Happy Birthday Aunt Mary!

Eighty-one years ago on March 31, 1927, my great Aunt Mary Johnson was born in Warren County, NC to my great-grandparents George and Bell Bullock Johnson. Aunt Mary never married, nor had any children, but she was a devoted Aunt to her nieces and nephews. From her, I learned that the role of the unmarried childless aunt was to help financially and otherwise with the nieces and nephews. I have done the same as Aunt Mary since I became an Aunt in 1981.

I was not around Aunt Mary that much, but we communicated through letters. Unfortunately I don’t have any of those letters now. She also gave me money when my family couldn’t afford things such as my high school class ring and things needed for high school graduation. I have been told by older cousins that she also helped them financially when they were growing up.

Aunt Mary moved to White Plains, NY when she was a young woman and joined the Little Mount Zion Holy Church in White Plains, NY. This church was started by her paternal aunt Pennie Johnson Higgs. Aunt Mary remained in White Plains, NY until she died on January 5, 1986. She was buried in the cemetery of the Union Chapel Holy Church in Ridgeway, NC on January 11, 1986.

My cousins and I miss her and talk about her often. Gone but not forgotten.