Minnie Lee Griffin, Grandmother,
1881, Lacey Springs, AL – 1963, Decatur, AL
As noted above, Minnie Lee (“Lee”) Griffin was born August 22, 1881. She lived in Lacey Springs with her family. On August 12, 1900, 10 days short of her 19th birthday, she married her father’s friend and neighbor, widower Hugh Welsh Rice. It is my understanding that she always called him Mr. Rice. The marriage was obviously arranged by her father.
This picture was taken @ 1907 and shows Hugh, Lee, Toney and Berta:
Hugh and Lee had a total of 8 children: Joseph Lester, Toney Laura, Berta Mae, Maude, Ruth, Mayme, Harry and Roy Lee. Joseph and Roy died in infancy and are buried in Bartee Cemetery in Morgan County. In late April of 1910, Hugh, Lee, Toney, Berta and Maude were living in the Richland Precinct of Limestone County at the intersection of Mooresville and Swancott Roads, in house #137. This was the same area where George W. and Laura were living. Son, Harry, was born in Swancott in 1915, Roy in 1918.
In January of 1920 Hugh, Lee and children (including Roy Lee who was about 1 ½) moved to a rental home on Browns Ferry Road in Greenbrier (House # 152).
Toney, Berta, Maude, Ruth and Mayme @1918:
Hugh was doing “general farming” in 1920. In September of that year, Roy Lee died. I remember our father, Harry, saying that he recalled his mother and father trying to warm Roy in front of the stove when he was ill. I can’t remember the cause of death. Could have been croup.
In 1930, Hugh was 75 and Lee is 49. He and Lee rented a home on Cain Street in Decatur for $35 per month.
Toney, Berta, Maude, Ruth, Mayme, and Harry lived there along with Hugh’s sister, Josie Rice Hughes, and three women “roomers”. Hugh claimed to be a mechanic at Cotton Compress, but he was not a salaried employee and was apparently counted in the U.S. Gov’t’s 1930 Unemployment Schedule.
The 1930 census also tells us that the family did not own a radio; they no longer lived on a farm; Hugh’s age at his first marriage was 22 and he could read and write. At the time of this census, our father (Harry W.) was 14 years old. Harry would live in the area until soon after his father’s death. Hugh died in February of 1934. He is buried in Bartee Cemetery near his two infant sons and his first wife, Mariah Wall.
In 1940, widowed Minnie Lee and daughter Berta were living with daughter Toney and her husband, Otis Raley, at their home, 310 McKinley Avenue in Montgomery, AL
In January 1945, son, Harry, was in the U.S. Army Air Corps and was stationed in Memphis, Tennessee. Lee went to visit Harry and mentioned it in her diary:
By 1952, Lee was back in Decatur, living on her own at Garden Court Apartments #2, 1020 Grant Street, S.E. in Decatur. It appears that she preferred Decatur over Montgomery.
Seven years later, in 1959, Lee’s daughter, Berta, was killed in a car accident. Berta was single at the time. Lee died from heart failure in April 1963 at the age of 73. She had lived a good life and left 5 children and 11 grandchildren behind.