Elizabeth Woods learned early on that everyone had a job to do to help her family survive during the Depression.
As a child growing up in the shadow of downtown Atlanta, she and her brothers would gather coal that fell from trains on the railroad tracks along Decatur Street. They also rummaged through trashcans behind grocery stores to collect discarded food.
“Everybody had to pitch in,” said her daughter Earnestine Reid of Atlanta. “They were poor and they didn’t have a lot of time to play. It was just hard to make ends meet.”
Those early years of struggle instilled a strong work ethic that she passed down to more than 90 descendants spread over four generations.
“She was a very independent and strong-minded woman,” said her granddaughter Patricia Reid of Atlanta. “She was an example to me of what it meant to be hardworking. She gave me something to strive for.”
Woods of Atlanta died at home surrounded by family on March 17. She was 93. Her funeral was March 21 at Haugabrooks Chapel in Atlanta.
She was born on May 12, 1921, in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, the youngest of three children.
During Prohibition, Woods’ mother supplemented her paycheck from the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill by selling dinners and her homemade beer and bathtub gin.
“That’s probably why people were really coming by the house,” Earnestine said. “Not just for the dinners, but for the gin and mostly beer. She would even have policemen come by the house to buy. There was a (customer) who used to say, ‘Bless the cook and thank the dishwasher.’ My mother was the dishwasher.”
To help her family, Woods dropped out of school in the 11th grade and took a job at Grady Memorial Hospital, where she met her husband, Rufus Woods.
“He was a flirt and used to hit all the girls on the behind,” Earnestine said. “But when he approached my mother, she said don’t you dare. From that time, he kept pursuing her until he convinced her to marry him.”
They married in 1939 and had five children. A skilled seamstress, Woods made all of her children’s clothes and her own.
“She made us the prettiest dresses out of flour sacks from the (Sweet Auburn) curb market,” Earnestine said. “The flour sacks had nice designs on them, and you could get them for next to nothing.”
In 1953, the family moved to Long Branch, N.J. Woods got a housekeeping job at Monmouth Medical Center, where she worked until she moved back to Atlanta in 1964.
Co-workers and neighbors in Long Branch remembered her work ethic and kind nature. “She was a really nice person. If she could help you, she’d help you,” said Wilhemena Hickman of Long Branch, a friend and former co-worker at Monmouth.
The 5-foot great-great-great-grandmother also taught her children to treat people with respect. She did not tolerate backtalk or bad manners and despised unladylike behavior.
“She was a lady in the way she carried herself. She had a graceful walk,” said her oldest granddaughter, Surdonna Woods of Brooklyn, N.Y. “She wanted us to act like a lady and we had better show respect for elders. She taught her children, and they taught it to us.”
Once she was back in her hometown, Woods continued to work at medical facilities – as a medical assistant at St. Joseph’s Hospital and doing administrative work for the Feminist Women’s Health Center.
She kept a spotless home, scrubbing and polishing into the late hours to ensure every nook and cranny was clean. Even after the family got a washer and dryer, Woods rarely used the machines, preferring all her life to wash all clothes by hand.
“Even after she got dementia and moved in with me, she would still try to get her clothes out of the hamper and wash them in the sink,” Patricia said. “She didn’t want to be a bother. She wanted to do it on her own.”
After retirement, Woods enjoyed traveling. Cruises were her favorite. Although weak, she took her last cruise to the Caribbean about four months before she died.
Most of all, she loved her family. Woods’ grandmother was a slave, and Woods marveled that she lived to see four generations of descendants.
“She was amazed to have so many descendants. When we told her, she said, ‘How about that?’ ” Earnestine said. “All these people come from this little bitty lady. We keep on keeping on. The will to survive is great, from slaves to now.”
In addition to her daughter, Woods is survived by 21 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and 40 great-great-grandchildren.
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