Jessie Woodson Crutcher, daughter of Thomas Robert Crutcher, was the youngest of a family of eight. She remembered having a happy childhood: of being allowed to build a fire in her little iron cookstove to "cook for her dolls", of running to her swing to be there when her dad and brothers came home from the field so they could swing her high.

Jessie was eleven when her dad died, and fourteen when her mother died. She lived with her married siblings until she married at the age of seventeen. Her big fear was that she would die of cancer as her mother and sister. It was a blessing that she died in her sleep at the age of seventy-six after spending the day planning a trip to California.

Jessie (Mama to me) was a lovely person. She sang alto beautifully, she played the piano at Church -- she was Baptist. She sewed our dresses. I never heard my parents arguing, and best of all, she always seemed happy and satisfied with life.

Source: Thelma Carrell Jones