Granny Lee- Pioneer and Possum

When I think of “Granny Lee” as most everyone in the neighborhood called her, my mind goes to a true pioneer woman; gardening, blue berries, hard work and possum for supper.  Even though she was no actual relation to me, while growing up, I visited her most every day, especially in the summer.  She had a hitching’ post for my horse and on occasion helped me wash him down.  Smokey, actually my brother Pat’s horse, was my prime mode of transportation from the age of 7 until my teen years when my parents bought me a used English racer.  

At Granny’s, my bike was parked in the same spot of where Smokey would stand. I enjoyed my bike but it was Smokey that I used the most, even as a teen.   Smokey had a “B-line” to Granny’s log cabin, which was to turn left on Crystal Springs and at a fast pace, ride through the crowded pine tree field near the blueberry patch she managed and kept. 

Idell Virginia Highsmith Lee was born in Waycross, Georgia on December 23, 1906.  According to Find a Grave, her father, James Carswell Highsmith married Minnie Slatery. Find a Grave has her having one sibling however, her grandson said there were two brothers, Benjamin and Hope and a sister Lillamay. Granny married Ezra Marmaduke Lee on April 19, 1923 at the age of 17 in Duval County, Florida. Her husband and brother are buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida.  Her parents are buried at Oaklawn Cemetery on San Jose Blvd.  Granny and Ezra had one son, James. He had as many as 6 children. Her property, far more than 18 acres was located on the west side of Duval County.  I remember James as a happy, jovial person who would gather with a ton of folks to play guitars out by Granny’s wooden home. I feel that I play guitar today because of my interest in their yard-jams back-in-the-day. James was quite an entertainer back then.

While I never met her husband, Ezra, I heard a great deal about him for her love for him was strong.  After 39 years of marriage he died on July 25th, 1962.  Together he and Idell established a nice homestead with a great many acres of land, so she was comfortable in her life going forward.  She also owned an “uptown house” on Marquett Avenue as her great granddaughter, Melissa Lynn called it, which has been her home for over 33 years.  She says that Granny preferred the country and loved that old log cabin opposed to an “uptown” house.   

When visiting Granny on her property, she always had a spring and fall garden.  She was a hard worker and had a “can do” attitude.  With grandchildren living next to her,  she spent a lot of her time caring for them as well.  One thing odd about her, was her taste and raised in the country in Georgia there should be no surprise.   There are times she would have possum in the refrigerator and I saw with my own eyes her skin one using boiling water and a knife. Now, that’s not a sight for the squeamish.  I never ate anything out of her refrigerator that I didn’t ask what it was.  ‘ Just sayin’.

Granny was a Christian and behaved like one.  As a young person, she talked to me about Jesus and for years attended Blair Road Baptist Church, now called Promise Land.  In her older years, when her car sat on blocks in the front yard, she rode their neighbourhood bus to and from church.  

Somewhere around 1990 as she was needing help getting around, she moved in with her eldest grandson Stephen Lee, Sr. and his wife, Linda in Lake City, Florida. When she died in August of 1996 she was buried next to her beloved Ezra at Evergreen Cemetery. I visited there last week and researched to see she had a December 23rd birthday which is not on her tomb stone.

If you ride by her old property on Crystal Springs Road in Jacksonville, Florida, there is now a subdivision with $300,00 homes sitting where the old log cabin once stood. There are many memories there for me. I will forever remember Granny Lee and look forward to meeting her again one day in glory.

See you tomorrow,

Nan

Sources: Missy Lynn, Stephen Lee, Sr., Find a Grave, Evergreen Cemetery