Sunday, November 9, 2008


Another great lady in our family is your great-great grandmother, Ruth Anita Jones Chisholm. From her pictures you'll be able to see the resemblence to Momma and now you know where Momma gets a lot of her beauty! Ruth Chisholm (aka Mommie) was Nana's mother. She was born in Tennessee(in 1889) and moved with her parents to Florida when she was very young. Her father, Caleb Jones, was the pastor who established and built the First Presbyterian Church in Kissimmee(historic landmark). Ruth met her future husband Andrew Chisholm(also a pastor) at a church service where he was speaking after a friend encouraged her to go along. Nana was the oldest of their 4 kids and there was also Burke, Ralph, and Andy. The family lived in Kissimmee for a while before moving to Orlando, on Lake Pineloch.

Ruth was always 'dressed to the nines' and properly coiffed(always used Pond's cold creme every night), she loved gardening(hence Nana's green thumb) and is remembered for her great sense of humor! Her rose bushes were incredible and she could easily root a cutting and raise it until it was a bush. She was also a great seamstress and during the Great Depression would sketch the clothes in the department store display windows and would take the sketches home, make the patterns, and create the same clothes for husband and kids. During World War II, she worked at the canning plant in St. Cloud(now a part of Peghorn Park). On trips to the beach, she would tie ropes on the boys' legs and tie the other end to her own waist so that if they got into trouble in the water she could pull them out!

She could definately see the bright side of things and knew how to live life well until the day she died(1972).

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