ELIZABETH CAROLINE HAWES MILLER POPAS HAZLIP

AAFA #0358

1924 LA – 2000 MS

 

Elizabeth Hazlip at the 1994 AAFA Meeting in Richmond, VA

 

Uncaptioned photo posted to her Find A Grave memorial

by her niece Cecilia Harris Gossman (1932–2017)

 

 

COPIAH COUNTY COURIER

Hazlehurst, Copiah Co., MS—Wednesday, 25 October 2000

 

            Elizabeth Caroline Hawes Hazlip, 75, of Hazlehurst, died Thursday, Oct. 19, 2000, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. Services were held Saturday, Oct. 21, from Stringer Funeral Home Chapel with interment in Hazlehurst Cemetery….

            She was born in Ferriday [Concordia Parish], LA, on Nov. 6, 1924 and moved to Hazlehurst as a child in 1933. She was an avid genealogist and a retired telephone operator of South Central Bell.

            She was preceded in death by her mother Cicilia Demolliens Hawes, father Newton Edgar Hawes and sister Dorothy Hawes Channell.

            Survivors include: daughter, Cicilia I. Papas of Hazlehurst; brothers, John Thomas “J.T.” Hawes of Hazlehurst and Cecil Newton Hawes of Poulsbo, WA; and one granddaughter.

            Memorials may be made to the George W. Covington Memorial Library genealogy room in Hazlehurst.

 

The following letter was printed with the obituary, but the author’s name was missing:

 

            Saturday morning I said my final goodbye to Elizabeth Hazlip. We were more than schoolmates, we were friends.

            She could do anything if she made up her mind. She was a telephone operator for many years, and when she retired what did she do....got another job.

            Later, most of her time was spent on genealogy. Most days you would see her car or truck parked at the Court House or Library.

            She enjoyed the Alford reunion and tried to go each time. She had just returned from the reunion when she got sick.

            I’ll miss her calls, visits and gifts she had selected for me, but I know she is in a better place. Farewell my friend, and “May God Bless.”

 

Photo from Hazlehurst Cemetery, Hazlehurst, Copiah Co., MS—www.findagrave.com

Permission granted by the photographer, Charline Herring Ryan

 

AAFA NOTES: SSDI records confirm the birth and death dates of Elizabeth H. Hazlip (SS# issued in MS), last residence Hazlehurst, Copiah Co., MS.

            Elizabeth married (1) Woodie Newton Miller, Jr.; (2) George Kostalinos Popas; and (3) John Wesley Hazlip.

            From SSACI: Elizabeth Caroline Hawes was born 6 Nov 1924 in Ferriday, LA, daughter of Newton E. Hawes and Cicilia I. Demolliens. Her name is listed as:

 

            1937    Elizabeth Caroline Hawes

            1943    Elizabeth Hawes Miller

            1958    Elizabeth Hawes Papas

            1968    Elizabeth Hawes Hazlip

            2000    Elizabeth H. Hazlip

 

            When Elizabeth provided her lineage to AAFA, she spelled her mother’s name Demollien and her second husband’s name Popas.

            Gil Alford’s memories of Elizabeth:

 

            I cannot let this great lady’s “In Remembrance” go without contributing some personal comments about her. She was truly an extraordinary person. I first heard from her in November 1983 when she wrote to subscribe to my “About Alfords” newsletter. She followed-up with a letter in February 1984 in which her final paragraph was “Will it help if I made copies of the Alfords in the 1850 Copiah County, Miss. census or let me know what I might do here to help.” She never quit helping until she fell off that back porch and sustained the injury that led to her death. With that letter she enclosed her typed pedigree—about 18 inches by 22 inches. Her name was not Alford, but she had Alford blood, going back to her great-great-grandmother Miranda L. Alford born in North Carolina who moved to Mississippi with some of her parents.

            We corresponded and exchanged information for the next several years, and of course she joined AAFA. I had never seen her or talked to her on the phone. When we attended the 1991 AAFA meeting in Raleigh, it was our (Mary and Me) good fortune to wind up sitting with Elizabeth and her friend Dora. As we sat down I realized who I was with. She had a most distinctive voice and accent. I’ve often said that she sounded like a female Jerry Clower. But she was funnier than he was. I think I never sat through a meal in which I laughed as much as I did at this first meeting with Elizabeth. She started calling soon after that and when I’d answer the phone she would say “This is Elizabeth!” reminding me of Ray Stevens in his classic “It’s Me Again. Margaret.”

            But Elizabeth was not just all fun. She did genealogical research professionally in the area, and she attended a highly regarded genealogical training session annually in Alabama. During our dinner in Raleigh we talked about how she might best serve AAFA. One of the jobs open at the time was “publicist” and that is where she fit like a glove. She did not have or use a computer but each year we would work together and create a press release and a flyer or graphic meeting announcement. She would mail these to newspapers, libraries, societies and columnists. We offered to prepare mailing labels for her but she refused saying that she thought they would get more attention if they were handwritten—and what a distinctive hand she did have.

            When folks would write to the Copiah Co. courthouse for information, they would turn the letters over to Elizabeth. She told me that in all her responses she would slip in something about AAFA just in case.

            I don’t have all of them, but she kept meticulous records of what she did and sent bills to Doris, our treasurer for reimbursement. The following are some excerpts from her reports to Doris:

      March 1995: “Enclosed is receipt for postage stamps, $86.40, for genealogical societies in eight states, total 267, States - Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky.” (Each year we would confer to determine the states she would address depending upon the state in which we were meeting.)

      May 1995, “Enclosed is receipt for postage for mailing news releases and poster to genealogical columnists in eight states, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. These were mailed 15 May 1995. Copies of mailing list can be obtained if necessary for cost of copies. Through these genealogical columns this information will be received in other states as well. At present, I am in the process of addressing and stuffing envelopes with the Alford News Release. These will be mailed to all of the newspapers in Alabama and to all the weekly newspapers in the other seven states, probably the first part of July.”

            I know for a fact that this effort was productive. I received letters and phone calls from folks frequently. People turned up at meetings and reported that they had seen something in the paper. The last one was in Augusta just before she died.

            The last thing I remember about Elizabeth is the three grocery bags filled with little amusing door prizes—all wrapped so pretty—that she brought to the Augusta 2000 meeting for AAFA to give away. She seemed to especially enjoy these when the person doing the drawing was one of our child members.

            She did the publicity for almost ten years. Most folks blame our drop in meeting attendance to nine-eleven and the high cost of gas. I blame it on the death of Elizabeth Hazlip.

 

            Her lineage, beginning with a great-great-grandmother: Miranda Loretta 1815 NC⁵, James 1764 NC⁶, Jacob 1738 VA⁷, Lodwick 1710 VA⁸, James 1687 VA⁹.