My Great Grandmother Leona

            I do not really remember a lot about my great grandmother. She was a fierce little tigeress. She always drove a cadallac and in her old age walked with a cane. She owned a lot of property and oversaw the "farm" in Lakeland until her very end. She was an incredible business woman.  My aunt Vicki recently told me a story about Leona. Vicki was playing out near some of the crops when one of the field workers yelled "snake". She grapped my dad and uncle Richard and ran in the opposite direction. Leona was talking with the overseer and walked over to her car and reached in her glove box and pulled out her pistol. She went over to where the rattle snake had been spotted and shot the snake dead between the eyes.

         The only firm memory I have of her was when she came down to Thomasville, GA. I was very little and I was jumping on the couch in the sunroom which was expressly forbidden behavior. She sneaked up really quietly and right when I was mid launch asked me in her southern drawl "just what do you think you are doing? You're not allowed to jump on the couch." I was shocked and a little angry because I did not hear her come in. Once I landed I assessed that we were the only two people who had witnessed what I had just done. I thought she was just as much in the wrong as I because she had sneaked up on me. I turned to her and said "this is not your house... you cannot tell me what to do". My words surprised us both. If I was not going to be in trouble for jumping on the couch I was definitely going to be for talking back to an elder. We both stared each other down and then she burst out laughing and said.

 "You have a lot of spunk kid. . . it's going to come in handy when you're older. I'm not going to tell your parents what I saw.... just don't do it again."

Then she walked out.