Moses, Anna Mary Robertson (1860-1961)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1961 Jan 11 p. 11

Birth date: 1860 Sep 7

text of obituary:

Grandma Moses Passes Away At Age 101

Grandma Moses — the little lady whom the whole nation claimed as grandma — has passed away at the age of 101.

She had lived at the Hoosick Falls Health Center in Hoosick Falls, N. Y. since July.

Born near Eagle Bridge, N. Y., Sept. 7, 1860, she spent all her life in that state, also raising her family of 10 children there. Her husband, Thomas Moses, died in 1927.

She took up painting in her 70s, and within a few years her simple but vivid primitives of rural life as she knew it brought her world-wide fame.

To the end of her life she showed an optimistic and deeply religious spirit. As one commentator put, “The people she drew never cast any shadows.”