Mattie (Bretz) Laurell

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

Mattie was employed as a medical and dental assistant, adult literacy teacher in Zimbabwe, Africa, in advertising sales and as editor of various newsletters and periodicals. She was a great seamstress and did beautiful crochet work. Her children often proclaimed that "Mother could 'make something out of nothing,'" as she made nearly all of their clothing without the aid of patterns, and made a cozy, welcoming home for them wherever they lived. One day she engaged the whole family in tearing apart an old couch and burning it. She then used the salvageable parts of the fabric to upholster two occasional chairs. The children also remember the year she made bunny rabbits for each of them out of an old coat, using pink fabric to line the insides of the ears and plastic "broom straws" for whiskers. She also took art lessons to improve her natural talent after most of her children were grown, and her artwork is treasured by her family. She died of pneumonia and pulmonary fibrosis. Her ashes are buried in the grave of her husband, Kenneth Griffith, at Cedar Lake Cemetery in Cedar Lake, Michigan.

Sources

Birth Certificate; Michigan, County Marriages Index, 1820-1937, Reference ID P. 146 #157; GS Film Number 0000966598; Digital Folder Number 007621500; Image Number 00565 (Family Search.org); Death Certificate #0922507;

• Esther Griffith McDaniel, daughter