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48. Lillie Mae PRIER was
born on 2 Apr 1913 in Arkansas. She died on 14 Apr 1996 in Batesville, Arkansas.
Obituary Batesville Daily Guard
April 15, 1996
Lillie Mae Prier Engles
Lillie Mae Engles, 83, of Guion died Sunday in a local hospital.
She was the daughter of Will Prier and Rosie Fairfield Prier. She was a homemaker
and attended the Guion Baptist Church.
Survivors include a son, Billy Engles of Guion: three daughters, Armilda Cramer
of Onega, Kan., Mildred Aronald and Ida Mae Frazier, both of Guion; eleven grandchildren
and several great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Roy Engles, a brother and three sisters.
Graveside services will be 2 p.m. Wednesday at Campbell Cemetery with Leonard
Williams officiating. Arrangements will be under the direction of Batesville
Funeral Service.
Visitation will be 5-7 Tuesday evening. A Talk with Aunt Lillie
"What do you remember about Grandma Rosie?"
"Once Momma left William and I in town in Batesville all day. We hung around
Barnetts store just waiting, not knowing what to do. Finally they asked us what
we were doing there, I told them we were lost from our mother. They got the Police
and found Momma.
"Essie Fullbright was a friend of Momma's and lived around Batesville."
"We lived in Newport at a boarding house. Momma tried to work but she always
ended up getting fired for stealing or something. I remember she was working
at a hospital and brought home baskets of fruit".
"I know we were on a train when we met that Sam Defries. I don't know where
in the world we were going but he (Defries) lived in Rosie, Arkansas. He had
two kids and Momma had two kids. William sat in his lap and asked "are you
going to be my bald headed daddy?" We laughed about that a lot because they
were married in about two week in a log house by the depot in Batesville.
"We lived in a tent. This was at Williamson's Switch. Sam worked for Bill
Williamson at the time. He was away working one day, Momma was fixing William
and me some dinner and caught the tent on fire. Everything we had burned. We
moved to Batesville then. Everyone was really nice and good to us there. They
gave us clothes and everything. We lived in another tent in Evening Shade. It
was a round tent, it caught on fire too but everything didn't get burned up."
"I remember we lived at Newark or somewhere. Carrie was the oldest at least
after Momma married Defries. Carrie was courting Jess, little Jess Goodman. He
would come and we would go to the show, had to paddle across the river. We were
suppose to come straight home and not stop. I wasn't suppose to tell but they
stopped on the way back home. Sam really got mad at her and whipped her with
a razor strap."
Aunt Lillie was born April 2, 1913. She learned this from Ed Defries. She said,
"I already had my birth certificate fixed up showing May as my birthday,
missed it by a month. Miss Parrs helped me get my birth certificate."
"How long did you and Daddy live with Sam after Rosie left?"
"We didn't stay there at all. I didn't want to stay.
"I left the Poor Farm before William. Old Miss Parrs was trying to find
us places to live she ran ads in the paper and everything trying to get someone
to take us. The poor farm was there at Moorefield. They had old folks it wasn't
an orphanage.
"I lived with a lot of families. They'd get me and then decide they didn't
want me for some reason. I was at Locust Grove, Pleasant Grove, Evening Shade.
I'd stay about two or three weeks and they'd take me back. One woman said I lied
and got her husband to send me back. I had been out to gather the eggs. She had
a place to wash your feet before you came in the house. She asked me if I had
washed my feet, I had and told her. She said no you didn't and that I lied. She
told her husband I lied and he said well that's it and sent me back."
-- Charles Prier - June 1991