Fannie Bell (or Belle) Worley was born July 2, 1877 in Hardin County, Tennessee. She was the youngest child of Isaac Perry Worley and Martha Ann Covey Worley. She had 4 older sisters (Margaret E., Hester R., Sarah Rebecca and Mary Callie. Her father died in December of 1879 and shortly after that, her mother moved the family to Lowes Creek, Franklin County, Arkansas. Her widowed grandfather, Archibald Downing Covey lived with them there. Her mother died in 1885 and after her sister Sarah Rebecca (Sallie) married James Preston Moore, Bell came to Barber, Arkansas to live with them. She walked 2 miles every day to attend the school at Pine Log. As Bell recalls her youth she tells of one day when she lost interest in learning the ABC's she slipped out of the room and the teacher found her outside catching doodlebugs. She also tells of a time when she was 6 years old that she saw a herd of sheep going through to Webb City and she marveled at a big dog keeping the sheep in the road for the men on their horses. She grew up on a 160 acre farm. The family only had coal oil lamps for lighting and telephones were a rarity. She was a big girl before she ever saw an automobile or a train. Any visitors that the family received, mostly doctors, came to their house either on horseback or in a buggy. The Rock Island railroad train was the first train that she ever saw. Fannie Bell married Benjamin Allen Moore, a younger brother to James Preston Moore, on November 26, 1893 in Scott County, Arkansas when she was 16 years old,. They were the parents of 7 children: Dora Etta (1894-1976), Perry Burnell (1896-1960), Esther Mae (1898-1979), Leonard 'B' (1900-1987), Stella Lee (1903-1997), Nellie Jane (1905-1987) and a Stillborn Baby (1912). Bell drove to Lucas or Barber churches in a mule-drawn buggy. Her favorite mule was "Tobe" but one day he died while pulling the buggy and he fell right out of the harness. She said "I remember my husband hated to tell me about old Tobe". He said the reason for that was "because you think more of that old mule than you do of me". I remember answering, "Well, he minds me better". They always thought that Tobe had a heart attack. Bell worked a lot in the fields hoeing cotton and corn. After Ben died in 1940 she rented her land for 'standing rent' or a fixed amount of money and she bought a home in Mansfield, Arkansas. She later married William Homer Kimes on 7 October 1941 in Scott County, Arkansas. They lived in south Mansfield in a humble little cottage with roses 'round the door', a garden to the north and chickens in the back yard. At the age of 79 in a newspaper interview with her, she was described as a dainty, smiling little silver-haired personality of 79 summers, the gateway to joy. She had many hobbies among which were making ornamental dolls, quilts, baskets out of Christmas and Easter cards, crocheting hot pads around fruit jar rings, crocheting bottle tops and making a grape design, and making monkeys out of cotton socks. Her husband William said that her best hobby is "cooking the best biscuits you ever tasted". She always made time to visit the sick and invalids in her neighborhood and she would often take a hobby gift to them. William passed away in 1960 leaving Belle alone once more, but she was never idle and even at 90 years of age, she was still using a rub board for washing her clothes. She passed away April 15, 1968 in Mansfield, Sebastian. County, Arkansas and is buried in the Pine Log Cemetery.
(Some biography information taken from 2 newspaper articles written about her when she was 79 and then again when she was 90 years of age)