Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920
Biography of Effie Granberry Buntin, 1880-1954
By Nancy Alexander Simmons, Fairfax Station, VA
Woman Suffrage Activist
Effie Granberry was born in Hazelhurst, Mississippi in October 1880 to Joseph Dennis Granberry and Hattie Renella Webb Granberry. Her father was a farmer who had been a Confederate soldier. In 1896, Granberry attended Hillman College, a women's college in Clinton, Mississippi. In 1897, she attended Mississippi College, a private Baptist college in Clinton, where she participated in the Philomathean Literary Society. And in 1899, she graduated from Judson College, a private Baptist women's college in Marion, Alabama. Afterward, Granberry lived in Orange, New Jersey, but had returned to Hazlehurst by 1904, where she served as secretary of the Culture Club. In the fall of that year, Granberry relocated to Hermanville, Mississippi, to head the high school music department there. The Hazlehurst Courier reported “She is thoroughly capable of the task she has undertaken and we predict her services will be highly satisfactory to trustees and patrons.”
On April 24, 1907, Granberry married Theodore Frederick “T. F.” Buntin at the Baptist church in Hazlehurst. Her husband operated an “exclusive ladies furnishing store” in Laurel, Mississippi, where the couple made their home. They had one daughter, Christine, who was born in 1911.
During 1917, Buntin served as Second Vice-President of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association.
For most of her life, Buntin was involved in activities surrounding either music or gardening. In 1909, she was elected secretary and critic of the Laurel Music Club. The 1930 Census reflects that Buntin was a piano teacher in Laurel; and in 1932, she attended the state convention of the Mississippi Federation of Music Clubs. Similarly, as early as 1929, Buntin was involved in the Laurel Garden Club; The Morning Call reported that the club “was most appreciative of her real knowledge and practical presentation” on her subject of “Modern Gardens.” In 1943, Buntin was helping the local garden clubs “raise funds and collect shrubs for planting of the area around the flag pole, the hospital and a chapel to be built at the Laurel Air Base.” And in 1951, as planting chairman for the Euclid Park Garden club, she spearheaded the planting of 25 trees in Euclid Park in Laurel.
Buntin died June 21, 1954, in Mamaroneck, New York, possibly while visiting her daughter who lived in New York.
SOURCES:
1900 U.S. Census, Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Copiah County, p. 15, Enumeration District 0033. Digital images. Ancestry.com.
1930 U.S. Census, Mississippi. Laurel, Jones County, p. 2A, Enumeration District 0007. Digital images. Ancestry.com.
“A New Furnishing Store.” The Laurel Ledger (Laurel, Mississippi), August 31, 1906, p.7.
“Ballots For Both: Thirteenth Annual Convention.” Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association. 1917, University of Mississippi Libraries Digital Collections, Lily Thompson Collection
http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/suffrage/id/286
“Culture Club Elects Officers.” The Hazlehurst Courier (Hazlehurst, Mississippi), August 25, 1904, p. 1.
“Federated Garden Clubs of Laurel to Beautify Base.” The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), January 5, 1943, p. 4.
Harper, Ida Husted, et al., eds. The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. VI (1900-1920). N.p.: National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1922, p. 333. [LINK]
“Laurel Garden Club Meeting With Mrs. Gibbons.” The Morning Call (Laurel, Mississippi), June 29, 1929, p. 5.
“Laurel Music Club.” The Laurel Ledger (Laurel, Mississippi), October 7, 1909, p. 6.
Manly, Louise. History of Judson College, 1838-1913, Foot & Davies Company, Atlanta, GA, 1913, p. 191.
“Married.” The Laurel Ledger (Laurel, Mississippi), April 26, 1907, p. 1.
New York Death Index, 1852-1956. Digital images. Ancestry.com
“Park Place Club Plants Trees in Laurel.” The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), December 9, 1951, p. 33.
The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), April 9, 1932, p. 12
The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), September 15, 1896, p. 3.
The Hazlehurst Courier (Hazlehurst, Mississippi), July 31, 1902, p. 8.
The Hazlehurst Courier (Hazlehurst, Mississippi), October 13, 1904, p. 4.
“The Philomathean Society.” The Weekly Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), April 15, 1897, p. 1.