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| I was born in the southwestern part of the southern part of the United
States, in a small rural place, called Emerson, Arkansas. I was an only
girl in a family of five children. When I was very young, my family moved
from Emerson to the "big city" of Texarkana, Arkansas. Actually the city
is both Arkansas and Texas. The state line runs right down the middle of
the city. On one side of the street is Texarkana, Arkansas, and on the
other side of the street is Texarkana, Texas. The population at that time
was approximately 50,000. However, it was a progressive little city.
My father was a Methodist Minister, and he was assigned to pastor a church in Texarkana, Arkansas, that is why we moved there. When we found out that we were going to move to Texarkana, the whole family was very excited. This move meant that we were moving up in the world. My dad received a salary increase, along with this assignment. Also, it was a bigger and more prestigous church than where we were before. I never saw my dad so happy! He went out and bought a new suit, which I am sure we could not afford. He spent hours trying to decide how he should wear his hair. It was a very exciting time for us.
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| I can only trace my family back to my grandparents. However, I do remember
a family member who we visited fairly frequently, when I was a child. Her
name was aunt Fanny, and I believe she was the aunt of my paternal grandmother,
who died before I was born. Aunt Fanny lived alone in a little one room
wood shack with bare wooden floors, it was very primitive. I remember her
referring to herself as a "baby slave", which I took to mean, that she
was a baby when the slaves were freed. I know she used to tell us a lot
of stories about how it was in her day. I can't remember any of the stories,
I am sorry to say. I was quite young at the time, and I was probably more
interested in doing other things. I now wish I had been more attentive
to what she was saying. Maybe if I had, I would have some idea of how my
ancestors came to this Country and what African tribe I descended from.
Some members of both my maternal and paternal sides of the family have done some research into the genealogy of the families. I have not personally done any research into the matter. I have a vague memory of my maternal grandmother, pictured above, and a little better memory of my maternal grandfather, who died when I was very young. On my father's side, I remember spending time with my grandfather. He died when I was about 10 or 12 years old. My paternal grandmother died before I was born. I believe she died when my dad was a little boy. I lived and attended school in Texarkana, until I graduated high school at the age of sixteen. I went to Arkansas State College in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, which was at that time a segregated college for African Americans, primarily. I do remember we had a number of African students from Africa, also attending school there at the time, but no white student attended there. I attended school there for five semesters. During my last summer break there, I took a summer vacation with my mother to Los Angeles, California, where my older half-sister lived. I fell in love with the freedom that I experienced, being far away from my very strict, stern and demanding father. After returning home from vacation, I immediately began working on a plan to return to California to live and attend school there. In 1956 I was able to return to California, where I have lived ever since. During my volunteer work on this project, my interest has been piqued on the subject of genealogy. Although I have not done anything before, I would not be surprised if I decide to take a trip to the Mormon Library in the near future.
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