1963 When President Kennedy got killed I had just gone outside with the trash.
By the time I was 14 we had moved & mama's brother Uncle Peck moved in with us. It was the first time we had a TV.
She made us all go to Church including our Dad, every Sunday morning & evening, Wednesday , Revivals, "picnic on the ground" - that was a lot of fun, all the food you could eat!
I was cutting grass for people at age 15 & earning my own money to buy my lunch etc. growing up that way was fun. We had a deep appreciation for each other & something missing today "Self respect & Pride". She demanded that we respect others, she taught us that being poor was no crime as long as you had pride & never ask for something you wanted, get a job earn the money yourself.
I can still hear my momma say "boy the devil is gonna get you" when I did something wrong. She preached to be respectful, the Golden Rule & don't talk back to your elders - that one didn't take that well -
The one thing that we had was "The Best Mother". Looking back, I guess we were the richest kids in the neighborhood after all!
She was our everything - I miss my Momma! She developed early onset Alzheimer's & died at the age of 64. It was so sad to see her that way.....................
Lillie Clayton Perry was the daughter of Elisha Jasper Perry & Willard Sylvester Oldham.
We discovered on her birth certificate at her death that her full name was R Lillie Clayton Perry. She never told us about the R in her first name. To everyone who knew her she was simply "Clayton"
She married Robert Dewey Carpenter 3-29-1945. 4 children,
Geraldine
Barbara Ann
Larry Dewey
James Edward "Jimmy"
**************************************************
Mother was a Saint! She worked constantly taking care of her children, doing the best that she could. She worked hard all her life. We were share croppers, raised cotton & also raised our own food. Daddy would plow the fields & lay off the rows for the gardens, corn field etc. we would plant it. We did all the work. Me & my little brother Jimmy never wore a shirt, just shorts & no shoes during the summers. We had a black & white Border Collie/German Sheppard mix named Joe that followed us everywhere.
We lived in a small 3 room house with an enclosed porch/storage room. Momma & daddy slept in the living room & us 4 kids slept in 2 beds in one room with a clothes line & quilts dividing the room. When a bad storm came up she would get all 4 of us in the middle of her bed & sing gospel songs, protecting us. I was scared lightening would strike that old Iron bed & kill us all! It wasn't until I got older that I realized she was scared of the storms too!
We were poor & didn't even know it. We had more food than we needed & gave it away, daddy sold some of it. We rarely ate meat.
Momma was in the fields every day while we were at school Daddy was always in town hustling pool etc.
As we each got old enough she would put us to work in the cotton fields. When I was about 6 she cut off a hoe handle & put me to work chopping cotton. The summer before a big rattle-snake almost got me & Jimmy so after that she kept us with her.
I remember her pulling my little brother Jimmy on her cotton tow sack, asleep while she picked cotton, I followed along & picked what I could. We had hogs & chickens, Momma canned everything.
We had an old white rooster that went crazy; it would chase us to the barn or "out house" & wait for us to come out and chase us back to the house. Daddy thought it was funny until it spurred him & he got out his shotgun & blew his head off. I was glad, that old roster couldn't chase us anymore.
We carried water from down the road. We would sometime have to miss school for a few days picking cotton. Oh! God, how I hated picking cotton.
We went to Big Cove Elementary & Jr. High School. Because we were so poor we got free lunches at school & we worked an hour each day in the lunch room, sweeping & mopping, washing drying dishes, pots & pans, emptying the trash & carrying the left overs "slop" out for the pig farmers in exchange for our free lunches.
In 1963 When President Kennedy got killed I had just gone outside with the trash.
By the time I was 14 we had moved & mama's brother Uncle Peck moved in with us. It was the first time we had a TV.
She made us all go to Church including our Dad, every Sunday morning & evening, Wednesday , Revivals, "picnic on the ground" - that was a lot of fun, all the food you could eat!
I was cutting grass for people at age 15 & earning my own money to buy my lunch etc. growing up that way was fun. We had a deep appreciation for each other & something missing today "Self respect & Pride". She demanded that we respect others, she taught us that being poor was no crime as long as you had pride & never ask for something you wanted, get a job earn the money yourself.
I can still hear my momma say "boy the devil is gonna get you" when I did something wrong. She preached to be respectful, the Golden Rule & don't talk back to your elders - that one didn't take that well -
The one thing that we had was "The Best Mother". Looking back, I guess we were the richest kids in the neighborhood after all!
She was our everything - I miss my Momma! She developed early onset Alzheimer's & died at the age of 64. It was so sad to see her that way.....................
We discovered on her birth certificate at her death that her full name was R Lillie Clayton Perry. She never told us about the R in her first name. To everyone who knew her she was simply "Clayton"
She married Robert Dewey Carpenter 3-29-1945. 4 children,
Geraldine
Barbara Ann
Larry Dewey
James Edward "Jimmy"
**************************************************
Mother was a Saint! She worked constantly taking care of her children, doing the best that she could. She worked hard all her life. We were share croppers, raised cotton & also raised our own food. Daddy would plow the fields & lay off the rows for the gardens, corn field etc. we would plant it. We did all the work. Me & my little brother Jimmy never wore a shirt, just shorts & no shoes during the summers. We had a black & white Border Collie/German Sheppard mix named Joe that followed us everywhere.
We lived in a small 3 room house with an enclosed porch/storage room. Momma & daddy slept in the living room & us 4 kids slept in 2 beds in one room with a clothes line & quilts dividing the room. When a bad storm came up she would get all 4 of us in the middle of her bed & sing gospel songs, protecting us. I was scared lightening would strike that old Iron bed & kill us all! It wasn't until I got older that I realized she was scared of the storms too!
We were poor & didn't even know it. We had more food than we needed & gave it away, daddy sold some of it. We rarely ate meat.
Momma was in the fields every day while we were at school Daddy was always in town hustling pool etc.
As we each got old enough she would put us to work in the cotton fields. When I was about 6 she cut off a hoe handle & put me to work chopping cotton. The summer before a big rattle-snake almost got me & Jimmy so after that she kept us with her.
I remember her pulling my little brother Jimmy on her cotton tow sack, asleep while she picked cotton, I followed along & picked what I could. We had hogs & chickens, Momma canned everything.
We had an old white rooster that went crazy; it would chase us to the barn or "out house" & wait for us to come out and chase us back to the house. Daddy thought it was funny until it spurred him & he got out his shotgun & blew his head off. I was glad, that old roster couldn't chase us anymore.
We carried water from down the road. We would sometime have to miss school for a few days picking cotton. Oh! God, how I hated picking cotton.
We went to Big Cove Elementary & Jr. High School. Because we were so poor we got free lunches at school & we worked an hour each day in the lunch room, sweeping & mopping, washing drying dishes, pots & pans, emptying the trash & carrying the left overs "slop" out for the pig farmers in exchange for our free lunches.
In 1963 When President Kennedy got killed I had just gone outside with the trash.
By the time I was 14 we had moved & mama's brother Uncle Peck moved in with us. It was the first time we had a TV.
She made us all go to Church including our Dad, every Sunday morning & evening, Wednesday , Revivals, "picnic on the ground" - that was a lot of fun, all the food you could eat!
I was cutting grass for people at age 15 & earning my own money to buy my lunch etc. growing up that way was fun. We had a deep appreciation for each other & something missing today "Self respect & Pride". She demanded that we respect others, she taught us that being poor was no crime as long as you had pride & never ask for something you wanted, get a job earn the money yourself.
I can still hear my momma say "boy the devil is gonna get you" when I did something wrong. She preached to be respectful, the Golden Rule & don't talk back to your elders - that one didn't take that well -
The one thing that we had was "The Best Mother". Looking back, I guess we were the richest kids in the neighborhood after all!
She was our everything - I miss my Momma! She developed early onset Alzheimer's & died at the age of 64. It was so sad to see her that way.....................
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
