 Betty
"Elizabeth Lloyd Lewis"
Miss Betty Matthews in real life,
later
in life, Mrs. Robert Feagin of Macon, GA
Betty, actually stayed a
year in Lloydsborough (Pewee) Valley, and her real-life ability to write
poetry immediately endeared her to Annie Fellows Johnston. During the
time the real-life Elizabeth Matthews was in the area, her father,
Gustavus Matthews, wrote for The
Courier-Journal in nearby Louisville. Yet the character,
"Betty," in the Little Colonel books is a composite
character. Physically, she
is Betty
Matthews, niece of Kate
Matthews, photographer of the Little Colonel stories.
The photograph at the right was taken by Kate.
We first meet Betty
in The Little Colonel's House Party
(1900), Chapter 2
However, for the events of the stories, Betty
is partly the author herself, as most who read the entire series will
suspect. Many of the incidents told of Betty are from Mrs. Johnston's
own experiences as a girl. A notable example is the
old
church and its little library from The Little Colonel's Holidays.
This relates a true memory from Annie Fellows Johnston's childhood.
Annie Fellows Johnston thus
was once quoted as saying that of all the characters, Betty was
"the most real in the books."
|
From an original photo courtesy of the
Bagby Family.
(It's certainly not hard to see here why Jack Ware was crazy about her) |
A photo by Kate Matthews |
|
Photo of Betty at
Christmas at
Twigmore, about 1950
See our Kate Matthew's page for the complete photo |
|
Betty
doing a re-enactment of the famous picture
(top of page) taken of her decades earlier
(The University of
Louisville Ekstrom Library has the original print in their Kate
Matthews collection and a clear scan on their Kate Matthews website
at
http://library.louisville.edu/ekstrom/special/km/page_05.htm) |
Gustavus
(Kate Matthews' brother) was the oldest boy of the Matthews
children. He wrote for the Louisville Courier-Journal before
leaving Kentucky. Matthews married Helen F. from Ohio.
They had 5 daughters:
-
Felice M.(1882-1965) or "Aunt
Fliss" who married Ferd Guttenberger (died in 1945) and
never had children. She died in Macon.
-
Mary B (1884-1965)
-
Elizabeth (1886-1958),
aka Betty or "Aunt Bet" married Robert Feagin
(1877-1918) around 1910, and had three children, Robert R. (b.
1912), Elizabeth Matthews (b. 1914) and Virginia M (b.
1916). Betty died in Macon, Georgia where her three children
lived.
-
Alice C. (1888-1984) married
Pope Furman Brock in 1921, and had two children, Pope F.,
Jr. (b 1923) and Mary J. (b. 1925)
-
Lillian F. (1890-?), married
Charles Edward Crawford and had one child, Neil L (b. 1918)
Many thanks to Susan Finley, University of
Louisville, for putting together the Matthews genealogical information
This Site:
Home Page
What's New? Biography of Annie Fellows
Johnston,
Books on Line (Complete
Original Little Colonel Book Series)
The Little Colonel (link to U. Penn))
The
Giant Scissors
Two Little
Knights of Kentucky
The Little Colonel's
House Party
The Little Colonel's
Holidays
The Little Colonel's Hero
The Little Colonel
at Boarding-School
The Little Colonel in
Arizona
The Little
Colonel's Christmas Vacation
The Little Colonel, Maid of
Honor
The Little Colonel's
Knight Comes Riding
Mary Ware, The Little Colonel's
Chum
Mary Ware in Texas
Mary Ware's Promised Land
Check our home page for more titles by AFJ on other sites
The People & Characters:
The Little Colonel, Papa
Jack and Mrs. Sherman, The
Old Colonel, Two Little
Knights of Kentucky,
Two Little Knights of Kentucky(2),
Uncle Sidney & Aunt
Elise, parents of the Two Little Knights of Kentucky,
Grandmother McIntyre,
Aunt Allison, The
Waltons, Rob and Anna
Moore, Betty,
Joyce Ware,
Jack Ware, Mom Beck,
Walker, Katherine Marks,
Gay Melville,
The Lees of Arizona,
Small Parts
Their Final Resting Places
The Places: In Pewee (Lloydsboro) Valley:
Map,
Map 2,
Where it all began, The Locust,
The Beeches
Edgewood,
The Little Colonel's Cottage,
The Railroad Station,
"Lloydsboro Seminary",
Clovercroft, The
Post Office, Churches,
The Haunted House at Hartwell Hollow,
Confederate Home
Rollington,
Minor Places In Old Louisville:
The Culbertson
Mansion, "Home of a Hero"
in Indiana::
The Cuckoo's Nest (Indiana), In Arizona:
Lee's Ranch,
Camelback Mountain &
Hole-in-Rock, In Texas:
San Antonio,
The Little Town of Bauer (Boerne),
Penacres,
The Barnaby Ranch,
In France:
The Gate of the Giant Scissors
Letters from Annie
Fellows Johnston and "Mrs Walton"
Scrapbook
Links
Cooking with The Little Colonel
Guest Book
Email us about this site
We always appreciate your suggestions and insights, and will do our
best to answer your questions.. Much of the material included on
this site comes from devoted Little Colonel Fans like you.
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