52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 10

Strong Woman

There are many strong women in my family. It is hard to pick just one. Any woman that survived through the Great Depression was strong in my eyes. It was a very hard time.

My great-grandmother was Olive Martin Alexander. I have written a little about her over the years. She was born in 1885. She was the third child born to Samuel and Maggie Martin. In 1902 she married William Hays Alexander. They had 7 children. In 1928, William died, leaving her with 3 of the children still at home.

She went to work. She was, when she retired, a superviser at the local shirt factory. She got her family through the depression. She did not remary until 1934.


To the left is a photograph of Olive and her second husband, Fred Robertson.

In 1963 she had a devastating stroke. The stroke occurred

in the night but help did not arrive until morning. Fred, her second husband, was in a sanitarium for TB. She was partially paralyzed thereafter. I went with my grandmother, Della Jaynes, many times to visit her. I never once heard her complain about her situation. She was mentally sharp for the rest of her life. She survived to the age of 89, and passed away in 1975.

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