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Mom
Beck
Real-life model for the characters in
Annie Fellows Johnston's "Little Colonel" series
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Mom Beck with the "Little Colonel
ca 1895-1900"
Her real name was Rebecca
Porter. She died on May 9, 1921 at the home of her son at 634
South Fifteenth Street in Louisville. On May 10, 1921, The
Courier-Journal, eulogized this "elderly Negro woman" as
"beloved counselor and confidant of the
'Little Colonel.' Thousands who never saw her will mourn her
death....the Negro woman was one of the best loved characters in the
series....."
Annie Fellows Johnston acknowledged that among
her scores of letters a week inquiring about the "reality of the
characters" she always had inquiries about Mom Beck. She had
been able to answer and assure them that Mom Beck was real and still
alive.
Mom Beck, who was also part
Indian, was born a slave, and before the Civil War was owned by the
Conways of Virginia. She spent most of her later life in Pewee (Lloydsboro)
Valley.
Read more
from the newspapers at the time of Mom Beck's passing. |
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Mom Beck in 1904 |
"Mom" was Part
Indian
Mom Beck, The Little Colonel's nurse in the books, was actually
Hallie Burge Jacob's nurse. "She was very aristocratic," Mrs.
Jacob tells you. "Part Indian. She ruled the whole family-- in
fact, she was the only human being Poppa was afraid of!"
Mom Beck got her name because Hallie called both her old Negro
mammy and Mrs. Burge "Momma." Mrs. Burge stood it as long as she
could, then decided the time had come for her to put her foot
down. "You can't keep calling us both "Momma," she told her
daughter. So the colored woman had to be called something else.
Hallie dubbed her "Mom Beck."
Hallie Burge must have been somewhat of a terror herself. Mom
Beck kept a twig always handy to switch Hallie when she was bad.
"But let Momma spank me," she said, "and Mom Beck wouldn't eat
for three days!" She and the child would walk all over Pewee--
Mom Beck carrying Hallie on her back -- just as she carried "The
Little Colonel" in Mrs. Johnston's books.
from an
article titled
The Naming of a
Book
by Hamilton Howard
Louisville
Courier-Journal,
September 11, 1943
Click here to read more of the article
Virginia Kaye, seated on the lap of Rebecca Porter (Mom Beck in
the “Little Colonel” stories)
played the part of Little Colonel
Lloyd Sherman in this official “Little Colonel Series”
photo
taken by Kate Matthews.
Mom Beck, The Walton's and the Little Colonel at a tea at
Clovercroft
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" Elsewhere:
The Cuckoo's Nest (Indiana),
Lee's Ranch,
Camelback Mountain &
Hole-in-Rock (Arizona),
San Antonio and
The Little Town of Bauer (Boerne),
Texas,
The Gate of the Giant Scissors (France)
Letters from Annie
Fellows Johnston and "Mrs Walton"
Scrapbook
Links
Cooking with The Little Colonel
Guest Book
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best to answer your questions.. Much of the material included on
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Home Page
Rooms Page
Annie Fellows Johnston
Room The East
Room The
President's Room
The Little Colonel Suite
The Knights of Kentucky
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Suite
History
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Kentucky Derby
General Henry W.
Lawton
The Samuel
Culbertson Mansion
"Home of the Two Little Knights of Kentucky"
1432 S. Third Street
Louisville, KY 40208
(502) 634-3100
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original material & research ©
1998-2007 LittleColonel.com
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