My grandmother, Ruth May Craft, adored her brother Porter. Jesse Porter Craft was born March 11, 1929 in Tennessee, more than likely Gibson County, to Henry Corbett Craft (1895-1971) and Katie Clady Cathey (1898-1935).
I am, as of this posting, unable to find him on the 1930 census, nor have I located his parents on that census.
My grandmother told a story about how her and Porter used to go and dig up Mayapples to sell. One day when they were spreading them out on the barn roof to dry she accused Porter of stealing some of the Mayapples she had dug up. They got into a scuffle and he knocked her off of the barn!
Jesse Porter Craft died at 1pm on April 27, 1941 in Waverly, Humphreys County, Tennessee at the age of 12. His cause of death was bronco pneumonia, which he had for three days, due to having had the measles for 12 days.
His stepmother, Maudie Berkley, had said that an angel was standing next to his bed when he passed, ready to take him home. She told my mother that after his death they found a feather death crown in his pillow. Maudie still had it and showed it to my mother. Lore has it that feather death crowns form when the soul leaves the body destined for Heaven and that only the very good, pure and holy leave them behind.
I would love more stories of Jesse Porter Craft and of feather crowns!
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