Memories Of My Grandparents

As a child in Winnsboro Louisiana, I have vivid memories of both my maternal grandparents Bryant and Carrie Cameron and my paternal grandparents Henry and Sallie Mae Cameron.
 

My grandfather Bryant (Daddy Bryant, Born, 1895) was Barber and owned a Barbershop in Gilbert Louisiana. He was a Barber for over 40 years. He died suddenly in 1962. The day before he died my parents had gone to visit; my parents had new twins daughters Barbara and Sharon and had taken them to see my grandparents, he died the next morning. His last words to my mother were “take care of those twins”. He would never know how profound those words were.

My Grandmother Carrie (Mama Carrie, born 1900) was a seamstress; she would sew for people in the area. My grandmother would also sew thermal underwear for her grandchildren during the winter months. She was also a very accomplished quilter. She made beautiful bedspreads. She also cooked very well and I miss her Chicken Stew to this day. Mama Cameron also loved gardening; she had the most beautiful flower garden. I have memories of her standing in front of the fireplace with her backside facing the fireplace with a long dress on; she would lift the back of the dress to warm her buns/ backside.
I am currently in the process of locating pictures of Bryant and Carrie Cameron and I will share in the near future.

My Grandfather Henry Coleman In His Favorite Rocking Chair

My grandfather Henry (Granddaddy Born, 1908) was a Sharecropper Framer and is the one person I have the most vivid remembrance of. I would sometimes spend the night at their home and when I awoke the next morning, I would find him setting in his favorite rocking chair reading the newspaper or watching the news. He was a man with an 11^th grade education; however, he was a very smart man. I would listen as he discussed what was going on in the news, and the world. He love to share his knowledge of what was going on in world, and I would take it all in.

Sallie Mae Coleman (MoMo) sitting on the porch

My Grandmother Sallie Mae (MoMo, born 1910) was a stay at home mom as many women of that era were. She was born in Mississippi and moved with my grandfather to Louisiana in the 1930's. Momo too was a fine cook, she loved to bake and you could always go to her house and find an array of desserts on hand.  Momo loved to talk or listen on the party line telephone(Two or more homes on the same telephone line); Prior to World War II in the United States, party lines were the primary way residential telephone subscribers acquired local phone service. My grandmother would sit and listen to her neighbors conversations for hours.

I miss my grandparents, they were all different and unique in there own way. Love You grandparents!

Below is a poem I wrote in memory of my grandmothers and their cooking.

Grandma’s Kitchens

The Smell Of My Grandma’s Kitchens

Will Always Linger In My Mind

As The Aroma’s Relives It Self through Time

The Smell of Cakes Baking As I Awaken

I walk To the Kitchen And There is Grandma

Standing There Just A Baking

She’s Baking Pies, Cakes And Breads And

All The Time She Is Singing And Moving Her Head

Grandma Would Turn And Look At Me And Smile

As She Pours A Batch That She has Prepared From Scratch

We Would All Gather In Grandma’s Kitchen To Laugh And Talk And Eat A Roll

That Would Soothe Our Hungry Soul

All Coming From Grandma’s Stove

The Smells Of My Grandma’s Kitchens Will Always Be A Part of me

It Was A Part Of My Past

That Went Away Much To Fast!

Lela Coleman Copyright©2002

Dedicated to my Grandmothers Carrie Cameron (Mama Carrie) and Sallie Mae Coleman (MoMo)

Lela Coleman Copyright ©2002 Lela Coleman

Oral History Story of Sterling Cameron, AKA, "Robert Ford”

Sterling Cameron AKA, "Robert Ford” born December 25, 1902 died May 1969
(picture provided by Shalanda Wilson)

My great grandfather Alec Cameron and his second wife Laura Byrd-Cameron had a son named Sterling who left home at approximately 12 years old. My mother told this story throughout the years of how he just packed up one day and was never seen again. I located Sterling in the 1910 federal census, however he was not in any census after that..

When I was ten years old (1964) and still living in Winnsboro Louisiana my grandfather Bryant Cameron had died. The day after his funeral a man came to my grandmother’s Carrie’s house, he was driving a big black shiny Cadillac. I will always remember that day because this man looked rich and successful.  Sterling looked like my grandfather Bryant. He was very sad that he had not gotten to Winnsboro before his older brother Bryant died. We never saw him again. He told my grandma and my mother that he lived in Indiana..

When I got older and started family researching my Cameron side of the family; I searched for Sterling Cameron in Indiana, I could find no trace of him. In 2009, I received an email in response to a post I placed on Cameron Family Genealogy Forum. This person was the granddaughter of Sterling’s sister Francis whom had kept in contact with her brother Sterling. Frances was the half sister of my grandfather Bryant Cameron and had died in the 1940’s.

He had indeed moved to Indiana and the reason I was unable to find a record of him, he had changed his entire name to Robert Ford, and kept the same birthdate 12/25/1902.

Francis Cameron-Washington

When Francis died in the 1940's Sterling raised her children in Indiana. Apparently, he did very well for himself, owned his own business in Evansville Indiana.

Today Francis daughter Kathleen and granddaughter Shalanda are in contact with me. Thanks Mom for the oral history!



My mother The Oral Historian

Myself in the Green and my mother Ruby Lee Cameron-Coleman seated on the end to the right, and

 family members at the funeral of my brother Edward Coleman in 2002 Seattle, Washington

In African American culture, oral history has served a crucial role in preserving a heritage that has often been threatened with oblivion. African-American Research is extremely difficult because of the lack of historical records before the Civil War.
In 1936-1938 the United States government conducted a oral history account of slavery by interviewing of thousands of former slaves throughout the south.
Oral history showcases personal stories and reflections on family history and experiences and is much used in African American families..

My mother Ruby Lee Cameron-Coleman born in 1927, is our oral family historian. Her memory is still sound. While growing up she would listen to stories her father; my maternal grandfather Bryant Cameron born in Amite county Mississippi in 1895, would tell about his family. Bryant’s father Alec Cameron was born into slavery in 1862 and was 3 years old when slavery ended. My grandfather would tell stories and my mother would sit at his feet and take in ever word.

When my mother married my father Ed Coleman in 1948, my paternal grandfather Henry Coleman born in Franklin county Mississippi 1905 would feed her interest in oral family history, which has helped in my search for Coleman’s ancestors.  When I started researching, my mother provided the majority of the information I needed to begin my research.Thanks to my mother, I have inherited this passion for family history and love of family.

The Coleman’s First Bus Ride Adventure

Lela Coleman

The Coleman’s First Bus Ride Adventure

I was born in 1954 in a small rural town in Winnsboro Franklin Parish Louisiana.  I was the 6^th child of eleven children. My father was a farmer and my mother stayed home and took care of the little ones. We were like many African Americans living in the south, farming and living somewhat of plantation life.

My father was a Sharecropper. Webster’s define sharecropping as “A tenant farmer who is provided with credit for seed, tools, living quarters, and food, who works the land, and who receives an agreed share of the value of the crop minus charges”. My father worked in the fields from from dawn to dust, with my older siblings helping him after school and during school break. The plantation owner would never pay him correctly for all his hard work and he knew if he made waves he would run the chance of not getting paid at all.

I can recall in the early 1960’s the Klux Klan burning crosses and our church was burned to the ground. It was a very hard life and my parent in 1966 decided to move to Seattle Washington.  My father’s  brother John lived in Seattle and worked for The Boeing Aerospace Company. My uncle John helped my father to secure a job at Boeing and after moving my mom and all the children in with his parents and my grandmother on my mother’s side, he was off to Seattle in 1966, this was his first trip outside of the south. After one year my father sent for all of us to move to Seattle in 1967.

We begun our trip in early June 1967 a few day after school ended for the year.  I was 12 years old and my mother had purchased me my first hip rider dress for the trip. My dad had sent money to my mother to purchase us nice outfits for trip. We were so excited...

My cousin Lionel Cameron came to picked us up for the trip to the bus station, I cried as I looked out the back window of the car. I would miss all my cousins and my friends, especially my friend Diane Sims, we were best friends, and her family owned a funeral home in Winnsboro.   There were times at school when I did not have lunch money she would share her weekly lunch tokens with me. I think of her often and I still miss her till this day.

We traveled on Greyhound Bus. Can you imagine 9 children on a bus and had never traveled on a bus before. This trip was very eventful to say the least. As I boarded the bus I felt a bit of excitement and apprehensive about what was to come.

As we travel down the highway, each mile was an adventure for me; my eyes were constantly looking out the window at the country side.

As we entered Amarillo Texas the bus suddenly ran off the road into a ditch. Not only had we never been out of Louisiana, we had never been in a motor vehicle accident. We were all shook up to say the least. Once we were all situated on a new bus, we were on our away again.

As we got further into Texas our bus was pulled over by the police and a lady on the bus was taken off the bus due to a family emergency, apparently her daughter had drowned.

As we continued on our journey; I noticed an African American man on the bus and it was obvious he was not well.  When the bus would stop so that everyone could get out and stretch their legs or buy some goodies. The man would get off and set down on a bench and I noticed he was shaking. Tumbleweeds would blow up near him and it was like he did not see them or did not care. As he climbed back on the bus I noticed he was very frail. We all got back on the bus and I went to sleep and approximately an hour or later, I woke to the police getting on the bus and was proceeding to the bus bathroom. We were told the man had died in the bathroom. I was stunned and sadden as the man was taking off the bus.  I often wonder who that man was and how he got to be on that Greyhound bus and on his last bus ride.

We arrived in Seattle on a Saturday in 1967, along the way we have lost my father, Sister Edna and Brother Edward. My brother Robert “Beau” Coleman did not make the trip with us he died in 1958 at the age of 4.

The story of our very first family bus ride from Louisiana to Washington was an adventure as seen through the eyes of a 12 year old girl. I always wished my brother Beau could have made the trip with us.

Love to mother, my son Derek and all my sibling. Thanks to my cousin Lionel who assisted in giving me my first real adventure.

Lela Coleman