Renie Elizabeth Currie was born June 18, 1898 in Dublin, Laurens, Georgia to Archie Elbert (Malcolm) Currie and Elima Fountain.

Somehow survived the 1919 flu epidemic, and had my mother that same year.

She lived at 319 E Church Street, Jacksonville, FL when she was called by death.

In her own words:
I was born in the state of Georgia on 27 June 1898. I lived there with my parents until my father died on 17 March 1900. He was born 20 may 1859--59 yrs. Old at time of his death.

While I was very young, mother sold the old farm home in Laurens County, Georgia which she and my father had owned. She bought a smaller farm in Telfair County, Georgia which was near the town of Helena. We had lived in that vicinity for several years. I was quite young at that time and do not remember how long we lived there.

I vaguely remember when my oldest sister and her family moved in with us. She only had one child at that time, a daughter whose name was Lela Floyd. My sister's husband was Ira Floyd. It was about 1901 or 1902 when they had moved into this house with us. We all lived there together from that time until they had six children.

As the years passed, my sisters and brothers began to get married and leave home. My sister Amanda's family was growing larger as the years passed.

My sister Salle was the first to get married after we all grew up. She married a man named Daniel Knight. She was just 3 years older than I was. We were always pals growing up and told each other our secrets. I really missed her after she married and moved away!! she lived on a farm not far from ours--it was adjoining our farm.

My brother-in-law, Ira Floyd, would not allow us to visit with her very often. He had taken upon himself to act as our step-father. In many ways, he was mean to all of us who were still at home and was especially unkind and mean to my sister, his wife! He made us all work very hard and never let us do anything without his consent!

My oldest brother, tom had gotten married just before my father had died. My second oldest brother Oliver married Allie Floyd just after our father had died. She was the sister of Ira Floyd, my sister Amanda's husband (also the one who had taken upon himself to be our step-father and ruler of the household).

When my sister, Amanda and Ira Floyd had moved in with us our family consisted of my mother, Elm Ira Currie, my sister Mattie Currie (we called her Mat), my bother Malcolm Currie, my sister Salle and me. I was the baby of eight children. I had one sister whose name was Ada Currie, who only lived to be about one year old. She had been born between Mattie and Malcolm.


One of my earliest clear memories is when we sold the farm in Telfair County, Georgia and bought a farm in Laurens county, Georgia. Again, this farm was bought in my brother-in-law's name and his father's name ---Dimps Floyd! They had talked my mother out of everything that my father had left her and us children!!! My mother had been the kind of person who wanted to help them when they need a place and then in return--they had taken everything that we had!! Now we were the ones who had to live with them. That was not a very happy way that we had to live!

We all went to school at old Hatoff, Georgia. It had been an old post office and a big store building. We went to school there for a while, then to a school called the lowery school until we all quit or got married. My sister's children went along with my sister, Salle and me when they were old enough to go to school.

I remember only one of my teachers. Her name was Essie Anderson. We all liked her very much and was told later that she was a distant cousin of ours.

It was about three miles from our house to the school and the only way we could get there was to walk., unless some of the more fortunate neighbor's children gave us a ride in a buggy drawn by an old worn out mule or one that was so lazy you could hardly get him to go. But all and all we had a lot of fun and most of us enjoyed it.

In those days, in schools , there were no different grades. All the students (no matter what their age) studied in one book or course until it was finished. A student who had studied the term before, had to finish whatever book he was studying that term before he got another book. We had no report cards and no examinations.

My brother Malcolm, was the only boy in the family at that time and he had to quit school to help out on the farm. As my sister , Salle and I became older, we would have to stay out of school when we were needed , to help out with the farm work.

After Malcolm was 21 yrs. Old, he left home and worked for awhile and then he went back to school.

After I had been married and my children were grown, I went back to school---vocational school.


When we were growing up, we never attended any church regularly. I do remember going to one church over in Hatoff. It was a Baptist Church, I think. I remember going to one Sunday school for a while and they had a children's day program. I was on the program and I felt very important!

I almost forgot about my sister , Mattie's marriage. She married a man named Dave Floyd. He was a cousin to my oldest sister's husband, Ira Floyd. They were married just before we sold the farm in Telfair county. They didn't live together very long before they got a divorce.

My brother-in-law Ira, would not let us have many boyfriends and when we did have one, we would have to go about our chores as if he were not there. I remember I used to have dishes to wash and we always had a lot of dishes to wash because we had a large family with my sister and her family and sometimes the hired help would be there for meal too. But my sister and I soon had our boyfriends trained to come around to the kitchen and that is where we did most of our courting!!

My sister Sallie had one child before I was married. His name was Lester Knight.
I married john Wesley Tompkins on 10 March 1915. Everyone teased us and said that we should have been planting corn on that day for that was a rather pronounced day for the farmers to plant corn.

When we were married, I ran away from school to be married. We went on down to his house to live. He and his two brothers and one of his sisters were living just down the road from where we lived. They also had a cousin whom the family had taken in to rear when she was a baby. She was still there along with my husband's two brothers and sister. Her name was Willie Mae Smith.

After I married, our family was very scattered and we very seldom got together as a family after that. My brother Malcolm didn't get married for several years after I got married.

After my husband and I were married for a little while, my husband's sister, Nora and his brother Lamar, went to live with my oldest sister and her family. Willie Mae lived with first one and then another of the family (mostly with us) until she was married.

John and I were married about two and a half years when our oldest daughter was born.. we named her after the doctor's wife who delivered her.. She was born about 5 a.m. on Friday 24 August 1917. We named her Dottie Mae Tompkins. Gee, we were a proud mother and father!! I can remember some of the foolish little things I planned for her and about her!! Most of those things never happened, but don't we all dream?

When she was about three months old , we almost lost her. The baby and I both had measles and pneumonia at the same time. It was real cold and raining and sleeting the first few days we were so sick, but they went after mother and she came on an old open truck. She stayed with us for about a year after that.

It seemed that Dottie Mae never quite got over that illness. When she was six months , she was not able to hold her head up. She was almost always sick when she was growing up. Dot was born in wheeler county Georgia near Alamo on Sam Harrelson's farm about one mile from Alamo, GA .

When Dot was about two and a half years old, our second child was born. She was born on 3 December 1919 on a Saturday night about 10;p.m.. We were working on a farm for a man named Edinfeild for halves. We lived about three miles from Alamo, GA .

This happened at a time when the boys were coming home from WWI in Germany. I remember my husband's cousin , Monroe smith came by the day after hazel was born., and he was returning from the occupation of Germany. That was the last time I ever saw Monroe!

We could not get anyone to stay with us to help out with the new baby .we really had a hard time too.

We decided to move again and moved to a farm near Gardi, GA We were only there for about three month. Then we moved to cherry lake near Quitman, GA. We stayed there three or four months. While we were there, dot fell into the fire and burned her hands really bad. She had scars and stiffness in her hands all her life, as a result of that accident!!

After that, we moved back to Alamo, GA which was my husband's home town. No matter where we went, we seemed to go back to Alamo.
Cannie Preston Tompkins, our third child was born in Alamo, GA On 9 may 1922 . All of our children were born in Alamo, Ga.

Our little boy was special to his father and me. The first boy and the baby was stricken with infantile paralysis (what is known as polio). Now and was very ill for several weeks. Not much was known about polio at that time. Our precious little boy died on 15 June 1925. I nearly had a nervous breakdown after that. We felt terrible heartache, his father and me.

Dot was going to school by then. It was really lonely around the home, with the baby gone and dot going to school. It seemed I could hear him say, "Hush mama, I love you." He used to put his little arms around my neck when I would cry which I did often when he was younger, and that is what he would say to me.

It was just around a year later that my husband died. He was cranking an old ford car and had a heart attack. He was gone in just a matter of minutes. That was almost more than I could bear!!! I don't know how I made it in the days and weeks that passed but I knew that I had two daughters who needed me. First, I had to grieve.

I didn't know how I was going to make a living for my family. I had no marketable skills and no training. I just knew that somehow, I would have to think of something. I had two small children to support!!

I had no money to start with so I took in boarders to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. But believe me, it was a lonely life with no one to talk to and no one to understand the heartache and loneliness I felt. When the girls got a little older, it was better. I had someone to talk to and understand the meaning of conversation.

Then, in 1929 the banks failed and almost everyone lost the money they had. The depression had begun!! Almost everyone lost their jobs. My roomers and boarders had to leave because they had lost their jobs.

I worked at the Georgia Veneer and Package Company until they closed. No one could get work. Again, I had a crisis in my life!! How could I make it?