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Note: Clara went to school in Carvers Bay-to the third grade. She lived and worked on a farm with her family. Her sister, Docia, told Clara the year before she died that if anything happened to her, she wanted her to marry Jim and take care of her
boys. Clara told her that she was crazy; that she wouldn't marry Jim Owens if he was the last man on earth. (But about a year later, she did).
Jim and Clara moved to Sumter in 1927. They lived in a house on Silver St., down at the end of Magnolia and around the corner. The house was set up high off the ground on pillars. We used to play in the dirt under the house. She worked for
many years as a seamstress at the Sumter Casket Co. in Sumter, S. C. She also sewed at home for family and friends. I remember spending many nights at my Grandmomma's (Clara) house. When we were in grammar school and lived in Columbia, Momma
would put my sister and I on the bus and send us to Sumter to spend the weekend with grandmomma. The bus driver would look out for us and grandmomma would meet us at the bus station in Sumter. She loved to play country music on her old record
player and sing with it(mostly Hank Williams, Sr.) She loved music and loved to sing. My sister Sallie and I would fight over who got to sleep next to her; she was so big and warm and we always slept in the bed with her when we stayed there.
She had chickens in the back yard, and we used to go out and watch her wring the chicken's neck to kill it and then pluck it to prepare it for dinner. She was a wonderful cook; I still remember her homemade soups and nutcakes. She used to take
us to church next door to her house (the holy rollers)-they scared us to death; but we loved the music and we never forgot it. She loved to grow things, and always had beautiful flowers around her house. She had a swing on her front porch and
we spent many hours there; swinging and singing and talking; rain or shine.
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