This book is "DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY GRANDPARENTS" and their unconditional love that they bestole upon myself, my mother and my two younger brothers. A tragedy befell our immediate family in my boyhood youth, the fatal vehicle accident of my father. My four grandparents, great grandmother, and other family members had significant influence in my upbringing. I witness their efforts to support my widowed mother to raise three young boys into adulthood. My greatgrandmother Marble would babysit us boys, while mother when back to College at night to earn her teaching degree. My mother just didn't want us to get by, she wanted the best she could provide for her sons. So, after she earned her degree, she spent many of her youthful years and subsequate years dedicated to the profession of teaching. This dedication often seem to make childhood for my brothers and I, void of father and mother. The time we did spend with our mother was precious and memorable. Within the next six years after my mother had lost her spouse, she lost both her parents. My brothers and I were learning early, that those whom share their love and life with us can depart the world so unexpectedly and much too soon. Death of those close to us, seem to bind our family ties stronger and instill the importance of remembering the past. So, when a relative would simply visit us or vice versa, it would become a significant memorable event in our childhood. Often stories were told of not only of our father, but of other relatives (present and past).
Let me say that "CHILDHOOD MEMORIES ARE THE MOST LASTING AND PERSISTANT" and those memories are the most important in the developement of character. It is from the loved ones, that children choose to emulate whether consciously or unconsciously, (whether bad or good). It is a "PERSISTANCE OF MEMORY", that the adult in us must recognize and understand. As adults, and as parents we must learn to grasp the beauty and the life from the darkness of tragedy and death to form a character not scarred, but strengthen inorder to grow and experience the wonders of life yet to come. My strength and preparation for ordeals of the future comes from the knowledge of the hardships of my ANCESTORS. Their struggles to provide for family and to serve God, Community, and Country.
My Genealogy Sites on the Internet are to "HONOR THEIR MEMORY"