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Mil's relationship with Clementine Hunter and the Cane River Country began a
long time ago. Mil lived in Natchitoches, Louisiana, "up the river" from Clementine for over 30 years and made frequent trips to the Melrose Plantation area. Clementine's work came to Mil's attention in 1946. (A story about this later.) A personal acquaintance began in the 1960s and continued.
When Mil’s mother and Clementine talked
about "the old ways" while sitting in plastic lawn chairs outside Clementine's cabin and later at her house trailer, Mil observed and took notes. The two old women, both having
had what they call in the south "hard times," talked about "doing the wash" in the back yard with a fire under a big black pot, making lye soap, cooking ham hocks and collard
greens, making corn pone, killing hogs--and Clementine's favorite subject: picking cotton. All these things Mil's mother had experienced and also Mil--well, a few of them.
Other times Mil’s mother, Susie, baked her old-fashioned cookies for Clementine, who would say each time, "I get so tired of that Kentucky Fried Chicken people keep bringing me!"
As financial difficulties beleaguer plantations, a common solution is to turn cotton fields into subdivisions, some for expensive houses, some for trailer parks. Such a place is
where Clementine "planted" her last trailer-home. So distraught were Mil and her mother when visiting Clementine to find not one shade tree that they went to their own
property, dug up four cherry laurels, and planted them in her front yard.
After Mil left the Cane River area, she often stopped by to see Clementine when she
visited her mother--even traveled from San Francisco to attend Clementine's 100th birthday celebration. During the pre-festivities, Mil was asked by a TV director to join Clementine for the interview.
Mil's knowledge of Clementine has been enhanced throughout the years by Natchitoches friends: Tom Whitehead, once Mil's student assistant in TV production,
whom Clementine called her "white son"; Mildred Bailey, Mil's high school classmate, who returned to Natchitoches to teach at the University; and Ann Brittain, friend and
wife of Mil's attorney. The Brittains have one of the largest collections of Clementines and lend them for exhibits. Remember, Clementine could not read or write and had no
way of ordering her supplies or of selling her own paintings. She needed her friends, especially these three.
In Paintings . . . 25¢ to Look: The Story of Clementine Hunter, Cane River's
African-American Primitive Artist (working title), Mil's realistic depiction of the
hardships of the times, especially for Clementine and her family, comes from personal observations and from her own family experiences.
Mil Edison continues a true kinship with Clementine in writing the biography of this dauntless woman. |
