|
Hallie Conner Gerald and her husband Willie Gerald
 Hallie
was born November 13, 1894, daughter of James
Jr. and Anna Wise Conner in Marion County, South Carolina.
Hallie married
Willie Gerald and they lived in the Zion community. She had no
children of her own but she raised her nephews, Carl
and Mose as sons.
When her
husband, Willie, died in the middle of the Farming season, her
nephew, Eugene, came to assume responsibility
of the farm, curing the tobacco and harvesting the corn and cotton.
Later she
and Carl went to live near her brother,
David, on the property David had inherited
as his portion of the family farm.
Hallie had
a huge heart, and was a very nurturing woman. She seemed to always
be "taking care" of everyone around her. She would say,
"You go sit down down now and let me do that for you."
 Her
nephews fondly tell of a game their Aunt Hallie would play with
them. Walking up the driveway to the house she would holler, "Harry,
Ernest, come here and see what I see!"
The boys would run eagerly to see what she had found. There, half
buried in the dirt would be a shiny new fifty cent piece right
where she had secretly placed it a moment before. As they knelt
to retrieve the coins, Aunt Hallie would smile and say, "I
think you can keep them." Her nephews came to later understand
that this was Hallie's modest way of being the generous person
she was.
Hallie especially
loved her sister-in law, Arletha. When
a tragic fire burned down the house, Hallie went to live with
her sister Nellie, but she would walk
the considerable distance each and every day to visit Arletha
(or "Lithie" as she called her).
Hallie enjoyed
watching "the stories", as the soap operas on Television
were called in those days. And she was known as the "Blueberry
Queen". She loved to pick the sweet wild Huckleberries that
grew ripe in late summer. She didn't even let the occasional snake
crawling from the thick growth deter her. She would say, "Ahh,
that ole snake aint nothin' but the devil. Devil can't hurtcha
if you believe in the Lord." No one could make a better blueberry
tort than Aunt Hallie.
Hallie was
a devoted member of Wise Chapel A.M.E. Church and was in her place
there each and every Sunday. She died Jan 11, 1978 and is buried
at Greenlawn Cemetery on Hwy 41 North in Marion.
back
to the family tree
|
