Buckingham Notables: Lucy Scruggs, Part II
1940 census, Lucy and Lee Scruggs
Click here to catch up: Buckingham Notables: Lucy Scruggs, Part I
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In 1958, when Lucy Scruggs was about to turn 104, she earned a lengthy salute in The Daily Progress.
Born into slavery, Lucy Scruggs originally came to Buckingham County with a white family whose name she no longer remembered. She was about fifteen years old at the time. When she was about eighteen or twenty, she married Lee Scruggs, of Buckingham. Lee lived to be over ninety years old and had been dead about fifteen years when the interview with Lucy took place. Lee had worked in the slate quarries at Arvonia and lived as a sharecropper. Boyce Loving continued his tribute:
The centenarian has outlived all but three of her 10 children. Her three sons, Benny, Oscar and William, live within sight of her house and William, the youngest, sometimes lives with her.… She has grandchildren and great-grandchildren too numerous to mention, 11 of the latter living in one house near her.
Aunt Lucy has a keen sense of humor and laughs heartily as she tell stories about herself. She said that soon after her husband’s death another man named Scruggs came to her and said, “You married one man named Scruggs and mine is the same.” She took this as a proposal and said she told the man, “If you was up a tree of gold, I wouldn’t shake you down.” She added that living with one man about 70 years was enough for her.
Coming next: Lucy Scruggs, Part III
slate river ramblings . . . . 
my great grandma
Martha, Thanks for letting us know your relationship to Lucy Scruggs. What a woman! Did you find all six parts of her story? Joanne
Praise God, what a great story on our great grandmother
Keith, Very glad you found your way to Slate River Ramblings and Lucy’s story. Joanne
Martha, Lucy was truly a Buckingham Notable! Joanne