A Proverbs 31 Woman

Thursday, June 8th, 2017     by Debra DuPree Williams     Start the Conversation


One Of the Many Suits Mama Made

by Debra DuPree Williams  @DDuPreeWilliams


I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about my mother. I told you I’d say a bit more about her. She wouldn’t like that I’m sharing at least one of the photos posted here, but they say so much about who she was.

Mama was a woman of many talents. As discussed earlier, unless it was party food, you really didn’t want her to cook. That one doesn’t go on my list of her talents. But sewing and crafting belong at the top.

When we were little girls, Granny, my mother’s mother, made most of our clothes. I guess that’s because Mama always worked and Granny stayed home with us. I suppose I should say with me as my sister, who is seven years older, was already in school. Well, Granny loved all things shiny and noisy. Yes, I said noisy. Those are the only two reasons I can come up with for why every dress she made was made from taffeta and made that swish-swish noise with every movement. Granny passed away when I was eight, and from that point forward, Mama made all of our clothes.


Master Seamstress
I don’t remember too many things prior to my high school days, maybe a dress here or there was a

Working on Miss AL Dress for Talent Portion

favorite. Once we get to be high school age, we start having to have those semi-formal and formal dresses. Mama made every single one I ever wore. She even made the dresses I wore for the Miss Alabama competitions. I entered that for the talent scholarships which helped to pay for my education. I remember one year the judges asked me where I had gotten my gowns. I proudly told them my Mama had made them. They were impressed by her talents.


Every southern girl had to be dressed for church. I had so many church dresses it wasn’t funny. And every dress had its own matching or coordinating coat. Since Daddy was in the shoe business, I also had a pair of shoes and a purse to go with every outfit. No, we weren’t wealthy. Since Mama could sew so well, and Daddy got discounts on all the merchandise in the store, I was able to have these things. I guess my biggest disappointment as far as Mama’s sewing goes is that she didn’t make my wedding gown. Sigh.

One Crafty Lady
Pine-Cone Tree

Mama’s talents didn’t stop with making our wardrobes. She could and did make many craft items. When Mama and Daddy moved to Dothan, the store in which Daddy worked had a charity auction at Christmas every year. Mama, with Daddy’s help for the heavy stuff, made beautiful pine cone trees
and wreaths. One year, one of her trees sold for almost a hundred dollars. And this was back in the seventies when a dollar was more or less a dollar.


One of Mama’s Paintings
When in her sixties, Mama decided to learn about computers. Nothing heavy-duty, she just wanted to understand them so she took a class. After that, she decided she wanted to learn to paint, so she took painting classes. Several of her paintings have hung in our home for years.

Blessed
When I think about the Proverbs 31 woman, I always think about my Mama, especially the verses about rising early, making garments, and speaking words of wisdom. Sis and I were blessed to have a hard-working, I-can-do-anything, service-oriented woman as our Mama. She may not have been perfect, but she did her best, and that is all that is required of us. I can say that when I go home to be with Jesus, I hope my children think of me when they read that chapter.

Did you think of your mama when you read Proverbs 31 for the first time? Tell us about that in the space below. 

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