I picked up today's copy of the Chicago Tribune and was shocked to read of the death of a Confederate widow. I had thought the last one died several years ago.
"TEENAGE BRIDE OF CONFEDERATE SOLDIER" by Peggy Harris, AP
MAUDIE WHITE HOPKINS (1914-2008)
She had a very hard life in the Ozarks and, during the Depression, was working for William Cantrell, 86, when he asked her to marry him if she would take care of him in his old age. In return, he would give her his home and she would receive his pension. She was 19 at the time.
These were hard times and this was a way out for her.
For a long time, she kept it secret for fear that people would think less of her, but when another widow in Alabama claimed to be the last Confederate widow, she decided to come forward.
Baxter County records show that they were married in Januray 1934. Cantrell supported her with his Confederate pension which she described as $25 every two or three months. She also received his home after his death three years later.
She was married a total of four times and had three children from her second marriage.
I talked about young girls marrying old men for their pensions to my classes back when the last widow died and they were shocked. I tried to explain the the hard times that would make a teenage girl marry a much older man like this.
A member of the Daughters of the Confederacy said that there are other Confederate widows still living, but they don't want any publicity.
Another Civil War Connection. Not-So-Old B-Runner
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
