Alberta Martin

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Alberta Martin (December 4, 1906 - May 31, 2004) was believed, for a while, to be the last known widow of a Confederate soldier.

She was born Alberta Stewart to sharecroppers in Danleys Crossroads, Alabama, a small sawmill town south of Montgomery. Her mother died when she was 11. At 18, she met a cabdriver named Howard Farrow and they had a son, but Howard died in a car accident in 1926.

After moving to Opp, Alabama, she met widower and Confederate veteran William Jasper Martin, born in 1845. On December 10, 1927, the then-21-year-old Stewart married the 81 year old Martin, primarily to get help raising her son. The veteran died in 1931 and she married his grandson Charlie two months later, who in turn died in 1983. She afterwards moved to Elba, Alabama.

She lived in obscurity for most of her life, but gained media attention starting in the 1990s. In the final years of her life she became a symbol for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, appearing at some of their rallies.