Y-DNA Haplogroup: I-M253 (Paternal Ancestry is Scandinavian)
Origins:
Europe99%
Western Europe
England, Wales, and Scotland
44%Scandinavia
25%Ireland
18%Central Europe
5%Wednesday, November 6, 2024
DNA Results: Linda Sito
Linda Louise Westlake Hendrix Sito - Origins:
Europe100%
Western Europe
Central Europe
51%Ireland
24%England, Wales, and Scotland
21%Scandinavia
4%DNA Results: Wayne Hendrix
Lonnie Wayne Hendrix - Origins:
Europe98%
Western Europe
England, Wales, and Scotland
83%Scandinavia
15%European Jewish
Ashkenazi Jewish
<1%Americas2%
Sunday, November 3, 2024
Saturday, November 2, 2024
Find-A-Grave: Paternal Ancestry I
Hopefully, everyone is aware of what a tremendous resource the website Find-A-Grave is for genealogists. What follows are links to some of the graves of my ancestors on that site:
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Thursday, September 5, 2024
Monday, May 13, 2024
The Royal Ancestry of Isabel Trussell Wodhull
Isabel Trussell Wodhull of England
abt 1412 - abt 1449
daughter of
William Trussell
abt 1387 - abt 23 Jan 1464
Trussell, Herefordshire, England
son of
Laurence Trussell
bef 1356 - bef 18 Sep 1399
Merston, Northamptonshire, England
son of
Warren Trussell
abt 1310 -
Merston, Northamptonshire, England
and
Maud St Philibert
abt 1323 - bef 1419
daughter of
John St Philibert
1293 - bef 12 Feb 1332
and
Ada Botetourt
- May 1349
daughter of
John Botetourt
abt 1267 - 25 Nov 1324
Berkshire, England
and
Maud FitzThomas
1270 - abt 28 May 1329
Mendlesham, Suffolk, England
daughter of
Thomas FitzOtes Knight
1231 - bef 23 Mar 1274
and
Beatrice Beauchamp
1243 - 1285
Emley, Bedfordshire, England
daughter of
William Beauchamp
abt 1186 - aft 28 Dec 1260
Bedford, Bedfordshire, England
and
Ida Longespée
abt 1208 - bef 1270
Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
daughter of
William Longespee
abt 1176 - 07 Mar 1226
son of
Henry Plantagenet, King of England
05 Mar 1133 - 06 Jul 1189
Le Mans, Sarthe, Pays de la Loire, France
My Gateway Ancestor: George Elkington
George Elkington of New Jersey
before 7 Dec 1650 - 19 Oct 1713
son of
William Elkington
22 Jul 1547 - 15 Jul 1609
Cropredy, Oxfordshire, England
and
Alice Woodhull
bef 08 May 1570 - bef 06 Nov 1639
Mollington, Oxfordshire, England
daughter of
Thomas Wodhull Gent.
abt 1537 - bef 30 Mar 1592
England
son of
Fulk Wodhull Gent.
abt 1515 - 09 Jul 1574
son of
Lawrence Wodhull Esq.
abt 1484 - bef 10 Sep 1551
England
son of
Fulk Wodhull Esq.
abt 1458 - abt 1509
England
son of
John Wodhull Esq.
abt 1436 - 12 Sep 1490
England
son of
Thomas Wodhull Esq.
abt 1410 - 08 Aug 1441
and
Isabel Trussell
abt 1412 - abt 1449
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Chapter 11: 1987-2017, The genesis of a book
Over the years that followed, Lonnie and Darlene would
add another daughter to their family. He would go on to join the United States
Army and be stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. That assignment would
eventually lead him to bring Darlene and the girls to Fairbanks via the Alaskan
Highway and experience America’s “last frontier” up close and personal.
2 And Lonnie’s military service wasn’t the end of the
family’s participation in defending America. A brother from his mother’s second
marriage served twenty years in the United States Marine Corps. Later still,
Steven’s son would also join the U.S. Army and be sent to Iraq. In short, the
family’s participation in the story of America continued.
3 Lonnie’s understanding of his many familial
connections to America’s story would also continue to expand and become even
more complex over the years that followed. For instance, he would eventually
discover that his mother-in-law’s first husband, Roscoe York, was his cousin.
Hence, his wife’s beloved half-sister had also turned out to be his cousin.
4 Lonnie’s oldest daughter would eventually attend
college in Illinois and meet and marry there a direct descendant of Andrew
Ellicott (the man who had given his support to Fitch over her own ancestor,
James Rumsey, in the contest to produce a steamboat). Likewise, his youngest
daughter would eventually marry a direct descendant of Martin Salazar (the man
who had flitted across her Great Grand Uncle’s field of vision on his way back
to Alabama to die).
5 Doodle’s death had brought home to Lonnie the fact
that THE STORY NEVER ENDS! And the years since that event had only served to
reinforce that conviction.
6 “It’s like the Bible,” he thought. “A bunch of
stories that were told first around campfires and kitchen tables. Stories that
had been told, retold, embellished, written down and rearranged by many
different people across the centuries. And they somehow all came together to
tell one story. The story of one people and their quest for something better.”
7 For many years, they had been a bunch of disparate
strands scattered all over an ill-defined surface. Now, however, they had been
gathered together and united in one person. Lonnie was the product of all those
scattered strands.
8 He was like a rope that bound all of them together
and reached so far down into the past that you couldn’t see the end of it.
Moreover, his children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews provided strands that
would reach into a future that he would never personally experience.
9 Those varied strands also told a story. And it
wasn’t just the story of one man, one family or one tribe. It was the story of
a whole nation: The United States of America.
10 Another Henry Howland descendant named Ralph Waldo
Emerson had concluded in 1841 that the essence of being able to understand and
appreciate history was being able to personalize the story and see one’s self
in it. Emerson wrote of the student of history that “he should see that he can
live all history in his own person.”
11 Likewise, another Edward Ketcham descendant named
Walt Whitman had written about the “varied carols” he had heard as an observer
of the American chorale. For Whitman, America was the blending of many
different voices and songs.
12 Like his cousins before him, Lonnie had reached
similar conclusions about America, and what it meant to be an American. All of
the individual stories were part of a much bigger narrative. It was a narrative
that stretched into the distant past and continued into an unknown future.
13 And it wasn’t a narrative about things dead and
buried. It was the story of living, breathing people. William Faulkner had once
observed that “The past is never dead – It’s not even past.” And, long before
him, Cicero had written: “The life of the dead is placed on the memories of the
living.” “This is my mission,” Lonnie thought.
14 It wasn’t one strand or one story that made him an
American. It wasn’t his Pilgrim ancestry (or any of his European ancestry for
that matter). It also wasn’t his African ancestry (or his ties to the narrative
about slavery). It wasn’t even his Native American heritage (or his connections
to the wars against them) that made him an American. It was all of them
together.
15 Nevertheless, Lonnie knew that the impetus for
compartmentalization and special identity was strong in the America that had
produced him. There would be those who would deny his right to claim parts of
his heritage because of their unwillingness to imagine themselves as being part
of a whole. They would argue that some of his connections were too distant or
too tenuous. Some would say that he didn’t have enough blood to claim parts of
his heritage, while others would claim that one drop of that blood made him
somehow less than a full American.
16 “It’s all part of my DNA,” Lonnie thought to
himself as he contemplated the project before him. “I am the product of all of
those people. Take any ONE of them away, and I wouldn’t be here. Take away any
ONE of these stories, and America would be something other than what it is.”
17 Although many would continue to challenge the
notion, America really was a “melting pot.” E
pluribus unum was a reality in the person of Lonnie and his kinfolk.
18 Admittedly, there wasn’t much to be proud of in
some of the stories that were part of his heritage. Indeed, many of the strands
which made up that rope were downright ugly and dark. Lonnie knew that there
would also be a few folks who would prefer that some of those strands had not
been included in the larger narrative. He also realized, however, that removing
them would paint an inaccurate portrait of what it meant to be an American and
weaken the rope.
19 He knew that some people viewed America as a chain
of stories about continuous and unbroken success, but he also knew that this
view was very flawed. In fact, most of the stories which he had collected over
the years were stories of almost continuous hardship, suffering,
disappointment, cruelty and failure.
20 America’s story, much like the story of his own
family, was not one of continuous and unbroken success! On the contrary, the
real nature of America’s “success” as a nation lay in the persistence and
endurance of its people in the face of many sore trials and much turmoil.
21 Indeed, the story of his family and the nation
which they had helped to create reminded him more of something that the Apostle
Paul had written to the saints at Corinth almost two millennia ago. He wrote:
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not
in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed…” (II
Corinthians 4:9) And, just as Paul preached, Lonnie’s Americans believed that
their endurance of those trials would someday result in a better world for them
and their descendants.
22 And, just as the people in those stories
represented many different ethnicities, the geography which they had traversed
was wide and varied. Americans had always been on the move, and “home” was as
complex a notion as the folks who had lived the stories. To his Northern kin,
home was the place which they were currently living. To his Southern kin, home
would always be the place where they had begun their lives.
23 This land had been home to the buffalo and to the
dinosaurs before them. The Principal People and their kinfolk had settled here,
and the Pale-skinned ones had taken it away from them. Those same Europeans had
fought bloody wars over it and had enslaved their African brethren to work it.
24 Hence, just as he came to accept the reality of the
diversity of his ethnic heritage and all that that entailed, Lonnie’s attitude
toward the places where his family’s stories had unfolded was shaped by their
experiences. Home was not a single place. Home was all of it. The United States
of America was home.
25 Like the Israelites before them, Lonnie’s kinfolk
were storytellers. And, over many years of listening and researching, Lonnie
had collected many stories about his family. That made him the storyteller of
his family. He could now see that it was his destiny to retell the stories
which his grandmother, kinfolk and his own research had revealed.
26 Lonnie would do this for his ancestors, for himself
and for all of the future generations that he would never see. He would use a
pen name to do it, and there was only one name that would suffice. He would
tell his story as Miller Jones.
Chapter 10: 1985-1987, An end and a beginning
Lonnie had already started taking classes to become a
teacher at the college in Athens, Alabama. “Nanny played on the steps of
Founders Hall when she was a young girl,” he thought to himself. He knew that
Clip and Mittie and Press and Mary had lived in the city many years ago.
Moreover, the families of his Great Grand Uncle Tollie and his Great Grand Aunt
Pansy continued to live there.
2 Lonnie had chosen History and Political Science as
his majors, of course; and he was enrolled in a class which covered the
colonial and revolutionary period of American History. The class was being
taught by the Department Chair, Dr. Mildred Caudle, and was attended by one of
the most interesting creatures he had ever met in his life.
3 She sparkled. She sat on the other side of the
classroom, but her presence filled the room. Darlene was pretty, smart and
charming; and Lonnie would have to have been deaf, dumb and blind to miss her.
He didn’t.
4 “As Washington faced his mutinous officers, he waved
before them a letter of support from Congress,” Professor Caudle began again.
“Then he paused, pulled his spectacles out of his coat pocket and said
something like, ‘Gentlemen, you must pardon me, for I have grown gray and blind
in the service of my country,’” she continued.
5 Lonnie and Darlene were both smiling. “Isn’t that
wonderful?” the professor asked. “Some of the officers wept, and the rebellious
spirit was gone from the room,” Dr. Caudle concluded. “He used their personal
loyalty to him to dissuade them from their animus towards the Congress,” Lonnie
commented. “Exactly,” the professor smiled.
6 After class, Lonnie approached Darlene who was
busily talking with another student. She was obviously excited. “Yes, Handel’s Messiah!” she exclaimed.
7 “What’s this?” Lonnie asked. “In two weeks, I’m
going to see a production of Handel’s Messiah
at the Von Braun Civic Center!” she repeated. “Mind if I tag along?” Lonnie
surprised himself and asked. “Not at all,” Darlene smiled. Although her friend
bowed out a few days later, Lonnie and Darlene resolved to go ahead with their
plans to attend and thoroughly enjoyed the performance and each other’s
company.
8 That turned out to be the first of many dates over
the months that followed. Darlene was introduced to Lonnie’s grandparents, and
he was introduced to her mother and father.
9 Nevertheless, Lonnie felt guilty for dating someone
outside of his church and decided to inform his pastor of the relationship and
the seriousness of his feelings. “I don’t want to lose her,” thought the
painfully shy young man.
10 Pastor Tucker, however, was not pleased to hear
that Lonnie had violated the church’s rule that members must date and marry
within the church. “Lonnie, you know that the Bible says that we are not to be
unequally yoked together with unbelievers,” he told him. “But she is not
opposed to my religious beliefs; and she is a good person, and I love her,”
Lonnie explained.
11 “You are trying to reason around church teaching on
the subject and justify your sins,” the pastor persisted. “You will have to end
the relationship and repent,” he continued. Tears welled up in Lonnie’s eyes,
and there was a knot the size of an apple in his throat. “And you can’t come
back to church until you do!” the pastor finished.
12 Lonnie was devastated. He was being forced to
choose between his church and Darlene – between God and an unbeliever. He was
in anguish. “This might be my only chance for happiness and a family,” he
thought. “But God must come first,” he told himself.
13 He called Darlene and told her about what had
happened. “I don’t think that we should see each other anymore,” he told her.
Darlene was bewildered and flabbergasted and didn’t know what to say. When
Lonnie hung up the phone, he was shaking and sobbing.
14 He wrote to his father in Ohio and explained the
situation to him. Wayne’s response would change his life. As Lonnie read
through the letter, he could feel the weight being lifted from his shoulders.
15 “No one can put you out of God’s Church,” he read.
“God calls people to be a part of His church, and only He can withdraw that
invitation – and He’s not going to do that! I am also sure that Darlene is a
wonderful girl (she must be to have captured your attention and heart). If she
is meant to be a part of your life, God will reveal this to you in time.” The
letter concluded with a strong assurance of his father’s love and support, and
that God would never abandon him.
16 When Lonnie had finished reading it, he jumped in
the car and headed to Athens. He had to see Darlene. Needless to say, Darlene
was surprised and dismayed to see a breathless Lonnie running toward her. She
grabbed his hands when he came within reach.
17 “What is it?” she asked. “I love you,” he declared.
“I’ve decided that I cannot live without you; and, if you’ll still have me, I
want us to be together.” “Are you sure?” she hesitated. “Are you absolutely
sure?” she repeated. “I have never been more certain of anything in my life!”
he exclaimed.
18 In December, Lonnie asked Darlene to marry him, and
she consented. They quickly announced their decision to their respective
families and began planning for a March wedding.
19 “We very
much want you to be there,” Lonnie told Darlene’s grandmother. “Well, babies, I
don’t usually attend weddings and such, because I like to wear my overalls,”
she protested. “I don’t mind overalls,” Lonnie told her. “Well, I’ll think
about it,” she replied.
20 “Oh, Maw, I wish you would!” Darlene added. Daisy
laughed and shook her head. “We love you,” they both told her. “I love you too,
and Jesus loves us all!” she exclaimed.
21 A few months later, they were married on campus in
the parlor of Founders Hall. To Lonnie’s delight, his Uncle Tollie and Aunt
Pansy were in attendance. Wayne and Sandi came from Ohio to be there. Terrell
and Pat drove from South Carolina. Clayton’s sisters came over from Huntsville.
Darlene’s mother, brother and sister were also there from Brindlee Mountain.
And, to everyone’s delight, Darlene’s grandmother showed up in her overalls and
was given a front row seat at the affair.
22 For their final semester at the college, Lonnie and
Darlene did their student teaching at Athens High School. Lonnie was given the
eleventh grade U.S. History classes of three separate teachers and quickly
adapted to the different styles and paces of each class. The experience,
however, also knocked down some of the romantic notions which he had harbored
about teaching.
23 He was sitting in the teacher’s lounge one day when
a clearly frustrated Math teacher entered the room. “What does a fifteen-year-old
have to talk about?” he demanded. “They haven’t lived long enough to have
anything interesting to talk about!” he declared.
24 “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make
them drink,” one of the ladies reminded him. “Yeah, but you can hold their head
under till they drown!” he shot back. Everyone laughed.
25 In the meantime, Doodle and Clayton had decided to
leave Alabama again and return to Ohio. As graduation approached, it was now
clear that Darlene was pregnant. Nevertheless, she reluctantly consented to
move north with Lonnie and his grandparents. Many loose threads seemed to be
coming together all at once, and the young couple needed a distraction.
26 They went to see The Color Purple at the movie theatre in Florence. Darlene cried so
much during the showing that Lonnie’s shirt was wet with tears when they
emerged from the darkened room.
27 “That was wonderful!” Darlene sobbed on the way
back to the car. “It was a powerful movie,” Lonnie agreed. “Whoopi Goldberg and
Oprah Winfrey did a fantastic job.” The movie had touched them both deeply, but
it had specifically reaffirmed Lonnie’s belief that everyone’s story was
connected and inexorably moving in a direction that had profound meaning and
purpose.
28 At the end of the summer, Darlene, Lonnie and his
grandparents moved to Elyria, Ohio (a few streets over from where Wayne and
Sandi were living at the time). There were, however, no openings for a history
or civics teacher in any of the local schools. As a consequence, he was forced
to serve as a kind of full-time substitute in several of them. Darlene’s
rapidly expanding belly prevented her from working, and the couple continued to
live with Clayton and Doodle.
29 That fall, they all prepared to enjoy their first
Thanksgiving together. Steven and Angela, along with their two small sons,
joined Lonnie, Darlene, Wayne and Sandi at Clayton and Doodle’s house for
dinner. Everyone contributed to the meal, and they set up a long picnic table
in the family room so that everyone could eat together.
30 Before the meal, Lonnie told the story of that
first Thanksgiving enjoyed by John Howland almost three hundred and seventy
years before that one. He also read his traditional quote from Abraham Lincoln
and read from the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy.
31 When that was finished, he prayed: “Almighty God,
thank you for this opportunity to give thanks together. Thank you too for each
person here with us today – especially the little ones, and the little one on
the way. And thank you for Nanny and Poppa, and the home which they have shared
with all of us. And thank you for permitting Nanny to see her great
grandchildren – that is a special blessing that we all appreciate.”
32 When he was finished, everyone said “A-men;” and
they began to eat the feast spread out on the table before them. Little did
they know at the time that that would also be their last Thanksgiving together.
33 Darlene had a little girl that December, and Doodle
rejoiced to have yet another great grandchild placed in her arms. Still, Lonnie
knew that Darlene would feel isolated and cut off from her own mother at such
an important time. Her mother (Marie Little), however, did not drive, and no
one had the money for plane fare. As a consequence, Lonnie decided to drive to
Alabama over the Christmas break and bring her mother to Ohio.
34 At that time of the year, travel was a risky
venture at best. Even so, Lonnie set out for Brindlee Mountain in Darlene’s old
Monte Carlo. Although he made it to Alabama without incident, the return trip
was plagued with plummeting temperatures and frequent snow flurries. Moreover,
as the car’s defrost was not working, Marie had to periodically wipe the
windshield off with an old towel so that Lonnie could see the road ahead of
them. Thus, when they finally reached Elyria, Lonnie and Marie both breathed a
sigh of relief.
35 Darlene was overjoyed to see her mother, and Marie
was equally delighted to see her new granddaughter. Still, when the time came
for her to return to Alabama, although she had been grateful for the
opportunity to share this experience with her mother, Darlene was sad to see
her go.
36 As a new year dawned, Doodle’s health began to
suffer almost immediately. Indeed, over the months that followed, she grew
weaker and weaker and was finally admitted to the local hospital.
37 “She has a massive tumor in her heart,” the doctor
told them. “What is the prognosis?” Wayne demanded. “She can’t survive this,”
the doctor replied. “We don’t have the ability here to even begin to deal with
this,” he continued. “It is my recommendation that we take her to the Cleveland
Clinic immediately.”
38 “Will she survive the move?” Lonnie asked. “She
won’t last much longer here,” was the answer. “She’s scared, we don’t want you
to tell her about this right now,” Wayne told him. They all agreed.
39 Doodle survived the trip to the Cleveland Clinic,
but she died a few hours after arriving there. Lonnie and Steven were
devastated. The woman who had meant so much to both of them was dead. The woman
who had raised them, and who had loomed larger than life for all of their
lives, was gone.
40 “Why?” Lonnie asked himself. He felt numb and
lonely and sobbed all the way home. That night, there was a violent
thunderstorm, and rain poured down from the heavens. The wind violently shook
the limbs of the trees and swirled around the house. It was almost as if her
passing had caused a great disturbance in the cosmos.
41 Lonnie was exhausted and felt empty inside. “God
has given me Darlene and my daughter to see me through this,” he thought. And
then there was blackness.
42 He could not remember when he had finally fallen asleep, but the sun was shining now. It was morning. The world had not ended last night. Life went on.
Chapter 9: 1982-1984, Alabama beckons
A year after his sons graduated, Wayne finally decided
to give marriage another try. He had been dating a nurse from Amherst with four
children of her own. He introduced Sandi to Clayton, Doodle, Lonnie and Steven
and then proposed a few weeks later.
2 They were married without fanfare at the Salvation
Army in Elyria. “It’s about damn time!” was Clayton’s only comment.
3 “Would you mind if we stayed in the cabin down by
the creek?” Wayne asked. “We’d like to save up some money to get a place of our
own,” he explained. “We don’t mind at all,” Doodle said. “I don’t care,”
Clayton agreed.
4 Lonnie helped to get the place ready for them, but
he was beginning to wonder about his own future. He didn’t want to leave
Spicebush, but it didn’t look like he was ever going to find gainful employment
in Lorain County.
5 “Nanny and Poppa have sacrificed enough for me,” he
thought. They had seen him through two years of college, and his brother Steven
was currently enrolled in a broadcasting school in Nashville, Tennessee. “It’s
time for me to stand on my own two feet and make my own way in the world,” he
decided.
6 Thus, with the economy in the tank and no job
prospects in sight, Lonnie decided to look for employment in Alabama. Clayton’s
sister (Ruby) lived in Huntsville, and Lonnie called her and asked if he could
stay with her while he looked for work. “Well, honey, you know you don’t even
have to ask Aunt Ruby – I’d love to have you,” she had responded.
7 “Maybe the economy will begin to turn around this
summer, and I’ll be able to come home this fall,” he thought as he headed down
Interstate 65 toward Alabama. “I hope the traffic won’t be bad in Louisville,”
he thought. It would take about eleven hours of hard driving, but he would be
at Ruby’s house by nightfall if he didn’t make too many stops along the way.
8 As he came into Nashville, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” came on the radio, and Lonnie got
his second wind. He was, after all, aware of his family’s deep roots in the
“Heart of Dixie,” and had visited there many times over the years with his
grandparents. Hence, Alabama may not have been home, but it certainly wasn’t an
alien wasteland either.
9 In two more hours, he had just passed the turn off
to “the world famous” Boobie Bungalow and had taken the Ardmore exit off of the
interstate. The little city straddled the state line and allowed him to take
Highway 53 directly into Huntsville. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it,
but there was something comforting about the pine trees and red dirt that lined
that road.
10 Inside the city limits, the highway turned into
Jordan Lane (pronounced Jurdan Lane) and intersected Governor’s Drive. That was
his destination. Governor’s Drive would take him to West Huntsville and the
side streets which led to Aunt Ruby’s house.
11 She lived on Cypress Avenue in a small, plain white
house that bordered the same playground where he and his brother had played on
their visits to Granddaddy’s house when they were children. When he walked in
the front door, Ruby was sitting in her rocking chair and sipping on a large
glass of sweet iced tea. She quickly set her tea down, jumped up and hugged his
neck.
12 “I was beginnin to wonder if you were ever gonna
get here!” she exclaimed. “Are you hungry?” she asked. “No thank you, Aunt Ruby
– I’m just tired,” he told her.
13 Unfortunately, the job situation wasn’t much better
in Alabama than it had been in Ohio – especially for a young man with a degree
in Environmental Health. He worked part-time that summer at a nearby K-Mart,
and his prospects for something better did not look good.
14 After a few months of that, he was persuaded to try
his hand at selling life insurance in nearby Guntersville. “I’m not much of a
salesman,” Lonnie admitted to himself. “But, at least, this will get me out of
doors and meeting new people,” he reasoned.
15 He parked on the side of one of the many hills that
were an integral part of the city and approached a freshly painted house with a
well-kept yard and knocked on the door. The Black family who lived there were
clients, but they did not appear to be home. Across the street, there was a
shabby looking house with knee-high weeds growing in the front yard.
Nevertheless, he could see an older woman surrounded by three small children
standing in the yard and looking in his direction.
16 He waved at them and started walking toward them.
However, as he approached the woman, he noticed a strong urine smell that
seemed to be emanating from the house before them. As he got closer, he noticed
that the woman’s and children’s clothing was filthy, and flies were buzzing
around them.
17 “Hello, I was wondering if you might know when your
neighbors are going to be home?” he began. The woman immediately drew herself
up into the most indignant stance she could muster and said, “Them’s niggers,
we don’t associate with them!” Lonnie was so stunned that he didn’t know what
to say. He quickly turned around and left.
18 Shortly thereafter, Lonnie decided that selling
insurance wasn’t much better than stocking shelves at K-Mart. He began looking
for something else. He also scanned the want ads and government bulletin boards
for positions with water and waste treatment facilities and checked with local
manufacturing concerns to see if anyone was hiring industrial hygienists.
19 In the current economy and under the current
administration in Washington D.C., it was clear that environmental issues were
not a priority. By that fall, he was thinking that he had made a serious
mistake in his degree choice and was beginning to think that it might be best
to go back to school and try something in a different field.
20 In the meantime, Doodle and Clayton were beginning
to feel isolated and alone on Spicebush. “We can’t take care of the place on
our own,” Doodle told him. “This house is too big for us, and you’re not going
to be able to cut the grass and firewood and take care of the garden by
yourself,” she continued.
21 “And I’m worried about Lonnie – if he goes back to
school, he’s going to need a place to stay.” “Well, is it time to go back to
Alabama?” Clayton asked.
22 The following year, Clayton found a place on the
Elk River (not far from the place where Daniel Miller had crossed eighty-four
years before). It had been the summer home of one of the German scientists who
had worked with Dr. Wernher von Braun on the space program in Huntsville.
23 “I can catch me a fish and have it fryin in a
skillet before it stops floppin,” he had told everyone. Doodle thought it was
too far away from the Huntsville family and doctors on which she would have to
rely, but she wanted Clayton to be content, so she gave her approval to the
deal.
24 For his part, Lonnie was delighted to have his
grandparents back and promptly pitched in to help them fix up the house and
move there from Ohio. Once they were settled, he began to explore their
surroundings and investigate educational opportunities in the area.
25 “The Millers and the Favors were from Rogersville,”
his grandmother had told him. As a consequence, Lonnie decided to have a look
at the cemetery that was situated about a mile down the road from them. He had
noticed the small white sign posted by the road on their first trip to see the
new house. “Miller Cemetery – there has to be some connection,” he thought.
26 As he walked around the cemetery, he noticed a
tombstone for a Charlie Cunningham. “Could that be Nanny’s Aunt Clara’s first
husband?” he wondered. Next, he found Thomas and David Miller. “Those are
Daniel’s sons by his first wife,” Lonnie thought. “Nanny will be so excited!”
27 In the meantime, an older gentleman had pulled up
in a pickup truck and unloaded a push lawnmower. Lonnie walked over and
introduced himself and told him what he had found there.
28 “I’m Marvin Miller, and I guess that makes us
cousins,” the man smiled. “Thomas Miller was my granddaddy, and I’ve taken care
of this cemetery for over forty years,” he continued. They talked without
interruption for the next thirty minutes. “Well, I guess I’d better get to
cuttin this grass or it isn’t goin to get cut!” Marvin exclaimed.
29 “If you get a chance, my grandmother would love to
meet you,” Lonnie told him. “Maybe I’ll stop in and say hello a little later on
this week,” he smiled again. They shook hands, and Lonnie hurried home to tell
his grandmother about what he had discovered at the cemetery.
30 Sure enough, later that week, Marvin showed up at
their front door. Doodle and Clayton invited him into the house, and they
talked for the next hour and a half. “There are plenty of Favors who still live
around here too,” Marvin told them.
31 “Curtis and Mary Favors are two of the finest
people I’ve ever known,” he continued. “Oh, I’d love to meet them too,” Doodle
volunteered. “I can give them your phone number and let them get in touch with
you?” Marvin offered. “That would be wonderful!” She beamed. “I’m beginning to
feel like I’ve really come home!”
32 In the months that followed, Doodle met Curtis and
Mary and became good friends with them. And, despite her worsening rheumatoid
arthritis, she made a point of getting reacquainted with her long-lost kinfolk
(cousins, aunts and uncles).
33 Chief among these were two of her father’s
remaining siblings who still lived in Athens: Tollie and Pansy. They both
seemed delighted to get reacquainted with their niece and her family, and an
outside observer would have never guessed that almost thirty years had elapsed
since their last contact with her.
34 The renewed relationship was further strengthened
by Lonnie’s decision to begin attending Athens State College that year. They
had an excellent teacher education program, and it was only thirty minutes away
from their home in Rogersville.
35 It was now 1984, and Ronald Reagan was running for
reelection. The economy, however, was still in the doldrums, and his triumph
did not seem certain.
36 In fact, the Democratic field of candidates who
were vying for the opportunity to replace him was crowded. Among them, Lonnie
was particularly interested in the senator from his home state of Ohio. Hence,
when it was announced that John Glenn (the former Mercury astronaut) would
appear at the courthouse in Athens, Lonnie jumped at the chance to meet him.
37 “Senator Glenn, I’m an Ohio boy – like yourself,”
Lonnie told him as he shook his hand. “Oh, what part of Ohio?” the senator
asked him. “Elyria, in Lorain County.” “Oh, yes, I know where that is,” Glenn
smiled. “Thank you for your service to our country,” Lonnie told him. “Thank
you for coming out today – I hope you’ll consider voting for me in the upcoming
primary.”
38 Later that year, on the fourth of July, Ronald
Reagan came to Decatur, Alabama. “The President’s going to be at Point Mallard,
and I’m going to see him,” Lonnie announced. One of Leslie’s and Dorothy’s daughters
consented to go with him.
39 He had been to the popular water park on numerous
occasions before, but he had never seen a crowd like this one. Thousands of
people were crowded into the field, and many more were streaming into the open
space through the metal detectors that had been erected to protect the
president.
40 When Reagan finally took the podium, the crowd went
wild. After congratulating them on continuing to be patriotic when it had
fallen out of fashion in the rest of the country, the president quickly turned
his attention to the folks standing before him.
41 He said: “People who aren’t from the South tend to
talk about the moonlight and Magnolias. Well, the South is a lovely place; but
I’m one of those who feel a special affection for its people. I admire the
values that took root here, and the pride that’s such an integral part of your
character. I’m drawn to your good sense, decent traditions and your
faithfulness to God and this land. And we share a love for this country of
ours.”
42 The applause was deafening, and Lonnie couldn’t
help but like the man standing before him. That fall, a majority of the country
agreed with Lonnie, and Ronald Reagan was easily reelected to a second term as
president.
Chapter 8: 1981, A ride with the devil and finding a job
In the meantime, Wayne had decided to take a trip of
his own that summer. He had been itching to try out the metallic purple
Corvette he had recently purchased on a road trip, and his desire to visit his
step-brother Terrell and his wife in South Carolina would provide the perfect
excuse for him to do so. So, he packed a few belongings and headed for
Greenville.
2 After a nice visit, he announced that he would leave
the following morning. “Which way are you going home?” Terrell asked. “I think
I’ll head up through the mountains and hit 77,” he replied.
3 Terrell pulled out his atlas. “You’ll save a lot of
time if you cross over here and take 75 instead,” he pointed. “I’ll try it,”
Wayne shrugged.
4 A few minutes later, he was on the road back to
Ohio. It didn’t take long, however, until his progress was hampered by a
torrential downpour.
5 As he drove through the rain, he noticed a man
walking just ahead. “He’s going to get soaked,” Wayne thought to himself. He
pulled over and waited for the man to reach the car. When he opened the door,
Wayne asked him if he’d like a ride. “Sure, thanks,” the man smiled.
6 He struggled to place a large bag behind the
passenger’s seat, and then quickly crawled into the front seat and placed a
smaller bag at his feet. He appeared to be a fairly young man. In addition to
the fact that he was obviously very wet, Wayne could tell that he was tall and
had a solid build.
7 He was quiet at first, but Wayne could see out of
the corner of his eye that the man was looking him over. “Where are you
headed?” Wayne asked. “Ohio,” the young man replied. There was silence again
for several minutes.
8 “What’s your story?” the stranger finally asked.
“What do you mean?” Wayne responded. “Are you from around here? Are you
married? What’s your name?” his guest fired off in rapid succession.
9 “I’m Wayne; and, no, I’m divorced,” he replied.
Wayne was beginning to get a little nervous by now. He could see that the man
had removed something from the small bag at his feet and had placed it between
his seat and the door on his side of the car.
10 “Any children?” the stranger continued. “Yeah, I’ve
got two sons,” Wayne replied.
11 There was a rest area just ahead. “I’ve got to pull
off at this rest stop and make a phone call,” Wayne told him.
12 “I’m afraid, if you’re headed to Ohio, this is
about as far as I’m going to be able to carry you,” he continued. “At least
you’ll have some shelter here, and maybe you can find someone here who’s headed
in that direction,” Wayne finished.
13 He parked the car, and the man opened the door and
pulled out his bags. “Thanks for the ride,” he said and turned to walk away.
Wayne locked his car and walked toward the restrooms and the public phones. A
few minutes later, he was back in his car and on his way to Ohio again.
14 Years later, he was watching a report on the
nightly news about a serial killer from Bath, Ohio. His name was Jeffrey
Dahmer, and Wayne instantly recognized him as the young man whom he had picked
up on that trip home from South Carolina.
15 And the cosmic connections did not end there. A
short time after that, Steven (who was then working as a correctional officer
at a prison in Lorain County) would be present when Mr. Dahmer was brought
there from Wisconsin as part of the process of holding him responsible for the
first murder he had committed as a teenager living in Ohio in 1978.
16 Lonnie, however, was oblivious to what had happened
to his father that summer. And, when he got back to Ohio, he began looking for
work almost immediately. He put together a resume and started filling out
applications at factories, health departments and water treatment facilities
all over the county. Then, one day, the phone rang.
17 Doodle answered the call. “Lonnie, it’s for you,”
she said as she handed the phone to her grandson.
18 “Lonnie, this is Gordon Richardson with United
States Steel,” the person on the other end of the line began. “I’m calling
about your application for a position with us as an industrial hygienist, and I
was wondering if you’d be interested in coming in to talk with us,” he
continued.
19 “Sure, I’d be very interested,” Lonnie told him.
“Could you come in for an interview Monday morning at 10?” Mr. Richardson
asked. “I’ll see you then,” Lonnie assured him.
20 As he drove up Highway 58 toward Lorain, Lonnie
thought about the long commute that this job would entail. “Poppa commuted from
North Ridgeville to Cleveland every day for almost twenty years,” he told
himself.
21 “The economy is in a terrible recession right now,
and they’ve been laying off their workers left and right,” he thought. “They
wouldn’t have called you if they weren’t interested,” he reassured himself.
22 When he arrived at the plant, Mr. Richardson gave
him a tour of the facilities. “You would be monitoring the air in here and
helping to ensure that we provide the best possible working environment for our
employees,” the man told him. The tour and interview lasted about an hour, and
Lonnie was encouraged by everything that he had seen and heard. It really
looked like he had landed a job.
23 Two days later, however, there was another ominous
headline in the Elyria newspaper about U.S. Steel laying off more workers. The
following Monday, Mr. Richardson called back. “Lonnie, we really liked you, but
I’m sorry to say that we aren’t going to be hiring anyone right now.”
24 “Environmental and safety concerns are among the
first victims of a bad economy,” Lonnie thought as he hung up the phone. “It is
not going to be easy to find a job in this mess.”
Chapter 7: 1979-1981, Expanding horizons
They were settled in at Spicebush now, and Steven was
enrolled at Wellington High School. Lonnie, however, was now faced with the
question of what he was going to do with the rest of his life.
2 The period between his early graduation from
Ridgeville High and getting moved into their new home had been exciting and
rewarding. Sure, there had been plenty of work in finishing the house and
getting the old one ready for sale; but there had also been many glorious hours
of tramping through the woods and exploring the abundant plant life he found
there.
3 He wanted to be a park ranger, but that didn’t seem
very practical. He would probably have to move far away from his family, and it
would still be hard to get a foot in the door – even with a willingness to
relocate. There was also the issue of his religion to consider. Rangers often
had to work on the Sabbath.
4 There was, however, a small technical college in
southeastern Ohio that offered what appeared to be an excellent two-year
program in Environmental Health. “I won’t be in the middle of the woods, but I
can still make a contribution to protecting the environment in the form of
cleaner water and air,” he reasoned. He would also be close enough to come home
on weekends – an important consideration for a young man who was so attached to
home and family.
5 “I think that Hocking is the best choice,” Lonnie
told his grandparents. “I’d really like to try and go this fall.” “We’ll do
everything we can to help you,” they assured him.
6 Wayne told him that he would help him too. “You have
a fine mind, son,” he said. “It would be a shame and a waste if you didn’t
attend college.”
7 That fall, Lonnie rented a room on the second floor
of a private home that shared a kitchen and bathroom with another student down
the hall. Clara Hashman rented the rooms to supplement her social security and
retirement income from her deceased husband.
8 “I don’t want any wild parties, and I expect you to
keep the place clean,” she told Lonnie. “You can’t have overnight guests, and
you will have to be in at a reasonable hour.” Lonnie smiled. “I don’t have any
problems with any of that,” he assured her.
9 Lonnie was still getting used to his classes, fellow
students and new landlady when word came that a group of radical Iranian
students had taken fifty-two Americans hostages in Tehran. “I’m sure that the
president will demand their release,” he told Mrs. Hashman. “I hope so,” she
replied.
10 The president, however, did not secure their
immediate release, and the captivity of the hostages dragged on and on, month
after month. As the election approached in the fall of 1980, it was becoming
clear to almost everyone that Ronald Reagan would defeat Jimmy Carter, the
incumbent president.
11 On Inauguration Day, like many of his fellow
Americans, Lonnie watched the television set in his room as Ronald Reagan was
sworn in as the fortieth president of the United States. He was impressed by
the optimistic tone of his address to the nation and was thankful that the
hostages had finally been released. Maybe a new day really had dawned after a
long, dark night.
12 Still, Lonnie was apprehensive about what he
perceived as Reagan’s indifference toward environmental issues. “We’ll just
have to wait and see,” he told his friends.
13 Then, in March, the news flashed on the television
screen that there had been an incident involving the president at a Washington
hotel. As the coverage continued, it was revealed that shots had been fired,
and that people had been injured. Lonnie raced downstairs to Mrs. Hashman’s
den.
14 “Are you watching this?” he asked. “Yes, it’s
awful,” she replied. Eventually, they (along with the rest of the nation and
world) learned that the president had been shot. Upon hearing that, Lonnie and
his landlady quickly bowed their heads and prayed together for Mr. Reagan’s
recovery.
15 Although the life-threatening nature of his
injuries were not fully appreciated at the time, everyone understood that the
president had literally just dodged a bullet. After all, it was clear to them
that the injuries sustained by his press secretary and others had been very
serious. Even so, Reagan recovered quickly, and his survival added to the aura
of strength, success and good humor that had already made him so popular with
the American people.
16 Lonnie graduated from college that summer, and
Steven graduated from high school. To celebrate those events, Doodle and
Clayton hosted a party down by the creek. Linda and their siblings by her
second husband attended the affair, as well as both local and out of state
family and friends. There was plenty of food and plenty of alcohol.
17 For Lonnie, however, the real celebration of his
accomplishment was his grandfather’s decision to take him on a two-week long
trip out West. They placed two cots in the back of his Chevy Scottsdale pickup
truck with a camper shell over the bed, and they followed Interstate 80 out
through Iowa and Nebraska.
18 “They say that the Platte River is a mile wide and
an inch deep,” Lonnie told him as they drove along the watercourse. When they
got to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, he asked his grandfather to
pull over by a mountain stream. He jumped out of the truck and dipped his feet
into the cold rushing water.
19 “Can you believe that there is still snow up here
in June?” Lonnie asked in disbelief as they rode up into the mountains. He got
out of the truck and made a snowball, but the air was a little too thin for
much play.
20 The following day, they headed north for Wyoming
and the massive Wind River Reservation. “I want to see the places where my
Native American cousins live,” Lonnie had explained to his grandfather.
21 However, as they drove through the reservation, he
began to realize that many of his notions about these people and how they lived
were inaccurate and naive. “They do not look like me, and most of them appear
to be very poor and are living in modern housing,” he observed.
22 Slowly, he began to realize that he had
romanticized many of his ideas about these people and his connections to them.
For one thing, he was surprised to see so many White folks wondering around and
living there.
23 Even so, Lonnie did feel a spiritual energy flowing
through him which he had not felt before. It may not have been what he
expected, but he definitely felt a connection to this land and its people.
24 From there, they continued westward and shortly
entered the valley of Jackson Hole. “Poppa, look at the reflection of the
Tetons in that lake!” Lonnie exclaimed. Clayton smiled and simply said, “Yeah,
I see it.”
25 They continued north into Yellowstone National
Park. “This is where it all began,” Lonnie told his grandfather. “This was the
first national park.” As they drove deeper into the park, Lonnie thought about
President Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to the park just seventy-eight years
before his own.
26 “Stop, pull over!” Lonnie suddenly shouted. “What
for?” Clayton asked as he pulled the pickup off of the road and parked. “Look
at all of those buffalo and elk!” Lonnie exclaimed as he jumped out of the
vehicle and began running across the open ground toward them. There were plenty
of other tourists who had their cameras out and were doing the same thing.
27 A park ranger, however, shouted at them and
motioned for everyone to return to the side of the road. “These are wild
animals in their natural habitat, and you are guests in their world,” he
explained to the crowd that had now gathered around him. “The ground here is
also unstable. There is geothermal activity everywhere here beneath us. Hence,
you must stay on the dedicated roadways and paths,” he continued.
28 Later, they also stopped to see Old Faithful and
spent the night at one of the designated campgrounds. They immediately noticed
that lids were attached and firmly secured to every garbage can in the area.
29 “Make sure that you do not leave any food out, and
that all food is secured away from your vehicle,” another ranger had told them.
“You don’t want a bear snooping around in your camp,” he explained.
30 The next day, they skirted around Yellowstone Lake
and headed east toward the Bighorn Mountains. They were working on the roads
that summer, and Clayton was not very pleased with the gravel and dirt surfaces
which they had to traverse through the mountains.
31 “Damn!” and “What the hell?” were frequent
expletives along the way, but Lonnie was in heaven. The mountains were
beautiful. And, as they wound their way through them, Neil Diamond’s America started playing on the radio.
Lonnie had goosebumps.
32 In South Dakota, they visited Mount Rushmore. While
his grandfather sat down on one of the benches, Lonnie stood on the viewing
platform and closely observed the faces of the presidents who had been carved
into stone. The visages of Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and
Lincoln stared back at him. “This is my country,” he thought. “This is my
heritage – sweet land of liberty.”
33 They also stopped at Badlands National Park. “Isn’t
this beautiful!” Lonnie exclaimed. “Looks like a bunch of dirt and rocks to
me,” his grandfather replied. “Oh, Poppa!” “Well, it does,” Clayton chuckled.
34 “We have to see Pine Ridge and Rosebud,” Lonnie
proclaimed. “Why?” Clayton demanded. “Because I told you that I wanted to see
the reservations, and I have to see Wounded Knee,” he explained.
35 “You’re determined to get me off on every cow path
and pig trail you see,” Clayton protested. “This is important, Poppa,” Lonnie
persisted. “This is at the heart of this entire trip.”
36 As they drove across the plains, Clayton complained
that he didn’t see “a damn thing” worth noticing. However, when they parked by
the sign marking the spot where the “Battle of Wounded Knee” had occurred
ninety-one years ago, Lonnie jumped out of the truck and began reading the
plaque.
37 The first thing he noticed was that the word
“Battle” had been marked through and someone had scribbled the word “Massacre”
over it. He had read Dee Brown’s Bury My
Heart at Wounded Knee the previous summer, and he understood the strong
feelings which this place and the events which had occurred here evoked among
Native Americans.
38 As he stood there and looked out toward the place
where the events had unfolded so long ago, he did not feel the pride which had
enveloped him just a few hours before. In its place, there was sorrow, shame
and many questions.
39 “Is this a part of my heritage?” he asked himself.
“What was it really like to be hunted like an animal and forced off of your
land?” he wondered. A strong breeze was blowing; and, despite the summer sun
overhead, he suddenly felt cold and very connected to those who had died here.
40 There were still many miles between them and home,
but Lonnie knew that the trip had effectively ended here. This was the
objective of his pilgrimage. The things which he had seen on this trip
epitomized the dichotomy inherent in his heritage as an American – the good and
the bad.
41 As they headed home, Lonnie thought about that
contrast and its implications for him and the country he loved. He couldn’t
reject it or deny it. It was an integral part of who he was. It was all a part
of his heritage, and all he could do was embrace it and claim it as his own.
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