An Angel's View: My Grandmother’S Love, Life, and Legacy: the Memoir of Ellen Cordelia Saunders

By Reginald E. Hicks

Throughout the ages and stages of American history, grandmothers have been the guardians of the generations, the dispensers of wisdom, the instillers of pride and dignity, the conveyors of important religious values, the financial and emotional supporters of the family during times of need, and the promoters of cultural standards and traditions. From Maya Angelou to Martin Luther King Jr. to Oprah Winfrey, the success of many African Americans can be traced back to the love and support of a grandmother. Author Reginald E. Hicks is no exception.

For Hicks, An Angels View began as a labor of love to chronicle the life of his own beloved grandmother, from her birth on the family farm in rural New Kent County, Virginia in 1923; through her personal, social, and political trials and tribulations; to her quickly approaching eighty-ninth birthday. However, his humble commemoration eventually blossomed into an emotional story of love, betrayal, triumph, and tragedy embedded in a riveting and dynamic Southern history. Through this exceptional work, Hicks makes a unique and valuable contribution to his family and to the world of black literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475953350

Reginald E. Hicks

Reginald E. Hicks, the author of Hidden in the Shadow of Truth, has earned master’s degrees in theology, African American studies, and secondary education. He has taught high school sociology and world geography for eighteen years and has previously worked in treatment centers and group homes for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems. He currently resides in Hampton, Virginia.

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An Angel’s View

My Grandmother’s Love, Life, and Legacy

(The Memoir of Ellen Cordelia Saunders)

Reginald E. Hicks

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

An Angel’s View

My Grandmother’s Love, Life, and Legacy

Copyright © 2012 by Reginald E. Hicks

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-5334-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-5336-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-5335-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012918636

iUniverse rev. date: 10/16/2012

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction:

In My Grandmother’s House

Our Beloved Grandmothers

Our Grandmothers’ Historical Roles

My Beloved Grandmother

My Grandmother’s Life in Brief

1

My Childhood Home

The Washington Home

The Washington Family

2

My School Days

Our School Systems

My School Days

3

My Married Life

A Marriage of Turmoil

A Marriage of Love

4

My Spiritual Life

The Black Church

My Christian Walk

5

My Twilight Years

How Far We’ve Come

How Many We’ve Admired

A Legacy of Love

Appendix

The Family Album

Notes

Preface

How important it is, says Maya Angelou, to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! But who are the heroes among us? Mohandas Gandhi was a hero. Nelson Mandela was a hero. Martin Luther King Jr. was also a hero. What made these great figures heroes to nations makes my grandmother a hero to me. My eighty-eight-year-old grandmother, a strong and resilient yet modest and mild-mannered woman, would never accept the title of hero. But for those of us who have been touched by her life, there is no other way to describe her. What is a hero if not one who is led and guided by a spirit of helping and giving? What is a hero if not one who does the right thing when no one else is watching and expects nothing in return? What is a hero if not one who loves unconditionally and is motivated by that love to comfort and serve those in need? It is these characteristics—not fame, fortune, or power—that made Gandhi, Mandela, and King heroes. And it is these same characteristics that describe my grandmother to a tee. After my first book, Hidden in the Shadow of Truth, was published in May 2010, I knew that my next project had to be about the life of my hero, my grandmother, Ellen Cordelia Saunders.

When I approached Grandma Ellen with the idea of writing a book about her life, I explained to her the importance of such an endeavor. I told her that this book would not only be my small token of appreciation to her for the many sacrifices she has made for me and countless others, but perhaps one day it would also be a personal and historical treasure to her entire extended family and posterity for generations to come. I also expressed to her that, with her permission, I wanted the five chapters of this book to be her official memoir, where every section would be written from her point of view and contain only those stories, memories, and recollections that she felt contributed most to her personality, outlook, and outcome. As overwhelmed and taken aback as she was by the request, she ultimately decided to participate in the project, realizing that a focus on her life would actually be a focus on the family. And, lo and behold, almost two years and more than fifty interviews later, An Angel’s View: My Grandmother’s Love, Life, and Legacy was born. God has truly granted me favor, giving me the ability and opportunity to celebrate and honor my hero in this special way.

Acknowledgments

The writing and publishing of this volume would certainly not have been possible without the help, support, and input of the following family members: my great-uncle Joseph Washington; my great-aunt Alberta Wright; my mother, Gloria Brown; my brother and sister, Stacey Hicks and Sabrina Roberts; my cousins LaVonda Atkins, Kimberly Jones, Robyn Kennedy, Louise Woods-Jones, Edith Taylor, Alice Morris, and Alphonso Washington; and my wife and daughter, Brenda Hicks and Miea Hicks.

Introduction:

In My Grandmother’s House

In the midst of a lifetime of relationships, there is no bond as precious as that between a grandmother and her grandchildren. In a grandmother’s house, there is no pain, no tears, no frustrations, and no fears. In her house, whether we are fifteen or fifty, all of life’s overwhelming burdens become momentarily insignificant as we happily lose ourselves in our divinely favored role as grandchildren. Her hugs, kisses, and reassurances envelop us until there is no room left for insecurity or self-hatred. Her time-tested, wise counsel informs and teaches us until we are recharged and again ready to face the world. Her colorful stories of struggle and survival remind us of our rich and noble history while they help us find the fortitude to endure our own trials and tribulations. Her culinary delights—Southern fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, corn on the cob, peach cobbler, and homemade ice cream—mesmerize and fill us until the concept of hunger becomes as foreign and distant as the sun. Are grandmothers even remotely aware of how indispensable they are to their grandchildren?

Our Beloved Grandmothers

Poet, educator, activist, and best-selling author Maya Angelou describes her father’s mother, Annie Henderson, as the quintessential African grandmother. Maya saw her as the preserver of the family, the source of folk wisdom, and the instiller of values within the community.¹ Mamma (as Angelou referred to her grandmother) was proud of her blackness, according to Maya, and carried herself in such a way that made others feel that same sense of pride. And after spending years with Mamma Henderson in the wake of her parents’ divorce when she was only three, Maya came to realize that her grandmother was not only her saving grace during her formative years, but through her strength of character and belief in God, she taught Maya that any of life’s challenges could be overcome through faith.² Mamma Henderson essentially gave her granddaughter a living blueprint that she could draw from for the rest of her life. As Maya Angelou would tell anyone listening, My paternal grandmother … had a remarkable influence on how I saw the world and how I reckoned my place in it. She was the picture of dignity.³

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) described his maternal grandmother, Jennie Celeste Williams (Mama Williams), as a loving, gentle, saintly woman who was like a second mother to him.⁴ From the time she moved into the King home (precipitated by the death of her husband) when Martin was about two years old, she was the center of his universe. Some even speculate that Martin was closer to Mama Williams than he was to his own parents.⁵ There is certainly evidence that, as a young boy, he could not bear the thought of living without her.⁶ On one occasion, when Martin was horse-playing with his younger brother, A. D. (Alfred Daniel King), they accidently struck Mama Williams with a great deal of force, causing her to fall to the ground. When she did not get up, [Martin] was sure he and A. D. had killed her. Tears pouring from his eyes, he rushed into a bedroom and threw himself out of a window, landing hard on the ground twelve feet below.⁷ His family quickly ran to him at the site of his fall and informed him that his grandmother was fine. Martin walked away with only a small bruise. His second attempt at suicide—again, throwing himself from a second-floor window and walking away unharmed—occurred when Mama Williams died of a heart attack on May 18, 1941.⁸ Although Dr. King never again tried to kill himself, he fully understood his actions during those early years. His grandmother was indeed the center of his universe.

Civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson could more than relate to this sentiment. He was born to a poor, unmarried, sixteen-year-old mother and an uncaring, uninvolved father, making his maternal grandmother, Matilda Burnes (Grandma Tibby), the matriarch of the family from the moment of his birth. Jesse had a love for Grandma Tibby that was unmatched even by the love he had for his own mother, Helen. In fact, Helen would often complain to her mother that Jesse readily showed her the affection and respect that she, as his mother, had to struggle to receive.⁹ Calvin Morris, a later friend of Jesse’s, attests, He could be very dismissive of his mother, but he poured his love into his grandmother. He talked about her all the time in his sermons, where he rarely ever talked about his mom.¹⁰ In a March 1997 Jet magazine article, Jackson himself stated, Grandma Tibby was the glue that held us together. She worked two jobs to help sustain our family. She was the strength and major motivation to help us pursue our dreams.¹¹

Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005), the first black woman elected to Congress (1968), and the first black person to have her name on a national ballot as a candidate for president of the United States (1972), knew about dreams and what it took to develop the confidence and fortitude necessary to earnestly pursue those dreams. Shirley has always credited her maternal grandmother, Emily Seale, with instilling in her those life-altering qualities of strength and resilience.¹² When she was only three years old, Shirley was sent to Barbados, along with her two sisters, to be raised by Grandma Seale while her parents struggled for seven years to establish themselves and set up a proper home for their daughters in Brooklyn, New York. Shirley developed a close relationship with her grandmother and was greatly influenced by the lessons she taught. According to Chisholm, she would often say, Shirley, nothing can stop you if you are determined not to be distracted by the temptations of the world. If you have strong character and determination and if you apply yourself, you will rise to the top.¹³ In no uncertain terms, the Honorable Shirley Chisholm was truly the personification of her grandmother’s advice.

Billionaire and media mogul Oprah Winfrey makes it very plain in a 1991 Academy of Achievement interview that her grandmother saved her life. Oprah was born in 1954 in rural Kosciusko, Mississippi, to a poor, unwed mother. Shortly after her birth, her mother moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to take a job as a maid, leaving Oprah with her grandmother, Hattie Mae, until she was six years of age. These years with Grandma Hattie Mae, according to Oprah, laid the foundation for her ultimate success. It was during these years that her gifts of reading, reciting, and oration were recognized and nurtured. The first six years of her life, under the tutelage of her grandmother, gave her the strength to endure being molested and sexually abused by several family members when she was between the ages of nine and thirteen, and becoming pregnant and giving birth to a stillborn baby at the age of fourteen. Oprah was undoubtedly given something very special during her short stay in Kosciusko that could never be taken away. As she explains in the same 1991 interview, [Being left with Grandma Hattie Mae] is the reason why I am where I am today. I was taught to read at an early age. By the time I was three, I was reciting speeches in the church. And all the sisters sitting in the front row would fan themselves and turn to my grandmother and say, ‘Hattie Mae, this child is gifted.’ And I heard that enough that I started to believe it.¹⁴

Of course, no one was more inspired by their grandmother than Alex Haley (1921–1992), whose Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976), is a direct testament to the many times he sat by his grandmother’s side listening to her colorful stories about their ancestors.¹⁵ In fact, according to Haley himself, although he was born in Ithaca, New York, his life really began on the front porch of his grandparents’ (Will and Cynthia Palmer) house, in the small Southern town of Henning, Tennessee, when he was six weeks old.¹⁶ During the five years (as well as subsequent summers) he lived in Henning with his mother, Bertha, while his father, Simon, pursued a graduate degree at Cornell University, Alex became summarily enthralled by his grandmother’s captivating tales of Uncle Mingo, Massa Waller, Kunta Kinte, Miss Kizzy, and Chicken George. He was so moved