Lola Ellen BENNETT lived a hard life. She was born the fifth of seven children to Daniel R. and Laura Holland BENNETT and probably enjoyed the benefits of children born to older parents; the parents had learned how to raise children with their first two or three and were more indulgent with their later children. She once told me that, as young girls, she and her sister Cora tended their own gardens in the spaces between zig-zag split rail fences and that she had never been spanked by her parents. Times were good. Lola grew into a pretty young woman and was courted by and fell in love with Nick KORNEGAY of the well-to-do KORNEGAY family of Duplin and Craven Counties. She and Nick were married January 26, 1924 and moved in with Nick's family at the Nicodemus KORNEGAY house in Kornegay Town, Duplin County. Lola was required to cook and clean for her cantankerous father-in-law and his remaining children at home and she was very unhappy. Lola became pregnant very early in the marriage and, to make matters worse, she lost her first child - a boy - that same year. Lola became pregnant again that October and their son Morris Daniel KORNEGAY was born in 1925 followed by their second son William Rufus KORNEGAY in 1928. The situation at home did not improve. Daniel and Laura BENNETT gave Nick and Lola 21.5 acres of land (I suspect to lure Lola and Nick to BENNETT land) and Nick bought another 12.5 acres from Lola's sister Sudie and her husband for $550. To make his young wife happy, Nick built a small wooden house for her across the road from her mother and father. I can imagine Lola's father Daniel, a carpenter, helping to build the new house for his daughter happy to have her near again. The simple, four-room house finally finished, Lola and Nick moved into their new home in 1929. To Lola, this must have been the answer to her prayers and she and Nick were very happy. Her father Daniel died of kidney failure that year and she lost his gentle and patient support. Their daughter Alice Evelyn KORNEGAY was born in late 1932 and they must have thought that their lives were perfect. Unknown to them, their luck and their happiness had run out. Nick caught the then uncurable pneumonia in November 1933 and died. Lola was left with three small children and no man to provide for her. She did her best to make ends meet, but the vicissitudes of the Great Depression left her no recourse but to remarry. Lola married Luby MOZINGO in 1937 and moved with her young family to Wayne County. The marriage did not work out for Lola and Luby. Luby's children from a previous marriage didn't get along with Lola's children and she left him and moved back home in February 1938 to the only refuge that she knew, the house her beloved Nick had built for her. In March 1938, she realized that she was pregnant with Luby's child. She hid her condition from both Luby and her mother for as long as she could. Lola received no moral support from her mother and in June she gave birth to another son whom she named Albert Douglas MOZINGO and called Tony. Laura Holland BENNETT died in 1940 and Lola was left even more alone with four small children and several times almost lost her land. Somehow, she pulled through. Alice Kornegay QUINN remembers how hard life was; often Lola would prepare what she had available for supper and would tell her children to go ahead and eat, that she wasn't hungry. Only now we realize that she went without food to feed them. Lola worked in the fields during the day and spent the dark nights alone in the tobacco barns keeping the fires burning to cure the tobacco. Several "gentlemen callers" visited over the years but her children never liked them and Lola never remarried. The tide had turned and times were bad. Lola did without many things and worked hard, often wondering where she would get the strength to go on. Alice Kornegay QUINN remembers the family being the "poor relations" of the other KORNEGAY brothers who often invited them to their houses for Sunday dinner. Years passed. Alice and William both married and moved away and Morris was killed in an auto accident in 1956. Tony grew to manhood and quit school to work the farm. After many hard years, he paid off all of the debts and put the farm on a paying basis. With Tony managing the farm, Lola could finally rest. Although she still worked hard on the farm and kept house for Tony, Lola enjoyed the last years of her life raising her chickens and tending her flower and vegetable gardens. Lola was particularly fond of crocheting and left many treasured and beautiful examples of her work. Having lost one kidney many years before, her remaining kidney began to fail in 1985. Lola became very ill and went into the hospital in Goldsboro, NC. After several "Code Blue" episodes, and in pain Lola asked her children to let her die. After another episode, Lola slipped into unconsciousness and reluctantly, they let her go. As a final tribute to a kind and gentle woman that the whole county knew and loved, so many people attended her funeral service that every seat was filled and a large crowd had to stand outside the open door of the chapel to pay their respects. Lola had often said that she didn't want to be buried out in the country where she'd be forgotten and was accordingly buried in the Pineview Cemetary in Duplin County. Circa 1990, Alice and William and Tony moved Nick KORNEGAY from the Kornegay family cemetary in accordance with her wishes and placed him next to Lola in Pineview where they'll be together forever.