Green, Nina Mae

Nina Mae Roper Green was born August 31, 1900 at Pensacola, Florida to Thomas and Elizabeth Todd Roper. By the time Nina Mae was one year old, her family had moved to Dallas County, Texas and settled near the community of Cottonwood.

Thomas died shortly after his family settled at Cottonwood. This left Elizabeth with the responsibility of raising two small children, Nina Mae and Thomas Jr. One of the original organizers of the Cottonwood Church of Christ was Elisha Sims born December 3, 1819. When Nina Mae's mother married for the second time, it was to W. T. "Uncle Billy" Sims, the son of Elisha.

Nina Mae grew up in a Christian home and became a member of the Cottonwood Church at an early age. She was baptized in a small creek south of Cottonwood in 1913. In 1941 Nina Mae married William Delbert "Will" Green. Will had also grown up in the Cottonwood community.

Will and his brother Jess Green were pioneers of the motion picture business in this part of the country. In 1910 they opened the first silent picture operation in Wylie. Then, in 1924 they bought trucks, movie projectors, large tents and went on the road. Their big break came in 1930 with the advent of talking pictures. Buck and Check Boyd were also taking their shows on the road by this time.

"I went all over the place with the Green brothers. We'd load those big tents on the truck and off we'd go. We went so far one time that we run plum out of road," said Lynn Wells as he spoke with a full dip of snuff almost dripping from his mouth.

"The Greens would go all over the country with those picture shows and their tents. Some times they would set up in the old Liberty Grove School. We didn't have electricity in those days, so they would hook up the projector to the generator on an ole Model A Ford." Pauline Forster Bevel.