Seeking relief from the oppressive heat, we retreated to the Great Smoky Mountains for the Fourth of July weekend. A good decision, as it turned out. Those mountain nights were cool enough for a comfy quilt, a fond reminder of home. I found myself pulling it up to my chin and thanking my lucky stars.
When in the fall of 1983, I ardently moved into my first apartment at LSU with Tri Delta sisters Vanda Simmons (Upton) and Beth Bradford (Favrot), my grandmother - Emma Elizabeth Jenkins Brumfield - gifted me my first quilt. It had been painstakingly made by Ga-ga's sister, my Great-Aunt Rose - Rosa Jenkins Morris (1883-1972). My posey quilt was my constant companion, much like Linus's blanket in Peanuts, for the remainder of college and three years of Tulane Law School. I could not have asked for greater comfort, or security.
The Varnado Store Museum has hosted many a quilt exhibit and seminar. Among the quilts that I have admired there were those of Mrs. Freida Dickey (donated by Mrs. Freida Smith), Chineese Rester (donated by Mary Breland), Weems Mizell (donated by sisters Mary Jo Poole and Jane Johnson), Ettie McDaniel (donated by granddaughter Daina Wager), Anne Blackwell, Nelda Miller, and Mrs. Dudley H. Bateman, working in conjunction with Mrs. W. W. Bateman and Mrs. Joe Warren. And, of course, there were the quilts of Rebecca Wood Creel, always a grand prize winner at the Fair with creations like "Amish With a Twist" and my favorite "Cathedral Windows" which she hand pieced. And Jackie Smith has chaired the prodigious quilt exhibit. She is the mother of our great neighbor, Greg Seal.
While it is not my intention to perseverate, quilts are historically important. On our recent journey, we discovered that they were part of early mountain life at Cades Cove. And they tell a great deal about our pioneer ancestors in Washington Parish. Studying the origin of each piece of material, ably quilted together, descendants often recognize the source - perhaps some bedding, a dress, or even a curtain. The quilt Mary Jo Poole and Jane Johnson found at their Cousin Weems Mizell's home was made of squares of wonderful wool suiting fabric. My grandmother and her sisters similarly used whatever material they had on hand. And they had a wide range of choice as our forebears kept every scrap. Quilts were born of frugality.
And they were functional. As my mother - Margie Nell Brumfield Ellzey -- recalled, in a presentation she and friend Marilyn Richardson gave in period dress at an elementary school, "One of the most important activities for the ladies was making handmade quilts to keep their family warm during the cold winter months because there was only that open fireplace for heat in those drafty little cabins."
Fortunately, quilting is not a lost art. I recently crossed paths in the Big Easy with a lovely young woman who inherited not only ancestral quilts but the talent to make them. Yet, the banter began with football, always a popular topic in South Louisiana. Her fiancé Devin Thomas played running back at the University of Mississippi from 2008-2012 and in the 2013 bowl game. Digressing, it has been my experience that Ole Miss football players consistently surface in the city. Just a few short years ago, while dining at Mr. John's Steakhouse one spring evening with our daughter, son-in-law, and his parents, my husband Rodney informed us, "Archie and Olivia Manning are seated at the next table." In the midst of deep discussion at our table about where the kids might move, he didn't get the desired response. So, we all heard his refrain.
Back to Devin Thomas, I was upfront with my allegiance; I am an avid LSU Tiger fan. With my husband and daughter, I was in Vaught-Hemingway - my heart was racing - in 2003 when my alma mater defeated Ole Miss 17-14 in the game of the season, spoiling the Eli Manning-led Rebels' chance for an SEC championship. Eli Manning, who was the number one draft pick in 2004 and who was just inducted, in July, into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Devin arrived in Oxford a few years after Eli. While he didn't blow his own horn, I naturally did my research, revealing that he had starred for the Madison Mavericks in San Antonio, Texas, scoring forty touchdowns in high school. Looking to the future, Devin not only played football for the Rebels - number 29 - but also excelled, as a geology major, in the classroom. And he went on to earn his master's degree from the University of Mississippi in Oxford.
It was also there that Devin had the good fortune to meet Ashley who is a gem. A youthful native of the Little Easy, as Oxford is often called, she is a self-admitted old soul. Not only did Ashley inherit handsome, handmade quilts (and beautiful baskets) from her grandmother, a Cherokee Indian in Kentucky, but she learned to make the quilts by hand. Ashley emphasized, "Always by hand." What a tradition, inheritance, and legacy.
I was reminded of the family quilts, in the upstairs armoire, that my mother left us. Dating to the turn of the century, they feature designs of the lone star, double wedding ring, Dresden plate, pinwheel, pansy circle, sunbonnet girl, and bow tie. While a couple were acquired at antique shows, Mother made several quilts herself, with some help, in later years. She sewed each square by hand, and Hazel McDaniel pieced them together. One was a wedding gift Momma lovingly made Rodney and me when we tied the knot in 1988 - a reminder of love, life, and family in Washington Parish.
