For some reason, in the early 1940’s they left the home place at Wolf Bayou and went to Heber Springs to live. I don’t know if this was because Ada could get a better job teaching at Heber Springs or if she needed more help to care for her mother. Mollie, another of Josephine’s children had been widowed many years before, and lived at Heber Springs, supporting herself by sewing. Ada and her mother moved in with Mollie, and Josephine lived there the rest of her life.
Josephine was active as long as she could be but as she gradually became more feeble physically she couldn’t walk much, so she pieced quilts. I believe she always wore long black dresses, so they would have a lot of black scraps, and I remember they would always work them into the quilt pattern. When her eyesight became poor, her stitches were not as perfect as they had been, but she continued as long as she was able.
I went to see her during her last months when she was too weak to get out of bed. Her mind was still clear and I, for some reason, asked her to tell me again about her memories of Civil War times. She was well and sweetly cared for by her two daughters until she died when she was almost 93 years old October 24, 1946.
CRANFORD
The family of Leonard Travis and Josephine Phillips Cranford, about 1904.
Front, left to right; Ada, Mollie, Leonard Travis, Josephine and Merle.
Back, Dorah, Thomas, Ella, Leonard L., Maud, Oscar.