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52 Ancestors – #19 Wevie Henri (Anderson) Ball

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Susie • 2 comments

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

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.

Category: 52 Ancestors | Tags: 52 Ancestors, Anderson, Ball, Burch, Dalby, Higginbotham, Hoskins, Parks

Wordless Wednesday – Pictures from my Cousin Karen Ball Cowan

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Susie • 4 comments

Last week I went to Texarkana and spent some time with Karen Ball Cowan, my mother’s first cousin. This was very exciting to me because there just aren’t many people on my mother’s side that I can sit and talk about her side of the family with.

Karen’s father, Sam Ball (whom I called Uncle Son) and my grandmother Mary Parks, (whom I called Poo) were brother and sister.

My grandmother Poo moved in with us when I was just 7 years old and lived there with us for the rest of the time. She died in 2007 and she is very special to me, so to be able to sit and talk with someone else that knew her was such a joy.

Karen brought out all of the pictures that she had from her mother and father and she was kind enough to let me bring them home so I could scan all of them.

Today I am going to share some of the great pictures that she had of some of my ancestors and family members and tomorrow or the next day, I will share with you some great pictures that she had of my Uncle Son from his time during WWII.

I can’t go wordless, I mean who can? I’ve already blown that with all the above so I’ll try list just a few words to go along with these pictures.

This first picture is my great grand Aunt Smithia Smelser Anderson Norman, my 3rd great-grandfather Judge Alfred Gatewood Hoskins, and my great-grandmother Henri Wever “Wevie” Anderson Ball.

These girls are the great-grandchildren of Judge Hoskins, #1 is Anna Wever Lanier, #2 is Eddie Eubank Burnett Chance , #3 is Wevie Anderson Ball, #4 is Smithia Anderson Norman, #5 is Lela Wever Sutton.

This is my great grandmother Wevie Anderson Ball with her father, my 3rd great-grandfather John E. Anderson.

The back of this picture said Daisy and Wevie, so I’m guessing that this is Daisy Missildine with Wevie Anderson Ball. I love their hats!

I love this picture, it’s so romantic. Bye and Wevie Ball, my great grandparents going for a boat ride.

Here they are on another boat, I wonder what they were reading?

Talk about peer pressure!! Here is Wevie pouring some drink down a poor girl. Bye is right next to her helping and I don’t know who the other people are in the picture.

I just love the old bathing suits! I guess they were playing chicken? I wonder who won! Bye and Wevie are on the left and I don’t know the other couple and how about the lady in the back ground out in the water. I love this picture.

This is my great grandfather, Sam H. Ball, Sr. aka Bye Ball.

Here is really good picture of Bye and Wevie Ball. I wish I knew when it was taken, they look a little older in this picture.

I like this picture of Bye Ball and Ann Waggoner Burch his granddaughter, because of all the pictures I have seen of Bye Ball, this is the only one of him actually smiling! He must have been really happy for Ann.

This is one of my favorite pictures that Karen had, it’s my Uncle Son all gangster.

I loved all the wedding pictures she had of Uncle Son and Aunt Melba, (Sam Ball Jr and Melba Reynolds Ball), but these are two of my favorites.

What a handsome couple!

Karen had several clippings announcing their wedding and in the clipping was a beautiful picture of Melba and Karen also had the original picture so here it is:

This family picture of the Ball family was my favorite. I can’t help but think Sammy looks like Brendan Fraser did in that movie “Blast From The Past”. Is it just me or do you think so too?