Mrs. Lucy Westbrook Blanton
From Ruth Walsh
Whitewright Sun,
(undated newspaper clipping, published after April 21,1897)
ENJOYS LIFE AT EIGHTY-FIVE
Mrs. Lucy Blanton (nee) Westbrook, but more generally known as grandma
Blanton celebrated the eighty-fifth anniversary of her birthday the 21st of
April; at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Lee Robinson. Grandma Blanton
was born in South Carolina. In early childhood her parents moved to N.C.
where she grew to womanhood, and married Josiah Blanton who died in 1870.
Eleven children were born to them, all of whom grew to manhood and
womanhood, of these, seven are still living, two in Brown county, Tex., and
five in Fannin county.
Four children, eleven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and a few
other relatives were present to offer their congratulations (article torn)
... will wish for grandma's ... piness and also to partake of the bountiful
dinner that had been prepared.
After dinner the time was pleasantly spent in conversation and singing of
several songs.
Grandma Blanton has gone through times that try the courage of women as
well as men.
In the fall of 1851, the family moved to Tennessee and settled near
Knoxville where they remained four years. When the cholera visited those
parts in 1853 or 54 she helped tend the first one of her neighbors, who was
stricken with that dread disease, and while many were dying around her she
shrank not from tendering any assistance she could. In one instance, she
stayed alone by the bedside of a friend dying with the cholera; the dying
moman's (sic) husband being down with the fever, and her mother to much
frightened to enter the room, and when death came to the relief of the
sufferer, she unassisted dressed the body for burial.
The family came to Texas in 1856 having lived one year in Missouri, and
stopped near where the Porter church now stands, and only a mile from Mrs.
Robinsons, where grandma makes her home.
May many happy and peaceful years (sic) come to her and to all old people
who have traveled such a weary pilgrimage. SAG