And she should be "regaled" for... what? She should most certainly not be disrespected. But regaled? Why?
Posted on 05/14/2004 12:52:10 AM PDT by sarcasm
ENTERPRISE, Ala. — The last known living widow of a Civil War veteran suffered a heart attack and is unable to talk, her caretaker said yesterday.
Alberta Martin, 97, has been in Enterprise Medical Center since suffering the heart attack May 7. She can open her eyes but can't talk, said the caretaker, Ken Chancey.
"The prognosis is not good," he said, "but Mrs. Martin is a fighter."
Martin, known for years as the last Confederate widow, became the last Civil War widow when the last known widow of a Union soldier, Gertrude Janeway, died early last year.
"She's the end of an era that is so vital to our history," Chancey said.
Martin was a 21-year-old widow with a young son when she married William Jasper Martin, 82, a former Confederate Army private, in 1927 in southern Alabama. They were married nearly five years and had one son before the veteran died in 1932.
She married William Martin's grandson from a previous marriage two months later. Alberta and Charlie Martin were married 50 years before he died in 1983.
Martin then lived in obscurity in Elba, making do off her last husband's pension as a World War II soldier. She told people about her Civil War connection but received little notice.
Chancey, an Enterprise dentist, and other members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans took up her cause in 1996 and persuaded state officials to approve her for a Confederate widow's pension still contained in Alabama law.
Martin made regular appearances at Confederate heritage events, traveling from Gettysburg to St. Louis, often with a Confederate battle flag draped over her lap.
Thank you for honoring her. The last Confederate widow will not be regaled in the press.
WOW it's hard to beleive a widow of a civil war vet could still be alive .Imagine all the changes they have seen.
MY Grandma died in about 1977 at 97. She always told the history of her family, the Mortons(short for Mortensen) how her grandpa was a riverboat pilot on the Ohio and his great grandpa was john Morton who immigrated from Finland, built a great plantation business, got successful entered local politics then signed the Declaration of Independence.
He traded his entire earnings for munitions to fight the Brits, and his property was burned and lost.Spent the rest of his life on the run . Locals never forgave him for signing to go to war so he was not welcome back home
He died a poor man in a cabin in Ohio,
i'm wondering about her decisions and motives: she was 21 with a young son and her confederate husband was 82. did they have the confed widows pensions when she married him?
and then she married his grandson? did i get this right? his grandson?
i know i'm just a cynical new yorker, but just what is going on here?
oh, yeah, and she waited all of 2 months before she married the guy's (her deceased husband's) grandson.
man, this is weird on any level.
Times were very much different then remember.
A young widow with a child would be "doing the acceptable thing" by finding a "man to care for her and the child".
And she should be "regaled" for... what? She should most certainly not be disrespected. But regaled? Why?
She should be regaled for historical respect and dignity
She remained married to her second husband until his death widowed her again.
She remained married to her third husband until his death widowed her for a third time.
Somehow, she never became a wealthy woman and it was only by the initiative of others that she even received the Confederate widow's pension.
She broke no laws. She did not commit incest. She lived a life of modest means and stayed with each husband until his death.
If I remember right, when Mary wed Joseph, he was easily old enough to be her father. Same was true of President Cleveland and his wife, Frances Folsom.
Um, excuse me? If that is the case, shouldn't all 97 year-old widows receive that as well?
I'd say that "era" has already passed. She's no closer to understanding the Civil War than Ken Burns. She didn't live it. She just lived with someone who survived it.
Yes, I know I'm being picky but if some teen married an 80-year-old who survived the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, would she be hailed as the last surviving widow of that earthquake? Not in my book. For some things, you just had to be there.
History of Enterprise, Alabama
"By 1917, Coffee County produced and harvested more peanuts than any other county in the nation. (In 1993, Coffee County ranked 4th in the state of Alabama with 128,000 acres planted in peanuts.) In gratitude for the lessons taught, residents erected the world's only monument to an agricultural pest, the boll Weevil Monument. The monument, dedicated on December 11, 1919, stands in the center of the downtown district at the intersection of Main Street and College Street."
~
"Today, the broadened and diversified agricultural economy, local industry, and the presence of the Army Aviation Center at nearby Fort Rucker are largely responsible for Enterprise's relative immunity to economic catastrophe."
has no one done the math on this wasn't the civil war over around 1865 add one hunderd years to this and it's still 1965 it's 2004 people
People know that. It's a technical thing.
It's kinda like the ax I own. It was used by GW to chop down the cherry tree. Of course, it has a new ax head and a new handle, but I swear it's the one he used.
Ok, now come the jokes. A dog with a bandaged leg walks into a bar carrying a gun and says..............
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