I went to Sandra Beth Walker's (one of my two granddaughters) on Thanksgiving and stayed all night with her and found my birth certificate.
I was born in Upshur County at Gilmer on December 8, 1878. My name is Mamie Elizabeth Sanders. My father's name was John Shaw Marshall. My mother's name was Bettie Bodriff before she married my father. Mother was German; she came to the United States when she was three years old. She didn't have any people and came over to the United States with one of her cousins; I don't know anything else about her. She passed away when I was three years old. My father passed away when I was eight years old. My father brought me to Rhome, Texas, to live with his sister. She was Dr. Lawrence Ward's mother. I lived with them about 15 years. I went to school at Rhome, Texas. I was converted at 14 years of age and joined the Baptist Church, then I came to Boonsville, Texas, and lived with my brothers and two sisters.
I married John Haughey Sanders and we had three children, two little boys, and one girl, the girl is the only one that lived; her name was Sammy Lane Sanders and she married Gordon Morris. They had two daughters, Sandra Beth and Susie Morris. Sandra Beth has one little boy and Susie has no children. *NOTE(Sandra and Billy Fred Walker had another son after this was written--see the Walker Family)
My husband had one brother, Asa, and two sisters, Laura Bell and Esther. They never married and taught school all their adult lives.
I have lived in Wise County all my life, except for the early years in Upshur County, Gilmer, Texas, where I was born.
I have a lot of nieces, great-nieces, and great-great nieces.
I am the only member of the John Marshall family left except my two granddaughters.
My husband was born in 1876 on Salt Creek, Wise County, Texas. We married November 11, 1900. I was 91 years old on the 8th of December.
Mrs. Mamie, as we all called her, died on December 18, 1974, four years after this letter was written. She was blessed with 96 years and ten days of life.