Our Family Tree

"From Great Aunt Odessa:

"Here is an article, Dorothy Merle Purcell has furnished the following information to her son, Thomas M. Patrick."

"I never knew my real grandmother Mary Marrs Perry; she died when mama was two years old. My grandfather Sam Perry was one time Editor of the "Florence Vidette", the only Florance newspaper. My mother was old enough at that time to help him with the paper. She was a small 5ft 2in woman with light brown curly hair and blue eyes. She was well read and as children we always had good books and musical instruments in our home. Brother ( Dick purcell) and Mertice were blonds and Charlee and I took after Papa and had dark hair & eyes. Grandpa Perry told me his first wife ( Mama's mother.) died with what at that time they called "slow fever". I assume she had" tuberculosis" or something like that.

Their water supply wasnt good in those days; anyway her twin sister who married Grandpa's brother, John Perry, took mama and kept her till Grandpa re-married eight years later. She always loved Aunt Belle and her children dearly. Their home was what she remembered from her childhood until Grandpa married Cora Riddley. She was as much my own Grandmother as she could have been. I could never tell any difference in the way she treated us from her own grandchildren. My mother always called her Mama. I think I really loved her more than I did Grandma Purcell ( Sabra Caroline Smalley). She was a more affectionate woman.