Ruth Blackstock Moffett was my aunt, my father's oldest sister. She was the daughter of James Ervin Blackstock and Mattie Lou Hightower. Raised in Lincoln parish, Ruth married Thomas Ashby Moffett, Jr. decendent of a Lincoln parish pioneer family.

Aunt Ruth was a free spirit, a self-taught horticulturist and amazing painter. Her specialty in painting was magnolias, one of her favorite plants. Anytime we went anywhere, Aunt Ruth would lead the nature walk and of course, she'd come back through the woods with several native plant cuttings. And we'd all get a lesson the history and proper names of the flora and fauna we'd encounter. Her mother, Mattie Lou, was also a plant enthusiast and it has been interesting to see how the love of nature and plants have been passed along to their decendents. Always an experimenter with nature, one of my favorite stories was when Aunt Ruth placed a jar of jelly in my hand on a visit to her home in Farmerville, Louisiana. She said she'd made the jelly from a poisonous cactus, but not to worry, "I've neutralized the poison. (pause) I think." Well, that jar of jelly did stay unoopened for many years. None of us were brave enough to find out if she had indeed succeed in neutralizing the poison during the canning process.

Her disposition was warm, loving, all of us kids would come away from a visit feeling better about ourselves. She would say we were true Louisiana girls with Spanish moss for hair and swamp water for blood! One of my first memories was heading to South Louisiana to fetch Ruth and her family when Hurricane Betsy hit the southern Louisiana coast. I remember a big hug and stating the first thing she grabbed was a photo of my sister and me. I'm sure that wasn't true, but she had that way of making you feel important.

Ruth and T.A. had one daughter, Mary Ruth Moffett Tam. Mary Ruth and her husband Bobby along with their children, Laura, Leslie and Stephen would take care of Ruth after T.A.'s death in 1979 in Olla, Louisiana.