Undated Christmas card depicting Wilson’s Jackson Chapel First Missionary Baptist Church from Lula Mae Sutton Hayes, probably from the 1950s, found among the correspondence of my grandmother Hattie Henderson Ricks (1910-2001).

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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Joseph Sutton, 31, wife Mary Liza, 30, and children Lula M., 9, Collie L., 6, Amanda, 4, and Bessie E., 1.

In the 1920 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: on Finch Mill Road, tenant farmer Joseph B. Sutton, wife Malissa, and children Lula May, 19, a teacher, Carrol Lee, 16, Senoa, 13, Bessie, 11, Rosa Belle, 9, Beatrice, 7, James W., 5, Fredrick C., 2, and Levi J., 5 months.

In the 1930 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: farm laborer James Hays, 23; wife Lula M., 21, a schoolteacher; and sons Maris, 5, and Royland, 3.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 112 South Fourth Street, fish peddler James Hayes, 40; wife Lula, 39; sons Morris, 14, and Roland, 13.

Maurice Branch Hayes and Roland Esmon Hayes registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County as they reached their 18th birthdays. Both identified their mother Lula M. Hayes of 903 Viola Street as their contact person. Maurice worked as a busboy at Cherry Hotel and Roland at O’Brien Factory during tobacco season.

Lula Mae Hayes died 4 July 2007 in Newport News, Virginia, just shy of her 107th birthday.