Dear Pa and Ma

William Thomas 'Billie' Barber grew up in Berrien County on the farm our family affectionately calls the 'Old Place.' Flossie was born in Colquitt County near Omega but came to Berrien County with her sharecropper father and his new bride and family shortly after her mother passed away. Oddly enough, Flossie’s family sharecropped the farm that would become the home where she and Billie raised their family. When her father decided to return to Omega, Flossie stayed behind and moved in with a neighbor down the road. When and how Billie and Flossie met-or how their courtship unfolded-no one living knows. Nevertheless, a few years later, they married. Flossie was 17; Billie had just turned 21. This is their story-from the descendants who came to Virginia in 1621 to the life they lived and the family they raised. 3