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September 21, 1993

Dear Gil,

.... ADRON CORBETT ALFORD was born 100 years ago on June 23, 1893 in Sabine County, Texas. He married ADA AMANDA CONNER on November 21, 1912. The twins, THELMA and ELMER (in East Texas, their names rhyme), were born October 28, 1916.

Of his four grandchildren, SUE M. FRIDAY was bom 50 years ago on June 11, 1943 in Houston, Texas. PATSY M. PHELPS was born March 30, 1945. JOYCE ALFORD, 1945, and NANCY ALFORD, ? (don't know her birthdate, but she is much younger than the rest of us) are Uncle Elmer's daughters.

There are five great-grandchildren. Nancy has a daughter, SHELLY. Sue has two children, JONATHAN FRIDAY, 1970, and AMY FRIDAY, 1973. Patsy has two, PATRICK CORBETT PHELPS, 1969, and PAUL PHELPS, 1971.

At Patsy's request, I have written down memories of Grandpa. If you can use any part of it, please do so. If you can't, please give it to my mother, Thelma McGeorge. She doesn't know I have done this.

Sincerely,
Sue M. Friday
Still Waters Farm, 8700 Dixie Drive
Charloue, NC 28208

ADRON CORBETT ALFORD
In my mind, my grandfather, Adron Alford, is a vigorous man in his sixties, stomping down the hall in his hunting boots, singing hymns in a loud bass voice. I picture him vividly: 6' 3", silver gray hair, barrel-chest, sharp blue eyes. I cannot picture him 100 years old, and I cannot picture him gone.

He was a farmer who plowed the same 50 acres in Sabine County, Texas, that his father had before him. It was a one horse farm; he never owned a tractor. Orphaned at a young age (his father, Jesse, was studying to be a doctor when he caught pneumonia and died), he and his brother and two sisters were brought up by relatives. When he was 19, he married his sweetheart, Ada Conner, a girl he had never even kissed until the night before the wedding. That's the story they told, the example they set, and we never doubted it.

A deacon at Camp Springs Baptist Church, he took his religion seriously and spent the middle of the day, when it was too hot to work, sitting on the front porch reading his Bible. I have one of his Bibles, and it is literally worn out from use. When he said grace before meals, there was no doubt in our minds that GOD had to be listening to such a deep, true voice.

The bare facts of his life seem simple, uncomplicated, and it is hard to believe he has had so much lasting influence on all of us. He, who never got beyond the 4th or 5th grade, saw to it that his twins, Thelma and Elmer, finished high school. He had to sell a cow to buy their senior rings. Thelma finished nursing school and is an RN. Elmer studied to be a ship's officer, and served as first mate on oil tankers that traveled the world. All four of his granddaughters finished college.

He didn't give us expensive gifts, but he gave us his time. He talked to us - yarns about the mighty hunter, Eagle Eye, stories about sending his dogs into a den after the last wolf pups in Sabine County, fables about creatures like hoop snakes, and, of course, Texas history. None of us will ever forget the Alamo. His favorites were hunting stories: he never forgot how many steps he was from a buck when he fired the fatal shot; we have never forgotten the taste of venison steaks fried in lard.

He left us his land, and his values. Money is spent and gone forever, but values, a sense of lives lived as good people, form a legacy for our family. His great-grandchildren never knew him, but they are living the same responsible lives that he set out for the rest of us. They'll pass these values on to their children without really ever understanding the source.

It has been over 20 years since he passed away. When I think of heaven, I see Grandpa sitting up there beside Ada the only girl he ever loved and he's singing bass.