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Aunt Em Maxwell

The following is from a hand-written story about Em Maxwell, my grandmother, Julia Maxwell Partain’s sister. The account was written by my cousin Ola Fern Ford Speer (daughter of my aunt Callie Partain Ford). I got a copy from my cousin Flossie Evans (daughter of my uncle John Partain) who received it from Ola Fern Ford Speer.

“Aunt Em was a sister to Grandma Julia Melinda Maxwell Partain. She was born after the 1880 census…. She first married a man by the name of “Oaff”. He died and she then married A. Tanksley. They had a son named “Dan”. It was Aunt Em who took care of little baby Julia Melinda when Grandma Julia Melinda died. Julia was 9 days old. Dan Tanksley married and lived near us on Bokoshe Mountain. We always called him “Uncle Dan” and his wife “Aunt Lula”.

Uncle Dan had only one arm. The other had been severed when he was cutting limbs from a tree. A limb fell, tearing his arm off at the shoulder.

They had a son named “Aubry”. He married and moved to Bokoshe. His house caught on fire one night, catching Aubry’s clothing on fire. He ran from the house, his clothes blazing. He died of the burns. He and his wife had the first movie theatre that ever opened in Bokoshe.

Uncle Dan and Aunt Lula had another son, Vernon, nicknamed “Cotton”. He married Opal McCullar, (LP Note: Opal is my mother’s sister.) one of my very best girl friends. And Uncle Dan and Aunt Lula had a daughter, named Muriel. She married my Uncle Estel (Partain).”