My paternal grandparents, Caleb Daniel (1876-1932) and Della Summer Hufstetler (1876-1936), died when I was a child. I've always considered it an honor that my grandmother Hufstetler was part Cherokee. My maternal grandmother, Rhoda Pendley, and her mother, my great-grandmother Hale, both died at 96 years of age from accidents.
Intriguing stories about the conditions under which my grandparents lived abounded within our family. One of my favorites was hearing how Great-Grandmother Hale had to carry torches to the barn to ward off panthers while she milked the cows.
My parents were Arthur Sherman and Simmie Myrtle Pendley Hufstetler. Both my father and my mother came from families of eleven children. My parents had six children in all.
The first child, Beatrice, was born in 1916 but died in infancy. Helen, the eldest who lived, was born in 1918 and died of cancer in 1965, after teaching 20 years at Bob Jones Academy in Greenville, SC . Hollis, the third child, was born in 1919. Dorothy was born in 1921 and died in 1993. I was born November 8, 1924, in Cartersville, Georgia . The last child, Ralph, was born in 1926 but lived only one day.
CAH
