When Alberta Martin died in 2004, she was believed to be the last Confederate widow. She lay in repose at the First White House of the Confederacy and was buried with full honors.
But since then another Confederate widow has been located and has now died. Her name was Maudie Hopkins and she was 93. She grew up during the Depression in the "hardscrabble Ozarks" and married a Confederate army veteran 67 years her senior, according to an article in the Seattle Times.
She married William Cantrell when she was 19 and he was 86. He made her "an offer she couldn't refuse" by saying he would leave her his land and home if she would marry and take care of him in his later years which she did. The couple married in 1934 and he died in 1937 at age 90. She was widowed three more times and had 3 children by her second husband.
Cantrell had enlisted in the Confederate army at age 16 and was captured by the Federals and served as a prisoner of war for six weeks.
The article goes on to say "other Confederate widows are still living, but they don't want publicity".
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