This classically clad lady is Ms. Magdalene Mary Taunton Smith Gresham, sometime in the late 30's, in front of the old Taunton General Store that was built when Red Hill was still called Channahatchee.

Magdalene Mary Taunton (sometimes Mary Magdalene, but mostly Maggie or Aunt Maggie) was the first child of William Martin and Mary Lee O’Daniel Taunton to survive to adulthood. Born 29 April 1898, at home in Channahatchee (now Red Hill) in Elmore County, Alabama, she grew up alongside the Tallassee-Alexander City Road, attending Red Hill School in its earlier incarnations. A farmer’s daughter, she worked in the home, the yard (swept bare) , in the garden, and in the fields alongside her parents and siblings. From her mother she received her lifelong love of beautiful flowers.

On graduation from Red Hill School , she went away to “Normal School” to obtain a teaching certificate. None of us remembers the name or location of the college, or whether she ever taught school. She was a member of Refuge Missionary Baptist Church, and was active in the doings of the church in the community, sometimes teaching Sunday School classes.

She met and married Simon Wesley Smith, a chiropractor who was born, grew up, trained and practiced in Ohio. They lived in a beautiful white house across the road and just south from her parents’ home. She was Dr Smith’s second wife. Their marriage was short, only about three years , ending with his death in 1929. She was visited by her stepsons, especially the youngest, Wayne, even after the death of Dr Smith. Wayne married an Elmore County girl. He visited last with his children from their home in Arizona.

She worked most of her life at Tallassee Mills, on the second shift, riding Fred Fomby’s blue-and-white “Mill Bus”. With her sassafras “bresh” and her Bruton Snuff in her mouth, she carried a little brown bag containing her crochet materials to while away the trips to and from work.
The little brown bag was her constant companion and if she was sitting, she was crocheting, singing under her breath or aloud, “Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine. Farther along, we’ll understand why” (I’m certain there were more words to that hymn, but she just repeated these.) Her doilies and other crocheting projects decorated her home and the homes of her family. Most of the other women on the bus carried crochet or other homemaking work on the trip to and from Tallassee.

In 1944 she met and married Reuben Peters who lived with her in her little white house in Red Hill. Reuben’s son and his family visited from their home in Langdale, Alabama frequently. The marriage was short, ending in divorce.

She worked constantly in her yard, planting flowers everywhere. Her favorites were gladiolas, and nieces and nephews were frequently drafted to plant and care for these. The bulbs were dug up each fall, stored in the garage, and replanted in the spring along with any new ones she had acquired over the winter. Trading bulbs and plants was another enjoyable activity of the “mill ladies”. Tall pine trees flanked her house on the east and south side. I can remember lying in bed at her house and being lulled to sleep by the wind sighing through the pine needles in that mini-forest. I also remember being delegated to rake all the pine straw from that mini-forest. She planted azaleas in the edge of the pines and had a beautiful dogwood blooming just outside her bedroom window, and a sweet shrub and a gardenia. Many weddings in the community were enhanced with sprays of blooms from the brides wreath bushes in her front yard.

In 1955, she gave up her job at Tallassee Mills, married the recently widowered husband of her Aunt Maud, Felix Leslie Gresham, and moved with him to his home in Citronelle, in Mobile County. There she continued her flower garden work, and was active in his church. She lived there with him until his death in 1963. She then moved back to her home in Red Hill.

She died of a heart attack about a year later, 15 April 1964, and was buried next to her first husband, S Wesley Smith, in the cemetery at Refuge Baptist Church.

Her former home is now owned by Mrs. Elaine Stewart and has been extensively enlarged and remodeled.