Eva Mae Walker

Eva Mae was born in Hernando County, Florida. She was the first of six children born to Charles Edward EILAND and Zola Ophelia O'BERRY. She lived the majority of her adult life in Lake Wales with the exception of eight years when she lived in Frostproof with her second husband. In 1928, Eva Mae worked at the George Ridge Canners Company and later worked for Florida Citrus Canners. Growing up Eva Mae spent a lot of time with her maternal grandparents, John and Emily "Emma" (Morgan) O'BERRY where they homesteaded 100 acres between Brooksville and Dade City and were self-supporting. As a young child, Eva Mae suffered from typhoid fever and there was no cure and the only thing they knew to do back then that might help save your loved ones life was to boil rice, oatmeal, or grits and then strain the liquid for those with the fever to drink. Between the ages of 16-18, Eva Mae once again came down with typhoid fever but this time her brother and sister came down with it also and she not only nursed herself back to health but took care of her siblings too and got them all well. Eva Mae enjoyed country living and says they went to town about once a month to get sugar, flour, coffee, and salt and her grandmother ordered all the yard goods from the Sears catalog and made all the clothes for the whole family. They made their own syrup and had their own smoked meat and raised chickens, turkeys, and guineas; they had a garden and went to the grist mill and had their corn and grits ground and gave the grist mill man corn in exchange for the grinding. As an adult, Eva Mae learned to play the piano through a correspondence course and played by note. Her first husband, Sam FULLAWAY came to Lake Wales at age 14 from England and they married 12 Jan 1935 in Lake Wales. Eva Mae seen much in her life some good and some bad, bad enough she wished she could forget the bad things seen. Her dad took her and her siblings to a Ku Klux Klan rally in Dade City and she seen both black and white people lynched and her father told the children to always stay out of trouble and live right so that would not happen to them. Eva Mae's first car was a 1926 Ford Sedan, she started driving when she was about 12 or 13 years old; her dad would let her and her siblings drive out in the country. Eva Mae was a tom boy growing up and enjoyed fishing and hunting.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 20 2018, 14:16:02 UTC