| "Carmena Capp holds two braids of her aunt's hair that were cut around 1926. She plans to donate the hair to Locks of Love to be made into a wig." "All the little cousins loved her. She had married as a teenager and was widowed in her 20s, never had children and never remarried. She was tall and thin, lively and resourceful, a self-taught musician who loved knickknacks, sewing and her young nieces and nephews. Her crowning glory, though, was her long brown hair, which she curled by rolling around rags while it was still damp. " "Carmena Capp remembers her beloved Aunt Frances as a fun-loving, brunette beauty with chocolate curls flowing down her back. " ""We just thought Aunt Frances was the bees' knees," says 76-year-old Capp, a Yakima grandmother. "She did have beautiful, strong hair." " "Fannie "Frances" Amelia Fretwell Wilkerson -- her birth certificate says Fannie, but she went by Frances -- died in Boise, Idaho, in 2001 when she was 89. Among her things, Capp found a pair of braids with a note in Aunt Frances' handwriting: "My own hair -- cut when I was a teenager -- about 1926?" " ""I didn't know she had them saved but, knowing Aunt Frances, I wasn't surprised," Capps says. "Aunt Frances saved everything." " "Capp took home her aunt's dark, plaited locks with the intention of turning them into a pin cushion: "The natural oil on the hair keeps your needle from rusting." " "She stored the braids in a box with other odds and ends, then forgot about them. They were left untouched for nearly six years, until the other day when Capp was sorting through her " "When she rediscovered her aunt's braids, which stretch about 18 inches in length, Capp hatched a new plan. Instead of making a pin cushion, the hair would make a wig. " "In the years since she acquired the braids, Capp learned about Locks of Love, a Florida-based nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children and teens who suffer from long-term hair loss. " "Locks of Love accepts hair donations that are at least 10 inches long and bundled in ponytails or braids. The hair must be clean, dry and packed in a plastic bag. " "And, according to guideline No. 7 on the organization's Web site, "Hair cut years ago is usable if it has been stored in a ponytail or braid." " "Aunt Frances' hair had been cut about 80 years ago. But it was clean, dry and braided,
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