The “Aunts & Uncles” series of biographical sketches are Artificial Intelligence (AI) compiled narratives of selected individuals from my Genealogical database. The selected AI will used the RootsMagic Individual Summary from my Genealogical Software, Roots Magic. All genealogical data is my research material acquired over the past 46 years of research. Today's Biography of ”Winnie Elizabeth Deese Streater (1893 - 1980)" was compiled with the assistance of Claude Sonnett 4 and is entitled:
"Winnie Elizabeth Deese Streater"
September 10, 1893 – June 18, 1980
Morven, Anson County, North Carolina
A Life Rooted in Anson County
Winnie Elizabeth Deese — known to just about everyone as "Lizzie" — was born on September 10, 1893, in Morven, Anson County, North Carolina. She came into the world in a small farming community tucked into the Piedmont region of the state, not far from the South Carolina border. It was the kind of place where everybody knew everybody, families stayed close to the land, and roots ran deep. Lizzie would call Anson County home for most of her life, and even after she eventually moved south to Alabama in her later years, she was brought back to Morven to rest alongside the family she had loved so well.
Her nearly 87 years spanned one of the most turbulent and transformative eras in American history — from the Gilded Age through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and into the space age. Through all of it, Lizzie remained anchored to the rhythms of rural North Carolina life, raising her family on a farm and weathering considerable heartbreak with quiet resilience.
Family of Origin: The Deese Family
Lizzie was the daughter of John Calvin Deese (1854–1930) and Sarah Frances Gathings Deese (1858–1950), both native North Carolinians. Her father, John Calvin — often called "Calvin" — was a farmer in the Morven area, as most men in that community were. He and Sarah Frances, known in some records as "Fannie," built their lives around the land and raised a close-knit family of daughters.
The 1900 census gives us a snapshot of Lizzie as a young child of seven, living in the family home in Morven alongside her parents and several sisters: Lucy P. (age 13), Theresa (age 12), and the younger girls Cora L. (age 4) and Callie B. (age 2). By 1910, the household had shifted — Lizzie was 16, and the sisters at home were Fleeter R. (21), Cora J. (14), and Callie B. (12). By the time the 1920 census rolled around, Lizzie was 25 and still living at home with her parents, along with her sisters Cora and Callie.
Life for the Deese family, like most farm families of the era, was defined by hard work and modest means. The years Lizzie grew up in — the 1900s and 1910s — were shaped by the legacy of Reconstruction, the growth of the textile industry in the Carolina Piedmont, and the uncertainty of farming in the New South. It's worth noting that Lizzie's mother, Sarah Frances Gathings Deese, lived to the remarkable age of about 92, passing in 1950. Longevity clearly ran in the family — Lizzie herself would live to 86.
Marriage to Joseph Vernon Streater
On January 4, 1930, Lizzie Deese married Joseph Vernon Streater — known as "Joe" — in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, just across the state line. She was 36 years old and he was 37. Marrying later in life than was typical for the era, they may have known each other for years before tying the knot; after all, in a small community like Morven, everyone's paths crossed regularly.
Joe Streater was born on October 4, 1892, in Anson County, North Carolina, the son of William Boswell Streater (1848–1910) and Mary Elizabeth Lampley Streater (1852–1929). He had served his country during World War I — registering for the draft in Anson County in June 1917 — and by the time he and Lizzie married, he was a farmer, just as his family had always been. In 1930, the couple appeared in the census in Morven, listed as husband and wife, farming their own land.
The world the newlyweds stepped into in 1930 was a difficult one. The stock market had crashed just months earlier in October 1929, and the Great Depression was tightening its grip on the entire country. For farm families like the Streaters, already living close to the bone, the 1930s brought particular hardship. Crop prices collapsed, and many farm families across the rural South struggled to hold onto their land. Despite all this, Joe and Lizzie stayed on their farm in Morven, and by 1940, the census shows them still there with their young daughter Sarah, ages 47, 44, and 10 respectively.
Children: Joy and Heartbreak
Lizzie and Joe had five children, and their story as parents is one of both love and profound loss. Three of their five children did not survive infancy or early childhood — a tragedy heartbreakingly common in rural communities during the early-to-mid 20th century, before modern medicine had transformed childbirth and childhood illness.
Abner L. Deese Sr. (1921–2004)
Lizzie's first child, Abner L. Deese Sr., was born on June 1, 1921, in Morven — notably before her marriage to Joe Streater. His surname, "Deese," was Lizzie's maiden name, and he appears in the 1930 census living with Lizzie's parents, John Calvin and Sara Deese, as their grandson (age 8). Abner later married Annie Elizabeth Chewning (1922–2001) around 1942, and the couple eventually settled in Wadesboro, where he lived until his death on March 8, 2004. His obituary lists him as a son of "the late Lizzie Streater Deese," and he is remembered as a devoted family man with six children of his own. He is buried in Morven Cemetery.
Sarah Ann Streater (1930–2013)
Sarah Ann, born June 18, 1930 — curiously the same calendar date on which her mother would die exactly 50 years later — was Joe and Lizzie's eldest child together. She grew up in Morven, and on October 30, 1951, she married Harold Brant White (1929–2001). Harold served in the United States Army, and the couple moved frequently with the military, eventually settling in Ozark, Alabama. Sarah worked as a Retail Manager with the Army and Air Force Exchange Service for over 23 years before retiring. After battling breast cancer bravely for twelve years, she died on May 27, 2013, in Ozark, Alabama. Her two sons survive her.
Infant Streater (September 9, 1932)
Lizzie and Joe's second child together was an infant who was born and died on September 9, 1932, in Morven. The baby was buried the same day. No name is recorded in the family records, a reminder of how frequently such tragedies struck families before modern prenatal and neonatal care.
Joseph Vernon Streater Jr. (August 14, 1933)
Their son Joseph Vernon, named for his father, was born and died on August 14, 1933, in Morven. Like his unnamed sibling the year before, he lived only a single day. He is buried in Morven. The loss of two infants in consecutive years must have weighed heavily on Lizzie and Joe.
William Balsey Streater (1934–1939)
William Balsey, born November 3, 1934, in Morven, lived longer than his two siblings but still only reached age five. He died on December 26, 1939 — the day after Christmas — and is buried in Morven. The family was still reeling from depression-era hardships, and losing a young child so close to the holidays would have been devastating.
Losing Joe: Life as a Widow
Joseph Vernon Streater died on December 30, 1945, in Wadesboro, Anson County, North Carolina, at the age of 53. He had lived to see the end of World War II — the war in Europe ended in May 1945 and the Pacific war in August — but did not survive the year. His death certificate notes his residence as Morven and lists his parents as W. B. Streater and Elizabeth Lampley. He was buried on January 1, 1946, in Morven Cemetery.
Lizzie was 52 years old when she became a widow. Of their five children, only two were living — Abner in his mid-twenties, and Sarah, just 15. In the years following Joe's death, Lizzie remained in or near Morven. Aronr the time of Joe 's death, Aunt Cora, sister of Lizzie join the family. One family note recalls that "Aunt Lizzie and Aunt Cora lived on Diggs Road about a mile from where Diggs Road connects with Highway 145," suggesting she and her sister Cora kept each other company in those later decades — the way sisters often do. Our family also lived on Diggs Road and we would always stop and visit with Aunt Cora and Aunt Lizzie becuse they were family and our grandmother Lucy Pearl "Pearly" Deese Purvis were paternal half-siblings.
Later Life and Final Years
As her daughter Sarah and son-in-law Harold White eventually settled in Ozark, Alabama, Lizzie followed them there after the death of her sister, Cora, in 1968. At the time of her death, she was living in Ozark, in the southeast corner of Alabama — a good distance from the Anson County fields where she had spent most of her life.
Winnie Elizabeth "Lizzie" Deese Streater died on Wednesday, June 18, 1980, at the Ozark Nursing Home in Ozark, Dale County, Alabama, following an extended illness. She was 86 years old. Her obituary in The Ozark Star noted that she was "formerly of Morven, North Carolina" — a small acknowledgment that her heart had always remained in Anson County.
Funeral services were held on Saturday, June 21, 1980, at 3:30 p.m. at Shiloh Methodist Church in North Carolina, with Moore Funeral Home directing. Holman Funeral Home of Ozark handled local arrangements. She was buried in Morven Cemetery, in the Deese family plot, on June 21, 1980 — back in the community where she was born, where she married, where she raised her children, and where so many of the people she loved were already waiting for her.
The inscription on her tombstone reads simply: "With Christ in Harmony."
Family She Left Behind
At the time of her death, Lizzie was survived by her daughter, Mrs. Harold (Sarah) White of Ozark; two grandsons and several nieces and nephews. Her son Abner Deese Sr. was also living at this time. He has since passed away.
Her World: A Historical Snapshot
It's worth pausing to appreciate the remarkable span of history Lizzie lived through. She was born in 1893 — just 28 years after the Civil War ended — into a South still rebuilding itself. She came of age during the Progressive Era, when electric lights, automobiles, and telephones were novelties spreading slowly into rural communities like Morven.
She was 17 when the Great Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire shocked the nation in 1911. She was a young woman of 24 when the United States entered World War I in 1917 — the same year her future husband Joe registered for the draft. She married in 1930, just months after the stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression, and raised her surviving children through those lean years. She lived through the rationing, the worry, and the sacrifice of World War II, and saw her country emerge as a world power.
She was in her 70s when Americans walked on the moon in 1969, and she died in 1980 — a year that saw the election of Ronald Reagan, the eruption of Mount St. Helens, and the assassination of John Lennon. Through nearly nine decades, Lizzie Deese Streater was simply a woman of Morven — a farmer's daughter, a farmer's wife, a mother, and a survivor.
Vital Records at a Glance
Birth: September 10, 1893 — Morven, Anson County, North Carolina
Death: June 18, 1980 — Ozark, Dale County, Alabama
Burial: June 21, 1980 — Morven Cemetery, Morven, Anson County, North Carolina (Deese plot)
Parents: John Calvin Deese (1854–1930) and Sarah Frances Gathings Deese (1858–1950)
Spouse: Joseph Vernon Streater (1892–1945), married January 4, 1930, Chesterfield County, South Carolina
Children: Abner L. Deese Sr. (1921–2004); Sarah Ann Streater (1930–2013); Infant Streater (1932); Joseph Vernon Streater Jr. (1933); William Balsey Streater (1934–1939)
Find A Grave Memorial: #38280167
Winnie Elizabeth Deese Streater is my paternal GrandAunt.
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1. Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, database and digital images, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 5 June 2015); Memorial page for Joe Vernon Streater; (4 October 1892–30 December 1945); Find a Grave memorial # 65483688, Citing Morven Cemetery; Morven, Anson County, North Carolina, USA.
2. "World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," on-line digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : Viewed 5 June 2015), Joe V Streater; citing Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls, Roll: 1765559.
3. 1940 U. S. Census, Anson County, North Carolina, population schedule, Morven, Anson County, North Carolina, enumeration district (ED) 4-18, Page: 7A/214(stamped), Line 35, Household #105, Houssehold of Joe V. STREETER; digital images, 1940 CENSUS (www.ancestry.com : viewed 5 June 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 2871.
4. State of North Carolina, death no. 27215 (30 December 1945), Joe Vernon Streater; https://www.ancestry.com, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina.
5. "South Carolina County Marriage Records, 1907-2000," database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : online 14 October 2011), Marriage: Joe V. Streater & Lizzie Deese; https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/900127979:61450; https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61959/records/64204.
6. Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, database and digital images, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 4 June 2010); Memorial page for Elizabeth Deese Streater; (10 September 1893–18 June 1980); Find a Grave memorial # 38280167, Citing Morven Cemetery; Morven, Anson County, North Carolina, USA.
7. 1900 US Census, Anson County, North Carolina, population schedule, Morven, Anson County, North Carolina, enumeration district (ED) #8, Page 152A; Line 26, Dwelling 52, Family 52, Household of Calvin DEES; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 12 October 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm T623, Roll 1181.
8. 1910 U. S. Census, Anson County, North Carolina, population schedule, Morven, Anson County, North Carolina, enumeration district (ED) #0011, Page 165B; Line 89, Dwelling 208, Family 217, Household of John C. DEES; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : Viewed 14 October 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm T624, Roll 1096.
9. 1920 U. S. Census, Anson County, North Carolina, population schedule, Morven, Anson County, North Carolina, enumeration district (ED) #13, Page 194A; Line 26, Dwelling 148, Family 148, Household of John C. DEES; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 14 October 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm Series: T625, Roll: 1283.
10. Mrs. Elizabeth Streater obituary, The Ozark Star, Ozark, Dale County, Alabama, 25 June 1980. Holman Funeral Home in Charge.
11. 1930 US Census, Anson County, North Carolina, population schedule, Morven, Anson County, North Carolina, enumeration district (ED) 18, Page: 4B & 5A/25B & 26A; Line 100, Dwelling 82, Family 83, Household of Calvin J. DEESE; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 2 January 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm T626, Roll 1672.
12. Mr. Abner Deese obituary, The Anson Record, Wadesboro, North Carolina, 10 March 2004.
13. Mrs. Elizabeth Chewning Deese obituary, The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, North Carolina, 2 July 2001, On-Line-Edition.
14. Obituary for Sarah Ann Streater White, Holman Funeral Home of Ozark, (www.HolmanFuneralHome.com: accessed 5 June 2013), Sarah Ann Streater White, died 27 May 2013.
15. Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, database, "Record, Sarah A White (1930–27 May 2013), Memorial # 12710353.
Biography prepared by Charles Purvis · Thomasville, NC 27360 · CPurvis1@gmail.com
Sources: Find A Grave, Ancestry.com census records, NC Death Certificates, The Ozark Star, The Anson Record
