The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1915-08-06


ory of my dear friend, Aunt Lavina
Blackwell, we're not to pause to add
a brief sad tribute to her memory.
"a whittier soul, fairer mind,
A life with purer course and aim,
A gentler eye, voice more kind,
We may not look on earth to find.
The love that fingers o'er her name
Is more than fame"
By the rock of marble that marks
the family burial lot on the hill-slope
overlooking the old homestead, the
body of Lavina Blackwell was buried
today-a place typical of the rugged
character which had chosen the place
in years gone by.
II The funeral services, ably conducted
by Rev. Hamrick, was one such as
Blackwell has seldom known, because
"Aunt Vina" belonged not only to the
village of Blackwell, but to all this
country. And from far and near her
old friends came with sorrowing
hearts, the early train from the north
brought many, and by automobile and
carriage they arrived by the hundreds.
! After the service, was taken up the
long march over vale and hill to the
cemetery. 1t was just such funeral
in just such place as would pull the
hardest on the heart-strings of the
members of the family who were left
/ to mourn, as it would bring more WV
idly to memory the tender moments
that had been spent on the same spot
with the deceased in her life. Yet,
there was something about 1.-THE
dead shade of the trees, the hushed
songs Of the birds, the music select
ed for the occasion, the words of the
minister, the sorrowing friends, the
solemnity of the scene--that seemed
to designate it as the funeral of the
deceased and made to be just the kind
of funeral she herself would have
desired had she been able to plan it
for herself.
Under the blue skies and fieecy
clouds Of her beloved old homestead
she lies in her final earthly resting
place, where the rustling murmurings
of the foliage speak in answering
language to the changeful melodies
of the nearby rippling springs, and
where bloom the forget-me-nots of
affectionate remembrance and the i'm
mortelles Of lasting regret. There
the early swallow MARBLES his paean
to the morning air, and the night birds
evening carol blends with the purling
of the star-lit waters of beautiful Big
River.
"The night dew that falls, though in
silence it weeps,
Shall brighten with verdure the grave
where she sleeps;
And the tear that we shed, though in
secret it rolls,
Shall long keep her memory green in
our souls"
Trained in the severe school of ex-
perience, she neither knew nor cared
much about the requirments of high
society or about the Establishments of
wealth; but that great strong, magni-
ficent soul did know to its depths the
life of the common people, and there
never was thought, there never was
an act, that was not in the interest
of true womanhood in absolutely the
best sense.
She was for the things that bene-
fitted the great mass of the people,
and it was perfectly natural that it
should be SO, because she came from
the ranks of that noble class. By her
illustrious living she has given an
example to those who come after, of
the possibilities of citizenship under
our present environment.
She was of cheerful disposition
and in a remarkable degree possessed
the power to impart that cheerful
ness to others. When the strong bow
had been bent in breaking, the fugi-
tive thoughts of her great brain were
of the friends by whom she was sur
rounded, and how they might best be
provided for. Let us believe that as
she looked into the beyond, she read
in the unspoken language of the stars
mystic meaning which only the
parting soul ready to meet its Maker
may know. Then in a moment the
weary soul was at rest, and our dear
friend, ready and without a tremor,
met her Pilot face to face-that same
good Pilot who said: / am the res
direction and the life. He that be-
lieveth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live, and whosoever be-
lieveth in me shall never die.
rTsT