Day 12 - Remembering Aunt Ellie Marshall

This morning, November 16, 2009, Ella Marshall McCord Beasley, of Williamson County, TN, went home to be with the Lord. Born on May 21, 1913, the third child of Annie Morton Millard and Edgar Davis McCord of Williamson County, TN, Aunt Ellie was 96 when she passed. Aunt Ellie was one of 13 children and the last remaining child of her parents. Aunt Ellie was my favorite aunt because she was so fun to be around. Fun being a relative word, (no pun intended), she was firm and kindly at the same time. Her two daughters, Annette and Betsy, were our favorite cousins. My earliest memories of her were visiting her farm on Byrd Lane, near Bethesda, TN. No other houses were in sight of hers and I was sure I was in paradise running the rolling hills around the barns and pastures. A fabulous cook, her homemade yeast rolls along with fried chicken and fresh beefsteak tomatoes made up a typical meal followed by her homemade peach ice cream. She seemed indefatigable to us – Momma used to say of herself that “Ellie could work rings around me”. She was a farmer’s wife and was up before dawn to help with the milk cows and tobacco harvesting before she went off to the local school where she worked as the secretary. I never once – never one time – ever heard her say she was tired. She just had energy to spare it seemed. She sewed her own dresses – neat, trim, shirtwaists with matching belts. In the 1970’s, she and her husband, Uncle John William, sold their farm and moved down the road a few miles to live next door to her mom, my grandmother, Annie Morton McCord. At this new white frame country home, situated above a deep ravine and creek, Aunt Ellie and Uncle John William grew the most fantastic flower and vegetable garden imaginable. Sunflowers, poppies, hollyhocks, corn, tomatoes, every kind of bean and pea and green edible thing – all in rows of riotous color and incredible height – or so it seemed to me back then. Her porch was lined with hanging petunias and potted ferns and swinging there in the soft summer nights of Middle Tennessee I couldn’t have asked for anything more in this world. I last saw her in 2008 when we visited her at home back at yet another place on Byrd Lane. While time had taken her memories, she was still the same white haired, velvet skinned, lady I remembered from my childhood. I’ll miss you Aunt Ellie but you’ll live on in my memories.