Martha Narcissus (Mattie) Blunt Josey Warner
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To the lower right, is a recently discovered picture of Granny when she was
younger, courtesy of our Aunt Lessie. Mattie was born in Doddridge, AR and she was the oldest of 11 There were many, many stories passed down over the years; i.e., my aunt said that she had burned her leg badly, and she went to see Granny. Granny looked at it and said "go on home, and it will be all right." And, it was all right in a very short time. My aunt said she would remember that incident the rest of her life, because it had been such a bad burn. Also, almost everyone brought their children to Granny when they had "thrush" and Granny would take them out into the chicken yard, and the next thing you knew, the thrush was cleared up. My mother, aunt, and many relatives told me those stories over the years.
This picture to the left is one that Aunt Lessie let me copy of Bobby and Don
with granny taken in Vivian, LA in 1943. I remember granny looking just like this too.
Granny had many medicine woman secrets that Aunt Lessie also told me about the fact that Granny had managed to buy an entire block of lots in Vivian and gave two lots to each of her four sons. She also had a lot for her house that we all remember so well. Here is the best that I can reconstruct from our conversation: The house to the right above was the second house that Granny lived in. She first lived in this house, and later rented it out and moved into the upper right house. That is where we spent so many marvelous times with Granny in that little two room house.
Buddy reminded me recently that when he was young, in the 1930's, mother was cutting his hair, and accidentally cut off a tip of his ear with the scissors. Buddy immediately ran to Granny's house down the street, because he felt as everyone did, that Granny could fix the situation, no matter what it was. Buddy and I also talked about how Granny always had a small can of Pet or Carnation Evaporated Milk that she could make last for ages and ages after she opened it. She would pour only a drop or two into her coffee, and then pour a little of the coffee into a saucer for us to drink. Buddy also reminded me of the well that Granny had next to her little house. Granny had dug and set up that well all by herself. It had a wooden bucket to pull the drinking water up in. Then, Granny later replaced the wooden bucket with a metal one and the water never tasted as good as it had from the wooden bucket. Buddy also reminded me of how he loved to go to Granny's cabinet and get some of her plum juice. I loved her blackberry preserves. She had quite an assortment of canned goods from her garden. Buddy also talked about Granny's HUGE feather bed that was so high that we had to use a step stool to get up on and then you would just sink down into the mattress and have to lean up to peek out of the center of the feather cloud that you found yourself in. Granny also read the bible to us by a kerosene lamp. She would tell us ghost stories when we went to bed and one that Buddy remembers was a true story about the Texarkana Phantom. Check out the following web site: The Phantom Killer Bo had this memory: "You may not recall, but granny had a lot of art
work about her house in Jack:
RODDIE AND MATTIE BLUNT JOSEY WERE DIVORCED IN 1916 Times were rough in those days, to say the least. She went to Dr. Ray's, the local dentist, and washed his patients' towels. She even had to take in laundry (washing and ironing) to support her four sons. Click here to see a quick story about how they had to do laundry in the old days which mentions Arkansas, where Granny grew up and lived most of her life. Aunt Lessie tells me that the boy's mother had to go around to the houses to do their laundry, and the boys would all stand around the wash pot to keep warm from the fire. In those days, the early 1900's, they had to wash clothes by hand on a rub board or a wash board, (there were no washing machines) and then doing the ironing with an iron cast iron that they had to heat on the wood stove to get it hot.
Vivian was a typical little town where everyone knew everyone. To the
left are some of the beautiful red buds in the spring that Vivian, LA is famous
for. Below is the train depot which is now a historical site. Buddy
and I have some fond memories of Vivian and Granny. If you can believe it, one of
those fondest memories was when Granny, my brother, Buddy, and I would walk to the
cemetery in Vivian, barefoot, and the sand was so hot in the summer in LA.
I clocked it some years ago, and it was exactly ten miles round trip.
There were no cars then in such a small town, for the most part. One
traveled almost everywhere by foot. We walked that distance, got to the
cemetery, picked up any trash, pulled weeds off of the graves, had a peanut
butter/jelly sandwich lunch and then walked back home. Granny canned anything and everything. Her fig trees and
grape vineyards were beyond your wildest imagination. She was quite self
sufficient, having a chicken farm, which provided meat and eggs, plus the block
long garden and fruit trees the likes of which I have never seen again anywhere.
Granny read the bible to us by her kerosene lamps at night. We always attended church on Sundays, with Granny carrying her
bible and her white handkerchief with a nickel tied in one corner for her
contribution to the collection plate. Here is a photo of the First Baptist
Church that we always attended. It has been replaced by a newer church,
but I was fortunate to get a copy of the original church from the current
minister when I stopped by in October, 2005. Granny died of ovarian cancer, when I
was only 16 and I miss her still so much even today. She left such great
heartwarming memories behind with me and many other family members. I have told
all of our grandchildren that Granny was a major influence in my life, a great
role model, and I always wanted to be the same kind of grandmother as she was.
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 See census page for more census records |
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 Aunt Lessie Josey said that Granny had asked her to please make sure that she had a headstone, and Aunt Lessie saw to it that she did get one. In recent years, Aunt Lessie said she did not realize at the time, but she wishes now that she had also added the name Josey on the stone. But, we are thankful that Aunt Lessie honored Granny's request, and we will have the Josey added on later. Aunt Lessie has been such a devoted visitor to the Mt. Gilead Cemetery to check periodically on so many of our family members who are buried there, where the church has just celebrated their 100th anniversary
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 Background music "Indian Love Call"
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This is
Granny's page, who was reported to be an Indian or half
Indian. Some relatives have said that both of her parents were Indian, others say that her mother may have been, and
still others say her dad was
Indian. We have not proven any of those links yet, but Granny looked one hundred
percent Indian. This picture to
the left was Granny in November 1949 when she was 68, just seven months before
she died at the age of 69. This picture depicts how we remember
Granny. 
children born
to John Wesley and Leila Arkansas (Arty) Davis Blunt, Jr. 
had been passed
down to her but she always said she could not tell anyone how she knew about
these "cures" and she took those secrets with her to the grave.
She healed or cured many a child in Vivian, LA. I heard too many people
talk about it over the years, so it had to be true. Some people thought she had
"witchcraft powers", but
most people said it was just old Indian
medicine that had been passed down. Buddy said he had always
heard that Granny could make fire appear in the middle of the table when she
read a certain scripture from the bible. Here is a picture to the upper right of
Granny's home in 1992 and again five years later below in 1997. The home is gone today.
