BEATRICE ROBERTSON

The following bio was taken from page 367 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

 Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

 Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

 I was born in Rusk County on the Buckner Farm at Pine Hill.  My father was Andrew Madkins; my mother was Eva Martin Madkins.  I had six brothers and two sisters.  Two brothers and one sister have died.  My father passed away May 5, 1965, and my mother passed away May 21, 1969.  I have lived in Kansas City, Amarillo and Dallas.

 I came home to stay with my mother after my daddy passed.  I have one son, Travis, who live in Dallas.  My oldest brother and my baby brother were ministers.

 My daddy carried me to Sunday school and started me to teaching Sunday school class before I could read real good.  We would go to church in a wagon before cars became plentiful.  My grandmother, Pauline Martin, would make us sit around the pulpit during revival.  I have been an usher for forty years and I love it.  I am the president of the Usher Board at my home church.

 When I was a child, all four of us had the typhoid fever at one time.  Mama said we would sing a song.  D.C. said, “Kill the taste, and I want some salmon.”  I slipped on the steps and broke my arm when my brothers were hauling wood.

 My father was a farmer all his life.  I went to school and I had one teacher who was a good one.  She was Madeline Madkins, my sister-in-law.  We also played baseball and basketball in school.

 All the children came home and brought their children for Mother and Daddy’s sixty-fifth anniversary.  We served cake and punch for the party, but everyone brought something to eat.  I cooked a cake for Daddy’s birthday and he would not let us cut it.  He kept it awhile.  I met my in-laws and I never did call them anything.  I would just talk to them.

 When I was able to work, I was a maid.  My daddy would drive a wagon from Pine Hill to Henderson, and it would be night a lot of times.  He was hauling freight to the stores at Pine Hill in order to take care of us. He was a good provider.

 There were five generations of us living when Mother and Daddy were alive, and now there are four living.  I am the baby, and I was born August 27, 1919, and I thank god I have lived to get this old.  I have twelve grandchildren, and I am taking care of my brother who had a heart attack.

 Submitted by Beatrice Robertson