The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1929-10-18
NO SERMONS, NO.
TALKlES, No.
CIRCUS FOR HER
Elizabeth City's Oldest Woman
Views Life With Keen
Vis'o, and the Aid of "a
Lively Memory

TO a hundred years, still finds a
refreshing interest in life and
whose memory has not been dull
cd by age and safety. Such
rc-son is Mrs. Laura Raby. 80
years old, who lives on Woodland
Ave-, this city.
While all Elizabeth City flocked
to the Carolina Theatre last week
to hear the first TalkieS ever pre-
sented in Elizabeth City, Mrs. Raby
sat at home, talked and read. Of
fered a free ticket to John Robin
sons Circus, she politely declined.
No frivolitieS and eXCitementS for
her; she has found her own life
satisfactions and talked freely about
them to a reporter for this news
paper.
Mrs. Raby is 80 years old and
lived in Gates county until about
six months ago. when she came here
to live with her grandson, James
Oliver Raby, in Euclid Heights. She
saw John Robinson's Circus at
Gatesville in 1859, bl't has not been
to a circus since that time. She
saw a picture show about Is years
ago and was so demoralized at the
sight of q love scene in the picture
that she has since refused to enter
motion picture thCater.
Mrs. Raby still is in good health
and simply refuses to die. She says
that she has outlived dozens who
had planned to attend her funeral
She can ride to Suffolk or Gates
vile today and not be tired out by
the journey. But more remark
able even than her old age and
health is her memory. She can
remember dates, places and occur
rences as far back as ten years or
more before the Civil War.
According to Mrs. Raby, the peo-
pie of Gates. Hertford and North
ampton counties did most of their
trading in Edenton in the old days
but placed called Folly. in Gates
county, was an important COM
munity center. There was a large
field at a branch in the road and
men of the section gathered on this
field for tournaments. The chief
sport at these tournaments was try
ing to snatch the head of a figure
which rode thru the field on a
horse. The man who got the head
won a prize A minister rode by
one day, witnessed the game and
exclaimed. Folly, Folly" So the
place came to be known as Folly.
Here the citizens voted. SWappcd
tales. discussed politics. Here the
militia was mustered and held its
drills.
This quaint old lady enjoys auto
mobile rides, likes radio, thinks
female modesty is a thing Of the
past, says movies are wicked, main
tains that prohibition cannot be en-
forced. does not believe that she can
get religion by going to church, be-
longs to the Methodist church but
respects and admires Catholicism,
deplores the entry of Bishop Can
non and other preachers into poll
tics.
To Edenton, Norfolk, Suffolk.
Petersburg. and Richmond, Mrs.
Raby has travelled many times
but no further has she gone. Suf-
folk is her favorite town; GateSville
she detestS. She went to Rich
mond more than a quarter of a CEN
tury ago, but she can today de-
scribe in minute detail the points
of interest which she saw there.
She can remember the old stage
coach that ran from Edenton thru
Gatesville and which transported
northbound travellers to Ports
mouth, where they could get train
to carry them to more remote desti-
nations. And she tells of the time
when there was only one railroad
running out of Suffolk, the Seaboard
Air Line. The dates on which the
other five railroads which come into
Suffolk today were established, she
quotes without hesitancy.
When Mrs. Raby lived near Sun
bury, the church was so far from
her home that she donated an acre
of her land, got others to help her
and built church in the grove in
which she lived But she seldom
went in the church; she sat on her
porch and listened to the preaching
and the music. She also gave some
of her land to the county as a lot on
which to build a school. Public
spirited, she voted regularly and did
much community work.
When she was child, Mrs. Raby
heard Senators, Governors and pre-
sidential candidates speak at Folly.
She remembers we'll the occasion on
which Henry Clay spoke there.
So wonderful is her memory and
so well versed is she in folk lore
and happenings in the Albemarle
in the past eighty years that many
persons come to her for informa-
ti0n. She was the source of many
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