Essie Marcella Thomas Freeman
July 19,1914 - July 2, 2012

Essie was born in Dover, Arkansas in the home of her parents Jim and Annie Thomas. She grew up with her 4 sisters and brother, moving around a lot in search of farm work. Essie was very smart at school work, but quit school in the 8th grade because she missed so much school doing farm work to help support her family. She did not learn to cook like her older sisters because for lack of boys, the outdoor work fell on the younger sisters.

Her sister Pearl married into the Freeman family and that is where Essie met my Grandpa - Norman Lee Freeman. His older brother Guy was married to Pearl - hence the reason I have double cousins. Lee often told a story of being able to knock a dog out if you hit it with one of Essie's early attempts at making biscuits. She became a great cook later and was famous for her dumplings and pies.
Eight years after they married, they were finally blessed with a child - my Daddy- Delmer Lee. I think they were surprised after that long. Don Ray came a few years later, then Essie was pregnant again a few years later. Unfortunately, Lonnie was stillborn.

My Grandma Essie just lived about mile from my house growing up. Every Sunday was dinner at her house  - about noon, depending on how long the preacher preached. Summer days filled with playing with my cousin Karen on the old plow and the back of the truck were rewared with Kool Aid out of a glass pitcher with Scotti Dogs around it. The pitcher was a wedding gift to my Grandparents in  1930, so it had some wear on it. Boxes of Cracker Jacks with the little prizes are also in my memories. Winter days of playing on the frozen bog in front of her house were warmed up with her wood stove. When the grandkids spent the night, the girls had the middle bedroom and the boys the room at the end of the little house. All these are childhood memories I will cherish.

But I have been an adult for a long time now, so the latest memories will also be the best. The things we discussed while working on Christmas Eve dinners are priceless. We talked about Lonnie's birth, how horrible it was to have to be in labor with him for so long, and they never let her see him. I know when she got to heaven, she finally got to hold her baby. She told me stories about her own Daddy that was in constant pain and cranky with her "but I know he loved me" she would say. Stories of her "honeymoon" crossing the creek on a mule in January. She would tell me about kids that had been in her Sunday School Classes at Lee's Chapel Church. She was so proud to be able to serve the church named for my Grandpa, and so proud to be a founder of that church.

Then there was laughter at my attempts to help her cook. She was such a hard working woman, even when she would wear out so easily, SHE would have to be the one to mix up the dumplings - which we did together one week before she passed away. I'll never be able to make them exactly like she did, but I will try. She was very particular about what food went in what bowl, which frustrated me, but I came to tease her about it, and we laughed about it. I spent 43 Christmas Eves at my Grandma's house. I should have spent more random Tuesdays and many more random Fridays at her house in the past 20 years.

I will miss her dearly, but I am glad she is reunited with Our Lord, her 2 sons that went before her, and my Grandpa. When you live to be almost 98 years old, your heart gets broken so many time by your loved ones passing on before you. So I can just imagine the "Sunday Dinner" they will be having, probably a good "singin" of old hymns, and best of all, taking a look at those of us here keeping an eye out for us.

Becky Hardgrave - Grandma's "baby" of the Grandkids