Emma Metz 1923-2009, a one-of-a-kind
spirit that graced the Calhoun backwoods
A service was held on Memorial Day 2010 for Emma Parsons Metz near her property on the right fork of Crummies Creek.
Metz died in December 2009 at age 87 in the middle of a winter storm, which prevented having a funeral service.
Relatives and neighbors attended the informal memorial.
Emma spent her life in wilderness area
on Crummies Creek, denoted by this sign
Remaining sisters, Mona Hall of Kimbolton, OH and Mattie
Keys of Summersville, WV (left) return for memorial; Patty
Stump and Mattie Keys look at family scrapbook (right)
Emma as a young girl on Crummies Creek
The Herald has often written about the highly independent Calhoun recluse.
We roamed the hills and hollers in spring and early fall, to gather what was offered, to sustain and save us all, wrote Metz, who lived long in the backwoods of Crummies Creek, the kind of person columnist Dave Peyton calls a "West Virginia Original."
"If you can make out without it, you don't need it," she said.
Emma left her beloved patch of daffodils, after a long life clinging to her tiny spot of the Calhoun Sod.
Emma says goodbye to her field of flowers
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