Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Wednesday Wives Tales


I first read about 'feather crowns' in The Ozark Mountaineer Magazine some years ago. I've been looking for the exact issue, but have been unable to find it.


Feather crowns are formed inside the pillow of a dying person, especially one who 'lingers'. After the person dies, the family opens the pillow and searches through the feathers for a crown. These mostly consist of halo shaped groups of feathers, though some are more like a feather 'cap'. These feather crowns were greatly prized by the family, as proof that their loved one had gone straight to heaven and were shown off to neighbors. Some crowns were saved for years in boxes by the families and some were said to have quite a collection of them. There are even stories of people being buried with a loved ones feather crown.

Have any of you ever heard of them or seen one?

14 comments:

  1. I've never heard of this one at all Mary. Of course,these days we don't have feather pillows much anymore so I guess none of us get a feathered crown! blessings, marlene

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  2. No, never heard of this... hmmm. If they didn't find any crowns, can you imagine the scene in the room? :o( Thanks for sharing this! (you won the stitchery... I need your mailing address)

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  3. Hey Rose Mary and everyone else go to my cousin Vera's sight and you will see pictures of these. She has some very old one's from her family and she posted pictures of them.
    http://intouchwith-pumpkinrolls.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=12
    That is the link above that takes you to her page that tells about them, just scroll down to her Oct 7 2008 post near the bottom of that page. If this doesn't work there is also a link to her site called 'Intouchwith' in my blogroll. I had never heard of them before she posted about them last year. It's a very strange happening.

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  4. My cousin Janet sent me here, and I do have some feather crowns.
    The crowns came from pillows of my dads family, I wish I had ask my dad more about them. seems like we don't think of things like that until its too late.
    Janet already give you the link, so you can check out what I have.

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  5. I just stumbled upon this blog. That thing about the crowns is amazing. Thanks to Vera for the pictures. I had never heard of such a thing!

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  6. Mary-never heard of them-how interesting.

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  7. Hello sweet lady. Sorry I have never heard of that but will keep a eye out for it. Hope all is well with you. Enjoy your week.

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  8. Yes, I've heard of them. Granny told me about them, when I was a youngster. I've never seen one, but she had seen them.

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  9. Janet, thank you so much for the link! Vera, thank you for coming over and posting. I loved seeing the pictues of them~how neat that you have them!!

    I had tried to find the Ozark Mountaineer Magazine article so that I could show pictures~but your are even better!

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  10. Rose Mary, here is a link you might want to check out.
    http://www.carrollscorner.net/FeatherDeathCrowns.htm

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  11. Very interesting, love the old tales!

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  12. I've never heard of that. Very interesting.

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  13. Hey there! I haven't visited with you in a long while...but just thought I would pop in on seeing you in another blog roll...There is a novel called Feather Crowns by Bobbi Ann Mason...she is a native of my Ky hometown. Look for it in your library or on-line...it is a very interesting story...also I Googled feather crowns and this is what they look like...

    Come see me at my new blog anytime...Tammy formally The Kentucky Gal

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  14. Rose Mary
    This is really interesting. I've never heard of feather crowns, but so glad you posted this. I always enjoy learning new things. Great posting!

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