By: Jerald Lee Hemphill (grandson)

Virgil and Mirtie were fondly referred to by all their descendants as "Grannie & Grandad".

She was a fairly large woman in stature and had an even larger heart. Grannie was always ready to

give a helping hand to anyone that asked and thoughtful enough to offer to a lot who did not ask.

Her favorite color was purple. Violet shades were "the" favorite but she always grabbed any

shade of purple fabric she could find for her dresses and for the many quilts, aprons, bonnets and

various other sewing wonders that she put together. I can still see her in my mind sitting at that old

Singer sewing machine rocking the big foot peddle to make it sew.

Her real talent came from her ability to feed the family and friends from a food supply that some

would call next to nothing. The simple foods that mostly came from homegrown products never and

I repeat NEVER tasted simple. They were not big over-eaters but you always left the table satisfied.

We ate cakes, pies and cobblers year round thanks to her canning abilities and the stored items that

she kept in the cellar. Her cooking flair included original recipes like her tea cakes and sugar cookies.

Grannie was not the least bit shy about wringing a chicken’s neck or helping me skin a young

armadillo so we could see what it tasted like. She was better at those type of chores than most anyone

anyway, man or woman. She would fix anything that I killed off the land. From their property near the

Brazos River we have eaten dove, quail, turkey, deer, fish, ducks, geese, armadillo, possum and squirrel.

She was always the first out of bed to start the wood stove and get a food aroma filtering throughout the

house.

Her days were filled with not only the house and cooking chores but outside chores as well. She

found time to care for HER chickens and worked alongside Grandad in the field when she could. She

liked having a white cat around the house which often landed in her lap in the nighttime when she

finally found time to sit. She often had a dog outside as well. I remember a black and white dog named

"Queen" that they had for several years that was good at killing snakes.

One memory that sticks in my mind is of a Sunday morning that we were leaving the "shack,"

as their river property home was lovingly called, on our way to church at the Brock Church of Christ.

There was a wire gate in the fence and Grandad parked the pickup inside the fence in front of the house.

So to leave we needed to go out the gate. Grandad was the driver until I got old enough to drive them.

When he pulled near the gate Grannie got out to open the gate. It was apparent that she had seen

something that bothered her but she did not get excited or "rattled" as they used to call it. We saw her

walk over and pick up a good-sized rock and go back by the gate and throw it down. She then calmly

picked up a dead 3-foot long rattlesnake and draped it over the fence for the hawks to find. All this in

her "Sunday go to meeting dress and hat".

I am so glad that people live forever in our minds. I hope this writing helps stir your own

memories of those who knew my "Grannie".