ARTICLE BY SARA KING RASSMUSSEN[1] OF TALLAHASSEE, FL.

SEPTEMBER 1999

AUNT ANNIE FRIERSON

Uncle Taylor and Aunt Annie were always very special people because Uncle Taylor saved Grandmother's[2] estate from an unscrupulous partner when her husband died.

The Frierson's owned three large houses on Frierson Avenue in East Fort Myers. The biggest was in the curve of the street.   That is where they were living when I was born.  My Mother and Aunt Neva had engaged the same practical nurse, but my Cousin Kathleen and I were born the same day.   [Sara Carolyn King was born 16 November 1912].  I don't know how the arrangements were made but Mama and I went to Aunt Annie's.  Mama told of bathing me in the front of the fireplace in the huge living room and Aunt Annie caring for us.  I have no recollection of that house when they lived there.  It is still standing.

The house I remember is the one on the other side of the street on the corner of Riverside Drive.  I've never known why it was called "Ruth's house."  Mama, Daddy and I were there when I was very young, for by the time I was seven, [1919] the Frierson family had moved across the street into the house on the corner of Frierson and Riverside Drive.  That lot went through to Highland Avenue which went to the river.  When I was seven we moved into the house on the corner of Riverside Drive and Highland.

From that time on, for a year or two, my two little brothers [Park and Edward][3] and I were in that big backyard of Aunt Annie's.  She let us help her feed the chickens with her and hunt eggs and put them in the basket.  We could take them into the kitchen where she always had some goodies fresh out of the woodstove oven.

There was a barn in the back corner away from Riverside (later used to keep cars in) and there was a cow which I stayed clear of.

Aunt Annie let me help her churn on the back porch.  This fascinated me.  There seemed to be a cozy warm feeling sitting there beside her.  She gave the feeling most of the time - maybe because of her physical build.  She was sort of the "apple dumpling" type - not very tall and a little stout - maybe the picture we have of the typical kindly Frau.

I was so young but it was evident to me somehow that she was very special to both Mama and Daddy.  She and Daddy talked often of "up the river, " Fort Denaud, the Wilkisons[4].  I have no idea what the connection was.

Off the subject: both Mama and Daddy were so close to Aunt Annie, but there was not a closeness with Uncle Taylor.  He was usually there when we visited, but especially for meals.  The dining table was large, and in the center there was always the silver rack with the three cruets: oil, vinegar and hot pepper sauce.  We didn't have them in our home.

One of life's little tragedies! I was nine [1921] and one of my cousins and I were having lunch (dinner at noon) with Aunt Annie and Ruth.  When dinner was over, I wanted to help the others clearing the tables.  The kitchen was separate from the house, connected by a hall, flanked by a pantry but one step down from the main house.  This young helper strutting along with the gravy boat made a miscue at that step.  I fell and was just covered with gravy!  My clothes were saturated, my hair was coated.  I was humiliated!  Aunt Annie stripped my clothes off, got a blanket to wrap around me and had Ruth take me up to her room, clean me off and put me to bed to try to get me calmed down.  I've always loved Ruth because of the way she petted me and told me stories until my clothes had been washed and dried.  By that time I was feeling very special.  Believe  me, I watched that step from then on!

That Spring just Aunt Annie, Ruth and I spent six weeks at the big two-story home on the orange grove[5] owned jointly by Hal[6] and Daddy.  My two brothers had died the May [1920] before and I suspect this was an attempt to tide Mama over a difficult anniversary.  It was an idyllic time for me.  I had a chance to see Aunt Annie in some of her social duties.  She took me with her to visit some of her friends on Captiva.  I felt grown up sitting in the living rooms of these ladies and listening to their grownup talk.  I don't know why Aunt Annie took me with her, but I felt very special to be her companion.

Taylor was definitely head of the house, but as I remember her, she was her own person.  I can't remember her death.  I was in college at the time and I think she had moved to Tampa after Uncle Taylor's death.  I wish I had more concrete memories. It's all pretty much an impression - awareness of how Mama and Daddy loved her and of her being a part of our family, especially when we lived as neighbors. Florence, Ruth and Daddy were buddies.  I assume he taught them to drive.  And I remember the love in their voices when Ruth and Florence spoke to "Cousin Addie."

[1] Daughterof Benjamin Pogue Kind and Addie Frierson Park

[2] Louise Samuel “Lula” Frierson Park, daughter of SamuelE. Frierson & Addie Graham Frierson

[3] Sarah’s two young brothers died of acidosis within a day of each other.  She recalls sitting  in the 
back seat of their car with the small casket on the seat beside her as they drove to the cemetery.  This was 
repeated a day later when the second little boy died.

[4] Plaque in front of the Courthouse in Ft. Myers honors Wilkison as youngest soldier of WWI.

[5] This grove on Captiva Island was destroyed by a hurricane inthe 1920s that cut through their 
property and divided the island into two properties.

[6] Henry Aaron Taylor Frierson, eldest surviving son of Anna & Taylor Frierson