When I think of homebodies, I could write about many people, but what mostly comes to mind are all the women who were homemakers and focused on the roles of wife, mother, and homemaker. I chose to write mini-bios about my mother, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers – the seven women in my ancestral lines most closely tied to my DNA.
Elma (Pellett) McCracken
Years a Homemaker: 45
Children: 2
Extra children: Several of Dad’s nieces and nephews stayed with us, especially in the summer.
Cooking: Cherry pie, mashed strawberry shortcake, mac & cheese, round steak, glazed ham. And, she never could cook enough when the male teenage cousins were staying with the family.
Sewing: A button maybe. Anything more, not unless her life depended on it.
Special skill: She was amazing at collecting family history and history of people & places we knew. She would record a person’s entire family history back multiple generations on the back of photos. (This comes in really handy!)
Special Memory: She loved pretty things and cute things. And, each one was a treasure to her. Additionally, she could find a place for them no matter how crowded the cabinet was. After she passed, I kept seeing things and thinking I should tell her about the items because she would like them.
Famous phrase: “You aren’t getting into my bed with those dirty feet!”
Survived: Not having an indoor bathroom until her oldest was 6.
Grandma
Nellie (peelle) McCracken
Years a Homemaker: 66
Children: 11 (10 lived to adulthood)
Extra children: The Bailey kids when they traded places in the night with the McCracken kids. She put them to work. Dad said that they had extra people more often than not, but not necessarily kids.
Cooking: My favorite memory was the smell of her house when she made pork roast wrapped in bacon with potatoes and carrots. Dad always worked hard to replicate her cinnamon rolls.
Sewing: Preferred to sew over cook. When old enough, her daughter Ester did much of the cooking.
Special Memory: Playing her little electric organ – even back when she lived on Pine. (I got it when she was getting rid of things & I still have it).
Doctoring: While chopping wood on Easter 1945, she almost chopped her thumb completely off. She just stuck it back in place and grandpa took her to the doctor. The doc said that she did a good job and he wasn’t going to mess with it.
Famous phrase: “My head is made up!”
Survived: Losing a baby at one month of age and having a son MIA in WWII.
Grandma
Dessie May (Thomas) Pellett
Years a Homemaker: 66 + 4.5 (Caring for siblings and the house after her mom died)
Children: 5 (4 lived to adulthood)
Cooking: I remember most her pecan cinnamon roll sticky buns, hot rolls, doughnuts, and divinity. I watched and at times helped her cook. Her key role in the kitchen for Sunday dinner was deciding who got to cook each item.
Sewing: She made dresses and quilts, including dresses for my sister and me. Taught me to sew on a 1920 Singer treadle sewing machine. (I still have it.)
Special Memory: Taking care of her after she had cataract surgery. In those days, you had to have your eyes covered for two weeks after surgery and she couldn’t see anything. So, I was her eyes while my aunts worked. I was only 8.
Strange Rule: You could only eat in the living room if the Lawrence Welk Show was on.
Famous phrase: “What if the preacher comes?”
Survived: Losing her mother as a teenager, taking over running her parent’s household, her first child being stillborn, and raising her children mostly on her own as her husband spent much of his adult life in a VA hospital.
Great-Grandma
Rosa Isabella (ellis)
McCracken Apt
Years a Homemaker: 52
Children: 9
Grandchildren: 37 (34 grew to adulthood)
Cooking: I don’t know what she cooked, but Dad told me about red and white dishes (china) that she had. Cousin Ava told me a about a soup tureen that she said that her mom said had been “Grandma’s.” Ava thought it was her grandma’s (I.E. Nellie (Peelle) McCracken’s). Turns out it had belonged to Rosa and was part of the set Dad mentioned.
Daring Adventure: Rose went to Indian Territory by herself in a buggy to see family (likely her brother Sam who lived in Oklahoma). She never made it to her destination as she was forced to turn back by people in the area. I am not sure if they were Native Americans or people who were claiming land there.
1929 Thanksgiving Diary Entry: “Thanksgiven so many things to Thank our God for. we did not all get to Chester. Cynthia & her family and Ernest & Dewey was not thare. but thare was 31 thare. had a good time and a nice dinner. Will Ray & I went to the show to night at Grard.” (As written – Chester was her daughter Oella’s husband. Ernest, Dewey, and Ray were sons. Will was her second husband).
WWII: Had 2 sons and grandsons serving in the military.
Survived: Losing her husband when she was 49.
Great-Grandma
Matilda (Jury) Peelle
Years a Homemaker: 55
Children: 3
Grandchildren: 10
Moving Around: She was born in Ontario, Canada. Moved when she was very young to Kansas. Then to Missouri. Back to Kansas. To Michigan, and finally back to Kansas. After her return to Kansas, she lived in at least 6 homes around Hiattville, a house in Farlington, and another in Wichita. Thus, she set up house keeping quite a few times.
Cooking & Sewing: She likely began learning cooking and sewing with her paternal grandmother who lived with them and likely refined those skills by learning from her father’s sister Eleanor “Ellen” (Jury) Hartnett, whom she lived with after her grandmother died.
Religion: Very religious late in life. Became a member of the Seventh Day Adventists.
Survived: Growing up without her mother as she was only 2 1/2 when her mother died. Losing her husband when she was 46. He died only two days after her father died. She later lost a grandson in a very tragic car-bicycle accident.
Great-Grandma
Della (Conner) Pellett
Years a Homemaker: 15
Children: 4
Grandchildren: 13 (12 lived to adulthood)
Survived: Death of her daughter Nina, who died at age 6 of scarlet fever. Nina had recovered enough to return to school when she had a sudden relapse and died within a few days.
On her deathbed: She said that she had made preparations for death and that all was well with her soul.
Died: Died the same night as her sister-in-law (her husband’s brother’s wife). They died at their respective homes. She after a short illness and her sister-in-law after a long-term illness. The family held a double funeral. She was only 33 and her sister-in-law was 27.
Great-Grandma
Sarah Ellen “Sadie Ella”
(Ashby) Thomas
Years a Homemaker: 16
Children: 9 (6 lived to adulthood)
Grandchildren: 16 (14 lived to adulthood)
Cooking & Sewing: She died when Grandma Dessie Pellett was 15. It is assumed that Dessie learned to cook and sew from her mother as she could do both quite well.
Survived: The loss of two children at birth.
Died: She did not survive the loss of her 3rd child. The baby died at Mercy Hospital in Fort Scott She died two days later from complications of childbirth.