Bessie Mae Dozier (Davis)

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/63225768/bessie-m-dozier

Was a homemaker. She was very religious, Baptist. She raised 4 children, Thelma, Louise, George Ward, Albert Jr. She was a wonderful cook and believed in a big Sunday dinner. She did not allow anyone to work, clean or do laundry on Sundays that was the Sabbath. My grandmother came to El Paso to visit - this is where my family was living at the time - but before coming my mother took her to by Houston to see her two sons there. She went in the hospital right after Thanksgiving and was ready to be released from the hospital, when she suddenly went into heart failure. Thelma, my mother, Louise and myself sat and held her hand as she passed away. Tina

Thelma wrote: Mother loved her family more than anything except the Lord. She was a most devoted christian. Her last words were "Your dad and I will be waiting for you all in Heaven." Mothers favorite sayings were "Love is the greatest of all." "Prayer is trust and faith" "Love one another."

Bessie's words: The year before mama (stepmother) and papa Jeff married I remember threshing black-eye peas. We would pick the peas...let them dry out on a sheet in the sunshine. When completely dry, we would take a pan of peas and pour to another pan...would keep pouring from one pan to another letting hulls fly away. We would then put the peas into barrels and then sell the peas. We could not do beans that way their hulls were to tough.

More of her thoughts that were recorded by Thelma her daughter:

I remember living in a log cabin with a stone fireplace and it had a dirt floor that we sweep with a broom made of weeds. This was in Oklahoma, just out of Ravia. The Washita River was near. I grew up going back and forth in a covered wagon between Ardmore Ok. to Kosse, TX, near Waco. Remember copping cotton and Papa Jeffs sisters, Aunt Mammie and Lotta. Grandma Childs (Jackson) dressed like old hobo. Looked real with a stick sack. She would go to the creek hole where they went swimming when she came up they thought she was a man. The people up the street had chickens and every time the door was open the chickens would come in.

Life in Wagon:

Daddy had what he called a overjet...down in the bottom he would put a mattress and the little girls would play with toys while traveling on this. When night came, papa Jeff would find a good place to camp. Sometimes there were people around, but he mostly like to camp by himself. We would cook over a campfire - had a dutch over that biscuits were cooked in. Usually sit on like an apple box to eat and the kids all had a ball. One trip which consisted of 21 days with only 9 days of good weather we crossed the Red River on a ferry. Most of the time forged over the river and almost drowned one time. We could only make about 10 miles a day.

August 13, 1987: Sold house today $23,000 to be paid over 15 years at 8% interest.

 Bessie and Britt lived in the house on Duncan St. for many years in Kilgore.  Grandkids loved visiting with them.  At one time, one granddaughter, Tina stayed with them one summer while she finished up at SFA and another granddaughter, Laura also lived a few months with them.  Bessie lived her last few years in a retirement village in Tyler, TX.  She loved being able to visit with all her fellow retirees in the apt. complex.  Bessie was a lovely person and greatly missed by all.