Julia Ann Vineyard

A TRIBUTE TO MOTHER

(By T. E. Vineyard.)

My Mother, Julia Ann Vineyard, was born Jan. 14th, 1848, in Russell County, Virginia; died October 1?th, 1919, at the age of seventy-one years, nine months and two days. She was
the daughter of Cullen and Sallie (Sergent) Combs. Her Father died in Virginia, in 1868, and the same year she moved to this country with the remainder of her family. Her mother died in this county more than forty years ago. Mother was married to my Father, Presley Vineyard, on December 23, 1869, and had she lived until December 23, of this year, they would have been married fifty years.

Mother was of Baptist faith and had been a member of that church for at the age of fourteen and lived in the faith until the end. Mother believed that honesty and truthfulness are virtues which are an inheritance of those sturdy Virginia families. She also believed that we should be neighbors and friends to our fellow travelers through these low grounds of sorrow, and that we should lend a helping hand and give words of kindness and good cheer; for we pass this way but once.

I was very much attached to my Mother and loved and honored her; and, as I have grown older and have grappled with the real things of life and have dealt with the problems of this world at arms length, yet my happiest moments are when I recall my childhood days and experience under the care and guidance of my Mother. I am now especially pleased with the fact that I did her the honor of writing her a letter each Sunday for more than seven years. I am pleased that I had the privilege of being at her bedside in her last sickness and with her when she peacefully and gently separated from her tenement of clay, since such separation had to be. I am especially pleased on account of the large circle of friends who visited her and ministered to her in her last sickness and expressed their last tribute of respect to her memory by being present at her funeral and burial, for the able and ernest prayer made by Rev. J. Herbert Smith, who is a special friend of the family, for the scripture reading by Rev. Burns from the fifteenth chapter of Paul's first letter to the Church at Corinth, and for his able and touching remarks.

These acts of kindness and tributes of respect to one who has lived and served among us for so many years are not in vain and will not be forgotten but will be rewarded and good
deeds done in the body.

The Times Record, Spencer, West Virginia, Thursday, 23 October 1919, page 1:7.
(Submitted by Pat Combs)