She is the widow of the last surviving soldier of the Civil War. Allan Gurganus` ''Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All'' is an enticing prospect of a novel. Helen Viola Jackson is shown this April 2017 photo. She was 97. Before Jackson shared her history, Maudie Hopkins was believed to be the last known surviving widow of a Civil War soldier. Keep up-to-date on: © 2021 Smithsonian Magazine. Jackson, who was an active member of her local historical society, the state cherry blossom festival planning committee and a gardening club, among other organizations, only revealed her marriage in 2017, when she began planning the details of her funeral, according to Our America magazine. Alberta Martin Alberta Martin (née Stewart; December 4, 1906 – May 31, 2004) was once believed to be the last living widow of a Confederate soldier. He was 89. The last reported widow of a Civil War veteran to die was Maudie Perkins, who married Confederate soldier William Cantrell, The Associated Press reported. The last two veterans of the Civil War died in the 1950s at more than 100 years old, according to U.S. News. The last Civil War widow died in 2008 at the age of 93. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All Summary. or Martin joined the Confederate army in May 1864. She was a 2018 honoree on the Missouri Walk of Fame. She was estimated to have been 97 to 105 years old. In 1927, she married the 81-year-old war veteran of the Confederate army, William Martin, when she was 21. She was the daughter of John W. and Mattie Stewart. ©2021 Verizon Media. Allan Gurganus’s Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All became an instant classic upon its publication. She is the widow of the last surviving soldier of the Civil War. There are no critic reviews yet for Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. The late Alberta Martin . “It was during the Depression and times were hard. Maudie Hopkins, who was the last publicly documented widow of a Confederate soldier, having married an elderly Civil War infantryman when she … The last surviving Civil War veteran died in 1956 at the age of 109, according to the VA. Critics and readers alike fell in love with the voice of ninety-nine-year-old Lucy Marsden, one of the most entertaining and loquacious heoines in American literature. Jackson never applied for the pension or remarried. On a late autumn day, near a little town called Franklin, 10,000 men will soon lie dead or dying in a battle that will change many lives for ever. This is her story of slavery, the Civil War, family, sharecropping, and the South. Looking to buy a car? Knopf, 718 pages, $21.95. Pensions were provided for Confederate veterans who were residents of North Carolina and who had lost a leg, eye, or arm, or who were incapacitated for manual labor while in the service of the Confederate States during the Civil War. The Last Confederate Widow Lyrics If I give you the key, but the secret is ugly Won’t you stand beside me, won’t you sing up above me The house down the street, well, the kids … Last Confederate Widow Laid to Rest. The person thought to be the last-known Confederate widow, Alberta Martin, was born Dec, 4, 1906, and died at age 97 in Alabama on May 31, 2004. Martin's horse-drawn casket . She married Confederate veteran William Cantrell when she was 19 and he was 86. Vote Now! Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's assistant digital editor, humanities. She was 91. She still receives her husband's pension, which in 1979 was increased to $2,600 a year by the state legislature. Get the best of Smithsonian magazine by email. Jackson was believed to be the last surviving widow of a Civil War soldier when she died Dec. 16, 2020 in Marshfield, Mo. Last Known Widow Of Civil War Veteran Dies At 101. Bolin did not want to accept charity and after a period of time, asked her to marry him in order to provide for her future, according to the statement. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is a 1989 first novel by Allan Gurganus which was on the New York Times Best Seller list for eight months. 54. Alberta Martin, the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died on Memorial Day, ending an unlikely ascent from sharecropper’s daughter to the belle of 21st century Confederate … Widows of soldiers who were killed in service were entitled to the same benefits as long as they did not remarry. She was 101. Upon her husband's death, she married his grandson from his first marriage. Alberta Martin Alberta Martin (née Stewart; December 4, 1906 – May 31, 2004) was once believed to be the last living widow of a Confederate soldier. June 1, 2004 at 2:14 AM CDT - Updated June 28 at 1:12 AM . At the time of her death, she was the oldest publicly known Civil War widow, although others were believed to be alive but unidentified. She was 93. Jackson’s father had volunteered her to stop by Bolin’s house each day to help with chores on her way home from school. In 1927, she married the 81-year-old war veteran of the Confederate army, William Martin, when she was 21. Alberta Martin passed away aged 97 at a nursing home in Alabama on 31 May after suffering a heart attack. The last known widow of a Civil War soldier has died at the age of 101, ending a remarkable life story that she had kept to herself for over 80 years. Not immediately clear is why the civil war widow declined to collect on her soldier husband’s pension. Helen Viola Jackson, the last known widow of a Civil War soldier, has died at 101. They had a small ceremony in front of a few witnesses at Bolin’s home in Niangua, Missouri. “How do you explain that you have married someone with such a difference in age,” she reportedly said at the 2018 Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival. Memorial for Maudie Acklin Cantrell Hopkins, Last Confederate Widow at Fold3.com - The last Confederate widow is still alive, as of 4 Sep 2007! Nena Moseley-Feagle, 91, the last Confederate widow receiving a pension from the state, has died of a heart ailment, her doctor said. Daisy Wilson Cave, the last known Confederate widow of the Civil War, died Saturday at a nursing home here. All rights reserved. “He said that he would leave me his Union pension,” Jackson recalled in an interview with historian Hamilton C. Clark, per the festival’s statement. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, by Allen Gurganus, is the story of Lucy Marsden. Cookie Policy … Last Confederate Widow Laid to Rest. Jackson was believed to be the last surviving widow of a Civil War soldier when she died Dec. 16, 2020 in Marshfield, Mo. Critics and readers alike fell in love with the voice of ninety-nine-year-old Confederate widow Lucy Marsden, one of the most entertaining and loquacious heroines in American literature. Lucy married at the turn of the last century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. As Jackson, who died on December 16 at age 101, later pointed out, she kept her last name, continued to live on her family’s farm and shared few details of the nuptials outside of her immediate circle. Martin joined the Confederate army in May 1864. Gertrude Janeway, who was the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died in 2003 at age 93. The Last Confederate Widow Lyrics If I give you the key, but the secret is ugly Won’t you stand beside me, won’t you sing up above me The house down the street, well, the kids are so lovely This has been contradicted by Maudie Hopkins but Martin appears to have been the last widow whose marriage to a Confederate soldier produced offspring. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! The last surviving widow of a US Civil War veteran has died - nearly 140 years after the conflict ended. Speaking with Clark, Jackson said that one of Bolin’s daughters threatened to ruin her reputation if she went through with the pension application. Unwilling to accept charity, Bolin, a widower who’d served in the U.S. Army’s 14th Missouri Cavalry, proposed a marriage of convenience with an unexpected result: At the time of his bride’s death last month, she was the last documented surviving widow of a Civil War veteran. When Missouri teenager Helen Viola Jackson agreed to marry her much-older neighbor, 93-year-old James Bolin, in September 1936, she did so on her own terms. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, by Allen Gurganus, is the story of Lucy Marsden. She never remarried or had children and, in an ironic twist of fate, declined to apply for the pension that had precipitated the marriage in the first place. Allan Gurganus's Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All became an instant classic upon its publication. Smithsonian Institution. Allan Gurganus` ''Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All'' is an enticing prospect of a novel. The late Alberta Martin . Keep checking Rotten Tomatoes for updates! With Diane Lane, Donald Sutherland, Amber Brooke, Cicely Tyson. “All a woman had in 1939 was her reputation,” she explained. In 1936, when Jackson was 17 years old, she married James Bolin, a 93-year-old widower who served in the 14th Missouri Cavalry during the Civil War. Following her husband’s death in June 1939, Jackson kept their marriage a secret for decades. She died in 2008. Prior to Jackson’s disclosure, Maudie White Hopkins, who wed Confederate veteran William M. Cantrell in 1934, when she was 19 and he was 86, was thought to … Maudie Cecilia Hopkins of Lexa, Ark., one of the last known Confederate widows, died Sunday at the Helena Medical Center in Helena, Ark. Knopf, 718 pages, $21.95. The union wasn’t exactly a love match, though Jackson did say she had “great respect” for her husband, who “really cared for me [and] wanted me to have a future.” According to a statement from the Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival, which Jackson helped launch in the mid 2000s, the then-17-year-old’s father had volunteered his daughter’s help with Bolin’s household chores. 17th Annual Photo Contest Finalists Announced. As Peggy Harris reported for the Associated Press following Hopkins’ death in 2008 at age 93, other Confederate widows were alive at the time but did not want to be publicly named. John le Carré, a British author who drew on his experiences as a Cold War-era spy to write novels about a bleak, morally compromised world, died Dec. 12, 2020. Lucy married at the turn of the last century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. She died in 2008. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is a 1989 first novel by Allan Gurganus which was on the New York Times Best Seller list for eight months. Bolin told his wife the marriage would be on her terms, and she continued to live on her family’s farm and retained her surname, the statement said. Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival via Facebook, Caligula's Gardens, Long Hidden Beneath Italian Apartment Building, to Go on View, 2,000-Year-Old Grave of Child and Puppy Found in France, The 'Last' Female Swinhoe's Softshell Turtle Died in 2019. Memorial for Maudie Acklin Cantrell Hopkins, Last Confederate Widow at Fold3.com - The last Confederate widow is still alive, as of 4 Sep 2007! Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (TV Mini-Series 1994) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. She was 101. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Advertising Notice Bolin died on June 18, 1939, less than three years after the two wed. https://t.co/aq42JKTL8y pic.twitter.com/FmRwQG3DXN. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. Maudie White Hopkins (née Maudie Cecelia Acklin; December 7, 1914 – August 17, 2008) is believed to have been the oldest surviving widow of a Confederate soldier. Terms of Use This week, in the aftermath of far-right extremists’ storming of the United States Capitol, some with Confederate flags in hand, Jackson’s passing underscores just how recent the Civil War and other seemingly distant events really were. None will be more changed than Carrie McGavock, who finds her home taken over by the Confederate army and turned into a … The book opens with the death of her husband, Captain Marsden. Alberta Martin, America’s last-known living widow of a Civil War veteran, died Monday. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1994) TMDb Score. Alberta Martin, a sharecropper's daughter who as the last widow of a Civil War veteran became a celebrated final link to the Confederacy, died Monday at … In 1927, at age 21, she married William Jasper Martin, then 81. Maudie Hopkins, who was the last publicly documented widow of a Confederate soldier, having married an elderly Civil War infantryman when she was a teenager, has died. This is her story of slavery, the Civil War, family, sharecropping, and the South. “He said that he would leave me his Union pension,” Jackson told the historian Hamilton C. Clark in an interview. Tombstone linked to infamous raid found and donated by Kansas family. Helen Viola Jackson is shown this April 2017 photo. The last Confederate widow was Alberta Stewart Martin. “I had great respect for Mr. Bolin and I did not want him to be hurt by the scorn of wagging tongues.”. California Do Not Sell My Info It won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and sold over four million copies. This has been contradicted by Maudie Hopkins but Martin appears to have been the last widow whose marriage to a Confederate soldier produced offspring. Alberta Martin (née Stewart; December 4, 1906 – May 31, 2004) was once believed to be the last living widow of a Confederate soldier; she does appear to have been the last widow whose marriage to a Civil War soldier produced offspring. “It reminds you of the battle over slavery and its legitimacy in the United States.”. It’s a reminder in line with the deaths last year of Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., grandson of tenth president John Tyler, who left office in 1845, and Irene Triplett, the last person to receive a Civil War pension. She was 101. Pensions were provided for Confederate veterans who were residents of North Carolina and who had lost a leg, eye, or arm, or who were incapacitated for manual labor while in the service of the Confederate States during the Civil War. Continue Her father, Mose, had served as a private in the Confederate Army before deserting and shifting his allegiances to the United States. … Gertrude Janeway, who was the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died in 2003 at age 93. If Colonel William Marsden was a veteran of the "War for Southern Independence", Lucy became a "veteran of the veteran" with a unique perspective on Southern history and Southern manhood. Part of HuffPost News. Keep checking Rotten Tomatoes for updates! The last person to receive a Civil War-era pension died in North Carolina last week, according to reports. In 1927, at age 21, she married William Jasper Martin, then 81. She was 91. She married Confederate veteran William Cantrell when she was 19 and he was 86. Privacy Statement Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter. Prior to Jackson’s disclosure, Maudie White Hopkins, who wed Confederate veteran William M. Cantrell in 1934, when she was 19 and he was 86, was thought to be the last confirmed Civil War widow. There are no critic reviews yet for Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Jackson was believed to be the last surviving widow of a Civil War soldier when she died Dec. 16, 2020 in Marshfield, Mo. She had been private about her story until 2017, when she shared details while working on the details of her funeral with her minister, according to the Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival. The 'sex and violence' is in the form of recollecting the past--a Civil War--a 15-year-old bride--a terrible hunting accident-- so it's not shocking at all, but very honest and earthy. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (TV Mini-Series 1994) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. The main character, the oldest living confederate widow, tells many tales to a young reporter with humor, intelligence, and compassion. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War issued a statement on Jan. 2 ordering 30 days of remembrance. Nena Moseley-Feagle, 91, the last Confederate widow receiving a pension from the state, has died of a heart ailment, her doctor said. “Just like the Confederate monuments issue, which is blowing up right now, I think [Triplett’s death] is a reminder of the long reach of slavery, secession and the Civil War,” Stephanie McCurry, a historian at Columbia University, told the Washington Post’s Ian Shapira last June. Before Jackson shared her history, Maudie Hopkins was believed to be the last known surviving widow of a Civil War soldier. She was estimated to have been 97 to 105 years old. Jackson was almost certainly the last remaining widow of a Civil War soldier when she died Dec. 16 at a nursing home in Marshfield, Missouri. He said that it might be my only way of leaving the farm.”. “I didn’t want them all to think that I was a young woman who had married an old man to take advantage of him.”, For those wondering about Bolin’s military service...here are the key details. Daisy Wilson Cave, the last known Confederate widow of the Civil War, died Saturday at a nursing home here. About Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Before Jackson shared her history, Maudie Hopkins was believed to be the last known surviving widow of a Civil War soldier. Today is National Voter Registration Day! … Daisy Cave is the only one left, the last known living Confederate widow. The last Confederate widow, Maudie Hopkins, died in 2008 at age 93, while the last Union widow, Gertrude Janeway, died in 2003 at age 93. The last person to receive a Civil War-era pension died in North Carolina … Give a Gift. Alberta was born in 1907, in Coffee County, Georgia. Upon her husband's death, she married his grandson from his first marriage. “It was during the [Great] Depression and times were hard. Bolin, a Missouri farmer who’d enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 18, according to records posted on Twitter by historian Adam H. Domby, also recorded the ceremony in his personal Bible, which now features in a traveling exhibition on Jackson. Jackson was a prominent figure in her local community, serving as a charter member of the Elkland Independent Methodist Church and Cherry Blossom Festival Auxiliary, a member of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, and numerous other groups, according to the Cherry Blossom Festival site. About 1925 she met Harold Farrow, a cab driver, who was killed shortly afterwards. Alberta Martin passed away aged 97 at a nursing home in Alabama on 31 May after suffering a heart attack. Alberta Martin, the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died on Memorial Day, ending an unlikely ascent from sharecropper’s daughter to the belle of … Martin's horse-drawn casket . The movie, adapted from Allan Gurganus' 1989 book of the same name, chronicles the life of Lucy Marsden, a ninety-nine-year-old North Carolina woman who, at the age of fourteen, married a fifty-year-old Confederate veteran of the Civil War and bore nine children (reduced to six for television). Critics and readers alike fell in love with the voice of ninety-nine-year-old Confederate widow Lucy Marsden, one of the most entertaining and loquacious heroines in American literature. Matt Crossick - PA Images via Getty Images. She married Confederate veteran William Cantrell when she … The last surviving widow of a US Civil War veteran has died - nearly 140 years after the conflict ended. 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