Nell Marie, Rie, Mom, Granny E

Ellen, Linda, and I would call this a picture of Mom when she was young, or maybe my cousins would say that is a Young Marie. Whatever the family would call her, this is my Mom around the time she graduated one week and went to South Carolina to marry my dad the next week. He was stationed at Fort Jackson and his unit was leaving to go overseas. It was June 1944 and when the war was over, Mom would take a train to New York, take a cab from Grand Central Station to the New York harbor, andboard a ship to Germany. Dad was stationed at Wiesbaden, Germany and they lived there until early 1947. When they returned home, Ellen was born on July 9, 1947, and by August of 1950, Mom was mother to three little girls, Nell Marie to some, and Rie or Aunt Rie to the rest of the family.

Someone once told me she looks like a movie star in this picture. What do you think? Can you imagine marrying that young and traveling that far on your own?

GRANNY E, "THE DEVIL WHO CAME DOWN TO GEORGIA"!

Little River Canyon is a state park near Fort Payne, Alabama. When mother would come to Georgia, she liked to take "a little ride." This is one of the last times Mom visited me and one of the last pictures I took of her when we were riding together to places she hadn't been. The Little River National Park is a 15,000+ acre natural preserve on the Lookout Mountain ridge which covers parts of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. This is the Little River Falls section of the canyon. Of course, Mom is decked out in purple, her favorite color!