19 April 2021
It’s been nostalgia week at 16th St. I’ve been so bored I’ve begun digitizing all my old photos and have run into memory freezes where Jimmie and Jo have bailed me out and memory explosions with the process of transferring photos to jpegs. It appears the Agnew side of the family is as well documented as the Searcy side of the family.
It all started a while ago when Jimmie asked if I had any photos of our Pawpaw’s and Othermamma’s place in Morton. I didn’t think so and passed that request on to my brother Archie in Brandon, Mississippi. He looked but couldn’t turn up any of the house either. Jimmie, Jean, Jo, Archie and I used to play under the house and we all agreed on that. Turns out we must have been very, very small to be playing under that house since it really wasn’t that high off the ground.
Every so often, as I digitized a photo, I would shoot it off to all of us via text. Jo would often send me back photos I had not seen before of the Agnew clan.
I don’t have any record or recollection of Pawpaws parents but I do remember him. His name was James B. Agnew, Sr. He married Othermamma (Mandy E. Thompson) and I have no records of her parents either. However Great Grandad Jim and Great Grandmother Mandy had seven children. The oldest was Delia (we called her Deelee) followed by Velma, Hollie, Alice, Edna Lee, James, Jr. and the youngest was Ernestine. Although I was the youngest of my cousins and brother, I remember each of them well and have vivid recollections of each. Let’s just say they were all very unique individuals and each had their own problems and demons (and hopefully and angel or two on their shoulders).
I mostly remember Pawpaw playing what is now known as the mouth organ but back then had a more disreputable name. He would entertain us after lunch. They had a huge dining room table – two adults and seven kids, wives and husbands, and grandkids. I never remember Othermamma other than bedridden. I don’t recollect ever seeing her out of her bed.
Of all of them, Great Uncle James was my favorite. He had an aura about him that just made you feel good. In his later years he had some real problems but I remember when I was around 10 or 11, he would always listen to Paul Harvey on the radio at noon. I got in the habit of dropping around – not to visit Jimmie, Jean or Jo but to visit with Uncle James and listen to the radio show with him. There wasn’t a chair in the room that I remember and I remember he told me just to climb up on the bed with him. We’d listen to Paul and after his sign off we would sometimes discuss what we heard and he’d let me know his thinking on a particular issue. What struck me was he never talked down to me as a kid but treated me as an adult in our conversations. I loved Paul Harvey for many years after that. I might also add that Uncle James was a dapper dresser and probably the best looking of the Agnews – including the women in the family.
You might be surprise to know that I wasn’t all that close to my own Grandfather Hollie. He had a stern look about him and he often looked like he carried the world on his shoulder. At one time he was a raging alcoholic but when I knew him I never saw him take a drink. He had the fierce Agnew temper and he and my Grandmother Ruby would get into cursing fights – after first going to church service Sunday mornings. I was a little afraid of him and always hid behind Ruby when he came into the room. I suspect that frustrated him terribly that I didn’t warm up to him. However, I think Archie loved him enough for the both of us.
Some of you may know the song by John Prine “Grandpa Was A Carpenter.” There’s a line in there about chain smoking Camel cigarettes. Hollie chain smoked Lucky Strikes. The song also talks about “put a penny in a burned out fuse.” Hollie did that with their fuse box and I learned that trick from him. Totally unsafe but it certainly worked. Actually pretty much everything word of that song reminds me of Hollie. He wasn’t a carpenter but he owned and ran Agnew Hardware in Morton.
Ernestine lived in Bessemer, Alabama and I think Uncle Bivin worked with steel mills of Birmingham. What I remember about her was her wonderfully loud, full throated laugh, her piano playing, and her filling me up with food. Uncle Bivin was good natured and didn’t seem to mind when a bunch of the Agnew sisters descended on his house – however, I do remember him sitting outside the house having a smoke when all the women got together. I didn’t get to see Ernestine too often because of the distance but Ruby would drive us over there at least once a year.
Bivin and Ernestine had two children: Terry and Amanda Lee. I don’t remember Terry at all even though I’m sure I met him. However, Amanda Lee was, in my mind, the most beautiful child I’ve ever seen. She grew up into an equally beautiful woman.
Edna Lee lived next door to Hollie and Ruby and Jimmie and I would often go see her. She was deaf although I didn’t realize it for many years. She was an excellent lip reader and it was only when Jimmie told me I had to look at Aunt Eddy when I spoke to her that I realized she was deaf. What I really remember about her was she would carefully peel and apple for Jimmie and me and cut it up into pieces for us to eat. Her husband was Oliver Prince and sadly, he became an alcoholic. He outlived Aunt Eddy by several years despite the alcoholism. I remember going to see him once when we lived in Brandon and he was somewhat of a shadow of his former self.
I guess since Aunt Eddy was deaf, she had a precision to her language and a rhythm to how she spoke. It was almost a whispered voice. She was the second of the Agnew children to pass away and like Othermamma, she was bedridden for the last part of her life. Hollie was the first to die – of a massive heart attack – in 1956. Eddy died in 1957.
Of all the Agnew children, I probably knew Velma the least. Every so often Ruby would drive over to Jackson and we would stop in and visit her and Uncle Shep but it was a long while before I realized just who Velma was. I didn’t know she was one of the five sisters until much later. Mother liked Velma better than any of the other sisters and once I figured out who Velma was, Mother would take me to visit her at the upstairs apartment she and Uncle Shep had.
She had one son, George Brooks. With the last name of Brooks, I assume Aunt Velma had been previously married. I think I remember her as a nurse.
Aunt Alice was just mean. I don’t know that she meant to be but that was certainly how she came across. She always reminded me of the woman Toto bit in the Wizard of Oz and wanted to have Toto put down. Either she mellowed a little later in life or I tolerated her better because she eventually took over trying to teach me piano. She married Owen Lack and they had two girls: Margie and Beth. Both of those girls were led down the path of iniquity by my Mother. I think I previously related the theft of my Grandfather’s truck by this trio to go to Jackson.
For some strange reason, I have no photos of Alice!
Delia was Delia. She came across as a ditz but I suspect that was an act on her part to put up with Alice all those years. Delia married George Searcy (no relation) and after he passed away, she and Alice were pretty much intertwined.
Uncle George doted on Delia. He did everything. He cooked, he cleaned, he washed. Delia just lived.
Jo and I have talked about Delia a good bit and we both remember that what ever song Delia played on the piano, all the songs sounded the same. She could, however, pound out a rousing rendition of “Monkey, Monkey, Bottle of Beer.” I still remember that damn song!
I don’t have a photo of Delia either but she, to me, looked a lot like Velma.
As a child, I had a cornucopia of Agnew relatives. Think of having a Grandfather, a Great Uncle, and five Great Aunts. Delia, Alice, James, Edna Lee and Hollie all lived within shouting distance of each other. Only Velma and Ernestine flew the coop. I grew up with Jimmie, Jean and Jo and Archie but didn’t have much interaction with Beth, Margie, Terry, Amanda Lee and George Brooks.
The Searcy side of the family was much smaller. I had one Aunt (Sue) and one Uncle (Ray). Sue had two children (Jean and Charles) and Uncle Ray had one (Regina). To be honest, you could be overwhelmed at Agnew family gatherings but there was certainly never a dull moment – the laughter, the squabbling, the shouting and the tears all kept you on your toes. If Jo sends me pictures of Delia and Alice, I’ll post them in a later post.
Stay tuned and stay safe!
