Intervie

Edna Berl Franklin Davis

Edna Berl Davis was born in December of 1929. Four months before her birth her daddy

William Burl Franklin was killed in a car accident leaving Ida Franklin his wife with five

children and one on the way. When Edna was born her mother Ida Franklin wanted her to be

named after her father so she was named Edna Berl Franklin. Her childhood was a happy one

even though her father had passed away she never knew what it was like with him so it did not

really effect her. Edna's family was very poor, but she did not know anything else so she learned

to cope with her life like it was.

During the Great Depression Edna's family moved in with her granddaddy, they called

him Papa. They had gardens planted so that there was food for them to eat because they could not

afford to buy it. Edna's papa was a blacksmith and he also shod horses for their neighbors for

twenty five cents and cut mens hair for ten cents. Another thing he did for money was make

caskets for oversized people and Edna's mom would line them with material and make a pillow.

Edna had a great relationship with her mother. Her mom always carried her to church and

taught her good morals to live by and how to be a lady. She had a lot of respect for her mother

because she was strong, she could not imagine how hard it would have been to raise six children

with out a husband. Edna's mom lived with her and her husband Charles Davis from 1965 till

1996 when she passed away at the age of one hundred and two and a half years old.

Edna had two brothers and three sisters: Earl and Tony the two boys, and Leola,

Florence, and Bernice the three sisters. Her siblings were much older than her, Earl the oldest

was eighteen years older, but they were still very close. Edna was closest to her sister Leola

because Leola helped raise Edna by taking her to school and providing the things she needed.

When Edna was younger her and her friends had a great imagination they would make

play horses out of straw, and they also liked to pretend to cook. They would use broken dishes

for their dishes and lids for their cooking pots, and grass for turnip greens. She had a lot of fun

with her friends when she was young even though they were very poor they found fun things to

do despite the situation.

When Edna was a teenager she dated a boy named Charles Davis which later turned out

to be her husband. Charles did not have a car, but sometimes he would come to see her in his

Daddy's log truck. Edna lived behind a Church and a cemetery so since they could not go

anywhere in the truck they would walk around the cemetery holding hands and sometimes they

would sit on the tombstones and talk. She said she never even thought of a grave yard being a

morbid place because she has such fond memories of her and Charles from her teenage years that

it just did not seem gloomy there.

On August 27, 1948 Charles Davis and Edna Berl Franklin got married