The Lindler farm place where Lallah was born was on/near the Saluda River, heading from Hilton & not far from St. Thomas Church. Her immigrant ancestor (details, Jacob Lindler) settled in that area. She only weighed between 2 & 3 pounds, and nobody thought she'd survive (this was 1916!) and amount to anything. They later (when brother, Void was a little boy...mayb e 1920) moved close to the shore of Lake Murray on Belle Lindler Rd., Lexington Co., S. C. (near Gilbert) on the Lexington side of the lake. She was named for her Aunt Maggie's sister-in-law, whose name was Lallah (Lallah Crapps...who later married R. A. Hendrix, Sr.), which is Indian, meaning "peaceful". Lallah told me the correct spelling of the name of her namesake. Her middle name, Belle, was for her mother. Her father also ran a mobile saw mill business. But the Lindler family & home church...St. Thomas Church...were/are on the Chapin side of the lake. I depended heavily on Lallah for details of old timey farm living as I created an on-line document detailing immigrant life in parts of S. C. beginning in colonial times, HERE: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/bigstory.html
FAMILY PHOTOS: (1) Betty & Brenda age one; (2) Uncle Bach & Aunt Essie Belle Lindler; (3) Lallah's in-law aunts & uncles; (4) Uncle Robert & Aunt Azilee Lindler. (5) Trudy & Gran'Ma Belle HERE. (6) ex-daughter-in-law, Bobbie. (7) Betty & Brenda with Trudy about 1956, HERE.
She was born prematurely and only weighed between 2-3 pounds. To try to be sure that she did not chill at night, they kept her in a shoe box behind the old timey wood cook stove when her parents had to do the farm work. The Dr. told her mother, "Well, she will either live or die." Lallah told me, "Nobody ever thought I'd amount to anything because I grew so slowly and didn't talk until I was several years old. As a very little child, I was small enough to climb on a cotton stalk without breaking it." "I didn't talk until I was 6." "I started school at age 8 because I was just too little to walk that far any younger." Her schooling started the same year that her father was killed in a tragic saw mill accident.
Road Named For Her: As detailed on page A5 of the Dec. 30th 2021 issue of the Lexington County Chronicle, Belle Lindler Road was named for Lallah Belle Lindler (her daughter always thought it was named for Lallah's mother who overcame one of life's major tragedies).
Lallah told me, "After our Daddy was killed in the sawmill accident, our Mother determined that she would keep us 7 children together...she would never split us up. Nobody will ever know how hard we had it or how hard we had to work. But we made it, and with very little help from anyone. We never went really hungry. But many was the time our Mother got through a meal by cooking a soup bone for broth and making ribble (pronounced "ribbly") soup. Sometimes she'd go to the corn shed and strip the hard kernels off an ear of corn and crack the kernels up and throw them into the soup, too. I never became wealthy in material things, but we have more riches than I ever hoped for in family and friends. What our Mother cooked as an inexpensive but healthy staple remains a family favorite for generations to follow! It has been declared that this soup cures illnesses from the common cold to chicken pox to nausea!" Soup recipe: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/ribblesoup.html
Education: She was a class of 1936 graduate of Lexington High School. Her high school sweetheart was Horace Elmer Harman, Jr. That diploma always hung in her living room...her proud achievement: she DID amount to something! Oh yes she did! After marriage, she and George Bell saved to educate their children. Son, George, became a cowboy, and funds went to daughter, Ann, for college. Everette did not go beyond grade school. See photos on this memorial of the group of checks in 1964 paying on loans from Bank of Lexington for Betty to go to Newberry College & payment checks to Newberry College.
Growing up: She grew up in St. Thomas Lutheran Church near Chapin. After the flooding to make Lake Murray, the Lindlers were members of St. Peters Lutheran Church west of Lexington, S. C. During Lallah's senior year, she met George Bell Drafts at a "barn dance" calling the square dancing, Lallah having been brought to the dance by Ella Mae Corley Drafts. They fell in love! All of the Drafts brothers married Corley girls. But George Bell married a Lindler! After marriage 24 November 1936 at St. Peters and moving to Darby Ambrose Road, they were members of Zion Lutheran Church. In the 1960s, they were among the founding members of Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in West Columbia where her funeral was held.
At about age 24, she had an ear infection that went inward to cause a raging case of acute mastoiditis (about 1941). Doctors were able to obtain some of the new miracle drug, penicillin; and it saved her life. She was told that she was the first patient in the greater Columbia area to be treated with this antibiotic.
She was a hard-working Christian homemaker, co-pioneer-like farmer mate with her beloved husband. And she and he supplemented their family income as textile mill workers. Lallah was a loom fixer, the wage of such in 1939 was about $18 per week. In short, she was a wonderful example of a biblical "Proverbs 31:10-31" wife and mother. She and George Bell had 7 children (all born at old Baptist Hospital). Her 3rd pregnancy was a stillbirth due to a tranverse lie of the baby...she was in labor 3 days before they called for her doctor...fetal movement had ceased by then. Everette was their 4th child...he'd have asthma to the point of having to go live with relatives in Arizona & later would die in a motorcycle accident as a young man. The 5th pregnancy resulted in the "Drafts Twins"...Betty was born in the elevator & Brenda made it to the delivery room. Trudy would come 7 years later. Even in old age, she kept a significant garden. And she told me that she actually loved to work. If the family ever ran short of vegetables, they bought supplemental vegetables from good truck-farmer friends, Jack and Lib Bouknight.
Their social circle included their favorites in the greater family, Tete & Mae Lindler (Uncle Tete [Lallah's brother] and Aunt Mae). The four of them went to the Lindler mountain-house retreat outside of Johnson City, Tennessee many summers for 1-4 weeks. Tom and Reba Corley (referred to in the highly respectful Southern custom of "Mr. Tom and Miss Reba" by the younger generation) were their card playing friends (Set Back or Canasta), locally. The Corleys lived just up #378 toward Lexington on the east side where Hope Ferry Road came into #378. Another couple who played cards at their home were the Gables, George and Mae Gable.
Lallah enjoyed quilt making, gardening, and cooking. At one point, she won first prize in the quilting competition at the S. C. State Fair. Her children called her "Momma" until grandchildren started; & then she was called "Granny". Her husband and everyone in the community called her "Lallah". Her girls took piano lessons from Christine Ingram (whose husband was an outstanding coach for Lexington High School).
After George Bell died, she continued to live at the Drafts home with family close by. Two relatives who we remember regularly visiting were her first cousin Frank Monts and George Bell's first cousin once removed, Paul Drafts.
She died following an extended illness of 18 months due to a stroke which knocked out use of her left arm and leg but not her ability to speak. And that lead to the discovery of a cancer requiring treatment. Her greatest dread was to end life in a "rest home". Her children made sure that did NOT happen. Approximately the last year of her life she was cared for in the detached apartment (where she died) of her daughter, Betty Drafts Shaw & care given by her children plus Doris Fletcher, Toni David (later Speer), neice Betty Lindler Scott, and others.
She was preceded in death by her son Everette (1971) and beloved husband, George Bell (1986). Surviving at the time were Ann Koch, George Marion Drafts, Betty Shaw, Brenda Speer, and Trudy Seybt (Trudy Wales as of 2004) and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and a host of other admiring relatives and friends.
Her funeral was at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church (she and her husband were founding members) and conducted by Pastor Vance Fossum. Pallbearers were grandsons Dr. John Wessinger, Eddie Wright, Jr., Denny Blalock, Michael Drafts, Paul Seybt, Chad Seybt; and grand-inlaws, Doyle Jones (Jill), and Everette Browder (Christy). Honorary pallbearers were grandson Kevin Blalock & grand-inlaw Tom Slusarchyk (Ginger).
FAMILY PHOTOS: (1) Betty & Brenda age one; (2) Uncle Bach & Aunt Essie Belle Lindler; (3) Lallah's in-law aunts & uncles; (4) Uncle Robert & Aunt Azilee Lindler. (5) Trudy & Gran'Ma Belle HERE. (6) ex-daughter-in-law, Bobbie. (7) Betty & Brenda with Trudy about 1956, HERE.
She was born prematurely and only weighed between 2-3 pounds. To try to be sure that she did not chill at night, they kept her in a shoe box behind the old timey wood cook stove when her parents had to do the farm work. The Dr. told her mother, "Well, she will either live or die." Lallah told me, "Nobody ever thought I'd amount to anything because I grew so slowly and didn't talk until I was several years old. As a very little child, I was small enough to climb on a cotton stalk without breaking it." "I didn't talk until I was 6." "I started school at age 8 because I was just too little to walk that far any younger." Her schooling started the same year that her father was killed in a tragic saw mill accident.
Road Named For Her: As detailed on page A5 of the Dec. 30th 2021 issue of the Lexington County Chronicle, Belle Lindler Road was named for Lallah Belle Lindler (her daughter always thought it was named for Lallah's mother who overcame one of life's major tragedies).
Lallah told me, "After our Daddy was killed in the sawmill accident, our Mother determined that she would keep us 7 children together...she would never split us up. Nobody will ever know how hard we had it or how hard we had to work. But we made it, and with very little help from anyone. We never went really hungry. But many was the time our Mother got through a meal by cooking a soup bone for broth and making ribble (pronounced "ribbly") soup. Sometimes she'd go to the corn shed and strip the hard kernels off an ear of corn and crack the kernels up and throw them into the soup, too. I never became wealthy in material things, but we have more riches than I ever hoped for in family and friends. What our Mother cooked as an inexpensive but healthy staple remains a family favorite for generations to follow! It has been declared that this soup cures illnesses from the common cold to chicken pox to nausea!" Soup recipe: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/ribblesoup.html
Education: She was a class of 1936 graduate of Lexington High School. Her high school sweetheart was Horace Elmer Harman, Jr. That diploma always hung in her living room...her proud achievement: she DID amount to something! Oh yes she did! After marriage, she and George Bell saved to educate their children. Son, George, became a cowboy, and funds went to daughter, Ann, for college. Everette did not go beyond grade school. See photos on this memorial of the group of checks in 1964 paying on loans from Bank of Lexington for Betty to go to Newberry College & payment checks to Newberry College.
Growing up: She grew up in St. Thomas Lutheran Church near Chapin. After the flooding to make Lake Murray, the Lindlers were members of St. Peters Lutheran Church west of Lexington, S. C. During Lallah's senior year, she met George Bell Drafts at a "barn dance" calling the square dancing, Lallah having been brought to the dance by Ella Mae Corley Drafts. They fell in love! All of the Drafts brothers married Corley girls. But George Bell married a Lindler! After marriage 24 November 1936 at St. Peters and moving to Darby Ambrose Road, they were members of Zion Lutheran Church. In the 1960s, they were among the founding members of Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in West Columbia where her funeral was held.
At about age 24, she had an ear infection that went inward to cause a raging case of acute mastoiditis (about 1941). Doctors were able to obtain some of the new miracle drug, penicillin; and it saved her life. She was told that she was the first patient in the greater Columbia area to be treated with this antibiotic.
She was a hard-working Christian homemaker, co-pioneer-like farmer mate with her beloved husband. And she and he supplemented their family income as textile mill workers. Lallah was a loom fixer, the wage of such in 1939 was about $18 per week. In short, she was a wonderful example of a biblical "Proverbs 31:10-31" wife and mother. She and George Bell had 7 children (all born at old Baptist Hospital). Her 3rd pregnancy was a stillbirth due to a tranverse lie of the baby...she was in labor 3 days before they called for her doctor...fetal movement had ceased by then. Everette was their 4th child...he'd have asthma to the point of having to go live with relatives in Arizona & later would die in a motorcycle accident as a young man. The 5th pregnancy resulted in the "Drafts Twins"...Betty was born in the elevator & Brenda made it to the delivery room. Trudy would come 7 years later. Even in old age, she kept a significant garden. And she told me that she actually loved to work. If the family ever ran short of vegetables, they bought supplemental vegetables from good truck-farmer friends, Jack and Lib Bouknight.
Their social circle included their favorites in the greater family, Tete & Mae Lindler (Uncle Tete [Lallah's brother] and Aunt Mae). The four of them went to the Lindler mountain-house retreat outside of Johnson City, Tennessee many summers for 1-4 weeks. Tom and Reba Corley (referred to in the highly respectful Southern custom of "Mr. Tom and Miss Reba" by the younger generation) were their card playing friends (Set Back or Canasta), locally. The Corleys lived just up #378 toward Lexington on the east side where Hope Ferry Road came into #378. Another couple who played cards at their home were the Gables, George and Mae Gable.
Lallah enjoyed quilt making, gardening, and cooking. At one point, she won first prize in the quilting competition at the S. C. State Fair. Her children called her "Momma" until grandchildren started; & then she was called "Granny". Her husband and everyone in the community called her "Lallah". Her girls took piano lessons from Christine Ingram (whose husband was an outstanding coach for Lexington High School).
After George Bell died, she continued to live at the Drafts home with family close by. Two relatives who we remember regularly visiting were her first cousin Frank Monts and George Bell's first cousin once removed, Paul Drafts.
She died following an extended illness of 18 months due to a stroke which knocked out use of her left arm and leg but not her ability to speak. And that lead to the discovery of a cancer requiring treatment. Her greatest dread was to end life in a "rest home". Her children made sure that did NOT happen. Approximately the last year of her life she was cared for in the detached apartment (where she died) of her daughter, Betty Drafts Shaw & care given by her children plus Doris Fletcher, Toni David (later Speer), neice Betty Lindler Scott, and others.
She was preceded in death by her son Everette (1971) and beloved husband, George Bell (1986). Surviving at the time were Ann Koch, George Marion Drafts, Betty Shaw, Brenda Speer, and Trudy Seybt (Trudy Wales as of 2004) and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and a host of other admiring relatives and friends.
Her funeral was at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church (she and her husband were founding members) and conducted by Pastor Vance Fossum. Pallbearers were grandsons Dr. John Wessinger, Eddie Wright, Jr., Denny Blalock, Michael Drafts, Paul Seybt, Chad Seybt; and grand-inlaws, Doyle Jones (Jill), and Everette Browder (Christy). Honorary pallbearers were grandson Kevin Blalock & grand-inlaw Tom Slusarchyk (Ginger).
The Lindler farm place where Lallah was born was on/near the Saluda River, heading from Hilton & not far from St. Thomas Church. Her immigrant ancestor (details, Jacob Lindler) settled in that area. She only weighed between 2 & 3 pounds, and nobody thought she'd survive (this was 1916!) and amount to anything. They later (when brother, Void was a little boy...mayb e 1920) moved close to the shore of Lake Murray on Belle Lindler Rd., Lexington Co., S. C. (near Gilbert) on the Lexington side of the lake. She was named for her Aunt Maggie's sister-in-law, whose name was Lallah (Lallah Crapps...who later married R. A. Hendrix, Sr.), which is Indian, meaning "peaceful". Lallah told me the correct spelling of the name of her namesake. Her middle name, Belle, was for her mother. Her father also ran a mobile saw mill business. But the Lindler family & home church...St. Thomas Church...were/are on the Chapin side of the lake. I depended heavily on Lallah for details of old timey farm living as I created an on-line document detailing immigrant life in parts of S. C. beginning in colonial times, HERE: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/bigstory.html
FAMILY PHOTOS: (1) Betty & Brenda age one; (2) Uncle Bach & Aunt Essie Belle Lindler; (3) Lallah's in-law aunts & uncles; (4) Uncle Robert & Aunt Azilee Lindler. (5) Trudy & Gran'Ma Belle HERE. (6) ex-daughter-in-law, Bobbie. (7) Betty & Brenda with Trudy about 1956, HERE.
She was born prematurely and only weighed between 2-3 pounds. To try to be sure that she did not chill at night, they kept her in a shoe box behind the old timey wood cook stove when her parents had to do the farm work. The Dr. told her mother, "Well, she will either live or die." Lallah told me, "Nobody ever thought I'd amount to anything because I grew so slowly and didn't talk until I was several years old. As a very little child, I was small enough to climb on a cotton stalk without breaking it." "I didn't talk until I was 6." "I started school at age 8 because I was just too little to walk that far any younger." Her schooling started the same year that her father was killed in a tragic saw mill accident.
Road Named For Her: As detailed on page A5 of the Dec. 30th 2021 issue of the Lexington County Chronicle, Belle Lindler Road was named for Lallah Belle Lindler (her daughter always thought it was named for Lallah's mother who overcame one of life's major tragedies).
Lallah told me, "After our Daddy was killed in the sawmill accident, our Mother determined that she would keep us 7 children together...she would never split us up. Nobody will ever know how hard we had it or how hard we had to work. But we made it, and with very little help from anyone. We never went really hungry. But many was the time our Mother got through a meal by cooking a soup bone for broth and making ribble (pronounced "ribbly") soup. Sometimes she'd go to the corn shed and strip the hard kernels off an ear of corn and crack the kernels up and throw them into the soup, too. I never became wealthy in material things, but we have more riches than I ever hoped for in family and friends. What our Mother cooked as an inexpensive but healthy staple remains a family favorite for generations to follow! It has been declared that this soup cures illnesses from the common cold to chicken pox to nausea!" Soup recipe: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/ribblesoup.html
Education: She was a class of 1936 graduate of Lexington High School. Her high school sweetheart was Horace Elmer Harman, Jr. That diploma always hung in her living room...her proud achievement: she DID amount to something! Oh yes she did! After marriage, she and George Bell saved to educate their children. Son, George, became a cowboy, and funds went to daughter, Ann, for college. Everette did not go beyond grade school. See photos on this memorial of the group of checks in 1964 paying on loans from Bank of Lexington for Betty to go to Newberry College & payment checks to Newberry College.
Growing up: She grew up in St. Thomas Lutheran Church near Chapin. After the flooding to make Lake Murray, the Lindlers were members of St. Peters Lutheran Church west of Lexington, S. C. During Lallah's senior year, she met George Bell Drafts at a "barn dance" calling the square dancing, Lallah having been brought to the dance by Ella Mae Corley Drafts. They fell in love! All of the Drafts brothers married Corley girls. But George Bell married a Lindler! After marriage 24 November 1936 at St. Peters and moving to Darby Ambrose Road, they were members of Zion Lutheran Church. In the 1960s, they were among the founding members of Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in West Columbia where her funeral was held.
At about age 24, she had an ear infection that went inward to cause a raging case of acute mastoiditis (about 1941). Doctors were able to obtain some of the new miracle drug, penicillin; and it saved her life. She was told that she was the first patient in the greater Columbia area to be treated with this antibiotic.
She was a hard-working Christian homemaker, co-pioneer-like farmer mate with her beloved husband. And she and he supplemented their family income as textile mill workers. Lallah was a loom fixer, the wage of such in 1939 was about $18 per week. In short, she was a wonderful example of a biblical "Proverbs 31:10-31" wife and mother. She and George Bell had 7 children (all born at old Baptist Hospital). Her 3rd pregnancy was a stillbirth due to a tranverse lie of the baby...she was in labor 3 days before they called for her doctor...fetal movement had ceased by then. Everette was their 4th child...he'd have asthma to the point of having to go live with relatives in Arizona & later would die in a motorcycle accident as a young man. The 5th pregnancy resulted in the "Drafts Twins"...Betty was born in the elevator & Brenda made it to the delivery room. Trudy would come 7 years later. Even in old age, she kept a significant garden. And she told me that she actually loved to work. If the family ever ran short of vegetables, they bought supplemental vegetables from good truck-farmer friends, Jack and Lib Bouknight.
Their social circle included their favorites in the greater family, Tete & Mae Lindler (Uncle Tete [Lallah's brother] and Aunt Mae). The four of them went to the Lindler mountain-house retreat outside of Johnson City, Tennessee many summers for 1-4 weeks. Tom and Reba Corley (referred to in the highly respectful Southern custom of "Mr. Tom and Miss Reba" by the younger generation) were their card playing friends (Set Back or Canasta), locally. The Corleys lived just up #378 toward Lexington on the east side where Hope Ferry Road came into #378. Another couple who played cards at their home were the Gables, George and Mae Gable.
Lallah enjoyed quilt making, gardening, and cooking. At one point, she won first prize in the quilting competition at the S. C. State Fair. Her children called her "Momma" until grandchildren started; & then she was called "Granny". Her husband and everyone in the community called her "Lallah". Her girls took piano lessons from Christine Ingram (whose husband was an outstanding coach for Lexington High School).
After George Bell died, she continued to live at the Drafts home with family close by. Two relatives who we remember regularly visiting were her first cousin Frank Monts and George Bell's first cousin once removed, Paul Drafts.
She died following an extended illness of 18 months due to a stroke which knocked out use of her left arm and leg but not her ability to speak. And that lead to the discovery of a cancer requiring treatment. Her greatest dread was to end life in a "rest home". Her children made sure that did NOT happen. Approximately the last year of her life she was cared for in the detached apartment (where she died) of her daughter, Betty Drafts Shaw & care given by her children plus Doris Fletcher, Toni David (later Speer), neice Betty Lindler Scott, and others.
She was preceded in death by her son Everette (1971) and beloved husband, George Bell (1986). Surviving at the time were Ann Koch, George Marion Drafts, Betty Shaw, Brenda Speer, and Trudy Seybt (Trudy Wales as of 2004) and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and a host of other admiring relatives and friends.
Her funeral was at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church (she and her husband were founding members) and conducted by Pastor Vance Fossum. Pallbearers were grandsons Dr. John Wessinger, Eddie Wright, Jr., Denny Blalock, Michael Drafts, Paul Seybt, Chad Seybt; and grand-inlaws, Doyle Jones (Jill), and Everette Browder (Christy). Honorary pallbearers were grandson Kevin Blalock & grand-inlaw Tom Slusarchyk (Ginger).
FAMILY PHOTOS: (1) Betty & Brenda age one; (2) Uncle Bach & Aunt Essie Belle Lindler; (3) Lallah's in-law aunts & uncles; (4) Uncle Robert & Aunt Azilee Lindler. (5) Trudy & Gran'Ma Belle HERE. (6) ex-daughter-in-law, Bobbie. (7) Betty & Brenda with Trudy about 1956, HERE.
She was born prematurely and only weighed between 2-3 pounds. To try to be sure that she did not chill at night, they kept her in a shoe box behind the old timey wood cook stove when her parents had to do the farm work. The Dr. told her mother, "Well, she will either live or die." Lallah told me, "Nobody ever thought I'd amount to anything because I grew so slowly and didn't talk until I was several years old. As a very little child, I was small enough to climb on a cotton stalk without breaking it." "I didn't talk until I was 6." "I started school at age 8 because I was just too little to walk that far any younger." Her schooling started the same year that her father was killed in a tragic saw mill accident.
Road Named For Her: As detailed on page A5 of the Dec. 30th 2021 issue of the Lexington County Chronicle, Belle Lindler Road was named for Lallah Belle Lindler (her daughter always thought it was named for Lallah's mother who overcame one of life's major tragedies).
Lallah told me, "After our Daddy was killed in the sawmill accident, our Mother determined that she would keep us 7 children together...she would never split us up. Nobody will ever know how hard we had it or how hard we had to work. But we made it, and with very little help from anyone. We never went really hungry. But many was the time our Mother got through a meal by cooking a soup bone for broth and making ribble (pronounced "ribbly") soup. Sometimes she'd go to the corn shed and strip the hard kernels off an ear of corn and crack the kernels up and throw them into the soup, too. I never became wealthy in material things, but we have more riches than I ever hoped for in family and friends. What our Mother cooked as an inexpensive but healthy staple remains a family favorite for generations to follow! It has been declared that this soup cures illnesses from the common cold to chicken pox to nausea!" Soup recipe: http://www.theeffectivetruth.info/ribblesoup.html
Education: She was a class of 1936 graduate of Lexington High School. Her high school sweetheart was Horace Elmer Harman, Jr. That diploma always hung in her living room...her proud achievement: she DID amount to something! Oh yes she did! After marriage, she and George Bell saved to educate their children. Son, George, became a cowboy, and funds went to daughter, Ann, for college. Everette did not go beyond grade school. See photos on this memorial of the group of checks in 1964 paying on loans from Bank of Lexington for Betty to go to Newberry College & payment checks to Newberry College.
Growing up: She grew up in St. Thomas Lutheran Church near Chapin. After the flooding to make Lake Murray, the Lindlers were members of St. Peters Lutheran Church west of Lexington, S. C. During Lallah's senior year, she met George Bell Drafts at a "barn dance" calling the square dancing, Lallah having been brought to the dance by Ella Mae Corley Drafts. They fell in love! All of the Drafts brothers married Corley girls. But George Bell married a Lindler! After marriage 24 November 1936 at St. Peters and moving to Darby Ambrose Road, they were members of Zion Lutheran Church. In the 1960s, they were among the founding members of Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in West Columbia where her funeral was held.
At about age 24, she had an ear infection that went inward to cause a raging case of acute mastoiditis (about 1941). Doctors were able to obtain some of the new miracle drug, penicillin; and it saved her life. She was told that she was the first patient in the greater Columbia area to be treated with this antibiotic.
She was a hard-working Christian homemaker, co-pioneer-like farmer mate with her beloved husband. And she and he supplemented their family income as textile mill workers. Lallah was a loom fixer, the wage of such in 1939 was about $18 per week. In short, she was a wonderful example of a biblical "Proverbs 31:10-31" wife and mother. She and George Bell had 7 children (all born at old Baptist Hospital). Her 3rd pregnancy was a stillbirth due to a tranverse lie of the baby...she was in labor 3 days before they called for her doctor...fetal movement had ceased by then. Everette was their 4th child...he'd have asthma to the point of having to go live with relatives in Arizona & later would die in a motorcycle accident as a young man. The 5th pregnancy resulted in the "Drafts Twins"...Betty was born in the elevator & Brenda made it to the delivery room. Trudy would come 7 years later. Even in old age, she kept a significant garden. And she told me that she actually loved to work. If the family ever ran short of vegetables, they bought supplemental vegetables from good truck-farmer friends, Jack and Lib Bouknight.
Their social circle included their favorites in the greater family, Tete & Mae Lindler (Uncle Tete [Lallah's brother] and Aunt Mae). The four of them went to the Lindler mountain-house retreat outside of Johnson City, Tennessee many summers for 1-4 weeks. Tom and Reba Corley (referred to in the highly respectful Southern custom of "Mr. Tom and Miss Reba" by the younger generation) were their card playing friends (Set Back or Canasta), locally. The Corleys lived just up #378 toward Lexington on the east side where Hope Ferry Road came into #378. Another couple who played cards at their home were the Gables, George and Mae Gable.
Lallah enjoyed quilt making, gardening, and cooking. At one point, she won first prize in the quilting competition at the S. C. State Fair. Her children called her "Momma" until grandchildren started; & then she was called "Granny". Her husband and everyone in the community called her "Lallah". Her girls took piano lessons from Christine Ingram (whose husband was an outstanding coach for Lexington High School).
After George Bell died, she continued to live at the Drafts home with family close by. Two relatives who we remember regularly visiting were her first cousin Frank Monts and George Bell's first cousin once removed, Paul Drafts.
She died following an extended illness of 18 months due to a stroke which knocked out use of her left arm and leg but not her ability to speak. And that lead to the discovery of a cancer requiring treatment. Her greatest dread was to end life in a "rest home". Her children made sure that did NOT happen. Approximately the last year of her life she was cared for in the detached apartment (where she died) of her daughter, Betty Drafts Shaw & care given by her children plus Doris Fletcher, Toni David (later Speer), neice Betty Lindler Scott, and others.
She was preceded in death by her son Everette (1971) and beloved husband, George Bell (1986). Surviving at the time were Ann Koch, George Marion Drafts, Betty Shaw, Brenda Speer, and Trudy Seybt (Trudy Wales as of 2004) and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and a host of other admiring relatives and friends.
Her funeral was at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church (she and her husband were founding members) and conducted by Pastor Vance Fossum. Pallbearers were grandsons Dr. John Wessinger, Eddie Wright, Jr., Denny Blalock, Michael Drafts, Paul Seybt, Chad Seybt; and grand-inlaws, Doyle Jones (Jill), and Everette Browder (Christy). Honorary pallbearers were grandson Kevin Blalock & grand-inlaw Tom Slusarchyk (Ginger).
Inscription
Lallah Lindler Drafts
July 15, 1916 January 21, 2003
Gravesite Details
surrounded by coping and ground surface has crushed stone covering.
Family Members
Siblings
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
