Her head was so small it fit inside a tea cup.
Great Grandma Pearl held out a leathery hand and flipped the whiter side into the sunshine to show us kids that Grandma Betty was so tiny when she was born she fit in Pearl's hand!
Whole Grandma? Whole Grandma fit in your hand? We cocked our faces and tried to scrutinize the truth out of her with scrunched up eyebrows and nonblinking eyes.
Betty June was always petite.
Some people in the family think that Betty June was born a twin.
Betty herself always told her daughter Sherry that she believed she was a twin But...
Grandma Pearl wouldn't budge on talking about that because it "broke her heart," Mama says.
So "Betty never really knew," Sherry explains shaking her head indicating that it's a shame--such an in-need-of-mending quilt.
We try and work out the what-we've-heard with the factual evidence.
The twin died either by swallowing a button (which is what Pearl told Betty) or by "crib death" (another way Pearl put it, as Betty recalled later in her life).
So, we're looking for factual evidence from around the year 1927 (when Betty was born).
The US CENSUS 1930 paints a pale picture in this matter. In that year we find Pearl (age 26) and Ben is 32 years old. Two children are listed: Louise D and Betty J, ages 9 and 2
Official place of residence, Mannington, Marion, West Virginia
On paper, Pearl and Ben are still married.
As they are in another census account of themselves that same year, 1930.
US CENSUS 1930, Union, Kanawha, West Virginia
Household:
Head B C Wilson, male, 33 years old, born West Virginia
Wife Pearl Wilson, female, 26 years old, born West Virginia
