John Wych Cato
Letter from Rena Slocumb Cobb, great granddaughter of John Wych Cato:
5/9/1996
Dear Bonnie,
I appreciate your interest in the Cato family - my great Aunt (Betha
Cato Bigham) and her brothers Lewis Rosser (Buddy) Cato and Mancie
Lee Cato (both bachelors) meant the world to all of us when we were
growing up. Our grandmother, Katie Lena Cato Cole, was so old by
the time my youngest sister and I came along (1937 (me) and 1943 (Peggy
Jo)) until we just didn't have the opportunity to love and to be loved by
her the way the older children did.
Our mother, Anice Cole Slacumb, died Feb. 1, 1945. Our dad, Ruric Slacumb,
didn't remarry because he said he didn't want anyone mistreating us, but,
as I told him many years later, what woman would marry a man who had seven
children at home? (the oldest was married and teaching school when Mama
died in 1945.)
Aunt Betha and Uncle Mancie came too live with us in 1954.
I married in 1955, so that left Peggy Jo and my daddy to care for them.
Aunt Betha kept having what's now called "mini" strokes, but she
bounced back. She died in 1958 and Uncle Mancie kept "plugging on"
(one of his favorite expressions) until 1962. Unfortunately, I couldn't
get home for either funeral. We were in Charleston, S.C. when she died and
Chatellerault, France when he died.
Uncle Mancie smoked 3 or 4 cigarettes early in the morning and had a daily
tardy. He lived to be 88. Aunt Betha was a great seamstress and cook. They
were thrifty and lived off what they raised on the farm their father bought
for $300 in 1882 (see enclosed copy). My oldest brother bought the farm
from my dad. His sons own it now. The old house was struck by lightning
and burned about 1961 or 1962.
It took a lot of memories!
We'll keep in touch-
Rena Slocumb Cobb,
Great Granddaugher of John Wyche Cato.