Remembrances of Frances Soper Wallace
Emma Irvine, in 1975, shared a few rememberances of her aunt Frances Soper Wallace:
Fanny [Soper] had saved her money and took a course in sewing and fitting in Enid. Then some family would contact and hire here to outfit the whole family. She would live-in with them
until all the wardrobes were completed, sometimes a month or more. She made each person a pattern. Someone had given her a doll family, carved of wood with bodies of stuffed sacking.
She dressed these dolls so very beautifully and these were used for advertising.
Once Fanny was coming home to her family on a chilly, windy day, riding a horse. She was all wrapped up and leaning, barely able to stay on her horse. Her father saw her and ran out, she
fell into his arms, telling him not to touch her or let anyone come near her. She knew she had smallpox and was sure she would die. Her father took her to the attic room to care for
her. He was the only person that came close to her. He bathed her and himself with kerosene. It was six weeks before she was able to come downstairs and months before she had any
strength. She had terrible deep pits all over her face, arms and body. No one else in the family took the smallpox from her.
from: Our Immigrant Sopr (Soper) Family and their Descendants, by Berniece Lebeda Brown, 1976.
Notes for Fannie Soper; compiled by Pamela Hutchison Garrett, 2013; for Family Stories at pamgarrett.com.
|