OCEA DELRAY WADE

Aunt Ocea was the third oldest child of W. D. and Jane Owen Wade. She married one of the sons of John Hart III, Confederate War Veteran. The Hart farm joined the Wade farm on the south side and the two houses were less than one mile apart as the crow flies.



Ocea and Charlie had four children, the oldest of which was Paul. Pauline Marquis Hart, who resides in Michigan, provided the following:

Memories of Ocea Delray Wade (Hart) by Alna Pauline Marquis (Hart)

Born December 13, 1885

Married Charlie Gillespie Hart December 19, 1905

I was her first grandchild. She wanted me to be born on her birth date, but I missed it by two days. My son Charles was the first great grandchild.

Every Christmas we would go to her house for dinner along with her two sons and two daughters. In the corner of her four room house was the most beautiful Christmas tree. It was fairy like with a wonderful assortment of ornaments. On Christmas day her greeting was “Christmas Gift” to all that entered her home.

Christmas dinner in 1945 consisted of a 30 pound turkey that was so large she didn’t have a cooking pan big enough to bake it in. So, she cleaned out a baby bath tub to roast the turkey. Her cook stove was a very large cast iron stove.

Her biscuits were hand formed and always came out of the oven white rather than brown, but they were fully cooked. I could never duplicate that.

She lived at 105 Martin Road in North Chattanooga for more than 50 years. Her sister, Corda, lived directly across the road and in their latter years they would tell each other how much they loved one another before retiring for the night.

I used to play hooky from school at her house.

She loved to quilt. She had a quilting frame in her garage. She and Corda spent many hours quilting. I have one of her quilts.

She planted a flower garden for me in her back yard. One of the flowers was a “Japanese Iris”. Seeing that we were at war then, I asked her if I could rename them to “Korean Iris’” she said of course.

We visited her every Mother’s Day. She had a swing on her front porch that I really enjoyed.

We had many conversations and I shared many secrets with her while going up, she never breached the confidence.

She had naturally wavy brown hair and dark brown eyes. She may have looked very stern but was a very happy and joyful person. Her laugh was beautiful and magical.

She passed away on her wedding anniversary, but I can’t remember the year.

Alna Pauline Marquis Hart