M. Elizabeth Neal
Lake Oconee News
RUTLEDGE-- Mattie Bailey celebrated 100 years of living last Sunday, surrounded by most of her surviving children and grandchildren, and too many great-grandchildren to count, as she says, at her home on Fairplay Street in Rutledge.
A tiny woman, she was born in Morgan County to Lola and John Williams in 1910, and has resided in and around Rutledge all her life.
She attended Mosley Chapel School, and married farmer Robert Bailey, who died of cancer in 1935, leaving her eight children to raise single-handedly.
She supported the large family by 'chopping and picking cotton' 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, she recalls, and today, decades later, attributes her long life to the hard work those labors entailed.
"Chopping cotton is about the hardest work you can do, and I did it all day, every day, for many years,” she said this week.
“But it made me strong, strong enough in my mind and body to raise my family as I needed to do."
Her secret to rearing children? “Give them something to eat and keep them clean,” she responded, laughing.
A sister, Maggie Jefferson of Rutledge, celebrated her 85th birthday this year. Mattie Bailey's surviving children include Delores Bailey, who resides on Fairplay Street with her mother , Eugene Bailey of Youngstown, Ohio, Elizabeth Hyman of Bostwick, Carl Bailey of Covington, Katie Parks and Mattie Clark, both of Rutledge.
