[Theodore Fontaine Stewart]
Interview with Theodore Fontaine Stewart
—Gertha Couric, [HW: Eufaula]
US GWINE 'ER WALK DEM GOLD STREETS
"De years are mighty long widout Lottie, Massa. She done gone on to de promise; but I knows she wid Jesus. And us gwine 'er walk dem golden streets together holdin' hands."
Uncle Theodore Fontaine Stewart lives alone in a weather-beaten, one-room Eufaula shanty. It is clean and surrounded by flowers. In the rear is a small garden; and there you will find Uncle Stewart when the dawn is fresh or the dusk is coolly approaching.
"Lottie been gone away nigh onto twenty-two year now, Massa. Her was a good woman; one of de best de Lord ever sont to de earth."
He paused to think when the interviewer asked his age.
"It hard fer me to tell 'bout dat," he said, "but I knows I'se well past de ninety mark. I guess I'se gwine on a hundred, caze I was borned 'fore de war an' was a right peart boy at de surrender."
"What about slavery times, Uncle Stewart?"
He mused a moment, his black fingers gently caressing the buttons on his rust-colored old vest.