More Memories and More Knowledge of My Family and Me

By James E. Daughtridge

My book is about everything that I know about my family, both about my mother’s and father’s side of the family in addition to my interactions towards or with each of them. I was inspired by a late great maternal uncle to pursue such a project. First, I re-collected everything that I could about various family members. It was simply a matter of thinking about what I know and what I could jot down on paper in the comfortable setting of my home or automobiles. I conducted a vast number of interviews from members of each side of the family. This was after I organized a family tree and decided to proceed from that. Those interviews led me to further interviews. Wherever and whenever I could, I got many telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. Sometimes, I researched the Internet when given information about their affiliations or personal pursuits. I utilized other sources in addition to interviews. Some sources included obituaries, books, magazines, newspaper articles, and just plain statistics regarding whatever endeavors they had, such as with my only child. Pursuing this type of manuscript required hard work, devotion, and perseverance.

This book serves as an encouragement to others to do family research and record whatever they find. One should only seek the positive and sidestep the negative. One derives a great deal of joy and satisfaction from engaging in such a project. This work is a reflection of you and how you see things in the lenses of your life.

I hope that many who read this book take it upon themselves to do the same as I have done. Doing this work was truly a joy and a blessing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796077544

James E. Daughtridge

James E. Daughtridge was born on March 7, 1950 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He was born in a hospital which is now long gone. He was born to parents who were hard-working and quite industrious though they were not fortunate enough to obtain education beyond high school. In 1955 and possibly even a little bit earlier his parents entrusted him to the care of a lady whose last name he can only recall-Ms. Dunn. He attended O.R. Pope Elementary School from 1956 until 1962. From 1962 until 1965, J.W. Parker Junior High School, and Booker T. Washington Senior High School from 1965 until 1968. He graduated from Johnson C. Smith University with a bachelors of arts degree in political science and history. He graduated number twelve in a graduating class of two hundred and twenty eight. He obtained of a Master of Arts degree specializing in United States History from the Cleveland State University in 1978. He obtained many credit hours towards the obtainment of a doctorate of philosophy degree in history from Howard University located in Washington, D.C. Since obtaining a Master’s degree, he has held a number of employment positions in the field of civil rights. Most recently, he retired as the Employment Discrimination Complaints Appeals Manager at the United States Department of Agriculture located in Washington, D.C. He has taught at several colleges which include College of Southern Maryland and Trinity University. He has taught in eight fields of history-U.S. History to and Since the American Civil War, African American History for the same time period, Modern Western Civilization, Modern World History, Twentieth Century World History, and Twentieth Century American History. He has engaged in numerous hobbies and activities which include hand-dancing, tennis playing, gardening, writing, reading, and physical exercise at the gym. He has traveled relatively extensively across the United States. He has traveled to and across many states and some parts of the world which include Senegal, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Egypt, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 by James E. Daughtridge.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019920660

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-7960-7746-9

             Softcover      978-1-7960-7747-6

             eBook           978-1-7960-7754-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 12/18/2019

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

805209

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1    My Birth Family

Chapter 2    My Marriage Family

Chapter 3    My Paternal Grandfather’s Family

Chapter 4    My Maternal Great-Grandfather’s Family and My Maternal Grandmother’s Family

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

76732.png

There are family members whom I wish to acknowledge. They supported my preparation of this manuscript. First of all, I give glory to God for enabling me to have the courage to pursue this project. Also, I thank him for giving me the mental energy and physical endurance for this undertaking. He has also allowed me to live long enough to have met and encountered many wonderful people in this life.

I was inspired with this whole project through the book written by my late great-uncle Henry Ramsey. He entitled his book My Genealogy. One of the few times that I saw him in my life was at the 2012 family reunion in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He brought, sold, and autographed his book for various family members. I was quite intrigued with his work. It inspired me to come up with my own creation. It was not too much longer after that I began preparations for this manuscript. That was in August 2012. Wow, now that was about seven years ago from the date of this present manuscript. The family reunion occurred a month before.

I give thanks to my ex-wife, Gail, for the bits and pieces of information she provided me regarding her family members. This was on her stepfather, mother, sister, biological father, maternal grandmother, uncle, brother-in-law, and nephews. She graciously consented to periodic interviews.

The academic and athletic accomplishments of my son greatly inspired me to pursue a manuscript about my family history. Much of the joy and entertainment that I have had in life came from his successes and accomplishments in athletic competition. I have also enjoyed seeing him graduate from childcare center, primary school, secondary school, and college, where he received a master’s of science degree from a prominent university, the University of Maryland, at College Park, Maryland.

I wish to acknowledge Gloria Jean Evans-Farmer for her enthusiastic support in this project. She spent much time with me in giving information about my paternal grandfather’s side of the family. She shared many family pictures with me and reminded me of things about the family I never knew or thought about. Her husband, too, contributed.

My thanks also goes to my maternal first cousin Monica and her husband, Gregory. Monica shared with me the story of how she discovered her biological father, who is my mother’s brother. She was patient enough in giving me a step-by-step analysis as to how she discovered her biological father. Her husband, Gregory, told me about a grandfather of his who was linked to the training and caring of a famous racehorse. The information that he gave me led me on to a small research project. Their son Gregory informed me as to how he had gotten into the horse business. Thanks to all three of them, as well as to Jhavid, their son, for what he provided.

I want to acknowledge the contributions of Geraldine Jones, who is from my own paternal grandmother’s side of the family. She presented me with photographs that I had never seen or thought even existed. She also confirmed or verified stories that I had heard about her parents and siblings.

Lorna Jean Hines deserves a great deal of thanks for the endless amount of information she provided me on herself and her accomplishments. She is related through my mother’s side of the family. Through her, I saw what the familial connections were on my mother’s side of the family. She provided me with the telephone numbers of certain people, which I never would have had. I am deeply indebted for the services she provided.

I cannot go without saying that Uncle Charles Bernard July offered me great encouragement. He provided me some useful (what I call inside) information about the family, of which I had no prior knowledge. He also encouraged some family members to cooperate with me on this family project. His children—my first cousins Cedric, Charla, Redonia, and Melany—all took the time and provided information that I needed to try to make my manuscript a complete piece of work. He also made some contributions to this most recent work. Aunt Jeannette contributed information about herself.

My cousin Monica Michelle, out of New York City, was helpful with respect to the information that she provided me about her herself, her mother and her father, and about other family members. She provided some key telephone numbers of various family members. Monica Michelle also provided a few pictures, which I used in my work. She also attempted to reach a family member whom I had no success in reaching.

My son, Omari, provided some key documents that I otherwise would not have been able to obtain. Many thanks to him.

Richard Farmer, my paternal third cousin through marriage to Gloria Jean Evans-Farmer, shed light on his family story and what he remembered about his having lived in Baltimore, Maryland. I found it interesting what he contributed, as I did with other providers of information.

My cousin Brenda Evans’s children helped in providing information about themselves, their husbands, as well as their children. They are Leslie and Tracy. I owe many thanks to them as well as to other providers of information.

Thanks also to my cousin Walter Jerome as well as his wife, Valerie, and their daughter. Jerome (as I call him) told me a lot of interesting information about his career in the military as well as his work in law enforcement. He also gave me interesting information about his work in security. His wife, Valerie, kindly allowed me an interview where we traced her career in law as well as in the military.

I thank Genevieve Lancaster, who gave me information about herself, her mother, her sister, and many of their descendants.

There were the Korokous sisters, who are descendants of my maternal great-aunt. They provided good information about their careers and accomplishments in life. They gave information about their father and their uncle. Their mother, Landa, was very helpful too.

The now-late Odell Maxwell (born October 13, 1942, and deceased April 8, 2017) was very much a great contributor of information about my maternal great-grandfather’s sister. Without her, there would have been little (if any) information to discuss about that side of the family. Through pictures that I took during the 2013 family reunion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, she pointed out second-, third-, fourth-, and even fifth-generation descendants of my maternal great-grandfather’s sister. It was just wonderful hearing her tell me about her grandmother, her mother and her father, and her siblings and their offspring. Unfortunately, Cousin Odell is no longer with us. May she rest in peace.

Odell served as the Maxwell-July family reunion president for twenty years. She retired as president in 2010. After that time, she served as the family reunion chaplain.

I owe Elizabeth July thanks for connecting pieces together on the July side of the family, particularly as it pertains to her and her father and some uncles. Elizabeth provided information so key that it led me to probe deeper and deeper into the July family history.

I owe my cousin Freddie thanks for the insights that he provided me regarding himself, his children, his grandchildren, and my maternal aunt Edna, who is his mother. This is despite the fact that I have not seen him since 1959 and that he lives far away in suburban Seattle, Washington.

The most recent contributions were provided by the daughter of a great-aunt and a son of that same aunt. A contribution was also made by the daughter of a great-uncle.

PROLOGUE

76777.png

Why did I write this book? The answer is that I think it is important that every person should have knowledge of his or her family for several reasons. One is to shed knowledge to various family members about things they did not know about one another. Hopefully, that would possibly draw the family together. Secondly, everyone’s family history should be preserved for future generations or posterity. I think that it is so important for future generations to look back at the past in determining who was what and why. The family is an integral part of a person’s life. Every person is a part of a family, whether it is very large or very small, together or broken. I have tried to say the best I can about each and every person about whom I have written. I have tried to avoid all gossip and slander. Having reviewed this manuscript several times, I think I have successfully done that. I imagine and do accept the fact that readers will have varying degrees of interest in this manuscript. Hopefully, some will find humor in some parts of this manuscript. And hopefully, some will acquire a great deal of knowledge about topics, events, and items about which I have written.

To avoid a bland presentation, I have tried to provide many pictures. I tried to get pictures of the best quality. They vary in quality and size. The pictures were either given to me, taken by myself, or taken from family photo albums. Many of the photographs in this manuscript are either ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or over sixty years old.

In addition to the presentation of photographs, I have provided footnotes to be as clear as possible about the topics or events as they relate to the persons I have discussed. I realized that some persons might not be as knowledgeable as others with respect to the events, places, or topics discussed. Conveyance of knowledge about a family member was so important to me that I wanted to enhance that knowledge with things that maybe only I knew about that person.

I began this book project in August 2012. I was greatly inspired to do this after having seen and been presented with a family genealogy written by a late great-uncle. I used a different approach in my work. I did not concentrate on birth and death dates. I basically ascertained birth dates and dates of death through those I interviewed. Obituaries were used whenever I was provided with such. I just went straight to the knowledge that I knew about a person. Sometimes, I spent several hours writing, and sometimes I just spent minutes. Most times, it was hours. I wrote as much and as often as I could. I spent most of my time writing either in my patio, downstairs basement, the kitchen table, or on the bed in my bedroom.

I hope that this manuscript will serve as a reminder of me. I also hope that it will inspire other family members to either write something on themselves or about some other family member for posterity or future generations and for possible publication. I dedicate this book to all family members who have been very much a part of my life and to those with whom I have had varying degrees of encounter.

I realize that this manuscript is not perfect. I wonder, if I had known some distant family members better, this manuscript might have been longer and most likely better. I owe whatever writing skills I might have demonstrated in this work to my high school English teacher, Ms. Naomi Brown; my college English teacher, Ms. Hazel Amos; and to the others with whom I have worked with over the years at different places where I had to write. This manuscript was based on extensive interviews, obituaries provided me by various family members, my memory, and written articles found through research on the Internet.

I dedicate this manuscript most of all to my father, mother, and brother. I also dedicate this manuscript to my former wife and to my son. I also dedicate this manuscript to all those who took their precious time in giving me interviews and leading me to others who had useful information. I dedicate this work to all those who have gone on in life, as well as to those who are still living.

Many would regard this manuscript as a second or updated version of my book, which was published last July 31, 2015. Yes, it is. Presented is more knowledge and more memories of my family.

May God bless us all!

CHAPTER 1

MY BIRTH FAMILY

76777.png80420.png

I am James E. Daughtridge, and I was born on March 7, 1950, in Edgecombe Memorial Hospital in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. I am not a true believer in the phenomenon, but my astrological sign is Piscean. My parents are James Edward Daughtridge and Eunice Mae July Daughtridge.¹ My father was the only known child of William and Sarah Daughtridge. I do not know from whom his father, my paternal grandfather, received the name Daughtridge. My research has revealed that this name originated in either England or Wales.² My dad would have been 107 years old on February 22, 2020. Strangely enough, he was born sixteen days before black abolitionist Harriet Tubman died.³ As a docent or tour guide at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture,⁴ I am constantly reminded of my father when I show museum artifacts on Harriet Tubman. My father died on April 23, 1978, of prostate cancer, from which he had suffered for four painful, agonizing years. His mother (my paternal grandmother) died on the same date, but in 1955. She died in Goldsboro, North Carolina, supposedly from complications due to diabetes.⁵ My mother took the homegoing, or funeral, quite hard—weeping and shouting Mama! Mama!

002_b_reigun.png

Mom and Grandma Sarah (my fathers mother, photo is undated but probably taken in the early 1950’s)

I am unsure what city or state my father was born, although I consulted available genealogical records. I remember Dad having told me that he was one year short of graduation from high school. During that time, according to him, grade school, unlike now, only went to the eleventh grade.

002_a_reigun.jpg

James Daughtridge Sr. (my father either in the 1930’s ir the 1940’s)

I saw from pictures that he liked to dress. He wore his hair wavy, which came about from the use of hair care products. He liked to dress in double-breasted suits. I, too, like double-breasted suits as well as three-piece or vested suits. I own a few vested suits. As a young lad, he was taught to play the saxophone (alto). I recall him telling me that his first cousin, William Harris, had purchased this instrument for him. I had this instrument of his until someone had stolen it sometime ago from my home at 8704 Jennifer Court in Clinton, Maryland. Cousin William (my paternal second cousin) was one of two children of Aunt Savannah Harris—the other being Charles, who was affectionately known as Charley Boy. My paternal grandmother, whom I called Grandma Sarah, was an identical twin of her sister, Savannah Harris, thus my paternal great-aunt. I remember her when visiting Washington, DC, in the 1960s as thoughts of my paternal grandmother came to me when I looked at my great-aunt, Savannah. I well remember visiting Aunt Savannah with my father, mother, and brother. She lived at 2129 Third Street, NE, which was off Rhode Island Avenue in Washington, DC. To my knowledge, the residence still stands. What I discovered to be the National Shrine of Immaculate Conception is not that far away.⁶

003_b_reigun.jpg

Aunt Savannah (my father’s aunt) Grandma Sarah (my fathers mother). Undated photo too but probably in the 1930’s or 1940’s.

What I remember of my father’s life is very little. He had no siblings. He was employed as a porter at B Klitzner & Son, which was off Main Street in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He worked there for as long as I can remember, until he retired in 1974 due to the illness from which he died four years later. This was prostate cancer as previously stated.⁷

003_a_reigun.jpg

Dad as a young man in the 1930’s or the 1940’s.

Dad got me a job there as a shoeshine buffer. I was about fifteen years old then. This was in or around 1965. I was bullied by several of my coworkers there. When I hear of bullying by kids today, I can relate because of what I experienced in the mid-1960s.

I recall how instrumental my dad was in my life. When I was ten years old, he purchased encyclopedias weekly from a grocery store. I do not know or remember the name of the store or whether or not it was part of a chain of stores. I believe that it was called Williams Grocery. The first volume cost forty-nine cents, and subsequent volumes were ninety-nine cents apiece. Being a shy and quiet kid, I began reading these books from cover to cover. I attributed much of my interest in reading today to my father. My father seemed very much interested in me being educated for whatever reason, although he did not graduate from high school himself. I discovered that much of my interest in reading centered around the social sciences (e.g., history, politics, economics). This was probably because at dinnertime, my immediate family gathered around the television and watched the evening news. During commercials, my mother and father commented on the broadcasts, and I listened and learned about various topics and people (e.g., Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Walter Cronkite, Martin Luther King Jr., the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the central high school crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas, just to name a few).

Dad was mostly known for being a friendly, gentle chuckler. He was a hard and dedicated worker at B Klitzner. He sometimes worked seven days a week to provide for his family (e.g., shelter over our heads, food on the table, and clothes on our backs). He would come home for lunch for about an hour, and then he would return to work. He came home in the evenings for dinner, and then he would return to work for overtime earnings. He worked until 10:00 p.m. I was fast asleep when he came home for the night. From him, I was imbibed or was inculcated with the work ethic. I learned so much about the work ethic from him, the Puritans about whom I had studied in the fourth and fifth grades, and conservative radio and television talk show hosts. Even though he did not graduate from high school, he liked to talk to me about politics a lot.

004_a_reigun.jpg

Dad in the 1930’s

At home, Dad (whom I most often called Daddy) was most supportive of my mother and was one who definitely would be regarded as a family man. Sometimes, he prepared breakfast for my brother and me before we took off for school. In the 1950s, he occasionally took us and himself to Sunday school. Daddy was surely all dressed up for the occasion. However, in the 1950s, he began to work several hours on Sundays just so his family would be better supported.

I recall puppy dogs that he brought home. There was one named Sparky (a male and a mixed breed of sorts) and Dutchess (a purebred female boxer). He would bring Sparky in the house, and the dog woke us up by licking our faces. Sparky was a small dog with a black-and-white coat. He was accidentally killed one day when he went to greet my father, who was coming home from work, and he was ran over by my father’s car. Dutchess was a dog that my dad had obtained from one of the partners of the wholesale distribution company for whom he worked. We got her in 1962. Because my mom was not one to have pets in the house, Dutchess was hooked to a chain outside the house in the backyard, where she lived in a doghouse. The situation was the same for Sparky. We got Sparky, I do believe, in 1959 or in 1960. I do not recall how Dutchess died. I was saddened with the death of both pets. There were other dogs, but I very vaguely remember them.

There are several other things I remember about Dad. When he prepared breakfast for my brother, Vernon, and me, he turned the television on, and we saw shows such as Captain Kangaroo.⁸ This show included the character of Mr. Green Jeans, Bunny Rabbit, and Tom Terrific. I also remember that Dad played the radio for us, for which I was exposed to the sports commentaries, announcements, and sports news of Howard Cosell.⁹

Not only was my dad given a saxophone by his first cousin, William, but he also learned to play it, and he performed in various clubs, so I was told. I think I remember his having told me that he paid fifty cents a lesson. Because of his love for music and playing of a musical instrument, he was called Rock. He was a member of the Young Men’s Progressive Club, which was located in the northern part of Rocky Mount near Atlantic Avenue. The club gave Easter egg hunts for all the young black kids in Rocky Mount. It was a joyful experience for many of them to have found as many as twenty to thirty eggs. As a club member, Dad also served as a bartender, although he was not professionally trained for such. Part of his duties were to sell pickled eggs and sausages. It was my understanding that these two food products sobered a person if he or she had drunk too much alcohol. All these activities were in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1974, Daddy became stricken with prostate cancer. He retired from work, and Mom quit her job, I do believe, to care for him at home. Dad lived long enough to see my wedding when I married on September 10, 1977. He, Ma, and Vernon (my brother, whom I shall later discuss) took a bus trip from Rocky Mount to Cleveland, Ohio. He stayed in my apartment, and because of excruciating back pain due to the cancer, he lay on the floor for comfort.

In April 1978, I was called home from Cleveland to visit in what appeared to be Daddy’s last days. I had come home a week or two before, and as something to do, I made him some spanish rice, which he found a little too spicy. As I prepared to end my visit and return to Cleveland for my job and graduate studies, we spoke and embraced each other as if we knew we would never see each other again. Tears rolled down our cheeks. Approximately a week or two later, I received a call from Ma, who told me that what I had been expecting had occurred—Dad departed from his life. This was April 23, 1978, and approximately twenty-three years after the death of his own mother. I do not remember a whole lot about the funeral other than a fair-complexioned man named Mattie, with whom my father had worked with, was in the choir singing. I remember several members of my mother’s family being present at the funeral.

006_a_reigun.jpg

Dad