1892 – Ruth E. Hendricks

From past blogs and archives if you’ve been following me you’ve seen the photos before but I want to honor and remember an important person in my life who influenced what I do most days. Knit!

Honoring my paternal Grandmother born on February 7, 1892

Heritage

Ben H at WordPress says “This week, share a photo of something that says “heritage” to you. It can be from your own family or culture — a library, a work of public art, a place of worship, an object passed down to you from previous generations.”

Mary Alta Kerr Hendricks my paternal grandmother. Farmersville, Illinois. She taught me to knit when I was four years old.

She knit the Afghan and made the quilt. She’d tat snd crochet, too. I held the quilt to the window so the light could show how beautifully it is pieced and hand stitched.

My father Roy J. Hendricks is the boy standing on the left. Uncle Alan Hendricks is the baby on my grandmother’s lap. My grandfather is standing, Floyd Merle Hendricks.

From 3 years ago post

Mary Alta Kerr Hendricks, my paternal grandmother, was born in 1892 She went by the name Alta. When my father was born they lived in Farmersville, Illinois. One summer my brother and I stayed with our grandparents and she taught me to knit. It was yellow yarn is straight aluminum needles. They were red. I was four years old.

This is just from the time she resided in a Nursing Care Center in Taylorville, Illinois. My grandmother kept a list of the afghans and shawls she knit for others during this period of her life.
Written inside the cover of her copy of The Book of Common Prayer.

Great grandson **Shawn Hendricks** posted a photo of this tag found on his father’s (John) Afghan

1973 photograph of me in the middle, my grandmother on the right and Aunt Vesta Kent on the left. Morrisonville, Illinois.

February 6, 2025 by Ruth Categories: PhotographyTags: 1892, ancestor, birthday, family, grsndmother, knitting, photography, postaday, quilting 20 Comments

Mary Alta Kerr Hendricks, my paternal grandmother, was born 130 years ago. She went by the name Alta. When my father was born they lived in Farmersville, Illinois. One summer my brother and I stayed with our grandparents and she taught me to knit. I was four years old.

This is just from the time she resided in a Nursing Care Center in Taylorville, Illinois. My grandmother kept a list of the afghans and shawls she knit for others during this period of her life.
Written inside the cover of her copy of The Book of Common Prayer.

Heritage from a post. May 2017. Ben H at WordPress says “This week, share a photo of something that says “heritage” to you. It can be from your own family or culture — a library, a work of public art, a place of worship, an object passed down to you from previous generations.”

I held the quilt to the window so the light could show how beautifully it is pieced and stitched.

She knit the blue Afghan and handstitched the quilt. She could tat and crochet, too. Made egg noodles and hung to dry on a broom stick.

My father **Roy J. Hendricks** (b. 1912) is the boy standing on the left. Uncle **Alan Ray Hendricks**(b.1916) is the baby on my grandmother’s lap. My grandfather is standing, **Floyd Merle Hendricks**.

Mary Alta on the left , Sarah and Will Kerr in Illinois

Here’s another post for Throwback Thursday

My paternal grandmother, Mary Alta Kerr, born February 7, 1892 and her brother and sister. I need to do more research, dig around in a box, to get info on her siblings details. I know she called her sister “Sis”.

This is the grandmother who taught me to knit when I was little. No date on the photo. She looks to be 5 or 6? Maybe 1900-1901?

Mary Alta Kerr Hendricks passed March 13,1979 and is buried in Morrisonville, Illinois.