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A brief biography Ethelena Freeze was born April 2, 1909 in Tate County, Mississippi to Daniel Franklin Freeze and Sallie Moina Shanahan. She was the third of seven children, but the first of Daniel and Sallie's children to be born in Mississippi. Although both her parents were born and raised in Mississippi, prior to her birth, her parents had lived for a short while in Texas where her older sister, Jewel Marguerite, and her older brother Johnny Carl were born. Ethelena's somewhat unusual name was given to her by her mother, Sallie, who named her in honor of Lena Estelle Shanahan. Later in her adult years, she changed the "a" to an "e" at the end of the name and became "Ethelene" but to her brothers and sisters she was always known as "Sis". Even as an adult her siblings continued to refer to her as "Sis" and therefore her many nieces and nephews learned to call her "Aunt Sis", but to me and the rest of her grandchildren, she has always simply been "Nanny". It is very interesting that she was called "Sis" for although this seems a pretty common designation for a sister, it is actually a tradition which was carried on (unconsciously or otherwise) that goes back to her maternal grandmother, Sallie Margaret Potter. Life for Ethelena must have been happy growing up as she did in the midst of a loving family with her many brothers and sisters as her closest companions, but it must also have been filled with hard work for she was born a farmer's daughter in an age that got along without electricity and modern conveniences. Her father's main cash crop was cotton; but on the family farm they also raised vegetables of all kinds, butter, eggs and corn. The corn was ground at a local gristmill to provide the family with meal for their own use. Ethelena, along with her brothers and sisters helped gather and shell butterbeans and peas, churned the milk to make cream for butter and gathered the eggs. They also made molasses from sorghum cane which was cut and carried by wagon to the mill at Henry Coleman's place. They used oil lamps and coal and wood for heating and cooking. Laundry was done in a tub with a washboard with lye soap which was made by hand. Beside helping with the everyday tasks on the farm, Ethelena was also taught the finer arts that fell within a woman's realm. She was an accomplished needlewoman, well versed in knitting, crocheting, embroidering, and tatting. And although I can't say for sure, I believe that she was taught these "arts" by her mother Sallie Moina, who had been instructed by her own mother, Sallie Margaret Potter. Ethelena honored this tradition by passing it on to her own daughters, who in turn have passed them on to the next generation. Sometime before Ethelena reached her 20th birthday, she left Coldwater to go to Memphis to work and stayed at a boarding house located in Highland Heights on Summer Avenue which was owned and run by her Uncle Griff Freeze. Now, to this same boarding house came Clyde Nolen Billings. He was staying there while attending Southwestern College in Memphis and the reason he came to this particular boarding house was that it was owned and run by his Aunt Carrie Billings who had married Ethelena's Uncle Griff Freeze. It was at this boarding house that Ethelena and Clyde met, fell in love and decided to get married. They were married on 25 May 1929 in Hernando, Mississippi by the Rev. W. T. Glenn whom according to Jimmy Freeze may actually be a "cousin" of some sort to the Freeze family. Ethelena Freeze and Clyde Nolen Billings, Sr. had the following children:
Clyde Nolen Billings, Jr. (b. 10 Jul 1930) Sometime around the end of the second World War (1945/47) Ethelene helped her husband run a gas station located at the corner of Walker and Bellevue. Due to the shortage of working age men, women learned many new tasks and faced many new challenges during this time. Her daughter, Ann recalls accompanying her mother to the station in the afternoons after school. Ann says that her mother carried a pistol with her to guard against being robbed; and that she drove the family's automobile to the station. While many women continued in the roles they played during the war, Ethelene never did "tote a gun" or drive an automobile after the war. The family home for many years was located at 1315 South Bellevue Boulevard and I remember visiting and playing there as a child. I remember wooden floors and high ceilings and the fact that it always seemed to be pleasantly cool even in the deep summer. It had a large front porch and a fireplace that made a great place to hide when playing hide and seek. Located directly across the street from Bellevue Park it was a pleasant place for the children and in the summer you could relax and watch baseball games from the porch. All of Ethelene's children where raised in this house and it was not until all her children were grown that she and Clyde bought a new home in Parkway Village. I remember this house very well and the beautiful garden Nanny always kept there. She truly had a "green thumb" growing beautiful roses and beans which she trained up on the clothesline. I was always fascinated by Nanny's sewing room, for she continued to sew professionally for quite some time, her specialty the making of custom order drapes. The sewing room was always full of huge bolts of cloth and sometimes the floor would be literally covered with thread ends. I remember her fondly as being the designated "tooth puller" of the family. Whenever a grandchild had a loose tooth that they were afraid of having pulled, she would calmly assure us that her "special red thread" would do the trick and that it wouldn't hurt a bit. She'd then proceed to tie the thread around the tooth and attach it to the bathroom doorknob. Slam! went the door and "voila" the tooth was out! And she was right....it never hurt even a little bit! We trusted her implicitly and our faith in her was never disappointed. As a child I remember her as seeming very tall and although this perception was likely due to my being small, she may have also seemed very tall to me because she always had such terrific posture. She had beautiful dark hair with a widow's peak and a lovely long neck. She always held herself very erect and I always thought when I looked at her, now there's a woman with "backbone"! She always gave the impression of being so capable; as a child (and even as an adult) I always believed she was a woman who could do anything she set her mind or hand to. Everything she did, she did calmly and deliberately; she had a quiet sort of dignity about her that others were always quick to perceive. She was always busy though never "rushed" and never seemed to waste a single second of a single day. Her hands were never idle, for whenever she sat, out would come the knitting or crocheting and as she conversed her hands always flew; her eyes never needing to consult with whatever work was in hand. She made many beautiful things and passed on quite a few crocheted and knitted afghans, one of which I am proud to say I still sleep under almost every night. To me this afghan represents everything my grandmother was; artistic, for it is a thing of beauty; practical, for it holds the cold Pennsylvania nights at bay and strong, for it has lasted many a year and with luck will one day warm the children of my children.
Notes:
Born 09 Apr 1880 in Tate Co, Near Coldwater, MS to John W. Freeze and Virginia Ophelia Phillips. |
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