Juanita Franklin at the Mary Ann Sweet Shop in Mexico, Missouri. 1930s.
Today would have been my Grandmother Nita's 100th birthday! She was only nine and half years shy of the centennial mark when she passed away in 2003. It's hard for me to believe that she's been gone that many years. I don't want to blubber all over the blog here, but today has been up and down for me. My original goal was to write up a nice post to let everyone know how amazing a woman she was. I'm not sure why, but I'm having a difficult time putting it together. My emotions keep getting the better of me. So instead, I'm just going to show off a few of her crafts. She could pretty much make anything as long as she had a needle and some thread. Below is a small sampling of her handy work and all of these items were made when she was in her late 70s to 80s.
Apple Head Doll (A true Ozark tradition!)
She made these 1950s style teenager birds after one of my drawings.
In the late 1980s and early 90s she made colonies of bunnies and sold them to local craft shops. She made the girl bunny for the first lady of Neato Coolville and the baseball bunny was for me!
She made this Christmas lamb for us. He's always a welcomed site when we dig out the Christmas decorations.
Ribbit! This silly frog always makes me laugh!
I guess that's it for now and maybe I'll share more of her creations in the future. Sorry for the irregular blog post, but I just could not let this special day pass without recognizing the importance of it. If it wasn't for her spirit of creativity and her encouragement to collect, there would not be a Neato Coolville. Happy 100th Birthday, Grandmother Nita!
What a sweet post and some cool home-made toys too! Happy Birthday Nita!
ReplyDeleteWhat a pretty young lady! A lovely post and I absolutely love those bird teenagers! A talented lady. You were lucky to have such a special grandmother.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice comments. I really appreciate them!
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