Church rebuilds home destroyed in fire for South Memphis matriarch
Local church rebuilds home for South Memphis Matriarch By Arianna Poindexter | April 30, 2021 at 8:24 PM CDT - Updated April 30 at 8:28 PM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - A church stepped up to give a South Memphis matriarch a home again after she lost it in a fire more than three years ago.
They say home is where the heart is, but for Betty Isom, this home means much more.
“I was the first one in the family to move out to public housing and buy my first home,” said Isom.
For years Isom has served as the matriarch in her community, serving others selflessly in the neighborhood and inside the home she worked so hard for. But a fire in 2018 destroyed that home.
By Corinne S. Kennedy, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Published April 26, 2021
Betty Isom was fast asleep when the fire started.
Her grandson woke her up in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2018, alerting her to the blaze, later determined to be an electrical fire. Isom and her family were not able to douse the fire themselves; the pipes in her home had frozen. It had barely gotten to 25 degrees on New Year’s Eve in Memphis, according to weather records.
The moments after Isom and her family left the house were chaotic. Isom, who hadn’t even had time to grab shoes on her way out, tried to run back inside to get her car keys so the family could sit in the car to escape the cold. She eventually went to her neighbor’s home, but her family feared she had gone back into the house and told firefighters she might be inside.
A Memphis matriarch s home burned. Her community rebuilt it
CORINNE S. KENNEDY, Memphis Commercial Appeal
April 23, 2021
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Betty Isom was fast asleep when the fire started.
Her grandson woke her up in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2018, alerting her to the blaze, later determined to be an electrical fire. Isom and her family were not able to douse the fire themselves; the pipes in her home had frozen. It had barely gotten to 25 degrees on New Year’s Eve in Memphis, according to weather records.
The moments after Isom and her family left the house were chaotic. Isom, who hadn’t even had time to grab shoes on her way out, tried to run back inside to get her car keys so the family could sit in the car to escape the cold. She eventually went to her neighbor’s home, but her family feared she had gone back into the house and told firefighters she might be inside.
A Memphis matriarch s home burned Her community rebuilt it apnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from apnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Betty Isom was fast asleep when the fire started.
Her grandson woke her up in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2018, alerting her to the blaze, later determined to be an electrical fire. Isom and her family were not able to douse the fire themselves; the pipes in her home had frozen. It had barely gotten to 25 degrees on New Year’s Eve in Memphis, according to weather records.
The moments after Isom and her family left the house were chaotic. Isom, who hadn’t even had time to grab shoes on her way out, tried to run back inside to get her car keys so the family could sit in the car to escape the cold. She eventually went to her neighbor’s home, but her family feared she had gone back into the house and told firefighters she might be inside.