Ruby Mann Smith, who turned 102 in October, is the daughter of Confederate veteran, Edward Augusta Mann. She attended the UDC luncheon at Stagecoach Inn with her daughter, Joyce Parker of Harker Heights. The chapter decided to honor Mrs. Smith after she was the subject of a March 1 feature in the Temple Daily Telegram.
“We verified her information and sent it to the state registrar,” said chapter president Jane Debenport. “They literally walked her application through in record time all the way up to the national office [in Richmond, Va.].”
With her status documented, Mrs. Smith becomes only the sixth “real daughter” remaining in Texas. The UDC headquarters and the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Columbia, Tenn., have registered fewer than 100 surviving actual sons and daughters.
The chapter awarded Mrs. Smith one of the rarest honors the UDC can give - a gold “real daughter” pin. She also received honorary UDC membership noting her status and a handmade quilt created by member Mary Frances Burell Johnson of Holland with assistance from chapter members. The quilt includes a replica of the Confederacy’s first national flag.
Mrs. Smith’s father, Confederate private Mann served in the 9th Georgia Artillery, according to his military record from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Family correspondence from 1917 indicates he also may have served with the 5th Georgia Infantry and Hood’s Corps, Army of Tennessee.
Born in 1906, Mrs. Smith was the youngest of nine children born to Mann and Missouri Deaver Mann, his second wife.
The Bell County UDC chapter, organized in 1897, is one of the oldest continuously meeting chapters in the state. The Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans organized the following year.
Begun in 1894, and officially incorporated in 1919, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, was at one point the largest women’s organizations dedicated to preserving history.
