One of the most prominent women of past decades was the wife of Senator
Carter M. Buford. The following story about her appeared in a
Jefferson City newspaper Feb. 14, 1915.
"The wife of Senator Carter M. Buford is essentially different from
most women of modern times, in that she is not a club woman. On her
calendar of life not a single club is registered. The Methodist
Church and the Masonic Order of the Eastern Star are the only
organizations she has ever joined.
"Her home and her church are paramount. To each she gives a
loyalty and love passing all else except that which she devotes to her
husband, of whom she is justly proud. She is not a society woman in
the sense in which we use the term society, yet a more hospitable home
cannot be found than Mrs. Buford's in Ellington. She keeps open
house the year round and yields to no one in love of companionship and
friends. She neither dances nor plays cards, yet, strange to say,
Mrs. Buford is happy and enjoys life as much as the most of us.
"She does not object to these things, but in the little town of
Ellington, where she lives, the church members do not dance or indulge in
cards. They regard these amusements as worldly and believe in being
"in the world but not of the world." They spend their time
on home and foreign missions and any other good work which their hands
find to do. Being in Rome, Mrs. Buford does as Rome does.
"She was educated at Marvin College in Fredericktown, Missouri.
Her maiden name was Carrie Copeland. Ellington, Reynolds County,
Mo., is her birthplace. Her grandfather was the first settler of
Reynolds County and was the largest land owner of that section. Her
father though scarcely a man of middle age, has achieved wonderful
success, both in banking and merchandise.
"Mrs. Buford is tall and slender. Her marriage to Senator
Carter M. Buford connected two of the oldest and most respected families
in Southeast Missouri. Senator Buford is serving his fifth term in
the Missouri Legislature and is president pro tem of the Senate. He
has distinguished himself as "the rising you man" of his county.
"A conversation with Mrs. Buford reveals her Southern descent, as she
has the "Loor soft voice," which Shakespeare says, "is an
excellent thing in a woman." She presides over the largest and
most handsome home in Southeast Missouri, and there is nothing she cannot
do, from preparing a meal "fit for a King" to darning the
children's stockings. To her is referred every question of household
economics and from her judgment there is no shadow of dissent. Her
home is famous for its widespread hospitality.
" All the politicians who come to Reynolds County to look after their
fences are invited to stop at the Buford home. When they have once
tasted of the good things to eat, which are always in great abundance on
her table and are made to feel at home by her genuine and unassuming
welcome, they always come back. In fact, they use her front porch
for a tostrum from which to deliver their political speeches and her large
and beautiful yard furnishes a comfortable place for the audience.
Last summer during the campaign, Senator William J. Stone and other
enjoyed the advantage of this attractive place to make their appeal to the
suffrage of the people. So in the years to come this front porch
will resound with the history of men prominent in Missouri.
"Mrs. Buford is not a politician, but she uses her superior talents
of house keeping and home-making to help her husband, by entertaining his
friends. Every good wife has her own individual way of furthering
her husband's plans and ambitions; this is Mrs. Buford's way, and it is
most effective, one which the gentlemen thoroughly appreciate. Mrs.
Buford enjoys her visits to the Senate, as well as the social side of her
life in Jefferson City where she has made many friends.
"If you were to ask her how she had rather spend her time and in what
she is the most interested, she would say with her boys, the eldest of
which is 13 years of age. She endeavors to instill into them the art
of right living and teaches them that the best doctors in the world are -
Doctor Quiet, Doctor Diet and Doctor Merryman. If a woman has three
boys to raise and train to make three good, useful men, as has Mrs.
Buford, what more could she wish to do or what more patriotic life could
she live."
Today Mrs. Buford spends much of her time tatting, crocheting and
knitting. Mrs. Buford has credits from the University of Missouri in
social welfare and did a very complete historical survey of Reynolds
County, which, unfortunately, burned at the time of the fire in the
Reynolds County Court House. She also, in her youth, took training
in nursing at Turo Infirmary Hospital in New Orleans.
She state her feeling that as long as her heart reflects, beauty, courage,
joy, and excitement she is young. She said she felt that it was only
when she felt that it was only when thinking becomes clouded with
pessimism and prevents one taking risks that one becomes old.
At 80, she still faces challenges and eagerly awaits each new day.
From
newspaper story
by
Kathryn Vickery
Reynolds
County Courier 1977
Ellington,
Missouri
