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June 1, 2004 After 144 years, the Civil War is finally over. The last surviving Civil War veteran spouse, Alberta Martin, 97, died Sunday. Witnesses said she could have been saved if only she hadn’t refused the services of the attending physician, an African-American Yankee. The last known living Union veteran widow, Gertrude Janeway, died last year at 93. She had married veteran John Janeway, 81, when she was 18 years old. At 21, she had married an 82-year-old Confederate Army veteran. When asked about the age difference, friends recall her explaining that it was no big deal. “He might have been 82,” they say she said, “but he looked 74.” As the two courted, she reportedly whispered sweet- nothings in his ear trumpet while he looked on, absently. “One look was all you needed to know [Martin] wore the pantaloons in that family,” said John Swainson, a longtime neighbor, referring to her elderly husband’s frequent wearing of bedshirts to accommodate doctors needing access to his handmade leather colostomy bag. Described as "pleasant," “ancient” and “slightly musty,” Martin found a place in the hearts of many. She was born Alberta Stewart to sharecroppers on Dec. 4, 1906, in Danley's Crossroads, a tiny settlement built around a sawmill 70 miles south of Montgomery. Her mother died when she was 11, and her widowed father eventually moved to Tallassee in central Alabama. At 18, she met a cabdriver named Howard Farrow, and they had a son, Harold, before Mr. Farrow died in a car accident in 1926. She, her father and her son soon moved to Opp to stay with relatives. Just up the road lived Pvt. Martin, a widower born in Macon County, Ga., in 1845. He enjoyed a $50-a-month Confederate veteran's pension and was looking to get remarried. She met the octogenarian Pvt. Martin as he strolled very slowly past her home one day. They had a few conversations over the fence rail and then he asked her father for permission to marry her. They were married in a civil ceremony at the courthouse in Andalusia on Dec. 10, 1927, amid local gossips saying she had “jungle fever.” Ten months later, the chronologically-mismatched couple had a son, William, who now lives in the family home in Elba, 75 miles south of Montgomery. Over the years, she became a symbol of Confederate veterans, traveling across the country to critique Civil War re-enactments and to pose for grave fittings. The Martins were married for nearly four years, until Pvt. Martin passed away July 8, 1931. Two months later, Mrs. Martin married Charlie Martin, her late husband's grandson from a previous marriage, suggesting to many that “she had to have it.” He died in 1983 and is buried at New Ebenezer Baptist Church, six miles west of Elba. Under arrangements made years in advance and paid for by Civil War groups, Mrs. Martin is to be interred at the church in an 1860s-style ceremony. Both the Confederate groups and Union groups plan to participate at Mrs. Martin's funeral. Funeral attendees are not expected to be sad, because they know this Southern Belle will rise again. ------------ About the author: Doug Hecox is an accomplished stand-up comedian whose work has appeared in everything from Reader's Digest to the Washington Monthly. His latest book, "Graze Expectations," is available widely. For more information, visit Doug at www.dougfun.com. Email: doug@dougfun.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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