The courier-index., 1921-05-20
Wrs. Mann H0nOred
 At Family Reunion
Grandmother of J. M. Walker Has
 106 Descendants.
(Commercial Appeal. Snndaul

Noommefcial Appeal, Sunday)
 1t isn't very often that a woman
 IS fortunate enough to hold in her
 arms even her first great-grandchild,
 yet it occurs at frequent enough in-
 tervals for pictures of members of
 four generations in direct descent
 not to be uncommon as to call forth
 much comment. But for d woman
 to be surrounded by a group of great-granchildren whose ages range from girls and hoys in their teens
 to a baby five months old is most
 unusual. Yet this is true of Mrs. V. V. Mann of Forrest City, Ark,
 who surrounded by children, grand children and great-grandchildren
 was guest of honor at a family re- union held yesterday at the Chisca Hotel.
 Mrs. Mann is the grandmother of J. M. Walker, president of the Chamber of Commerce, and he pre- sided at the beautiful dinner given in her honor in one of the private dining rooms of the Chisca. An other grandson, J. Walker Morrow of Forrest City, son of Mrs. Mann's elder daughter. was toastmaster, and her children and grandchildren vied with one another in responding to the toasts suggested by him. There were fifty in the party seated at the beautifully decorated table, and some of the youngest of the great T b,s1l need high chairs.
 At that, there were many of Mrs. Mann's family who were not pres ent yesterday. For she has 12 children, three sons and nine daugh- ters, and enough grandchildren and great-grandchildren to swell the number of her direct descendants to 106. MT. Walkers five months old daughter is the youngest member, of the family.
 Of MT. Mann's twelve children, only one daughter, Mrs. A. Knox of Baltimore, was unable to be pres ent yesterday. The other eleven who joined in the festivities were Mrs. w. A. Morrow of Forrest City, Mrs. John K. Walker of Memphis, W. B. Mann of Marianna, Ark. ;; Mrs. J. T. Heron of Jackson, Tenn ;; J. H. Mann of Pine Bluff, Ark; S. H. Mann of Forrest City, Mrs. W. J. Northcross and Mrs. M. B. Bark CT, both of Memphis; Mrs. W. T. Brasher and Mrs. William Crutcher, both of Pine Bluff, and Miss Mamie Mann of Forrest City.
 These family reunions are an- nual affairs, held one year in a city lives, the next year in the home town of another member of the family. They are anticipated most eagerly by the active and smiling little lady who has kept young de- spite the years that have passed over her head and the large family that has grown up around her.
 She has a store of the anecdotes of the manners and customs of the days when she was a girl, which are of unfailing interest to the boys and girls of the family who cannot even imagine a world devoid of automobiles and omnibuses, present telephones and all other devices of a time saving, speed-crazy genera tion. But this doesn't mean that Great-grandmother Mann has let herself fail to keep abreast of the times. Smilingly her daughters and granddaughters, her sons and grand sons aver that she lives just as eag- erly in the present as do any of them, and just as smilingly she ad- mits it. Yesterday she was planning where and how to spend the sum- mer with as much zest as could be shown by a girl in her late teens or early twenties.
 Mrs. Mann was born in Browns vile, Tenn. She grew up there, there, and reared her 12 children there, although none of them is living in the old home town. He husband died number of years ago.
 Tn Forrest City, where she now makes her home and where several of her children live, she is gen eral favorite. She is member of the Methodist church and is inter- ested in the women's clubs of the | Arkansas town.
 Alt CLCiIai ICliiliiliiS SiO"S ASSNAA in the smiling refusal of Mrs. Mann or any of her children to tell her age. They agree that her heart is young, her body is active, her mind is alert, she is welcome with young and old, and such being the csae, they insist that years have nothing to do with it. Nobody who has watched her in the midst of her big family circle can doubt the truth of this claim.
 When it was decided to hold this 1 years reunion in Memphis, Mir. Walker reserved rooms on the par Tor floor of the Chisca for the out of-town members of the party, and during the afternoon and early even ing hours yesterday many family friends came to greet the woman who has lived to see her descend ants are multiplying and prospering 'even unto the third and fourth