One More About Lettie Moore

Lettie saw no indication that anybody on the staff at Old Richmond School followed up to inquire about her sudden and ongoing absences. Her parents didn't push hard enough to get her to return and Lettie never told them her reason for quitting high school until years later.

Lettie loved sports in school and played on the softball and basketball teams. She said, "My early love of sports explains why I attended many balls games at Northwest Forsyth Little League and at other places." Lettie's brothers and father played serious baseball and participated in community leagues in the 1940's and 50's. As the oldest child in her father's second marriage and the only daughter, Lettie (born in 1930) involved herself in the ball games and in the farm work.

Lettie admired her father Lanier Laurrine Doub (1885-1968).

Around 1937 her mother, Jennie Irene Woosley Doub (1904-1992), cut Lettie's hair too short to please Lanier (pronounced Lane-yer). See the haircut in the school picture above. He ordered his wife to never cut Lettie's hair again.

Lettie's next haircut didn't happen until around 1957. It was naturally curly and grew very long during those twenty years. See Lettie's long hair in the picture with her mother. This picture was taken in the early fifties when she was a young woman. The bottom picture was made in 2005 and shows long hair then.

Lanier was first married to Eva Mayetta Bowman (1888-1926) of East Bend, North Carolina. They had two sons born in 1919 and 1922. Their names were Lanier Lestro and Bascom Bowman "B. B." Doub. One daughter, born in 1918 died within days after birth. They named her Mildred Louise.

After Lanier's first wife Eva died in 1926 he married Jennie Woosley in 1928.

In addition to Lettie's two half-brothers, she has five brothers, Kermit Calvin (1931-), Junius Winburn (1932-1956), Maynard Ray (1934-1972), Belmont Grady (1936-1987), and Aubrey Allen (1939-).

Lettie loved farm life where they grew tobacco, corn, wheat, watermelons, fruit trees, and other crops. The animals included cows, goats, hogs, and chickens. Lettie was responsible each day for milking one particular cow. That cow's name was Star because of her blaze. Brothers Winburn and Kermit were responsible for milking two different cows. During winter months the three siblings went to the barn with lanterns to carry out this chore before going to school.

Mr. Doub peddled farm produce in nearby Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His door-to-door selling occurred a couple times per week and consisted of vegetables during the summer and fresh meat during the winter. Mr. Doub instructed Lettie to always select the "best of the best" for him to sell as she helped him get ready for the trip to town. The Doub family food came from the leftovers, which was plenty and of good quality. The same best of the best guideline applied to the eggs for Mr. Hugh Pfaff of Tobaccoville who came regularly to buy them for resale.

Lanier sold in areas of Winston-Salem referred to as Buena Vista and Ardmore. Lettie said, "Dad always said that is where rich people lived. Many of Dad's customers there had butlers, maids, cooks, and chauffeurs." During cold weather months, the Doub family killed and butchered hogs. Country sausage, hams, and shoulders were taken to town to his affluent customers. Surplus meat and chitlins were sold in the "East Winston" section of the city. Lettie explained how her mother scraped and washed the intestines from hogs to get them ready to sell.

Lettie helped her mother can garden vegetables for food to eat during the winter. "We sometimes stayed in the kitchen until midnight," said Lettie.

Eventually Lettie got a job in the city at S. H. Kress for a short time before she married Lloyd D. C. Moore and moved to Alabama in 1954. When she returned with Lloyd in 1967 to Kilmurry Hill Road, the farm she so fondly remembered had changed. She said, "I certainly didn't find the farm I loved, but I still have my memories."

During the past seventeen years of living alone, Lettie helped elderly women in the area who needed a caregiver. She stayed with LaRue Jones for about a year, then Jessie Randleman for about the same amount of time, and finally, Blanch Poole, a close neighbor and a "really sweet woman," said Lettie. She's had many other requests to provide care, but she turned down the offers. Lettie concluded, "Now I'm doing the things I really like doing, which includes mowing my lawn with a push mower."

I like calling Lettie Lorena Doub Moore, a friend.

Have a good week!