My Mom died in 1993, as for dear old Dad, nobody knows. He want walkabout in 1952 at the age of 50, and so did a woman he knew, neither seen since. Leslie George Byrd born in 1902=died??
My Grandma raised me till my late teens, and I discovered something shocking, once while playing under the porch I heard two of my aunts talking about my Mom having a baby boy who died at birth, and since Dad didn't have any money (In the middle of the depression) he buried the baby under a pine tree. The one time I dared ask Mom about it she wouldn't speak to me for weeks..and for years I thought I was oldest of 8.
As for cooking Grandma was a marvelous cook, Mom pretty good. I have Mom's old cookbook my son is hinting for, it's old and remarks that if you live in a town with a freezer plant, you can rent lockers to store your beef and chickens!!! No TV, no electricity, no indoor plumbing, yet we were mostly all healthy and spent lots of time together on the farm.