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Memories of Edna Lula Seaton RobersonLife History of Edna Lula Seaton told to daughter Wanda Roberson Reasor. This was at the time she and Mildred Jean Roberson came to visit in Orem, Utah, 1960. Kay and I found it in my records July 1986. Born June 19, 1894 to James Thomas Seaton and Rhoda Helen Baysinger; Grantsburg, Indiana. About the first thing I can remember is sitting as a child and saying "Ma's asleep, Kitty's asleep and baby's awake." Always wore shoes with some holes for laces and hooks-up the rest of the way. Went to school at Pleasant HIll, one year (3rd grade) at Tunnel Hill to Grover Roberson. First school teacher was Minnie Brown. About 9 years old, playing on logging wagon with Dora Grant. Wagon went out of control over the Needmore Hill in English. Dora's dress caught in the wheel. Mom yelled "Dode's killed" but neither one of us was hurt. Pa was alwyas buying Chrismtas pesnets. One time brought home a musical album. Ma told him to take it right back. She wove carpets to help make a living. Pa sold Indian Herb pills. Walked from town to town. I remember one summer Ma was sick and I fanned her all summer long and carried water for long distances. I was about 10 or 11 years old. Asleep one night, heard some one cough, and light went out. I sat on Willie's bed till everyone came home. Slept in the same room with Mom and Dad until I got married. Always afraid when I woke up, would call Ma and Pa. Pa would always say, "what the devil to do you want?" Crawford County Democrat, May 1960: In memory of my husband, Reuben R Roberson who passed away May 2, 1959 Little did we know when we left home That I would be coming back alone To have to love and then to lose Is the hardest thing I ever had to do. Sadly missed by wife Edna and children
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written December 1988
I will now write a little about my children's grandmother, Edna Seaton Roberson. Grandma Edna was a quiet gentle patient and hard working person. I don't remember her yelling at us very much and we always had to wait for Dad to get home to get our whippings when we had been bad. She loved to go to town on Saturday. She would carry her eggs in a bsket and walk the two and half miles to town where she stood with her friends along the street talking and getting caught up on the news (all afternoon). She then would carry, pack, as she would call it, her little dab of groceries home. There wasn't much to buy since we lived on a farm and produced most of our food. There was always a nickel's worth of candy for us kids.
Mom sewed and made all of our clothes. I remember sitting on the floor and peddling her sewing machine with my hands. I don't know if that was a help for her or to keep me busy. When the clothes were worn out, she would tear them into strips, sew them together in long strips and crochet them into rugs. She would also tat lace for the babies clothes. I remember her being pregnant, only because she sat around more. She never told us anything about the facts of life. She wore wrap around dresses to hide her pregnancy. They were comfortable and she usually had one at all times for convenience for nursing her babies. She was either pregnant or nursing a baby.
She always seemed to be a solid patient influence, always there but nevrr showing much affection to any of us except Dad. I remember many times of feeling that no one loved me.
Mom could be very jolly and enjoyed people after she got to know them. She waited on Dad hand and foot. I often wondered how she could put up with some of the things he did and the expectations he had of her and the family.
Some of her well used phrases were--"well I declare", this was to express surprise or astonishment, "I'll swanny, for goodness sake, I'll be there directly, hushup, Lordy Lordy."
She sang some cute songs to us kids which I have sung to mine. One was, "Over the river to feed the sheep, over the river to Charley;s, over the river to feed the sheep and bake a cake for Charley. Oh Charley he's a very fine man, Oh, Charley he's a Dandy. Charley loves to treat the girls with sugar, wine, and candy."
Another was, "First I met was a blind man." You'll have to get the words later if you want them.
Dad had rules about us using the battery radio. Mom would listen to Helen Trent, and Our Girl Sunday,both soap operas and one other every day. She loved hill billy music, especially sung by Grandpa Jones.
She lived in many homes. Dad had rambling blood and she would pull up and go whenever he said go. She would take the children in the middle of the school year or break up a courtship of one of the older ones. She loved to fish and could be ready in a minute. She loved to quilt, first because of necessity and later just to have someting to do. Just before she died in the hospital, although she had no needle or thread, my sisters said her hands were still going through the motion of sewing.
Mom wouldn't baby sit for any of us. She said, "I rasied my family, you raise yours." She was a good cook and none of us can bake bread or biscuits as good as hers. When she baked pies it would be five or six at a time. I don't remember many cakes. She found a recipe for four pounds of fudge. She made that almost every year after that for Christmas. We are still trying to come up with her persimmon pudding recipe. We are getting closer but not exactly.
Mom had a sweet tooth. No matter what we had to eat for dinner or supper there would be a dessert. Mom could make a dessert out of nothing. She often made vinegar pie or green tomato pie. All of the Seaton's had a sweet tooth.
There were always Seaton/Roberson reunions. They were held in English for years and then near Mt. Carmel, Illinois. We would stay at Aunt Leora's home. I loved to sit and listen to Mom and her sisters and brothers talk. Mom would take salmon patties to the reunion and they were the first things to be gone. Dad liked to find different things to eat. Salmon, oysters were among them. Dad always had a car and it was always full of kids. When we moved to Montana we left our house empty. When we returned from Montana we moved back into the same house. It had sat empty while we were gone. It never did have paint on the outside of it. There was a living room, kitchen and two bedrooms. There was also a cooking/summer porch. Dad moved the stove out there in the summer time. In the one bedroom there was always three beds. We kids slept in there.
Mom had to get false teeth when she was very young. She and Amzel went to Louisville on the train and the dentist pulled out all of Mom's teeth. She still walked home two and a half miles from the train station. She had lots of trouble getting used to her teeth. She always kept them in a cup of water at night. She would entertain the grandchildren by slipping them in and out of her mouth, then asking them to try and do the same. She told about one time while fishing in the creek, her teeth fell out and she almost lost them. Kay, this is probably where you got your wonderful first poem which ended, "Oh my teeth! They fell in the creek! The rest of the poem had nothing to do with teeth or creek.
Mom and Dad joined the Presbyterian church about 1940. Dad had a heart attack and it scared him into thinking about mortality and death. I talked to Mom when she came to visit us in Orem about our church. Her answer, "It was good enough for Dad, it is good enough for me", meaning the Presbyterian church. They sent us to church with Aunt Annie and Uncle Jim. The only time I remember going to church with them was while we lived in Montana on the ranch. We went quite regularly then and I'm sure Mom would have gone any and all times if Dad would have taken her.
We went to the Logan Temple after Mom died. I was proxy for her and Lee was proxy for Dad. It was as if I was going through for the first time. I could not remember any part of the endowment. Always before this I would dream about Mom and Dad and they were never together. Mom would say, "I haven't seen Dad yet." After the work for them was done, in my dreams they are always together. This is a testimony to me that the work was accepted.
When I called to tell her I was pregnant with Sandi, all she said was "well". That was about as excited as she ever got. She and Dad are buried in Rest Haven Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky. However, she is nearer to me in my own home than when I visit the cemetery. Writing this has caused me to shed many tears.----------------------------------
Memories of Edna Lula Seaton Roberson
My most choice memory is of the summer of 1961 when I was 14. I went to Louisville, Kentucky on the bus from Provo , Utah to stay with Grandma Edna. We had such a special time together but she really didn't want to be here. She was ready to leave this earth and I really think she just gave up living. Grandma had been sick when I got there. She didn't like being alone and my cousin, Jeannie, had stayed with her most of the school year. My cousin, Phillip, came over to mow the lawn, Aunt Mary did the grocery shopping for her, Aunt Amzel did the bank business. Aunt Marie talked to her on the phone but didn't visit with her the whole summer I was there.
Our life was pretty much a routine. I cleaned the house in the morning, which took 30 minutes. We cooked oats and biscuits for breakfast. Most lunches Grandma would have tea and soda crackers. I ate peanut butter. And then I learned to cook supper. She would tell me how to do things and I just listened and did it. I made biscuits, bread, fried chicken, minute steaks, and even made pies. But the most important thing she taught me and that I treasure most today is the fun of piecing a quilt. We sat in rocking chairs facing each in front of the windows, with a little breeze blowing in. It must have been very hot in Kentucky but I don't remember the heat or humidity. We sewed by hand most of the afternoon and evening. As we sewed we talked and oh how I wish those conversations were recorded. I remember trying to understand why she didn't believe in eternal marriage and she showed me in the Bible where it said that marriages are neither given or taken away in heaven. I hope she was pleasantly surprised to find that you can be sealed to your husband. And I hope she and Grandpa Rube are together and happy.
She made me sew with a thimble. After several days she watched me for a while and finally came over by me to see what I was doing. I was wearing the thinble on the tall finger, where most people wear their thimble, but pusing the needle with my ring finger. The ring finger was bloody. She said, "Kay put that thimble on the other finger." I have worn it on that finger ever since, and literally cannot thread a needle without a thimble on my ring finger.
We watched wome word game show and the news on TV. We read the newspaper in the evening. Sometimes we would go to Aunt Amzels for the afternoon. But Grandma really liked to stay home. Mrs. Hornbuckle, a neighbor, would walk over and visit. I remember thinking how strange that they called each other "Mrs."
Towards the end of the summer I spent some time in English and then one week-end with Uncle Lloyd. While I was there Grandma fell during the night and they took her to the hospital. For the next week we took turns sitting in the hospital. Aunt Marie rallied to the crisis and was there with her cot to sleep every night. After about a week Grandma was able to come home. We brought her home from the hospital. Everyone was at the house that day. All the daughters and daughter-in-laws were cooking lunch. I was ironing and packing. I was supposed to leave for Utah the next day. Grandma was resting in her bed. I went in to talk to her for a few minutes and then went into the other room to iron. I was the last person to talk to her. She had a heart attack a few minutes later and by the time the ambulance got there she was almost gone. I felt so alone. I went into the bedroom and prayed and prayed. Aunt Mary found me and we just hugged each other and cried and prayed together.
Grandma's funeral was a southern Protestant event. The viewing was several nights long at the funeral home and then they brought her body to her home for the last evening. The sons took turns sitting up all night long. The family gathered in her home that evening. I was so relieved when my parents arrived from Utah and I could share my grief with them. I remember the funeral as being very cold. The minister called her "Mrs. Roberson" but really didn't say much about her. He had visited her once during the summer. This was my first real experience with death and the experience left me cold and wanting to understand the gospel of Christ more.
Grandma Edna was a spunky woman. My mother comes by her personality very honestly. Edna loved her children but she loved her husband the most. I think she was greatly relieved to die and not have to be alone any more. She told me the hardest part was trying to sleep alone. She taught me many practical skills but I loved her most for who she was, a hard working, creative loving woman! She loved to fish, dug her own worms, donned a pair of overalls, a big hat and went at it. In later years I would watch my mother's hands as she stitched and realized her hands looked just like her mother's hands. My hands look like my mother's and therefore like my grandmother Edna's hands. What a wonderful reminder of two great women.
Obituary of Edna Seaton Roberson
Obituary: Louisville, Kentucky Courier Journal; died 9 Aug 1961
Mrs. Reuben R. Roberson, the former Edna Seaton, died Monday at 12:45 p.m. at her residence, 7508 Glaser Lane. She was 67. Her husband died in 1959. Survivors include four daughters, Mrs. Maurice Brown, New Albany, Ind., Mrs. Lee Reasor, Orem, Utah, and Mrs. Joseph McKinney and Mrs. Russell Walts; four sons, Howard Roberson, Rapid City, S.D., Joe Roberson, Miami, Fla, and Chester and Norman Roberson; two sisters, Mrs. Leora Belcher, Mount Carmel, Ill., and Mrs. Bill Roberson, Fredericksburg, Ind.; 20 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. The body will be at the McAfee Funeral Home, 3928 Bardstown Road, until Thursday, when it will be taken to the residence. The funeral will be Friday at 2 p.m. at the McAfee Funeral Home. Burial will be in Resthaven Memorial Park.
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Eulogy of Edna Seaton Roberson
Eulogy:
Edna Seaton Roberson the daughter of James and Rhoda Seaton was born June the 19th 1894, at Grantsburg, Indiana, where she spent her childhood days. She was married to Reuben Roberson, November the 2nd 1913, and started a home and family, thinking always of the health and well-being of her family first and herself last.
To Reuben and Edna was born 9 children, one an infant lived only a few days. The others have enjoyed the fruits of her labors and her pleasant personality all these years. She joined the Buechel Presbyterian Church on March 22, 1949 to better fulfill her spiritual obligations and remained sincere in her fellowship.
A happy smile, and warm personality, honesty and an undying interest in everyone are the rich blessings that will be missed by all those who survive her. Her children . . .
Amzel Walts, Chester Roberson, Marie Brown, Wanda Reasor, Norman Roberson, Howard Roberson, Joe Roberson and Mary McKinney; 20 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren; 2 sisters, Leora Belcher of Mt Carmel and Eva Roberson of Fredricksburg, Indiana and many friends and relatives. She departed this life August 7, 1961 at her home in Louisville, Kentucky.Ancestral Chain: CR / MRR / Wanda Myrl ROBERSON 1921-2012 / Edna Lula SEATON 1894-1961 / James Thomas SEATON 1851-1925 and Rhoda Helen BAYSINGER. 1856-1924
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