3rd GREAT - GRANDAUGHTER of ROBERT AND ELIZABETH CATE BERRY
November 1, 2007
MARY ELIZABETH BERRY was named for
her two grandmothers
Mary Jane Coleman Wilson and Elizabeth Frances Bowling Berry.
She was born August 23, 1899 and she was married on Septenber 17, 1925.
Aunt Maye died with a rare type of cancer on November 13, 1957, at the
age of 58.
After Aunt Maye and Uncle Brodie were married they bought the service station and grocery store that you see on the right. This store was located on Old Highway US 70 on the west side of Hillsborough North Carolina. When they bought the store a house was included in the deal. The House was about fifty feet west of the store building and on the right. After World War ll Uncle Brodie expanded the store into the first supermarket in Hillsborough and he closed the service station part of the business.
He was very successful with this venture and even had a Cold Storage Meat warehouse and a butcher on the premises. There were three boys born to this union and the youngest was only eight months older than me. This was a great place for me to visit.
In the picture on the right you
see Wiley P. Berry , Aunt Maye and her three sons.
Judging from the apparent age of the youngest son this picture was
taken
about 1930.
In the picture on the left my mother Sally Malena Berry is standing to the left of her sister (sitting) Mary Elizabeth Berry. This picture was taken about 1915
Aunt Maye was 10 years older than my mom and seemed
like a second
Grandma to me.a visit. She was a great cook and if she needed anything
she didn't have in her kitchen she would run to the store and get it.
My cousin who was near my age would go in the stroe and go behind the
candy counter and get anything I wanted to eat also. When I would visit
them for a week in the summer I always did have one problem. I was an
early riser and they were late sleepers. I just wandered around the
house and looked at things. She had a glassed in back pourch that
filled with
all kinds of potted plants. It was like a nursery so I always enjoyed
looking at her flowers and plants. The first TV I ever saw was in their
house. It was a fairly large box with about a 9 inch black and white tv
screen. Not much on it except the news either.
Uncle Brodie was a Mason and Aunt Maye was a member
of Eastern Star.
My aunt and uncle had a greater influence on my outlook on life than
either of them would ever haved believed. Aunt Maye would come in to
the house
and fix a meal. She would then go to the store and relieve Uncle Brodie
so he
could come to the house and eat his meal. They kept the store open for
long hours so they only had a couple of meals a week when they ate at
the same time. On Sunday they would go to Church and after Church they
would eat their Sunday
Dinner together. After the meal Uncle Brodie would set at the dinning
Room Table and work all afternoon on his books. Aunt Maye always
wanted a new home with a greenhouse for her flowers. When she was about
56 years old they bought a lot close to the store and built a new Brick
House, Greenhouse, a brick Bar-B-Q grill and a picnic shelter. Two
years
later Aunt Maye died.
A few years later Uncle Brodie had a sever stroke and spent the rest of
his life in a wheel chair. I was 27 years old when aunt Maye died and
from then on, for the rest of my life I have tried to enjoy a little of
what I have every day and take as much time for myself as I can spare.
Take a little time each day to smell the roses, I
guess that is what I learned.
I am truly sorry that Aunt Maye and Uncle Broadie did not get to enjoy
the fruits of their labor any longer than they did.
