Friday's Faces from the Past - Birdie Talbert Krause

Birdie Talbert Krause

Birdie Talbert was born in Bienville Parish on August 30, 1898 to the marriage of Benjamin Harris Talbert and Mary Elizabeth Jones.

She came to Sicily Island in 1923 where she taught Home Economics in the newly constructed three-story school.  She taught the girls to sew on three treadle machines.  Cooking was taught on six two-eyed gas burners that were placed on tables.  The ovens, 12x12 inch metal boxes with doors, were set over the burners for baking purposes.

After arriving in Sicily Island, she met and married Oscar Krause.  Mrs. Birdie and Mr. Oscar never had children of their own.  However, when Mrs. Birdie's sister Benola passed away shortly after giving birth to a son, she and Mr. Oscar took their nephew and raised him as their own.  This nephew was Ben Westerburg.

Birdie Talbert Krause died on March 18, 1984 and is buried alongside her husband in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island.

Courtesy of FindAGrave member, Karen Klemm Pinckard

Below is a letter Mrs. Birdie wrote to my grandmother back in January of 1969.  In this letter, she mentions her neighbors, Vivian [Martin] Enright, Olga [Knight] Seal and Willie [Evans] Knight. She also mentions the birth of her first grandchild, Ben, Jr.

This letter was written while my grandmother was in the hospital and several months before she passed away.  She mentions me, my siblings and my father.  She also goes on to tell my grandmother that she loves her and reminisces about the good times they shared back in the early 1920s.  

Mrs. Birdie encourages my grandmother to get well and hurry home so that she can take her for a drive in her new Chevrolet Nova.

I often wonder if my grandmother ever recovered enough for Mrs. Birdie to take her for that drive.