Scott, Alma Barnes

Alma Catherine Barnes Scott

Alma was born and reared on her family's small farm in Wilson County and attended St. Mary's School between Lucama and Kenly, NC. As the oldest girl in a large family she helped her parents care for her younger siblings, preparing her to be a loving mother herself. Though lacking much formal education, as an adult she was always the primary bookkeeper for the family's farming operations.

Alma worked side by side with her husband, Robert Exum Scott, on the family farm. Often, this meant taking an infant or small child, who was confined in a homemade, screened playpen, to the field or tobacco barn as she helped chop, sucker, barn, or grade tobacco. As their children grew older, at about six years of age, she instructed them in the mechanics of various farm chores.

In the summer after a day's work, Alma prepared supper, got the children to bed and stayed up long hours canning, pickling, and preserving vegetables from the family's garden. She would rise early the next morning in order to get breakfast and dinner (lunch) cooked in advance so she could be at the tobacco barn or field when the other workers arrived. In the early years of her marriage, the cooking was done on a wood stove. She laundered the clothes on a wringer washer and hung them out to dry. On Saturday nights she stayed up ironing past midnight.

During the winter, Alma made quilts to keep the family warm and helped with the slaughtering of hogs for food. She also milked the family's cow that provided fresh milk from which she could make butter and the buttermilk for her delicious biscuits. She sewed clothing, sometimes from feed sacks, for her children.

As the years passed, the farm acreage increased and the family added other farm ventures. Alma and Exum began raising poultry for egg production. Alma handled most of the day to day work associated with the poultry: collecting eggs, vaccinating the chickens, and washing, grading and crating the eggs. Later the family replaced poultry with swine, which the family housed in concrete floored buildings. Again, Alma provided much of the labor required for this venture. She helped feed and water the hogs, gave vaccinations, clipped their tails and other jobs as needed.

Though Alma spent much of her time working on the Farm, she found time to contribute to the community She was one of the original members of the St. Mary's Homemakers' Club and was its treasurer for many years. She helped with the Wilson County Livestock Show and Sale by making her delicious divinity or pecan kisses to be sold as a fund raiser. She was a member of the St. Mary's School Parent Teacher Association, and helped with community quilting parties and tobacco tyings. After Exum's death in 1983, she was able to spend more time visiting shut-ins, especially friends and neighbors in nursing homes. She also volunteered many hours of her time at the Tobacco Farm Life Museum.

Alma was a devout Primitive Baptist and was an active member of the Pittman Grove Primitive Baptist Church. She loved attending church services and could be found sitting among the congregation of her home church or at one of its associate member churches most Sundays; staying home only when she was too ill to attend.

Of all activities, Alma most enjoyed reading her Bible, which she did until she became blind near the end of her life. She enjoyed needlework and quilting, the pieces now being displayed with pride in the homes of her children. Alma enjoyed flowers, especially snapdragons and petunias. In this world she became one of its most beautiful flowers, a rose like none other.


Alma was married to Robert Exum Scott (9/7/1918 — 12/15/1983) of Wilson County on December 30,1939. They were the parents of five children: Janice Ann Scott Ford, Joseph Franklin Scott, Carol Jane Scott Stone, Frances Kay Scott Southerland, and Robert Exum Scott, Jr. They were the grandparents of nine grandchildren: Lori Susan Ford Taylor, Lisa Dawn Ford Smith, Joseph Franklin

Siblings
"Baby boy" Barnes (Born and Died 12 —1912) Allen Raymond Barnes (Born 11/26/1913), Roland Elwood Barnes (6/6/1916 — 10/28/1995), Annie Doris Barnes (Born 7/12/1921), Joseph Edwin Barnes (7/26/1923 — 7/1989), Sallie Mae Barnes (3/19/1925 — 1996), Johnnie Delon Barnes (9/1/1927 — 7/30/1928), Odis Ellsworth Barnes (11/3/1929 — 5/8/1981), Katie Fay Barnes (10/15/1931 — 10/1932), William Randolph Barnes (10/9/1933), Agnes Lenora Barnes (6/1/1937)