by Darline Dunagan
Tiney Patterson Dunagan was the second wife of Joseph Alexander Dunagan. She was very young when she married Joe, a man 20 years her senior, and became the step mother of his six children. Elizabeth said that her mother would never tell her children her marriage age. She ask me if I knew her mother's age. Now Elizabeth is eighty-one years old and she never knew her mother's marriage age. I decided Elizabeth was old enough to handle this information so I told her. Her response was, " Now I know why mama didn't tell us!". I think Tiney was a very wise mother to keep that secret. In her honor I too will keep her secret for now.
Tiney and Joe had 14 children with 12 of those living to adulthood. Tiney lost her daughter Little Mae when Mae was just a toddler, later she lost another baby girl that died the day after her birth . These losses were very hard on her but Tiney still had to suffer the loss on another child. In May of 1943 Jeter Austell Dunagan, her second oldest child, was hit by a drunk driver and killed. Jeter was only forty-two years old. This loss proved to be too much for Tiney because she died that following November at the age of fifty-eight. Below is a photo of Jeter Austell Dunagan:
Tiney Patterson Dunagan was the second wife of Joseph Alexander Dunagan. She was very young when she married Joe, a man 20 years her senior, and became the step mother of his six children. Elizabeth said that her mother would never tell her children her marriage age. She ask me if I knew her mother's age. Now Elizabeth is eighty-one years old and she never knew her mother's marriage age. I decided Elizabeth was old enough to handle this information so I told her. Her response was, " Now I know why mama didn't tell us!". I think Tiney was a very wise mother to keep that secret. In her honor I too will keep her secret for now.
Tiney and Joe had 14 children with 12 of those living to adulthood. Tiney lost her daughter Little Mae when Mae was just a toddler, later she lost another baby girl that died the day after her birth . These losses were very hard on her but Tiney still had to suffer the loss on another child. In May of 1943 Jeter Austell Dunagan, her second oldest child, was hit by a drunk driver and killed. Jeter was only forty-two years old. This loss proved to be too much for Tiney because she died that following November at the age of fifty-eight. Below is a photo of Jeter Austell Dunagan:
It was November 16, 1943 and Tiney was planning a large quilting party and had invited seventeen of her friends to her home. When her friends began arriving they discovered that things were not so festive in the Dunagan home. Tiney was not zooming around the house and welcoming her guest as she usually did. But where was Tiney? They were soon to discover that their dear little friend had suffered a stroke and was on her death bed. Tiney was an "industrious and well liked" woman according to her daughter Elizabeth, and many of her friends were unable to cope with what they discovered on their arrival and in turn had to leave while others remained with their dear friend until her end.
This sweet little woman had lived a very selfless life and had raised twenty children. She was loved by them all. She was the only mother that my grandfather ever knew and the only grandmother that my dad ever knew and to them she was the real deal. Her memory is still with us today because of the stories that are shared and passed on by those who knew and loved "Mama".
This sweet little woman had lived a very selfless life and had raised twenty children. She was loved by them all. She was the only mother that my grandfather ever knew and the only grandmother that my dad ever knew and to them she was the real deal. Her memory is still with us today because of the stories that are shared and passed on by those who knew and loved "Mama".
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