Alice Marie Majors

Alice Marie Richardson Majors, 96, of Columbus, passed away on January 11, 2023. Visitation will be held Friday, January 13, 2023, between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm at Jewell-Rittman Family Funeral Home. Funeral Services will also be held at the funeral home on Saturday, January 14, 2023, at 11:00 am with Rev. Stephanie Howe officiating. Burial will follow at Garland Brook Cemetery. On a frosty morn on November 24, 1926, Ices and Charles Richardson were hosting family at their newly constructed two-room cottage on Vernal Pike near Bloomington. The men had set out to hunt in the rural countryside, the children were playing in the yard and the women folk were preparing the holiday feast. However, there was much more this Thanksgiving to celebrate when the family gathered back at mealtime, more than anyone expected. Ices had unexpectedly given birth to a little girl while the men were out. Jodi, her sister, named the baby Alice Marie. Alice was somewhere near the middle of 8 children ( 11 pregnancies). She had four brothers and three sisters. Growing up they would love, fight and come back together as all siblings do. As adults, they stayed close. Camping, boating, flying planes - bringing families together around the lake, at Ice’s and Charlie’s, and visiting one another. Alice and her husband Gene were always together, a matched set. In fact, little nieces and nephews thought Alice’s name was “Alice - and - Gene” because it was rarely just Alice or just Gene being referred to. Alice began school early, at age 5. She was working too by that time to help out her family. She recalls standing on a chair to do ironing at a neighbor’s house where she also cleaned and helped in the kitchen to earn money. She went to Ellettsville school and often mentioned the noticeable difference among the city kids and the country kids. There were lots of stories shared of her time as Captain of the girl’s basketball team her senior year, 1944, and of their bus trips to the small farming towns in the area. She and Patti Jo would go through those towns on their adventures. Alice liked going back to these locations, reminiscing about her teammates and the pranks the teams would pull on one another. Alice met Clarence Eugene Majors when her brother Guy brought home from World War II this young, brash, handsome Kentuckian. Gene was orphaned young and raised with his four brothers by their grandmother near Providence, Kentucky. Two stories float around about their initial meeting. 1. Alice did not care for him much at first and 2. She told her mother right away, “That’s the man I am going to marry.” Which ever is true, they did marry on Christmas Eve 1945 and were married until Gene’s death on her birthday in 2016. Their marriage is a story in itself. Alice and Gene and her brother Guy and Alice’s best friend Anna Lee planned to have a double wedding. Guy and his future wife were waiting for her parents to come in. Alice and Gene didn’t wait though. They went ahead and were married at a Justice of the Peace. Early in their marriage, they shared a house with Alice’s sister Thelma and her husband James Smiley in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Their life was exciting. They were young post-war newlyweds, the future with its promises and possibilities stretching out before them. They went out with friends and family to eat and dance. They traveled by train. Then children. Sandy Jean was born in 1947. Patti Jo, 1952. Jerry Wayne, 1953. Alice and Gene usually worked several jobs to provide a good life for themselves and their family. When they could, they would work together, like the time they rented a field near Youth Camp Road and planted tomatoes to sell. Later, they would work together with Gene’s family in Kentucky to build churches. After retirement, they worked together binding newspapers for the Republic. They enjoyed one another’s company so very much. What today you might call soul mates. Alice, like her mother Ices, loved cats. Alice loved the idea of owning a cat for years though animals were never allowed in her house. The family had had only a couple of pets early on whose home wasn’t a tabletop glass container. Now, Sandy had cats when she moved to Tampa from Hawaii. When family would go visit her there was Buddy and Roscoe, her cats, who were always up to something intriguing and funny. Alice decided she wanted a cat of her own, or so she thought. This is one of the family jokes. After years of longing for a feline friend, she and Patti Jo went to Petco and Alice adopted Gracie. Gracie was a kind, lovely feline. Like most of her cat kind, however, she did not gravitate toward the human who desperately wanted to hold and stroke her, but toward the one who was shying away, slightly allergic. That cat, according to Alice, would have nothing to do with her. After a few weeks of bitter disappointment, Alice gave up the cat and begin to collect ceramic cats and cats made from fabric and wood. She and Patti Jo would later write stories together about uncle Arthur, a low-life alley cat who drank, shot craps and had little regard for his young nieces and nephews. They even created stuffed cat dolls with the story characters’ names. Alice’s favorite character she created was “the old letch “ ( her words) Uncle Arthur. When Sandy came to live with Alice and Gene she brought her cat Auggie. Over the years Auggie and Alice developed a close relationship. I think she recognizes a lot of old Uncle Arthur in that cat. Through Auggie, she experienced her dream of life and love with a real cat. Although Alice’s favorite color is now purple, it use to be blue. For a long time, she collected blue decorative glass. In fact, she is known for her blue glass. For decades it has been displayed in a cabinet near the front door. When you mention Alice’s name among her nieces and nephews her collections of cats and blue glass come readily to mind. Alice and Gene were close to each other’s families. Family was very important to them. They demonstrated dedication and closeness as exampled by their previous generations. As parents have passed in the Majors and Richardson family, Alice was there to encourage and inspire younger generations to remain in contact, sharing and making memories to pass on. Alice and Gene played an active role in raising their grandchildren. Providing adventures in fishing, camping, trips to the ocean, and travel to places they might have never gone otherwise. Fish fries, luaus, and swimming parties in the backyard. In their early retirement years, Alice and Gene traveled all over the United States. When Alice was still working, before she retired, Gene would pick her up in the camper after work and Alice would go to sleep not knowing where she would wake up - somewhere down the road. They would travel for a few days until it was time for Alice to get back in time for her next shift. It is well known that Alice often made clothes for kids in the family, much like her Aunt Jodi had. Sleeveless summer tops with coordinating shorts with themes like polka dots and puppy dogs. When Sandy Jean was a cheerleader at Azalia school, Alice made the cheerleading squad red and white mid-calf circular skirts and matching vests. Later, she enjoyed sewing, quilting, and crafting with her grown daughters, especially at Christmas. Her signature on crafts, quilts, and paintings was a backward American flag. I believe the most stable thing in Alice’s life, the thing that has gotten her through her toughest hours like that of losing her son and her husband and now her own struggles, is her faith. Faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in prayer. She is not one to attend a brick-and-mortar church. She does not like to join groups. However, there is no mistaking whose she is- God Almighty’s. The code she lived by is firm. It is known to all and respected. Her passing marks an end-of-an-era milestone in the Majors family experience. The last of the elders. It is a great loss for the Richardson’s as well. As individuals, we mourn our own loss but celebrate Alice’s gain. She has passed over to a realm of peace and love beyond measure. Her journey is far from over. Once again Alice is in her prime with the future stretching out before her, filled with promises and possibilities. Arrangements have been entrusted to Jewell-Rittman Family Funeral Home.