Hattie Pearl (York) Bryant (1900 - 1993)

Ancestors

Wife of Henry Ellis Bryant — married 15 Mar 1920 (to 19 May 1958) in Roane, Tennessee, United States

Descendants

Died 16 Mar 1993 at age 92 in Harriman, Roane, Tennessee, United States

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Biography

Hattie was born in 1900. She passed away in 1993.

The story passed to me (Hattie's great-granddaughter, who was lucky enough to know and have the love of Hattie for the first 20 years of my life.

Hattie's parents were very poor and were not able to take care of the children (three that I'm aware of) that they had.

Hattie was "adopted" by a wonderful couple who she referred to as her aunt and uncle, but I'm not sure if that's an actual relationship. But they were "given" Hattie at Christmas time of 1900, I think, so she was just over 2 months old. They were wonderful parents to her, but she was still in touch with her parents, to some small degree. I have a literal scrap of paper around here somewhere where it was written out that Hattie's parents were giving her to the Cecil's. You can barely read it and it looks like it was just a scrap of paper torn out of a bible or something. It is a very thin paper like the pages of a bible.

The people who raised her were Mit Cecil and Luverna (Lu) Wright. She married her first husband, Harley, at the age of 16 and had a son, Jesse, at the age of 17. Harley abandoned them shortly after Jesse's birth. Hattie started secretarial school and moved back in with the Cecil's. She met my great-grandfather, Henry, and the love of her life while she was in secretarial school. She told me that Henry saw her and said, "I'm gonna marry you." She said something to the effect of, you wish. But they did marry on March 15, 1920. Henry took Jesse in and raised him just like he was his own. He loved him as much or more than his own children and Jesse loved Henry. They went on to have 4 more boys and only 1 girl, who ended up being my grandmother, Lockie. I don't think Hattie finished secretarial school. I know she never worked. She was a god-fearing woman and very old fashioned.

Her entire life was spent in the service of the Lord. Henry worked as a coal miner and later as a water well driller. Henry found the Lord after marrying Hattie and became a preacher. They lived a hard, poor, and very loving life until 1941.

Their two oldest sons were old enough to enlist in the military and did enlist in the Navy. Their daughter was the third child they had. Their fourth child was their third son and they had named him after his father, Henry Ellis Bryant, Jr. and he was the pride of the family and a happy-go-lucky child and teenager. He was born in 1926, so he was only 15 on December 7, 1941. He was raring to go and wanted to enlist. His parents wouldn't let him for as long as they could hold him back.

Now, this is the story that I remember hearing all my life. Hattie finally gave in and signed for him to enlist. I'm not sure exactly when that was, but I'm sure it wasn't before 1943 or 1944. He was trained as a Pharmacist's Mate at San Diego, CA.

Around the time that Henry, or Junior as he was known, went in, so did his younger brother, James. They must have signed for him to go in too.

I'm not sure exactly how the beginning of this trip begins, but he was stationed on a ship that was out in the Pacific. I think he was taken to Hawaii and then transferred to the USS Birmingham, which was to transport him to the ship he was stationed on. On May 4, 1945, a kamikaze attacked the USS Birmingham and killed 47, with 4 missing and 81 wounded. Junior, as he was known, was killed at the age of 21. It nearly killed Hattie and Henry. I think that they didn't know for a while if he had been killed, but the word finally came and devastated the entire family. Their youngest son was never old enough to serve in World War II. Their two oldest sons and the next to the youngest son that went in came back with no visible scars. Who knows what kind of emotional and mental scars they had. People didn't talk about things like that back then.

If you are interested in reading about the history of the USS Birmingham, here's a link to the wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Birmingham_(CL-62)

It's pretty interesting all the stuff it was involved in before this attack.

Well, they found a way to keep moving on with their lives, but then something as bad or worse happened to Hattie.

On May 19, 1958, Henry, James, their next to the youngest child (who was married with children), and a family friend who was working with them, drove to Knoxville to check on some supplies for their well-drilling business. On their way home, they were in an accident with an 18-wheeler that jackknifed. All three were killed.

Hattie lost her beloved husband, one of her dear children, and a dear friend. James's wife was left with 3 small children to raise without her beloved husband. The entire family was again devastated.

I was born in 1972 and the entire time that I knew Hattie (Grandma), she talked about Henry. She was such a God-fearing, God-loving person that she simply waited patiently for her time to join her husband and children in Heaven. She had no fear and looked forward to it.

Her oldest son, Jesse, died in 1975. I don't know if that hit her so hard because it was not something so unexpected and tragic. I'm not sure what he died of, but I'm pretty sure it was a sort of natural type death, if you know what I mean. He was 58. Not that that's old (I just turned 48).

Her second-oldest son, Lawrence, died in 1993, just shortly before she did and I remember that it was decided that we wouldn't tell her because she was very frail and sick. But at some point, before she passed away she something to one of us that let us know that she knew that he had passed away. We couldn't believe it. We sort of took roll and made sure that no one had told her and no one did. She just knew. So when she passed, her husband who she had been waiting to see for 35 years was waiting for her to pass through the Pearly Gates. She also had four of her five sons, Junior, James, Jesse, and Lawrence. Her youngest son is still alive and is 90 years old. Her only daughter and my grandma went to join them in 1995.

I had a son who passed away when he was almost 10 months old in 1997 who went to join them. It has always made it a little easier for me to deal with knowing that my dear, sweet great-grandma and grandma were there to take care of him until I can join them. My mama joined them in 2009.

Hattie was a wonderful woman and very unique during the years that I knew her. She never wore pants and didn't like it when women did. The only time she dared put them on was that she would wear my great-grandpa's overall when she went berry picking so she wouldn't cut her legs up on the thorns. She never cut her hair. It was thinning and only about down to her waist when I knew her, but I was always told how thick it used to be that she had to make 2 braids and then wind them around her head. She never wore it down. But my older cousins remember her combing it and she would let them comb it and it hung down way past the chair she sat in and almost to the floor. She always wore it in a braid (or 2) wrapped around her head. She put it in a bun when I knew her, but it was too long and thick to just put it in a bun when she was younger. She wrapped it around her head. She never had or watch TV. She listened to the radio, but only to gospel music or preachers.

She was in a nursing home from about 1978 until she passed away. She put herself in a nursing home. She had fallen and broken her hip and was told she would never walk again, but that wasn't true. She healed and walked great. But she knew that she couldn't care for herself and she wouldn't ask her daughter, my grandma, who was divorced, to take care of her, so she placed herself in the nursing home. My grandma went to see her several times a week (as often as she could because she didn't have a car and had to get a ride with someone). But Grandma got a car in about 1987, so she was able to go to the nursing home every day and sometimes twice a day.

Hattie just died of natural causes. She didn't really have any medical problems. Her body just gave out and as she had told us many, many times, she was ready to go whenever the Lord called her.

Sources

• Her own words and I was there.