The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1899-04-22
MRS. LAURA il. BRILEY.

MRS. LAURA Il. BRILEY. n
On Sunday morning. April 2nd
beautiful Easter day there
passed into tho rest of heaven
Mrs, Laura =. Briley, aged 81
years, 3 months and tB days.
She Was born Doc. 10Th, 1897, the
daughter Of Harris and Mary
rurnipseed; and was married to
~. +, Briley, June LIST, 1862.
These dates mark the outlines
Of one of the most beautiful lives
that have ever known, Re-
served, elegantly reticent, with a
quiet dignity as quiet as il was
beautiful, and as free from every
appearance Of haughtiness as il
was open hearted and simple.
Mrs. Briley was a woman of the
type for which tho Southland has
been famous for nearly two CEN
turtles: she was, in the truest,
highest sense, q womanly woman.
she was queen i'm the homo.
circle: the devotion which her
children gave her was intensely
beautiful, and only matched by
the alfectionate reliance Of her
husband; her neighbors were won
~ be friends in way that made
friendship sacred; and even the
servants on the old farm grew to
love her after the old antebellum
fashion.
II is hardly necessary to say
that she was a Christian; for such
woman would be impossible
without the molding touch Of our
religion. She joined the Baptist
church when but eighteen yenrs
Of age, and remained consistent
and loyal member of it until that
last Easter Sunday whom she went
from "the church militant to
"the church triumphant. Though
q loyal Baptist. her religion was
Of that broad catholic type that
must be the aim Of every true and
enlightened Christian. This wri-
ter, a Methodist minister, ever
found hearty welcome to her
home and shared her warmest
friendship and confidence; and
he treasures among the precious
things Of his memory recollections
Of delightful hours spent with her
family,
Mrs. Briley was a mother--as
near an ideal mother as any /
have known. OF her eight chill
dren, one son died ia infancy and
seven grew up under the guidance
Of her tender, skillful hand. Save
that made by 1.-THE baby who
died. 80 long ago, there was not
a vacant chair in her home until
some three years ago Rosa, the
second daughter, the Rosebud, =
after one year OF radiant young
wifehood, pa sed into the beyond
with the fresh chrism Of mother
hood on her fair young brow.
The home that had hardly known
what sorrow means then became
suddenly shadowed with the visits
of the death-angel. Next the
husband and father heard the call
out Of the skies and went in obe-
dience to it. But few weeks
later railroad tragedy snatched
away Brother Bennie, the
second son, the idol of the home.
These sorrows, coming like an
avalanche, so sublimated the soul
Of the wife and mother that her
own passing was more Of a trans
lation than death. 1t is
the broken heart,
Which, like the plants that throw
Their fragrance from the wounded part,
Breathes sweetness out Of woe. +"
But few days Of such sorrow
sufficed to lift the veil for her en-
trance to the waiting homeland Of
her soul.
The church Of her girlhood'a
choice and her life's unfaltering
service, the county Of her birth,
her rearing, her life and her
death, the community where her
influence abides, and the children
with which she has blessed the
world have lost inexpressibly by
her passing away; but there
abides her influence--''she, being
dead, yet speaketh ''--and that
influence is as deathless as it is
beautiful. esteem it rare priv
| ilege to have met with such a life