Nannie Yater Tant

Her aristocratic, well-to-do family was horrified when Nannie announced her plans to marry JD Tant, an itinerant farmer-preacher, who was eleven years her senior, a widower with two orphaned children. Nannie was a college graduate (with honors), and Tant's formal education had stopped at about the third or fourth grade level. But the Yater clan's horror turned to outrage and fury when Tant sent a letter to his prospective mother-in-law addressing her as "the old lady Yater."

The proposed marriage seemed destined for total oblivion. But Nannie had a mind of her own; she was the family favorite, and was determined to marry to a strong man of her choice. She was able to reconcile her family, and appeal to their love for her. Her mother wrote, "They ever loved the gentle sister, Nannie, above the rest." The marriage took place as planned (in "the old lady Yater's home") December 30, 1896. Many thousands have read the story of "JD TANT - TEXAS PREACHER".

This book tells "the rest of the story" in Nannie's own words. It is a saga of triumph and tragedy, of overwhelming labors and hardship - and a spirit that could never be broken. Through it all runs the vibrant background music of a marriage that was truly "made in heaven." For Nannie's total commitment to JD Tant was made from the same cloth as her total commitment to Jesus Christ.

Her marriage and her religion were so closely intertwined that it might be difficult to tell where the one began and the other stopped. In doing what she could to lighten the burdens of her husband, and to help him in his chosen life's work of preaching the gospel, Nannie truly felt that she was serving her Lord Jesus Christ. This gave to her marriage a depth and a beauty that later generations might find it hard to understand.

Through the forty-five years of her marriage to JD Tant, Nannie endured hardships beyond description, long months of loneliness while her husband was off in gospel meetings, struggling with farm work, debts, sick children. But the "gentle Nannie" had always a "song in her heart," for she was helping the man she loved - and serving the Lord she worshiped.

At ninety years, and after twenty years as a widow, she ended her life in total confidence that she was stepping over the threshold into an even brighter and happier life - where once again she would meet the man she loved, the little son who had died in her arms and a great host of "the saved of all ages."

This book, her autobiography, tells the story as she lived it.