Essie Wright comes home

Two bus loads of relatives from Nashville, Tenn., Tuscaloosa and Atlanta joined those in Demopolis to welcome home their matriarch, Essie Moore Wright, on Saturday.

Mrs. Wright, who turns 100 on Sept. 26, was born in Marengo County and started her adult life in Demopolis when she married the late Phillip Wright Sr. in 1941.

The Moore and Wright Families for five generations gathered in front of the home that Phillip Wright built on South Ash Street to have a group photo and then to fulfill Mrs. Wright’s dream of leading a bus tour to narrate the families’ history and visit their origins.

“She wanted to make a splash, and she did,” laughed her youngest son, Bobby.

County Commissioner Freddie Armstead and Demopolis City Councilman Charles Jones Jr. presented a plaque to Mrs. Wright which read, in part, “Welcome Home.” Armstead also gave her a resolution in her honor from the Marengo County Commission.