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Note: I wrote the following in 1991 to be included in a genealogy notebook I put together for Edwynne Love's son when he married. My mother was the only Joiner relative Edwynne's children ever knew.
The Ed Joiner Family
The most difficult narrative to write is the one involving those closest to me. When I try to remember
the wonderful stories I was told about �when Mama was little�, I find that specific details are not there in
my memory, only an abiding sense of laughter and lots and lots of music. Marcella was tone deaf, but Mr. Ed, as she always called him, fairly crackled with song and dance. He played a bass fiddle and a banjo. And, along with his brothers and cousins, sang in a mellow bass voice. Whenever there were family gatherings at "Waverly", and this must have happened with regularity, the Joiner boys, as they were called, provided the entertainment both vocal and instrumental. Did this come from the Joiner line or the Lee line? There is no one left whom I can ask. But this avocation of music, at a time when one could not derive a steady income from that field, must have been frustrating for Mr. Ed and his kinsmen. I gather that he was never really successful in the mercantile business, though he worked both in the retail and wholesale areas. However, this could have been due to the general trend of business, particularly in the South. He also was mightily involved in politics, as Mama could remember Uncle Charlie Wilsford and Aunt Annie walking down Division Street each night to discuss the issues of the day. Perhaps this passion for discussion was the television of their day. Radio had not found its way into each home at that time, either.
When we moved to Indianola in 1943, Mama was introduced to a little old lady who was also from
West Point. She had moved away in about 1894 so she had spent only her young girlhood there.
However, she asked Mama whatever happened to that nice Mr. Ed Joiner. It seems that he had squired her around some and really was her only beau. When that little social butterfly, Marcella Wilsford �came out�, and was surrounded by so many young men, Mr. Ed became part of Miss Wilsford's coterie, too. This little lady still bemoaned the loss of Mr. Ed to that flibbertigibbet. Imagine her chagrin when Mama softly replied that they were her parents.
Apparently, Mr. Ed, despite his lack of material wealth, was an accomplished young man about town.
There are numerous extant newspaper clippings about parties and "hops" and the Joiner brothers are
prominently mentioned. Increasingly, as the dates advance toward 1896, Marcella�s name is mentioned in the same write-ups. There were two shocking incidents that occurred during their courting days. When my sister investigated the story, the secretary of the First Baptist Church in West Point looked rather abashed and said that, at the time, it was somewhat scandalous. Mr. Ed was treasurer of the Church and a Deacon, so his leadership in his church was established. He was also a fine ballroom dancer, but the Baptists did not believe in dancing, in public...especially not in performing that risque waltz. Mr. Ed was twice asked to apologize to the congregation for waltzing in public, which he did. Perhaps it was all right to dance in the privacy of one�s home or the home in which a party was given.
Mr. Ed and Marcella were married on June 24, 1896. They promptly had two sons. Just as promptly, the effects of the Panic of �95 filtered down to West Point and the Joiner Brothers mercantile business was on the skids. However, Mr. Ed worked for another store, White & Westbrook, on Main Street. He was also elected Treasurer of Clay County, serving four years. During the last days of his term, he again was reprimanded by the Baptist Church for waltzing in public...with his WIFE. Thereafter we find him on the rolls Methodist Church, which was right across the street. He anchored the bass section in the choir for over thirty years and sang in the church quartet which included Jack Cottrell and Sallie Smith, nephew and niece of Marcella. He never again held public office though he ran once or twice for the County Treasurer�s office. I suspect the Baptists outnumbered the Methodists and certainly did not appreciate the scandal of Mr. Ed�s dancing in public. His black eyes twinkled when he told this story on himself, for he thought it a great joke he was put out of the church for dancing. Marcella would say "Now Mr., Ed, you know that is not true". Mama said one of her earliest memories of her parents was seeing them glide across the room in the most graceful waltz....and they could do a lively polka as well.
In the Joiner home on Broad Street, there was a beautiful curved stairway, different from the angular
one we knew in later days. It was the custom to put up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, after the
children had gone to bed. There were not as many elaborate ornaments as we use today, but there were lots of small candles on the tree. When the tree was all lit on Christmas morning, the children were allowed into the living room. One year, the tree overheated and burned part of the stairway. Fortunately, the house was not severely damaged and the stairway was replaced. The four children lived upstairs in the two bedrooms, with Sara Evelyn using the larger room (with the window seats) while the three boys were in the smaller room over their parents� bedroom. I wondered about the inequity of that arrangement until I had boys of my own. At least the scrapes, thumps and bumps of the boys could be monitored from below. Claude was the King, being seven years older than Sara Evelyn and eleven years older that Edward. Bubba (Granville) was just a year younger than Claude so they were fiercely competitive, yet closely allied against all others. Marcella said that what one could not think of the other one did. But all Mr. Ed had to do was to tap his foot and say "Now, boys....".
Every year, West Point had a children�s contest, sponsored by the newly formed chapter of the
Daughters of the American Revolution. The categories covered the ages from days-old to six years. In
1906, Sara Evelyn won a sterling sliver punch ladle for being the prettiest baby. Marcella said that she
really was not, for she flirted mightily with the judges. Sara Evelyn was blessed with tremendous charm and a tremendous talent in music. Marcella, whom I called Mamaw, said in later years that she was horrified when she realized just how talented Sara Evelyn actually was. There was no money to provide the right kind of education for her. How were they going to see that Sara Evelyn used her talents wisely? And on top of all that, Sara Evelyn was such a willful child. In about 1909, right before Edward was born, the whole family went to the movies, silent of course, and the lady playing the piano in the movie house included "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" in her repertoire. When the family got home, Sara Evelyn sat down at the piano and played the whole song, with two hands...not just one finger.
The battle was joined between those two strong-willed personalities. As Sara Evelyn progressed in
her playing ability, it was her mother who saw that she got up early to practice before school. Please
remember that there were no space heaters, no central heat, only Franklin stoves or open fire places.
Mama wrapped herself in blankets, tried to wear gloves, put the cat on the piano keys, faked illnesses,
cried dramatically that she was �the only one in town who could not stop by Uncle Charlie�s drugstore
after school and dance�. If she deliberately played something wrong, she got a thump on the head with a thimbled finger. Once, she pretended to faint and fell off the piano stool. Her mother kept on sewing a
fine seam and very dryly said that she had read �Elsie Dinsmore�, too, and to get up and practice. Mamaw sat right by Sara Evelyn every day, month in, month out, knowing how talented her child was and also knowing how prone Sara Evelyn was to take shortcuts. How many of us heard Mama say "Rome was not built in a day, just brick by brick"? I can imagine Marcella drumming that into her daughter�s mind, inch by inch forging the steely discipline which was so necessary to develop that vast talent. Despite Mama�s Sarah Bernhardt temperament, Marcella also helped Sara Evelyn grow into a deeply loving, caring, broadminded person that never harbored a malicious, mean-spirited thought. To look at the daughter, one could see the reflection of the mother. Sara Evelyn said that whatever she accomplished, whatever she amounted to, all was due to Marcella Joiner.
What did this concentration on one child do to the others? First of all, the boys rather took care of
themselves anyway, but Mr. Ed had such good rapport with all three sons that perhaps they thought the
daughter should get all that concentrated discipline. And too, they were probably delighted that their
mother�s considerable energy was consumed with the task of guiding and directing Sara Evelyn. However, Marcella�s relationship with each of her sons was special. In later years, Claude was most thoughtful and generous with his mother. He was eager to do whatever was necessary to make her life comfortable and secure. Bubba lived in Sumter, SC, and was not as actively involved in helping his mother, but he did what he could from that distance.
Edward absolutely adored his Mama from the day he was born. When Marcella attended the
numerous teas and meetings, she had to slip out the side door, for if Edward saw her in a hat, the tears and yowls began. He was being left with Erie, the cook, again! He was five years younger than his Tutter, whom he later called �Suster�, and Sara Evelyn said he could cry louder than any child she EVER heard. He was a tattletale to boot. Mama said he was the cause of just about every whipping she ever got. At age 18 months, Edward decided, according to Mama, on his own, to ride �Totsy�, the pony, into the house. And later, just a small pat from Sara Evelyn sent Totsy careening down the street, with Edward squalling in the cart. Fortunately, Mr. Ed was on his way home for lunch and rescued the thoroughly frightened two-year old. Sara Evelyn never did that again, but she did offer Edward chinaberry juice drinks, a yard-made hamburger (from the cow pasture), and just about anything else she could think of to keep him from pestering the life out of her.
When Sara Evelyn was nine, she was proficient enough to play for Tot Burrous� (Mary Evelyn Redus) wedding. She worshipped Tot, who was also an accomplished pianist. But can you imagine the pressure that was felt by a nine-year-old in playing for a very formal church wedding? Even in her last years, Mama said she would never forget that sick feeling she had that day, one of absolute terror. But true prodigy that she was, she came through with flying colors. It was the first of many performances during the next 70 years. Yet to the last, Sara Evelyn had sweaty palms before playing, even in so familiar a milieu as the Men�s Bible Class Sunday after Sunday in Indianola. She believed that if one became so complacent in performing that one did not have butterflies, the performance was flat. She also relied a lot on prayer....and tremendous preparation.
In 1917, the United States entered World War One. Claude and Bubba were at Mississippi A. & M.
Both were required to be in the military corps, as their father had before them (Mr. Ed was in the very first class at A & M). They were in the Lee Guardsmen, the forerunner of Sigma Chi fraternity. When the
cadet corps was called into federal service, Claude got written permission to go on active duty. However, Bubba, at age 19, was considered too young. When the time came for those fine young men to entrain for further instruction in Kentucky, all their families gathered at the railroad station, wept copiously, and watched their departure for the foreign war. Payne Field was also established in West Point to train the air corps and young lives were frequently snuffed out. So the whole family was sure that Claude was in imminent danger of never returning. However, much to the relief of all, the corps of cadets never got beyond Ft. Campbell, KY, and was safely mustered out in 1919.
By the time Sara Evelyn was in high school, she and Edward had become fast friends. He, too, was
very gifted musically, but wanted to play the drums, clarinet, and saxophone more than the piano. He got a paper route and saved his money to buy the various instruments. Each morning when Sara Evelyn got up to practice, Edward was up as well, getting ready to trudge down to the train station to pick up his papers, summer, winter, rain or shine. He brought the papers home in his wagon and faithfully rolled and delivered them. To those of you who have experienced the paper route discipline, you must know how badly Ed wanted those instruments. While saving his money, Sara Evelyn taught him how to read music. The drum sticks were the first to be bought, for only a few dollars. Marcella�s piano had the marks from his tapping from that point on. When the drum set was finally purchased, the Joiner home literally exploded with music. Can�t you see them now, Sara on the piano, Ed on the drums, and Mr. Ed alternately playing his banjo and bass fiddle? And when the clarinet and saxophone came in, Edward practiced so hard that he mastered both instruments within a year or two. He was quite active in the high school band and continued at Ole Miss. On Sunday nights, all the young people gathered at the Joiner home for dancing and making lots of music and fun. Mr. Ed and Marcella were criticized for letting them have so much fun after church, but both felt that their home should be open for the young folks, regardless of the day, or night, of the week. In order for Sara Evelyn to get to dance, Marcella had to play the piano. The only tune she knew was "TaRaRa Boom Tee-Ay" (Flora Dora Girls) and she could play it in waltz, polka, rag...any kind of time signature one could wish. She could even make it do for the new dance craze, the Charleston. (I am not sure of the date, but Sara Evelyn and Ginger Rogers won a Charleston contest the same year.)
While Sara Evelyn was still in high school, she played basketball, much to the dismay of her piano
teacher, Cousin Creighton, who was really no kin at all. She played jumping center because of her 5 ft. 8� in. height. When West Point went over to play Kilmichael, they limped home from the beating they took from those hefty farm girls. In 1920, the students marched from one class to the next, with strict order kept in the hallways. Also, it was usual for a proficient piano student to play a Sousa march as the students moved about the school. During the last week of her high school career, someone dared Sara Evelyn to play �The Charleston� rather than the usual march. As she was never one to refuse a dare, there was great merriment among the students, but Mr. Ed had to do some tall talking to enable his daughter to graduate with her class.
When Sara Evelyn was at MSCW, Edward visited as often as possible, riding the C. & G. over to
Columbus. He was such a personable young man even that Tartar, Miss Emma Ody Pohl, head of the
Physical Education Department, allowed him to participate in several productions and pageants. So
Edward had the dubious distinction of integrating the all-girl school at least 50 years before the Supreme Court ordered men to be admitted as students. Also while Sara Evelyn was at school, E. P. Burrous came to see her fairly often. Despite his being a first cousin, Sara Evelyn had to have a chaperone to go out with him. There was a new, lovely voice teacher on the faculty, Miss Agnes Alexander, so she was asked to go with the cousins. It took about one or two other visits from E. P. for Sara Evelyn to be left out of the arrangement entirely. Within a year or so, Agnes and E. P. were married. Until 1947, the �W� girls wore navy blue uniforms, with the seniors getting to have white collars and cuffs to mark their status. Mama said that never bothered her: she just stuck a white handkerchief in her collar and went right on off with her senior friends. She and her whole crowd nearly got �shipped� during their Junior year for accepting a sub-rosa charter from the Tri Delta Sorority at the University of Alabama. It was against state law to have Greek societies in state supported colleges. Fortunately, Dr. Fant, the college president, recognized the inequity of the boys being able to have fraternities at various state schools. The next year, the group rushed their girls but they were not allowed to be active in the Hottentots, named by some boy Sara Evelyn was dating at the time. Hottentots continues to be a social club on campus today. And there are still no sororities at the �W�.
The night of Sara Evelyn�s senior recital at M. S. C. W., Edward was in the finals of the State
Declamation Contest. In this dilemma which Mr. Ed and Marcella faced, it was decided that Mr. Ed would take Edward to Jackson and Marcella would be in Columbus. Unknown to Sara Evelyn, she was to be presented with the Mississippi State Federated Music Club Scholarship, which consisted of studying at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago for the summer of 1926. She and her cousin Sue Bridges (daughter of Susie Joiner) were leaving by train the very next day for Chicago. Her trunk was packed, her mother had seen to it that her clothes were in good repair, and all this was to be announced at the conclusion of her recital. Marcella had joined the Federated Music Club years before and had done all she could to see that Sara Evelyn had the very best education they could afford....and here was this wonderful opportunity to study with Mr. Shanti in piano and Miss Robyne in theory, and others whose names escape me now. The concluding number was a duo piano rendition of the Tchaikovsky B Flat Minor Concerto # 1, First Movement. Marcella must have had such conflicting emotions sitting and listening. There was the culmination of the years of discipline SHE had to exhibit, the years of work that Sara Evelyn had invested, and the rewards were there as well. And she was also torn because her baby boy was making the speech of his life in Jackson, winning first place in the contest.
Sara Evelyn was totally surprised and when the two girls were on their way to Chicago the next day,
she completely overlooked the strings attached to the scholarship: she must teach piano in Mississippi for a year, beginning in the coming fall. This brief foray into the real world of music was magical. Mr. Shanti worked her to death and she loved it. In fact, of all the students at the Conservatory that summer, she was chosen to be the one to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And this time the Tchaikovsky Concerto was performed with the correct interpretation, the correct phrasing, all that Sara Evelyn had instinctively known was wrong when she played it at the �W�. She also played for Paderewski (pronounced Pah-dref-ski, accent on the second syllable), the premier concert pianist of his time. He was touring the United States in 1926, giving concerts for the benefit of the victims of World War I. He had briefly served as Prime Minister of Poland in 1919, but his temperament was unsuited to politics: he was was too autocratic and flamboyant to deal with all that goes into running a government, especially one which had not been free since Catherine the Great! At any rate, his judgement of Sara Evelyn: work hard and if you are very lucky, you can make it in the big time. She decided that her real strength lay in accompanying, so she wrote her mother that she was considering a fall schedule of touring with a tenor. Imagine her shock when the reply reminded her of the commitment of teaching in Mississippi for a year. With dismay, she returned home and secured a job in Cary for the school year 1926-27. Newt Baggett was farming four miles up the road at Egremont, having injured his shoulder after several years of pitching for a baseball team in California.
Edward went to the University of Mississippi in the fall of 1926. Sara Evelyn had been given the very best education Mr. Ed could afford and now it was Edward�s turn. He was in the band and the flee club. But despite the best intentions of his parents, the money was not available for him to continue his
education. The economic climate was terrible in the state, for the rain the year he attended Ole Miss was incessant and culminated in the worst flood ever experienced along the Mississippi. The levee broke at Scott, Mississippi, on April 21, 1927. Edward was traveling with the Ole Miss Glee Club, singing in Greenville on the night of the 20th. He was on the last train out of the Delta for four months. Within twenty-four hours, the break in the levee was at least a mile wide and the water in Greenville was twenty five feet deep. I once asked my parents what they thought of Lindburgh�s flying the Atlantic in May of 1927 and they replied �not a thing, for the levee had broken only three weeks before�. They were also planning their wedding, which took place in Memphis, Tennessee, on June 7, 1927. Newt worked for the Red Cross during the emergency and decided that farming was too precarious.
Edward decided to stay out of school for a year to earn enough money for another year at Ole Miss.
He worked for E. P. Burrous as a cotton buyer. E. P. had started Claude Joiner in the same business some years earlier. But this was a time when the farmers in the South were having to sell their cotton for about 5 cents a pound; the farming industry was in a great depression at least ten years before the rest of the country. E. P. advised Edward to wait another year before returning to school. When the Stock Market crashed in 1929, Ed�s dream of a college degree crashed as well. Of Mr. Ed�s four children, only two got degrees: Claude and Sara Evelyn. Claude felt it would be his responsibility to look after his parents in their declining years. Sara Evelyn used hers to educate each community in which she lived, both individually and collectively, in secular and sacred music. I wonder how many students she taught over those 55 years and how many church attendees were affected by her beautiful organ music.
When Edward and Helen Frances married in 1934, Sara Evelyn�s daughter, Marcella, age 6, was a
flower girl in the wedding. She told how very carefully she spread the rose petals in the aisle just before the entry of the bride. Without seeing the wedding write-up, I can not be sure that Sara Evelyn played for the wedding. But if she did not, I feel sure that she was intimately involved in the planning of the music, for Edward thought she was the very latest word in that field. And Helen Frances was about the smartest young bride, according to Sara Evelyn. It would have been very natural for Helen Frances to have resented Edward's formidable mother and accomplished sister, both of whom Ed adored. But Helen Frances not only accepted this fact of life, she actively encouraged the relationships. She could not have been more thoughtful of Ed's mother if she had been a blood daughter and she dealt with Sara Evelyn on the same basis. And Edward loved her the more for it. She also broke his awful habit of leaving his clothes on the floor when he undressed. Each night, he found his clothes from the day before neatly folded on his pillow, unwashed and unpressed. He finally got the message and began putting his things where they belonged.
Their married life is a story I can not tell from lack of knowledge. However, after Pudney and Edwynne were born, they seemed to rock along as the rest of the young couples in the Delta were doing: lots of style but not much money. In 1938, Edwynne must have been a special baby to Marcella, for Mr. Ed died in June, sister Sophia died in July, and sister Lizzie died in October. Marcella, Edward and his family, and Granville and Margaret were in Rosedale for Christmas in 1938. On Christmas Eve, all were at Sara and Newt's home and Sara and Eddie, her pet name for him, were outside together. Mama said she had never seen a man weep in such grief as Eddie did that night for their father. In many ways, he was fortunate in not having to deal with the death of his beloved mother.
After World War II, Marcella Joiner traveled around to her four children's homes and fascinated the grandchildren with stories of the War Between the States (there was nothing Civil about it!). One of my favorites was about the Battle of Shiloh. I was at least 35 before I had sense enough to ask why she began that story with the phrase "and the women started cooking" as Albert Sidney Johnston's army moved north into middle Tennessee. WHY did the women start cooking? Well, she replied, there were no restaurants, no hospitals, no hotels to speak of, and the women knew that there were going to be plenty of hungry men, not to mention wounded men to be cared for. When Evalina Wilsford got word that her husband was wounded, she gathered up all the petticoats she could find and on the train going north, she tore and rolled bandages. She found Granville in Corinth and came back to West Point on a train loaded with thousands of wounded that could not be cared for in Corinth. There were wagons at crossroads and the train stopped periodically to disembark as many as the families could handle. In some places, only huge pots of food were left by the railroad. By the time the trains got to Meridian, all the wounded had been removed, and fed as well as possible.
One final story: as I went over all the material Marcella Joiner had saved over the years, I re-read the Daily Times Leader Centennial Issue from July 11, 1958, published several weeks before Ed's death. He and Sara had been in West Point and Ed rode with his mother in a convertible in the parade and had a grand time. The special issue of the paper had numerous articles that mentioned the contributions of various family members to West Point. And Marcella had much to do with the writing of the historical accounts of Clay County. Of particular interest was the article concerning the New Century Club, which was organized in 1900, with Marcella as one of the charter members. She served as secretary of the club when it adopted the formation of a Carnegie Library as its project. She had the privilege of writing the very first letter to Mr. Carnegie concerning the project. On a personal note, on page 70 of that special edition, there was a report of the Baby Show of 1909, again sponsored by the Horseshoe Robinson chapter of the DAR. Edward must have been entered in the 1-6 months category, which was won by Kathleen Fox and Elizabeth Chandler 2nd. In the margin, 49 years after the event, Marcella wrote, "Edward wasn't considered the prettiest...but he was."
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