As a part of the “New Deal” programs of the mid to late 1930s, mattress-making workshops were organized and conducted at local churches and elementary schools across Union County. Each family could make enough mattresses for all the beds in their household. This was a federal government program through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The particular mattress-making I attended with my sister, Johnnie Heiskell Merritt, and our mother, Elsie Seymour Heiskell, was at Raccoon Valley School. This school had been built by the Works Progress Administration and opened about 1938.

A Tribute to Ruth Gentry Raley

Ruth Gentry Raley, second child of the late William M “Will” Gentry (b. June 16, 1889 - d. December 1, 1974, buried Union Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery and Nola Sharp Gentry (b. December 22, 1896 - d. December 7, 1978, buried Union Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery). Her grandparents are James and Martha DeLapp Gentry and William “Bill” Sharp and Elenora Warwick Sharp. Will and Nola were married September 15, 1918 in Union County.