Jessie May Manahan, daughter of William Edward Manahan and May Hines Wooldridge, was born in the Grange Hall community of Freestone County, Texas on 10 January 1888. She was the oldest child in her family; her parents had 13 children. As a young lady, she taught school in Stewards Mill and roomed with the Terry Watson family. She was courted by Clifton M. Whitaker and they were married on 31 March 1913. At that time, Clif was living with his Aunt Mat & Uncle Taz Watson, so that's where the new couple lived for a few years. He was always called Clif by the Watson relatives, but they called her Cousin Jessie because Uncle Charlie Watson told them they must. Jessie always called people by their full name, so he always called her husband Clifton. When the Whitakers puchased a store in Stewards Mill from Worth & Mattie Lou Steward, they moved; the store had 3 rooms, a large front room for the store part and a kitchen and bedroom behind with a long porch across the back. The building had electricity but no inside plumbing. Water was drawn from a well on the south side of the building. Jessie ran the store while her husband trapped wolves, fished, and hunted. Behind the store was a chicken house, and the chickens ranged the area. Jessie also planted sunflowers each spring and their yellow blooms brightened the summer. Not only did Jessie run the store, she baked soda biscuits on a kerosene stove. Sometimes she cooked in cast iron pots around the woodstove in the store; small legs on the bottoms of the pots allowed them to sit atop coals while their lids had rims to hold hot coals in place. They had a sideline of making items from cattle horns. There was a small house and doll-sized rocking chairs. They also made blowing horns. At times, someone would bring them old horn items to restore. Jessie used broken glass to smooth the horn and polished it by rubbing it with her hand. Like many of the Manahan women, Jessie's hair was coal black; it hung past her waist when not pinned up. She was devastated by Clifton's sudden death on 4 April 1956. She continued to operate the store for a brief time but spent every night with Sallie and Marvin Watson, her sister and brother-in-law. Soon she closed the store and moved to Fairfield where she lived with Mattie Medaris, a lifelong friend, until her death on 7 November 1957.
Courtesy of Michael Bonner