I love this picture! (Got it from my cousin, Bruce Alexander).

These are the Fabulous Fultz Females. Grandma Ida, the mother of the other four women, is the older one in the middle.  From left to right they are, Katherine Fultz (married Albert Luther  Bennett), Janet Ingles Fultz (married John Addison Alexander, Sr), Ida Virginia Willson Fultz, Josephine Fultz, and Mary Draper Fultz.   Ida also had a son, Isaac "Ike", who is not pictured. 

Grandma Ida was my great-grandmother and her daughter, Janet, was my grandmother.  I did not know either of them; but I did know the other three, who were my great aunts.

Draper trained as a nurse at Stuart Circle Hospital in Richmond; but when I remember her, she was living with my Uncle Jim.  Draper's room was at the top of the stairs off the dining room.  She baked the best homemade yeast rolls! And she swore by Rumsford baking powder for all recipes involving baking powder. She also was a knitter.  I inherited skeins & skeins of baby yarn from her, as well as several pairs of baby booties and unfinished baby booties.  She always seemed happy and I never saw her get annoyed or angry with anyone.  She liked to watch the birds and kept a diary of the birds she saw.  Among her writings was the following poem, that gives insight to her sense of humor.

     Spring has sprung.
     Fall has fell.
     Winter is here
     And it's colder 'n usual.  

Josephine, who we apparently called Phine-jo when we were very young, was a nutritionist at the Medical College of Virginia when I first remember her.  She graduated from Virginia Tech in 1929. (I'll have to talk more about that in another post.)  She lived in an apartment in downtown Richmond near MCV.  She once gave me a ride from Fairfield to Richmond to visit my grandmother (my Mom's mother) and that's when I saw her apartment.  I just remember she drove & I probably irritated her with my "Are we there yet?" questions.  She later retired and moved into Jim's house in the back bedroom that we still call Jo's room.  So she and Draper were both living with Jim & his family at that point.  Her personality was not like her sister's.  She often seemed grumpy and would speak her mind about things. Before she died, she gave me an applique quilt that she had partially completed.  I'm sorry to say it is still not finished.

I probably knew Katherine least well of these great aunts.  She was married and lived in Fincastle, Virginia (I think) when I was very young.  I remember seeing her and Uncle Al at some family get togethers.  And I remember visiting her house once.  After Uncle Al died, she moved to an apartment in Richmond just off I-95.  When I was in college and first living in DC, I stopped by to see her there several times.  She was very sweet and always happy to see me.  She tatted and I think she also crocheted. After she moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, I didn't see her again; but we wrote each other a few times. 

P. S. If you look very closely in the upper left, I think that's my Aunt Libby Alexander on the porch.