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Hundreds Mourn Jay Woman, 108
JAY - A thousand said a final goodby Sunday to Mrs Jennie Birdchopper, Cherokee Indian who lived to the age of 108 before her death Thursday. "It was the biggest funeral we've has around Jay in a number of years," Carroll Lawson, funeral director, said. "It took an hour for the mourners to file past the casket."
The funeral in Cloud's Creek Baptist Church, south of Jay in Delaware County, followed a night-long farewell to the Cherokee matriarch by Indians in her log cabin on the banks of Cloud's Creek, 15 miles southwest of Jay. Lawson said the body was taken to the cabin Saturday on the 260-acre farm so the Indians could hold their night-long songfest.
Mrs Birdchopper, born Oct.10, 1856, near what is now Colcord, Okla., never learned English. Despite her age, she still wore no glasses and died with her own teeth.
The woman, who spent her life living close to nature, was buried in Cloud's Creek Cemetery - still close to nature under the elms and dogwoods.
Her husband, known only as "Birdchopper," died 41 years ago. Her mourners include three sons, Mike, Noah and Claude, and two daughters, Lila and Mrs Sarah Foreman, all of whom lived on the farm. One of the daughters shared the log cabin with her mother. The other children lived in a modern house nearby.
Indians from a four-state area also were among the mourners, as well as a number of non-Indians, Lawson said.
Thirteen grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren survive.
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