Hattie Bryant was born January 10, 1893 in Edwards, Mississippi, the daughter of sharecroppers Winnie Walker and Joseph Mason. Hattie Bryant was born the eldest of six children, all of whom have preceded her in death. At the age of 17, December 6, 1910 she married John Bryant; a union that lasted until his death 54 years later. Hattie and Johnny were also sharecroppers and worked the fields around Edwards from ''sunup to sundown'' for fifty cents a day. In November of 1922, after not having been paid for two years, they accepted the generosity of a cousin in Chicago who sent them train fare north.
On July 4, 1925, Hattie came to Detroit to visit her childhood friend, Blanch Greene. She liked it so well that she and Johnny moved here in October of 1926. Hattie worked in several downtown hotels for a dollar a day and Johnny after several years of odd jobs and unemployment, found steady work at General Motors. On November 6, 1942, they moved from Black Bottom to their home on Leicester, where she and Johnny stayed until death took them from each other and the house on Leicester.
Aunt Hattie always believed that anything God gave her was meant to be shared and through the years she opened her heart, home and pocketbook to countless people. It never mattered to her whether they were on the way up, on the way down or just in need of a little help to meet one of life's challenges.
Although she never had any children of her own, the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of her friend Blanch have filled her life with the joys, sorrows and rewards of motherhood.
Hattie had a deep and abiding faith in God and always had a church home.
She was proud of being one of the founding members of New Mt Moriah Baptist Church, as well as her membership in Electra Chapter No 7, Order of the Eastern Star. At New Mt. Moriah, she served faithfully on the Mothers Board and Missionary Society until her health failed.
On the evening of November 7, 2000, Auntie Hattie peacefully went home to be with the Lord. She will be mourned and greatly missed by all who loved her. The child she raised Gloria Reynolds, and her daughter, Kelly, the cherished children of her friend, Blanch, Claudius Robinson, Georgia Smith and her daughter- in-law, Theresa Greene; Blanch's grandchildren, Alfred Jr. Kimberely, Michele, Kay, Roy, Donna, Denice, Laura and Pat, Blanch's many great-grandchildren, Joyce Peoples and Robert Lawrence; her care givers who made it possible for her to die as she wished, in her home on Leicester; the many ''children'' she collected from near and far who called her Aunt Hattie, and her many friends and extended family.

There is a chance that she could have been slightly older since her 1900 US Census entry lists her as being born in March 1892: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M96T-WL1 Her 1910 US Census entry implies a birth in 1893 for her, however: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MP8F-2Q3