Mrs. Elizabeth Bacchus Cranford, Ouachita County's oldest white woman, who recently celebrated her 101st birthday, died at the home of her daughter Mrs. C.D. Tutt, eight miles south of Camden on the Stephens Highway. Her death, on Sunday, October 3rd, 1935, was sudden, as the former schoolteacher was in good health on Saturday.
She was born in Henry County, near Paris, Tennessee, on April 25, 1834. She came with her parents to Ouachita County in 1840 and taught school continuously from 1859 to 1870. She later taught at intervals for many years. On April 25, 1934, Mrs. Cranford celebrated her 100th birthday with a party at her home and more than fifty of her friends and neighbors and many of her former students honored her that day. She received a message of congratulations from President Roosevelt.
Her father was Judge Asa W. Bacchus, Ouachita County's first county judge after Arkansas was admitted as a state. Although she was a busy teacher during the Civil War, she found time to do much for Confederate soldiers. Four of her brothers fought for the South, and three of them were killed. She was married in 1870 to the Rev. H.G. Cranford, a minister of the Christian Church. He also served in the Confederate Army. He died at Stephens on December 11, 1911.
She is survived by three daughters; Mrs. Tutt, Mrs. G.T. Criner of Little Rock, and Mrs. Lula Brown, one sister, Mrs. Susan Criner of Stephens; ten grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. Funeral services were held at Whitefield Church on Monday. Proctor Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
== published in the Camden News, 4 Oct 1935, Camden, Arkansas. Transcriber is not a relative and has no further information regarding this family.
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