Lillian Edeine Fielden, high school graduation.
Lillian Edeine Fielden, my paternal grandmother, was born on November 25, 1918 in Clay County, IN to Frank and Zeda (Mattox) Fielden. In 1920, her mother died, and she went to live with her aunt and uncle, Lester and Iva (Mattox) Bemis. This was a common occurrence at that time; widowed husbands rarely cared for their infant children alone. They either remarried quickly or handed them off to another couple, usually within the family.
There were several other girl babies born into the Mattox family around the time Edeine was born that were close to her. Katherine Fielden was born to Arlie and June Fielden the same year Edeine was born, making Katherine her aunt. Her parents both died when she was young, and Katherine was raised by her older sister Pearl (Fielden) Mattox and her husband Curtis. Pearl and Curtis also had a daughter Ruth the same year as Katherine and Edeine. I’m not sure what happened to Katherine, but Edeine and Ruth remained close throughout their lives.
In high school Edeine played the violin and was a cheerleader. Since my grandfather Sam DeMoss was on the basketball team, it’s likely this is how they met. On April 23, 1937 they were married and lived on a farm in the Edwardsport area. The 1940 census has Uncle Lester living with him, but he’s listed as Sam’s divorced father-in-law. To the best of my knowledge, Lester and Iva were never divorced. According to my Aunt Sandy, Iva worked in Terre Haute as a nurse and would be gone for extended periods of time. She may have been gone at the time of the census collection that year. Why Lester was listed as Sam’s father-in-law could be due to a misunderstanding on the census taker’s part, or maybe because Lester was the closest thing to a father Edeine had at the time.
Edeine and Sam had seven children altogether…Billy Bryce, John, Tom, Richard, Sandy, Jim, and David. Unfortunately, Billy, Richard, and David all died at birth or as infants. A few years later, in 1955, Edeine found herself a widow with four children to support. She struggled, even with help from Sam’s mother Blanche and Lester and Iva.
Hoping to achieve some security for her family, Edeine married John R Heath in 1958. John R. was a widower from Sanborn with three kids of his own…Dixie, Stan, and Cindy. Dixie and Stan were about the age of John and Tom, but Cindy was only four or five at the time. Unfortunately, the marriage was a disaster from day one. Based on accounts from both Sandy and Cindy, John R. was a bitter man and didn’t treat anyone under his roof very well. It was bad enough that my Uncle John was forced to move in with Grandma Blanche. After a couple years, John R decided to kick Tom (my dad) out of the house and he took the rest of the family with him when he left.
Edeine managed to get a job at the hospital in Vincennes, and one by one her kids left the roost during the 1960s. Tom and John were both in the service early in the decade. John married Judy and gave my grandmother her first grandchild in Kristi. Later in the decade, Tom and Sandy married as well while Jimmy joined the Army. Also during the 1960’s Edeine remarried once again, this time to Bob Sutton. By the beginning of 1971, Edeine now had six grandkids, all girls except for John’s son Scott. Unfortunately, though, she lost her youngest son Jimmy to a car accident in Georgia that year.
Grandma and Bob lived in Edwardsport until the mid-1970s. I remember Christmases in the living room with all the cousins…by now there were nine of us and still Scott was the only grandson. On weekends we would drive up to spend the day visiting and Dad would haul our bikes so we could ride up and down the road in front of the farmhouse. I believe there was even an outhouse standing out back. There were also the trips to the house in the river bottoms in the summer. Later in the 1970s, Grandma started working at the Senior Center, which was part of the YMCA, and she and Bob moved to Vincennes. They had a house on 13th Street which was about five minutes from our house and we went over often. The best part of going to Grandma’s, and I think all my cousins will agree, was the food. She always fed us and the food was awesome. Probably one of the favorites among us kids was her chocolate sheet cake. In fact, I remember we would always beg her to make one if she didn’t have one already made.
Toward the end of the 1970s, Grandma developed a heart condition and in June 1979 she died, the result of a heart attack.
It’s obvious my grandmother was a resilient person. Her life from the beginning was full of obstacles and challenges, but she managed to get through them and remain positive to the end. A couple of sayings she would use time and again were “The meek shall inherit the Earth” and “Turn the other cheek”. She wasn’t one for using anger to express herself; she was generous and kind to everyone. I think it’s safe to say she was a positive influence on everyone whose lives she touched. Happy Birthday, Grandma. You will always live on in our hearts.
