The Journey of Hope: Her Search for Truth

By Patricia Hope

The Journey of Hope - presents the authors struggles to uncover personal history long hidden by the Tennessee Childrens Home Society (TCHS). Beginning chapters describe why she was taken from her mother and handed over to Georgia Tann at TCHS in 1936 at the age of four.

Early memories include riding in the “big black car” that

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: Aug 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781643451626

Patricia Hope

Patricia Hope is a first time author with no acclaim to fame except as a wife, mother and entrepreneur. During her 70 years she has lived from coast to coast including Okinawa. Home base is Hobbs, New Mexico, where at the age of 58 and single, when most folks think of retiring, she became the founder of Chapel of Hope Funeral Home, which she owned and managed before selling. She and her second husband have spent extended periods of time in Memphis, Tennessee where she also feels at "home." By telling her story, which includes her spiritual growth, she hopes that it will encourage others on their journey through life.

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Contents

1. In the Beginning

2. Taken and Placed

3. Courage and Determination

4. Compassion and Endurance

5. The Long Trip

6. My Name Is Hope

7. A New Daddy

8. Childhood Years

9. Leaving the Nest—Big City Life

10. Courtship and Marriage

11. Westward Ho—San Francisco

12. Sailing the Ocean Blue

13. Okinawa—My Faraway Home

14. Return Trip—New Assignment

15. Civilians Again

16. New Mate

17. My Dreams

18. Return to Memphis

19. Beginning the Search

20. Stepping into the Past

21. The Wait Is Over—Siblings Meet

22. Digging Deeper into the Past

23. Baby in the Basket

24. Putting the Search on Hold

25. Finding My Birth Mother

26. A Time to Rest

27. Destination—Battle Creek, Michigan

28. Next Stop—Memphis

29. Onward to Hickory, Mississippi

30. My True Identity

31. Making Connections

32. My Heart’s Desire

33. Looking Ahead—My Homeland

Dedication

To all the children and their families whose lives were altered under the control of Georgia Tann at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis, Tennessee.

Especially in memory of my birth mother, my adoptive mother, and the little boy who wanted a sister.

Also, to all my birth and adoptive relations. None of this would have been possible without the knowledge of how each one of you have been a part of the pattern of my life.

To my adopted daughter Kathryn, not only do I know the joy and pain of being an adopted child but also of being an adoptive mother.

In memory of my late husband Louis, who made the long trips with me so I could visit the grave sites of my birth mother, father, grandparents, and Georgia Tann.

Acknowledgment

A special thanks to my friends for suggesting that I share my testimony in book form. Thank you, Stratton Press, for your dedicated service and encouraging advice while getting the book ready for reprint. I love you all.

To the search counselor and juvenile officer in Memphis, a great big thanks. To the lady in Nashville for your part in digging through old records and locating a birth brother.

To the kind and understanding folks in Battle Creek, Michigan, for all your help in locating my birth mother’s grave. Especially to the funeral director and the staff at the nursing home for taking time to share with me about my birth mother.

To the special couple in Hickory, Mississippi, for showing us where Georgia Tann’s grave is located and for opening up your home and hearts to us as we prepared to continue on with our trip.

Most of all, to my Heavenly Father for making all this possible.

I will forever be grateful and praise Your Holy Name.

Author’s Note

Through the years, more often than I can recall, I have been told that I should write a book about my life, including the time spent at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis, Tennessee.

I laughed about it, joked at the idea, and procrastinated. After trying to convince myself, I couldn’t; I knew that when the time was right, I could do it not with my ability but in the strength of Jesus Christ.

Now the time has come, and by the power and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, I will attempt to tell my story. The main purpose is to bring praise, honor, and glory to God my Father. He was there all the way. It is my prayer this testimony will encourage and strengthen others along the way.

Before you begin reading, please close your eyes, open your heart in prayer, and ask God to reveal to you the message that He wants you to receive.

Introduction

This book is based on the true account of the life of Hope and her journey into the past, searching for answers to why she had been put in the Tennessee Children’s Home Society (TCHS) in Memphis, Tennessee, and who and where were her birth parents.

The answers she found brought forth many kinds of emotions as she read through the old court records and filled in the missing pieces of the puzzle of her birth and the first four plus years of her life.

Hope’s greatest joy was when she forgave those who had changed her original birth certificate, thus changing her true identity then sold her for their own gain.

The Tennessee Children’s Home Society opened in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1922, with Georgia Tann as the first superintendent. In 1920, Mrs. Camille Kelley was appointed as the judge who ruled the juvenile court with an iron hand and had a tendency to declare children wards of the state of Tennessee with unnecessary haste. Many children were placed under the control of Georgia Tann because of the decisions that Judge Camille Kelley made. In 1936, Hope was one of those children, and to date, she still remembers the cruelty and a very long ride in the big black car.

The first hint of trouble within the TCHS came in 1941, but it was not until 1950 that an investigation would begin. As the conspiracy began to unravel, Memphis and the world would find out the truth of a very well organized black market for selling babies and small children for personal gain.

In the fall of 1950, after twenty-eight years of being in operation, the TCHS was put out of business by orders of the governor of Tennessee.

Georgia Tann died of cancer on September 15, 1950. Judge Camille Kelley resigned November 9, 1950, and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she died in 1955. Neither one was ever brought to trial.

Note: Information pertaining to the TCHS and participants was copied from various articles filed at the Memphis Public Library. Hope obtained her personal family information from the juvenile court files with permission from a court deputy. Anyone interested in more details pertaining to the TCHS can obtain it through the web.

Chapter 1

In the Beginning

I am Hope, a child of God even before I was aware of Him or of His presence in my life on the journey I was to travel.

Where is the beginning? How do I go back to my beginning when I do not have any memories of the first four and one-half years of my life? I cannot remember the woman who gave birth to me and was a part of my infant years. I did not know my mother’s name was Margaret until I began researching old court records in 1987.

I learned that Margaret had married a man named Charles in 1922. They were both from Michigan but moved to Memphis, Tennessee, soon after they married. They had a son and a daughter and apparently a very stormy marriage.

Before their marriage ended in a bitter divorce, Charles took Margaret and their two children and moved them back to Michigan to be near her mother. These were very difficult years for everyone because of the Great Depression. Margaret and Charles continued to fight over the custody of their two children.

It was during this time that Margaret met Leo and they started living together. In 1932, the year of my birth, our nation was trying to recover from the depression. Families were struggling to survive. Many had been separated as men left their homes searching for work. Some never returned to their families, and others returned only to find their wives and children gone.

On September 21, I was born into this state of turmoil, hatred, and strife. Margaret gave birth to me in the small town of Cheboygan, Michigan, which is located in the upper northern part of the state. When living conditions were at the lowest, Margaret gave me life and named me Hope.

Even after my birth, Charles still refused to give Margaret a divorce, so she left Leo and returned to Memphis to see if she and Charles could work out the custody battle. Margaret had left Memphis with two children. Now she was returning with them and a new baby named Hope, who had been fathered by another man. Coping with the depression probably seemed minor compared to what she and Charles had to deal with upon her return.

After a period of time, Margaret again left Memphis, taking us three kids with her. She returned to Michigan and went back to Leo. She and Charles were still fighting over their children, and it would be some months later that their divorce was final. She was free to marry Leo, and in 1936, she gave birth to their son in Detroit.

Nineteen days after giving birth, Margaret boarded a train for Memphis. She had her hands full with me, the new baby, and her two older children. Her plans were to pack up the few belongings that she had left with Charles. Since she had to return to the house they had once shared together, she knew that there would be trouble between them, but there was no way she could have known how that trip would change her life and the lives of all four of her children forever.

Upon her arrival, Charles became very angry. While she was packing, he called the police and had her arrested. The police took Margaret and us to juvenile court, where she had to appear before Judge Kelley. The judge then ordered that the baby and I be taken from Margaret and turned over to the court. Her two older children were placed in the custody of their father, Charles.

I never saw my birth mother again.

Chapter 2

Taken and Placed

On November 23, 1936, at the age of four years, four months, and two days, I was taken from my mother and placed in the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. This seems to be when my life began.

This chapter is mostly about my mother Margaret. As I read through the court records, I began to understand what happened that day and why we were taken from her. Even though I do not remember being in the room with her, I can picture the scene in my mind.

While Margaret was packing, we played and watched her. Suddenly the police arrived and probably it was very frightening, with all the confusion and turmoil, as she was being arrested and we were all taken to the juvenile court building. Margaret told the police officer that she did not know what all the trouble was about; she was only packing up what belonged to her. The records stated that Hope was very polite and shook hands with the police officer.

Later when Charles arrived to pick up their two children, he admitted to the police that the things were rightfully hers, but it was too late to help her. Charles had wanted full custody of their children, and now he had them in his care. He had no interest in me or the baby.

Appearing before Judge Kelley, Margaret didn’t have a chance. The judge also had very strong ties with Georgia Tann and the children’s home, and she had the authority to make the final decisions. She could take children from their parents when she wanted to and place them in the care of Georgia Tann, and there wasn’t anyone to stop her.

The battle was over me. Judge Kelley tried to force Margaret into signing a paper to give me up for adoption. Margaret refused and made the statement, I will never give up my little girl Hope. She also refused to sign any papers for me to be taken to the children’s home. Margaret told the judge that Leo’s sister would care for me until everything was straightened out. Judge Kelley refused to honor her request. Why the judge was unwilling to release me back to my mother is a mystery that will never be known.

After Margaret refused to sign the papers, Judge Kelley took me and the baby from her. The judge told her the court would keep us until she got her personal affairs in order and then we would be released back to her. When Margaret left that courtroom, I do not believe she knew that she would never see us again.

When we were placed in the children’s home, Georgia Tann had no intentions of releasing us back to our mother. We were children that she could sell in her black-market baby business.

TCHS director Georgia Tann (left) and Judge Camille Kelley (right) were accomplices in the unethical child adoption practices of the TCHS during the 1940s.

The midtown house at 1556 Poplar, where Hope was taken and where Georgia Tann temporarily housed young children and babies, no longer stands.

Chapter 3

Courage and Determination

I will share with you the memories that I have of the children’s home and how they have become a testimony of God guiding the steps of a child named Hope.

The house that we were placed in was located on Poplar Street in Downtown Memphis. There was a large backyard with lots of trees. I knew that I did not belong there and was going to leave. I remember taking a baby carriage, which probably had my new baby brother in it, and telling the man working in the backyard that I was leaving. Out the gate I went, pushing the carriage down the sidewalk, walking into the unknown, but on my way back home and to my mother.

Punishment was the reward that I received for having the courage to leave. There were different types of punishment that they used on me during my almost five-month stay there. The one that I remember most used was having to sit on a high stool in the comer of the kitchen, watching the other children eat, and not being allowed to—always hungry and not understanding why