The Old Willis Home Place by Randy Willis www.randywillis.org randy@randywillis.org Ilie Close (b. 1907) wrote to me about the Old Willis Place: "The home was a gathering place for all the family. There was always food cooked for family and friends. There was lots of blackberries, huckleberries and fruit of all kinds for good pies. The home was about a quarter of a mile from Barber's Creek, known to be one of the coldest and clearest waters in the area. Grandma [Julia Ann Graham Willis] would walk down and swim sometimes twice a day. She said that was what had prolonged her life. All of the children and grandchildren loved to go swimming with her. She was reared a Methodist but later joined the Baptist Church and was a devoted Christian. She read the Bible daily. We use to joke and say 'she didn't think there would be anyone but Baptist in Heaven.' Her hobby was making quilts and she kept the family supplied with her hand work. She was bitten by a ground rattler at the age of 75 and survived with home remedies. Her son, Dr. Daniel Oscar Willis, said at the time she would live to 90 and she lived to be 92. She was a very wonderful and a remarkable woman, a real pioneer." Another grandchild of Julia Ann, my uncle Howard Willis, told me she would sit on the front porch of the Old Willis Place and eat an orange and latter eat the orange peal. He ask her why she ate the peal and she said "I don't know, I think it's good for you." He said "she would read her red-lettered Bible on the front porch and then sometimes pull out her late husband Daniel's Civil War picture and get a tear in her eye.' He died 36 years before her. The Old Willis Place is gone and replaced with a huge gravel pit. Barber's Creek is full of sand and gravel from the pit. The tall pine trees that surrounded the old place have long since been harvested. About The Old Willis Home Place Photo at www.randywillis.org (1906) Babbs Bridge [extinct], Louisiana (near present-day Long Leaf, Louisiana) Robert Kenneth "Ken" Willis Sr. (b. 1877 d. 1951) has the reins in his hands, Robert's first wife Eulah Hilburn Willis (b. 1884 d. 1919 of the flu) is in the back seat, Julia Ann Graham Willis (b. 1845 d. 1936) is holding a fish and standing and Robert and Eulah's baby girl Flossie Litton Willis (b August 5, 1905) is held by an unknown lady. Flossie told me that this photo was taken on her first birthday. Footnote: Ken Willis, after Eulah's death, married May Johnson, and had three sons. One of those sons Robert (Bobby) Kenneth Willis was the first soldier killed in action in World War II from Rapides Parish. The Pineville American Legion Post is named in his honor. He was killed on December 7, 1941, and his body lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor aboard the USS Arizona.