Annie Grace Drake, was born Annie Mitchell Grace on 19 Dec 1858 in Alabama. Her parents were Dr. Frances Mitchell Grace and Mary Jane Borden.
Annie married three times in her life, outliving two of the three. At the age of 19 she married her first husband, Branham "Robert" Merrill Didlake. Their marriage lasted for just about 8 years before Annie became widowed at the young age of 28 in 1886. (Mr. Didlake is buried in the Mansfield Cemetery, De Soto Parish, Louisiana.) Not only was Annie a young widow, but she had three young children, Grace, the eldest, followed by Robert Francis, age 5, and Jeannie Hope, age 2, at the time of her husband's death.
After becoming a widow, Annie was an instructor for music and art at the Mansfield Women's College in Mansfield, Louisiana where her father, Dr. Frances Mitchell Grace was the president. One year, a senior student at the school, Helen Compton Cooper, insisted that Annie come home with her since she was finished with school. Helen adored Annie so much, she just couldn't bear to part ways with her. Surprisingly, Annie agreed to go back home with Helen to Bunkie, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, where Helen lived with her parents, Mr. Silas Hemphill and Mary McCoy Cooper.
Helen Cooper had an older half-brother, Lovatt Francis Burges, with which Annie became acquainted with upon her arrival in Bunkie. Annie and Lovatt married in April of 1890 at New Orleans, Louisiana. Annie and Lovatt had two children together, Austin Earle and Mary Dunwoody. Sadly, Lovatt passed away in 1896, when their children were coincidentally the same ages as Annie's two older Didlake children when their father passed away, Austin Earl was 5 and Mary Dunwoody was 2 years old. At this point in Annie's life, she was widowed for the second time, and the single mother of four children ages ranging between 2 and 15.
In 1896, the same year as Lovatt's death, the book, "William O'Neal; or, The Man Who Sold His Wife," was published. This book is very important, as Annie was the ghostwriter who assisted Mr. O'Neal in writing the story of his life; his act of buying his wife out of slavery, and later thrice buying himself out of slavery, due to the chicanery of his master, in his first two attempts.
Census records from 1900 indicate that Annie was living as a boarder in a house with many others unrelated to her in Moulton, Lawrence County Alabama. The only child of hers listed to be living there was Mary Dunwoody Burges. At some time between 1900 and 1906 she met and married her 3rd husband Claud Flewellyn Drake. They married at Moulton, Alabama at the home of Annie's uncle and aunt, Col. and Mrs. Kirk Wallace.
Two of Annie's three children, from her first husband, Robert Didlake, Jeannie Hope and Robert Francis, preceded Annie in death, both in 1907 of Tuberculosis. This must have been quite devastating to Annie and the family. Jeannie and Robert are both buried in the Old City Cemetery, Greenwood, Texas.
Pictured in the photo to the left: Jeannie Hope Didlake, Annie Grace's 2nd eldest daughter, on her horse in Bunkie, Louisiana in front of the Bunkie Art-Parlor, this was taken the same year as her death.
The photo above shows all of the Didlake children:
(from left to right) Robert Francis, Jeannie Hope, and Grace Sevier.
On 2 Jan 1918, it was announced in a local newspaper that Mrs. Annie Grace Drake purchased a home in Weatherford, Texas where she looked forward to keeping her permanent residence. The home was located at the corner of Elm and East Oak Streets and was purchased for $1500.00.Annie enjoyed being a writer and won several local awards for her poetry and other writings. She was the member of a writing club in Dallas, United Daughters of the Confederacy, as well as other civic organizations.
This time, Annie preceded her husband in death, on 20 Mar 1927, she was 68 years old. Her husband, Mr. Drake, lived a widower, until the time of his death 1 July 1943, at the age of 78. He is buried in the City Greenwood Cemetery next to his father James R. Drake.
Austin Earle Burges and Mary Dunwoody Burges, Annie's 4th and 5th children, spent most of their adult lives in Texas. Austin and his wife are buried in Jacksonville City Cemetery, Jacksonville, Cherokee County, Texas. Mary Dunwoody Burges (Wier) is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery, Dallas, Texas.
Mary, "Dunwoody" as she preferred to be called, adored her mother greatly and spoke highly of her in an Oral History recording/transcription coordinated by Sue Lyles Eakin, about Dunwoody's life. Recorded on 10 Nov 1970, the recording and transcription is currently available through the University of Kentucky's library system.
