Cornelia (Trice) Springfield (1922 - 2005)

Born 1922 in Indianola, Sunflower, Mississippi, USA

Ancestors

Died Feb 2005 at about age 83 in Memphis, Shelby County, TN

Biography

Note

Note: Belle's passion was caring for others

Quietly strong, educator kept illness to herself

By Erin Sullivan

Contact

February 12, 2005

Cornelia Trice Springfield didn't walk -- she floated, one hand in the air, palm up, fingers loose, graceful, as a lady should. Her voice was sweet and slow, one syllable dripping to two, and "darling" said in one long exhale ... dahhliiiing. ...

Nene, as everyone called her, was a Southern belle, steeped in tradition and manners. She grew up in Indianola, Miss., an only child to a family with deep roots in the Delta. History was felt and known. The war spoken of in conversation meant The Civil War. Furniture and silver passed from one generation to the next. Long dead relatives were talked of as though they were alive.

People were not their own selves -- they represented their families. Nene was not just Nene, and she had to carry herself accordingly. There were rules. She was prim and proper, gracious to a fault. She sang alto in her church choir. She always wore pearls. Never wore white shoes after Labor Day.

She went to the University of Mississippi, then received her master's from Memphis State. She was active in the community and historical organizations like the Southern Dames of America, Colonial Dames, United Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of the American Revolution.

She drank coffee in a tea cup -- never a mug, ladies do not drink from mugs -- and would take the dainty china in the car with her.

Her husband said she was quiet when she should be and not quiet when she shouldn't be. Her passion was living for others -- to make them comfortable, to listen, to console, to cheer, to hug.

Diagnosed with cancer 15 years ago, she told few people. She couldn't be a good hostess, a good friend, if the focus was on her, on the cancer, on dying. Her strength was quiet.

If Nene ever rebelled, her friends and family didn't say. If she was angry, they never saw it. They can't remember her ever saying "darn" (and certainly nothing worse) or raising her voice.

Nene loved being a hostess. If you were a guest in her home, there were roses (usually from her garden) in your room. When you woke, there would be freshly squeezed orange juice waiting on a tray. For a party, she would take flowered napkins to a florist so the centerpieces would match. She would stay up until dawn polishing silver and decorating and cooking. But you wouldn't know she was tired.

She never lost her composure. One day, when she went to work at Millington's Navy base (she worked there for 25 years as an education specialist) she was in the hall when she realized all she had on was her black slip. She calmly -- back straight, hand in the air -- swished back to her desk as though nothing was wrong (then went home to put on her forgotten skirt.)

She didn't marry until she was 77. If she was lonely, she never said. If she loved being single, she never said that, either. Her friends said she was just waiting for the right man.

In 1997, she fell in love with Cecil Lomax Springfield, who goes by his middle name, the widowed husband of her cousin Betty. Nene was maid of honor at their wedding in 1945. Betty died of a stroke in 1965.

Lomax and Nene lost touch after Betty died. Then he saw her on TV, being interviewed about some issue in the High Point neighborhood. He called and asked her to lunch. A year later, they were married.

In November, weak from chemotherapy, Nene fell at home and hit her head. She never fully recovered and died on Sunday. She was 83. Her funeral was Wednesday. She was buried in Indianola, next to her parents, in the Delta she embodied and carried with her wherever she went, one arm up, table set, flowers cut and everything as it should be.

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Sources

• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VB37-JZ6 : accessed 5 May 2016), Cornelia Trice in household of Harvey M Trice, Indianola, Beat 3, Sunflower, Mississippi, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 67-15, sheet 10A, family 239, NARA digital publication T627 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012), roll 2066.