From a newspaper article written on the occasion of the closing of the old library in Montgomery. At the time of this writing, Nannie was no spring chicken, but the article describes her when she was quite a young thing:
Advertiser-Journal
Social Section
Montgomery, Ala.
Sunday, May 22, 1960
Nostalgic Scenes Come to Mind as Doors Close on Old Library
By Madera Spencer
"Mrs. W. T. Edmondson, 117 Moulton, the former Mattie Gilmer Bibb, worked with the first librarian, Miss Laura Martin Elmore, when the library building was brand new in 1902. In order to secure her job she had to take a competitive examination, then serve an apprenticeship for six months without pay, except for three dollars on Sunday when she kept the library reading room open.
At the end of six months she became a paid library employee, receiving $40 a month salary. Mrs. Edmondson recalls that all the ladies working in the library were required to wear long sleeve dresses and high collars when on duty.
When she began her training as a librarian, she had to take an entrance examination in order to get in the first school of librarianship in the South, which was located in Atlanta and had been endowed by Andrew Carnegie for whom the library in Montgomery was named. This school was later absorbed by Emory University and young Mattie was one of the 10 women accepted for the first class session which lasted from September 1905 to June 1906. When she returned to work in the library in Montgomery, she was the first graduate librarian ever permanently employed in the city"
In 1907, Nannie (Mattie Gilmer Bibb) married a gentleman from Anniston, Alabama, named William Thomas Edmondson, Jr., a writer for local newspapers. William and Mattie had two children-- my father, George Bibb Edmondson, Sr., and Susanna Porter Edmondson, or "Susie Porter" for short. Unfortunately, William became ill and died in 1922, leaving Nannie with a fourteen year old son and twelve-year old daughter.
This next news clipping certainly brought news to me. I had previously known nothing about Nannie’s time in Birmingham or her time driving the “bibliobus”. In fact, I had never known her to drive at all. This tangential short-cut occurred after the early loss of her husband and as a result of her resolve.
The Birmingham News
Sunday, September 1926
A Ride on the Bibliobus
Rural Jefferson Folks, Avid for Books, Learn to Look for Trips of Bibliobus
Traveling Library Fills Long Time Need in Lives of Country Dwellers
By Edna Kroman
From atop his mule the ragged urchin flashed a smile of triumph at the librarian.
“Why Meth!” Mrs. Edmondson, from her seat aboard the Jefferson County Circulating Library bus expressed pleased surprise at seeing again the youngster she had missed for several months. For a time he had been one of her steady customers, and then, without a word, he had disappeared. “Where did you come from?”
“Howdy, mum.” Meth grinned, his eyes, however, hungrily on the books. “My folks done moved 12 miles up the country, but I been hankering after a book and knowed I’d git here for one. So ma plagued pa to let me have the mule, and it rained so hard last night he couldn’t plow, no way today.”
And the warmth which folded itself about Mrs. Edmondson’s heart made her forget the rough roads, the choking dust and the tire which she had had to change alone.
After two years, Nannie returned home to “The Cradle” from whence she came and for a year continued her work as a librarian. Her next stop on the working woman's track took her to the State Highway Department where she worked until 1956.
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