HMC Family Association

08-10-1919 – 06-26-2000

Mother was the 5^th child of Henry Allen &  Sylva Hewitt Kerr. She was the youngest of three daughters and the first one born in a hospital.

Henry and Sylva ended up having eight children.

When Grandma’s time in the hospital was up and Grandpa came to get her, he came from a house where the other children had whooping cough.

He washed the new baby’s clothes and ironed them to sterilize them and went to Salem to pick up his wife and new baby.

When he arrived at the hospital, he found them short staffed; so after he waited a while, he bathed his new daughter and put a clean diaper on her, and dressed her in her sterilized clothes. He amazed the hospital staff because they had never seen a man bathe and dress a baby.

When they arrived home, he could not take his wife and new baby into the house to the contagious atmosphere; so, he set them up in a bed and bassinet on the front porch.

The other children stood inside the house and looked out the window at their mama and new baby sister, Mary-Alice.

Sylva Kerr did not give any of her daughters middle names. Mary-Alice was a hyphenated first name.

Mary-Alice grew into a bright, beautiful woman, tall at 5’8”, with thick almost black hair and dark brown eyes. Her deep dimples gave her a memorable smile.

Marian Murray McClain Robertson

08-03-08

[Henry&Elizabeth Matheny Hewitt>James Andrew Hewitt>Sylva Leona Hewitt>
Mary-Alice Kerr Murray McClain > Marian Murray McClain Robertson]

Since my sister, Marian, is writing about our mother, I decided to share my memories of our grandmother, Sylva Hewitt Kerr.

I was named after Grandma, she Sylva Leona- me Sylvia Lee.  I felt proud that our of 23 grandchildren, I was her “namesake”.

My best memory of Grandma was about “apples”.

“Run fill the pan with apples from the applesauce tree.” Or “Get me some pie apples and I’ll bake a pie.”  She would sit with the enameled pan in her lap and could peel an apple with her little paring knife – not letting the peel break – not one time!  We kids would eat the peels and anxiously await the pie.

Grandma was loving and giving and would scoop each grandchild to her ample bosom in a warm embrace until we gasped for air.

She was the very best of grandmothers and pleasant memories abound with thoughts of her and the “homestead”.

Sylva Murray McClain Fiscus

August 3, 2008

[Henry&Elizabeth Matheny Hewitt>James Andrew Hewitt>Sylva Leona Hewitt>
Mary-Alice Kerr Murray  McClain>Sylvia Murray McClain Fiscus]

One of my fondest childhood memories was actually as a late teenager.

It had been a hot summer and was already mid-August when my cousin Lisa and I decided to spend the night with our grandparents, Elsie & William Warmington.

The upstairs at Grandpa and Grandma’s typically was closed up and unused. This night we opened up windows and shook out quilts.

After a hot night, staying up late, visiting first with Grandpa & Grandma and then upstairs with each other. We discussed everything from the typical: boys, tans, and music, to the more untypical, future plans and dreams for our lives and also what it meant to us to have our grandparents and the legacy they had built.

What I remember best and most is waking up with the soft breeze blowing in the window, the feel of the cool cotton of the quilt lying on top of us as we lay there in the early morning light.

Then what we did next is still a sweet memory. We jumped up, pulled on clothes and went and picked raspberries from their garden.  We again visited and talked about our futures along with our years of memories of being out in the garden together picking peas, strawberries, raspberries, and apples.

Once we had some berries, we headed back inside to sit down with Grandpa & Grandma and eat bowls of raspberries with cream on top.

My grandparents have been gone a long time now, but this memory stays fresh in my mind.

Melissa Clark

8/3/08

[Henry&Elizabeth Matheny Hewitt>Olive Hewitt Smith>Elsie Warmington>Julia Jean Jones>Melissa Clark]