I have decided to accept the challenge of Amy Johnson Crow over at No Story Too Small blog. Amy challenges us: 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks. I think this is an excellent challenge as I tend to focus on my brick walls, and this will force me to fan out in my tree and focus on other ancestors.
This is week 19, and my nineteenth post. Please meet my great-grandmother, Wevie Henri (Anderson) Ball.
Wevie (Anderson) Ball
Wevie was born to John Edward Anderson and Mary Elizabeth (Hoskins) Anderson on 19 Dec 1884 in New Boston, Bowie Co., Texas. I blogged about her mother Mary, here: 52 Ancestors – #8 Mary Elizabeth (Hoskins) Anderson.
As I posted about her mother in the above post, her mother Mary passed away in 1891 when Wevie was just 6 years old. This is the earliest picture I have of Wevie, with her father, John E. Anderson.
Wevie Anderson and JE Anderson
I’ve posted this picture before of Wevie with her sister Smithia, but I have to again because I love it. Wevie is on the left and Smithia on the right.
Wevie and Smithia Anderson
In 1892 her father John remarried a wonderful woman, Eva Dalby. She raised Wevie and Smithia as if they were her own children. I don’t know why all stepmother’s get a bad rap?!? Do you?
JE Anderson, Eva Anderson with Wevie Anderson. I don’t know who the young man is.
This next picture of Wevie looks to be around her teenage years or early adulthood. My cousin Sam has a huge portrait of this one hanging in his home and it’s beautiful.
Wevie Anderson
One thing about it, she could have been in fashion magazine’s. Here she is with a cousin, Daisy (Wever) Missildine. This must have been some special occasion. Daisy is on the left, and Wevie on the right.
Daisy and Wevie
While growing up, Wevie’s father owned the local Confectionery Shop and the Telephone company, and the switchboard was in the back room of the Confectionery Shop and Wevie helped operate the switchboard.
Switchboard in the back of the Drug Store in New Boston, owned by John Anderson
I bet Wevie knew ALL the town gossip! Seriously, my only experience with a town switchboard is from watching Little House on the Prairie and we all know what Mrs. Olsen did, that ole nosy busybody! tee hee. I don’t know if Wevie did that or not, but I’m sure it was tempting!
I found this picture at the New Boston Library, in New Boston, Texas. You can see in this picture she has her ear piece on.
John Anderson and Wevie Anderson Telephone Operators
I heard a few stories about Wevie growing up, and one that I heard was told to my father by Wevie herself.
She said back in the day before they had cars, she and her family traveled by wagon. One day she and Smithia were traveling with their father and they needed to stop and relieve themselves. Well, there were no rest stops so you just pulled over walked out in the grass and relieved yourself. Well, just as she and Smithia started on this task, another wagon came by and Wevie jerked her dress down, but Smithia threw her dress up over her head. After the wagon went by, Wevie asked her, “Smithia, why did you do that??” Smithia calmly replied, “Well, they will see your face again and know who you are and what you were doing, but they will never see my ass again, so they won’t know it was me or what I was doing!!”
We’ve gotten a big kick out of that story over the years.
On April 6, 1910, Wevie married Samuel Hartwell “Bye” Ball. I found this wedding announcement in her bible, and this picture of Wevie in her wedding dress. I think she was a beautiful bride.
Wevie Anderson Ball in her Wedding Dress Apr 1910
Wevie Anderson Marriage Announcement
This next picture of Bye and Wevie looks to be taken on a boat and it looks so romantic! I love to see men and women dressed up like this. This is not what society looks like today!
Wevie and Bye Ball
And how about this? You’ve see this in movies, but here it is in real life! How sweet!
Bye and Wevie Ball
They look like they really knew how to have a good time! I love the bathing suits, but can you imagine swimming in that?
Bye and Wevie Ball on left other couple unknown
Bye and Wevie had four children. One baby girl was stillborn and the other three children were amazing people who were each very special to me. First, was Aunt Dorothy and boy did I love her, then Uncle Son was everyone’s hero and one of the best men I knew and last but not least, there was my grandmother, Poo, one of the greatest loves of my life.
I don’t know much about Wevie, but I do know that she raised beautiful children, inside and out.
Mary (my grandmother), Sam (Uncle Son) and Dorothy (Aunt Dot)
One of the cool things that I found out about Wevie at the Hooks library was that she had confirmed my birth to the family historian, Cathaline Stern, Man! This made my day!
Wevie Confirms My Birth
Unfortunately, I don’t really remember anything about Wevie, but I was around her as a baby and toddler. In the next photo, I’m the baby on my mother’s lap and Wevie is next to her. I love this four generation photo!
John Higginbotham, Mary Helen Higginbotham, Susanne Higginbotham, Wevie Ball, Mary Parks
Here are a couple of pictures of Wevie and Bye.
Bye and Wevie Ball
Bye and Wevie Ball
Wevie lived a very long and beautiful life, I’ve never heard an unkind word about her. Aunt Dorothy’s grandson Marc Burch told me he thought Memaw Ball inherited the Coke Float because she always made him one when he would visit her and it was the best he ever had.
Wevie (Anderson) Ball
Here she is with her children, in 1974 celebrating her 90th birthday.
Aunt Dorothy, Memaw Ball, Uncle Son, and Poo
Wevie died on December 3, 1975, sixteen days before her 91st birthday.
Wevie Ball Obit
Wevie is buried in the Chapelwood Cemetery, in Texarkana, Texas.
Bye Wevie Ball Headstone
This is how I descend from Wevie.
