From the files of Legacy Keeper Donna Thompson.
Emma Springfield was born 28 December 1866 in Lamar County, Alabama and died at 5 o’clock a.m. on 27 October, 1947 at her home near Vernon, Alabama. She married James Marshall Sanders on 23 December 1888. Emma, the ninth child of Thomas W. and Emily C. Woods Springfield was a school teacher. She received a third grade Teachers Certificate in 1887 and taught school for a while in an old one-room house called the “Sealy”house, which was located in front of the house George Harrison Sanders built, now called the Asa McCarver house and owned by Dan and Linda Pennington. Emma’s husband, James Marshall Sanders, built small wooden benches for the children to sit on. She also taught some in her home. Some of her students (ca. 1900-1910) were: Ora Cook (Jordan), Wilma Cook (Davis), Jeff Finch, Audie Finch, Donie(?) Williams, and of course, some of her own children. She taught her husband to read and write after they married. She was a community news correspondent to the local newspaper in Vernon, The Courier. She wrote poems, one of which was set to music and published. Emma was a very religious person with strong convictions.
Emma was the mother of six children who lived to adulthood. These were Clara, Lessie, Myra, Kent, Kelly, and Prentice. She also had one child, Reginald, who died young.
See the Sanders Siblings on the Sanders main menu item for the life stories of her children.
