BESSIE ROBERTS

I remember going to Grandmother Robert's house when I was a little boy. She used to make the best hush puppies. Her husband, Irvin Hinton, died before I was born. He was half Cherokee Indian, so some of that blood was passed down to me.

My great grandmother was a dedicated Christian and won my mother to the Christian Faith when she was a girl.

As she grew older, Grandmother Roberts was unable to take care of herself and had to live with my grandparents in Central City. I remember one of the last times that I saw her, she couldn't hold her food down. It was a pitiful sight to see her that way. She died in 1985, and that was the first funeral that I have ever attended.