Roy Bassinger died unexpectedly from a seizure on March 3, 1927, in Menard, TX, while en route to visit relatives in Houston.
- from Marva notes on Otis Burnett Lipps family
Katy remembers that her grandmother, Katie Lipps (“Grannie”), always wore a clean, white apron. Her hair was long and hung below her waist. She would make Katy wash her feet after playing outside barefooted so she wouldn't get the floor dirty! Grannie told her stories, usually fairy tales, every night at bedtime and also recited this poem to her:
Little birdie with the yellow bill,
Hopped up on my window sill;
Cocked his shiny eye and said,
“Ain't you ashamed, you sleepy head?”
Katy sometimes rode with Otis (“Papa”) to the gin. He hauled one bale at a time in a mule-drawn wagon. She also remembers that he headed grain one head at a time with a knife that was made especially for that purpose. Another of her memories is that Papa was scared of clouds, and they would wade through water going to the old dirt cellar with a lamp. He farmed as a share cropper wherever they lived.From notes on Otis Burnett Lipps from Marva