Johnston Albert Curtis

Johnston Albert Curtis was the son of Jefferson Davis "Jeff" Curtis and Mary Ellen Osborn. He married Josie Albinah Smith on April 14, 1907 when he was 21 years of age. They were the parents of 12 children: three sons and nine daughters. He was known all his life as Albert Curtis, an honorable, decent and kind man. He was a large bear of a man with huge hands and a gentle nature. On the day of his death, he had just finished helping friends dig his friend Buck Woods' grave at Center Hill Cemetery, and as he climbed out, he suddenly fell back by the grave, dead of a heart attack. Granddaughter Charlene Wood Blakney remembered: "when someone died in the community, the church bell would ring and all the men in the community would come and help dig the grave. He was showing two friends who helped his new "safari" hat that he used to swat the bees at the barn. Papa Curtis then fell over dead by the open grave."

When his daughter Raney was on her death bed in May of 1992, she suddenly opened her eyes and said "today is my daddy's birthday." From the time she was about five years of age, Raney had helped her father in the fields. Til she died, she kept a pair of his old overhalls that had been cut down for her to wear as she worked. Raney adored her father, as did all his children, and Raney spoke of him often. She missed him til the day she died.

Granddaughter Bonnie remembers: Grandpa Albert Curtis died two days before my fifth birthday and was buried on my birthday. I remember that he was laid out in a casket on a large table in the breezeway of his home just down the road from Center Hill Baptist Church. Crowds came to pay their respects at the home. I remember a great feeling of warmth and love and getting lots of hugs. Then that night before the funeral the next day, someone gave me a quilt and I fell asleep on the floor.

See: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Curtis&GSfn=...