“Mammy, what did you do?” I asked.

“I went to the manager and told him to put me in ready-to-wear!” Alma Chatham believed in sidestepping the battle and winning the war.

One townsperson who fell to her charms was a recent widow, William P. LeMaster. His deeply loved wife had died giving birth to their fourth child. He was grief stricken and in need of a mate to care for his new infant daughter and his three strong-willed teenage children. Alma wanted no part of it. She fled by train to south Mississippi, where he followed and persuaded her to marry him. On their honeymoon, they fetched his baby daughter from relatives in a neighboring county. My grandmother