Matrilineal Monday - Nora Littie Inman Conley

Although my blog entries tend to skip from topic to topic, since yesterday's post was the obituary of my maternal grandmother, a post about her for Matrilineal Monday seemed like a logical follow-up.
She was born in Llano, Texas on the first day of May in 1889 to Davis and Emily Cassels Inman.  At the time the 1900 Llano County was taken, she was 11 years old.  It shows she was one of nine children, six of whom were still living, and her father's occupation was listed as "farmer".
On December 23, 1908 she married John Franklin Conley in Llano, Texas.  Her residence in 1910 was in Lampasas County, Texas and in 1911 her first child, Iva Mildred Conley, was born on December second in Grundyville, Texas, which no longer exists.  Her second child, Wilber Franklin Conley, was born on May 26, 1919 in Evant, Coryell County, Texas but the 1920 census shows the family was living in Adamsville in Lampasas County, Texas where Frank was a "Ginner" at a Cotton Gin.
I do not know when the family moved to Cherokee in San Saba County, Texas but my mother graduated from high school there in 1929 and the family was there on the 1930 census where her husband, Frank, is again listed as a "Ginner".  As far as I know, my grandmother's home was in Cherokee until her death in 1966.
Life was hard for her after the death of her husband in 1936.  She was an excellent seamstress and sewed for the public to earn money on a treadle sewing machine that I was allowed to use because it could only go as fast as I could make it go with my feet.  The first things I made were doll aprons out of scraps of material.  She also made fabric covered buttons, belts, and belt buckles with an evil looking machine with attachments to press the buttons and buckles together and punch holes in the belt.  Her handwork was very neatly done.

It would take far too much time to write everything I remember about her in this blog entry.  She has been described as "every inch a lady".  She was petite and dressed meticulously when going out in public.  I remember she wore her hair in a neat bun, brushing and combing it out at night.  When we visited, my mother set the hair that wasn't in the bun in waves using small metal clamps. 

This picture of me with my mother and grandmother was taken 24 January 1958 before my brother's wedding.