Goodbye to a legendary lady

(photo taken August 13. 2007 by Clare Vance at her grandmother's home)
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Clare's grandmother, Clara Rust, died Monday, Sept. 24 at her home in Norcross, Ga. She was with her first-born Barbara, Clare's mother, and Clare in a house filled with with her favorite things -- a big kitchen, a beautiful backyard, Braves games on TV and plenty of beloved hound dogs. She was a fantastic mixture of opinated, yet kind and a wonderful woman who I have really loved knowing since she moved to Montevallo to live next door to Barbara in the late 1990s.
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An excellent cook, known for her famous bread recipes, she was preceded in death by her husband Vincent Harold Rust, is survived by her four children Barbara, Dottie, David and Steve, 10 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and two favorite dogs, Molly Brown Rust and Minnie Pearl Vance.
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At age 88, it's amazing to think of how much change Clara Rust saw in her life.

- When she was born in 1918, Woodrow Wilson was president
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- World War One began on March 21 and ended at 11th hour of 11th day of 11th Month.
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- An Influenza pandemic (Spanish Flu), 1918-1919, killed 20-40 million worldwide. In 1918 my great-grandfather, John Charles Wheeler, died from this strain of killer flu when my grandfather, his namesake, was just 3.
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- The U.S. Congress established time zones and approved daylight saving time (DST went into effect on March 31).
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- The Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) began the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).
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- The Boston Red Sox defeated the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship, their last World Series win until 2004.
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- Czechoslovakia became a republic.
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- New York's worst subway accident kills 92 and injures 100 after a train jumps a track in Brooklyn at 30 mph (five times the speed limit) .
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- Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03


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Also born in 1918:
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Oral Roberts, American neo-Pentecostal televangelist
Don Pardo, Saturday Night Live announcer
Robert Pershing Wadlow, American tallest man record-holder (d. 1940)
Alan Hale, Jr, The Skipper on Gilligan's Island (d. 1990)
Elaine de Kooning, American artist (d. 1989)
Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (d. 1990)
Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart (d. 1992)
Betty Ford, First Lady of the United States
Ann Landers, American advice columnist (d. 2002)
Abigail Van Buren, American advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
Ingmar Bergman, Swedish film director (d. 2007)
Ted Williams, American baseball player (d. 2002)
Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster
Art Carney, American actor (d. 2003)
Billy Graham, American Evangelist, Spiritual Adviser to Multiple U.S. Presidents
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Notable deaths of 1918:
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Claude Debussy, French composer (b. 1862)
Family of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1868) The Tsar and his family of five were imprisoned and with their physician and three servants were woken and taken into a basement room and shot dead.