store. Young and unmarried women did not work in those days, and she went against established mores by accepting a room in a building behind the store as part of her pay for employment.
Her motives were not as wanton as had been feared. She had come to town to escape a malaria epidemic in the mosquito plagued Mississippi delta. After repeated infections, doctors had warned that if she did not move to higher ground, she would die, and Batesville was situated on the very first hill northeast of the annually flooding delta basin.
Selling fabric and ribbons was a challenging proposition for my grandmother. She