Little Missy

by Maud Lindsay

"Missy, Missy, poor little thing, Tied to Mammy's apron string." I had not a word to answer. It was only too true. Never in all my life had I been beyond our own big gate without an attendant... The "Mammy" filled an essential role in the family life on a plantation. In some families she stood next to "Mother" in the affections of the children; and her authority was often second to none. A great offense in her eyes was a lapse in courtesy, and a Southern writer has aptly said that wherever you saw an old-time Mammy you could be sure some Southern child was being taught good manners. All that Little Missy tells of child-life in the Old South is true. Never were there happier or more care-free children than those who grew up on the great plantations, in the midst of the kindly black folk who were their guardians and their friends. Perhaps beloved author Maud Lindsay wrote Little Missy from the colorful childhood stories of growing up on the Winston Plantation in Tuscumbia, Alabama that her mother passed along to her. Reminiscences of growing up in a simpler time; when life in the Old South was full of beauty and grace.

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Maud McKnight Lindsay (1874-1941) was an American educator. She is best known for being the founder of the first free kindergarten in Alabama, and a close friend of Helen Keller. In 1995, she was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame.

She was born in 1874 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, to parents Robert Burns Lindsay and Sarah Miller Lindsay. One of nine children, Lindsay was homeschooled until gaining admission to the Deshler Female Institute. Lindsay studied under Jeanne Pittitt Cooper, a prominent kindergarten teacher in Alabama. She first started her career as a private music teacher in Tuscumbia, later founding a private kindergarten in her own home. She admired Friedrich Fröbel and followed his ideas. In 1896, she spent a year at the Elizabeth Peabody Settlement House in Boston. In 1898, she founded and became a teacher at the first free kindergarten in Alabama.

Lindsay was also an author of over 18 children's books. The first was "Mrs. Speckelty Hen". In addition, she was an avid poet. It was said that "No present day writer for the young is more deservedly well-liked than Maud Lindsay."

She was the third president of the Alabama Writers Conclave; a member Blue Pencil Club of Florence; an officer in the Birmingham Branch of the National League of American Pen Women. Her name was inscribed in the Book of Golden Deeds by the Exchange Club of Florence as the most outstanding citizen. Lindsay died on May 30, 1941.

(from Wikipedia)