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- Birth: Sep. 27, 1884
Cocke County
Tennessee, USA
Death: Apr. 11, 1931
Greeneville
Greene County
Tennessee, USA
Although I was privileged to share a half century with my maternal grandparents, I never had the honor of knowing my paternal grandparents, Tom Bryant and Dollie Allen. (I do remember my step-grandfather, Campbell Gray, whom Dollie married after Tom died.)
Only recently did I begin serious research on this side of my family, unfortunately after the passing of my father and his siblings robbed me of firsthand resources. I do have recollections of my father's references to his parents' death while he was still a boy. I've heard him and his sisters speak so enduringly of their mother.
Dollie Allen (her name at birth was Frances Sophronia) was born in 1884 in the English Creek Community of Cocke County, Tenn., a daughter of Jim Allen and Matilda Finchum. She married Thomas Nelson Bryant, son of Ananias Bryant and Sarah Sisk. Tom and Dollie lived at the old Ananias Bryant home place, which was owned by Jim Breeden and his wife Cordelia Bryant, Tom's sister. Tom and Dollie had 8 children, all living into their 70s and 80s and one (Seattle) to 96., in contrast to their parents' early deaths.
Tom died, age 46, of pneumonia. Dollie became a 41-year-old widow with 8 children, ages 2 (Ed) through 19 (Bart). Bart and Rene, 17, had already married and left home. Dollie and her younger children moved to the Eastport section of Newport.
Two years after Tom's death, Dollie married Campbell Gray. They had a son, "Junior," who died before his 2nd birthday.
Dollie had suffered from a chronic bowel disorder (possibly Crohn's Disease, which has afflicted other family members). After an extended illness and stay in a Greeneville hospital, she died at age 46.
Rene and Viola, who were married when their mother died, took in their teenage sisters, Beulah, Seattle and Ann. Ed (8) and James (10) moved in with their older brother Bart and his wife, Hassie.
Dollie's siblings included these sisters: Susan (Mrs. Sam Gregory), Kate (Mrs. Tom Bradley), Vade (Mrs. Eugene Corum) and Minnie (Mrs. Lewis Holt). Her brothers were Russell (half-brother), Alex and John. Dollie's obituary (inserted above in the column to the right) lists Jim Jr., who was in Oregon at the time of her death.
---Gene Bryant
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