Stella's full birth name was Selma Estelle Phillips. No one knew her by this name including her own brother. She always went by Stella. Her belated birth certificate has her name as Selma Estella Phillips. Her Social Security Card issued 5/21/1951 in Illinois and Death Certificate both read Stella Martin.

Stella was born in rural Marion County, Alabama in the area between Hamilton and Guin, Alabama. After Stella's four year old sister, Gennie, died, she was the oldest living of her eleven siblings. She only completed the third grade. Then she helped her mother with the younger children and her father with the farming. However she continued reading and learning and became a very wise woman.

She married at the age of 18 to Robert "Lester" Martin, Sr. on May 24, 1936 in Hamilton, AL. They lived with Lester's parents for a few months, then rented a log cabin next to Lester's parents property in rural Marion County, AL. Their first child, Robert Lester Martin, Jr. was born in that log cabin on May 18, 1937, with assistance from Stella's maternal grandmother Ella Homer Franks who was a mid-wife.

In the 1940's they lived in different area's in Marion County. They lived in Rock City, AL where Lester worked at John T. Weeks Coal Mine for several years.
They also lived in the Pea Ridge area of Marion County, Alabama close to her parents. They tried farming and even owned a restaurant in Guin, AL for a short time. In 1950 Stella was living with her husband, son and daughter in Winfield, Marion County, Alabama.

Friends and family were moving north to Moline, IL where the work was plentiful and the pay good. In May 1951 they moved to Moline, Il with their two children. The first three years in Illinois, she took in many boarders who came from Alabama and were also looking for a better life. Stella worked at the Moline National Licorice Company. Stella did not drive, so she walked the 2 miles to and from work almost every day. She took the bus many times on Sunday for church services in Davenport, Iowa. Sunday's wasn't a day of rest for Stella. She always had a house full of family and friends for the wonderful meals she cooked.

In 1958 Stella, Lester and their daughter moved to Green Rock, IL. (now Colona, Illinois) where she was a charter member of the Church of God two houses away from where she lived. After 10 years at the Moline National Licorice Company, she quit work. She quickly decided she didn't like not working at a paying job, so at the age of 45 she learned to drive an automobile and purchased her own car. She then obtained a job as a custodian for East Moline Public Schools. She loved the job and the children at the school. She also watched her grandchildren often. She would ask for them to come spend the night.

When Lester retired in 1975, she also retired and they moved to Rapids City, IL for a few months until Stella decided to buy herself a farm. She told Lester he could come if he wanted or stay where he was. So, of course, they both moved to Port Byron, IL and lived in a big old farm house on the edge of town. She loved her cow, chickens and peacocks. She had huge gardens each summer and flower gardens that looked like parks. That was not enough to keep her busy, so she returned to work part-time as a custodian at Riverdale High School in Port Byron, Illinois.

The call of the south happened in 1979, when they built a house in Marion County, Alabama next to one of her sisters. Again her yard became a flower garden and park. When the weather got cold, she would start the quilting. They weren't fancy, but they were the warmest and best constructed quilts and would last for years.

In 1986 they once again moved to Illinois and settled in Carbon Cliff. Yet another flower garden and park she created on the one acre lot. She gave up driving in 1987. She never had to ask anyone for a ride anywhere, because she had so many friends or family that would ask her first.

Stella's heart stopped on June 7, 1996 and she never regained consciousness. She was hospitalized for 14 days and transferred to Rosewood Care Center where she passed away on June 26, 1996. She was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend. I miss her still.