family stories: jennie moore cannon

Jennie Moore Cannon was my grandfather's mother. Sadly, she died in 1920 as a consequence of his birth. When I was young, my grandfather told me he was born prematurely, and they put him in the oven to keep him warm. Recently, my aunt told me that the doctors wanted Jennie to have an abortion to save her life, but she bravely refused. She is buried in a field near Sweeny, Texas.

After she died, my great-grandfather left my grandfather to be raised by Jennie's mother, Martha, and her second husband, Jacob Van Bibber, in Corinth, Mississippi. He returned to Texas for work, but he was in and out of my grandfather's life.

The photograph below shows my great-great-grandmother Martha and her husband Jacob, their two children Jake and Mayme Van Bibber, and Jennie and Andy Moore, Martha's children from her first marriage. The Van Bibbers, my grandfather and his father are all buried in Henry Cemetery in Corinth, Mississippi. 

why mississippi?

The South has been my home for 22 of my 30 years. Before I found myself in the small town of Booneville, Mississippi, I called the Royal Boroughs of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England my home.

People always want to know how my family ended up in Mississippi. It's a long story, but this article sums it up quite nicely. A chance meeting over tennis initiated a love story that would span the generations. It would eventually lead my grandparents back to Italy for 30 years, where my American born father would meet my American born mother, who was studying abroad in Rome. My dad's career in the music industry sent them to England, where my sister and I were welcomed into the world. My grandparents retired to Mississippi in 1990, and our family joined them two years later. Because my parents chose Mississippi over California (where Joan lived), and my grandparents retired to Booneville instead of Meridian or Corinth (where they had previously lived), I shared a hometown with my future husband. Although our own love story didn't begin until we became neighbors (also by chance) at the University of Mississippi, many of our childhood memories and acquaintances are the same. After college, Jonathan's career brought us across the state line to Tennessee. At that time, we were ready for a break from Mississippi. We needed a fresh start.

Over the past eight years, we have happily adopted Tennessee as our new home, but all it takes is a weekend trip to Mississippi to remember where we -- and our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents before us -- began. This article is a brilliant reminder that Mississippi is very much a part of our past, present and future. Our roots will always run back to Mississippi.

on the road: taylor, mississippi

A few miles down the road from Oxford, Mississippi is the village of Taylor. Taylor occupies 4.1 miles and boasts a population of less than 500. To call it a village is a bit of an overstatement, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in charm.

It's the kind of place where dogs sit in the back of pickup trucks while their owners eat dinner at Taylor Grocery, the local catfish joint. Dogs, rusty pick up trucks and tin roofs are the norm here. The pace is slow. The line in front of the restaurant is out the door, so everyone drinks their beverage of choice in the parking lot while they wait. On certain nights, a local band serenades patrons while they eat dinner off red and white checked tablecloths. The grilled catfish is delicious, the hushpuppies are decadent and the only thing missing from the entire experience is sweet tea served in Mason jars. When the rest of the world thinks of the South, they think of a place like Taylor. Taylor doesn't disappoint.

And just to further prove that we're crazy about dogs in the South, here are a few photos of our dog Porter playing with his new lab cousin Easton.

Neither one would sit in the back of a truck to wait for us to finish dinner.

City dogs...

family stories: sadie and gerald hardin

I've mentioned that we're currently working on a photography preservation project for Jonathan's grandparents, Sadie and Gerald. They were high school sweethearts, and they have been married 61 years. As we've been busy scanning and editing their photographs, I wanted to share some of them. These were my favorites that have already made it onto our gallery wall.

The photos were all taken around the time they were married, when they lived in downtown Memphis for several years. Gerald worked and attended business school, and Sadie worked several jobs. One of Gerald's jobs was in the Sears catalog division in midtown Memphis. 

Since we moved to Memphis in 2006, we have enjoyed taking them to downtown and midtown Memphis so they could see some of their old neighborhoods and reminisce. Unfortunately quite a few of the landmarks they remember began to decline in the 1960s and have since been razed to make room for uninspired (and often empty) strip malls.

The Sears building in midtown was one of Memphis' most notorious examples of a historic building that had been abandoned and neglected. In a lucky twist of fate, the building has recently been saved and is being converted into a mixed use urban village. You can read about it here. We're all excited that this piece of Memphis history will be preserved. Perhaps it will be the catalyst Memphis needs to save more of its historic buildings and homes. 

Above: Sadie and Gerald in high school.

Above: Sadie and Gerald at a state park in Mississippi. Below: Sadie's first job was as a dessert server. She was 17. Bottom: Sadie and Gerald at the Mid-South Fairgrounds Amusement Park in Memphis with their niece Patsy. She spent the week with them in their Memphis apartment.