Society

Kathy and Emma Elgin and Emily Burk spent the weekend in Nashville, Tenn. The girls attended the Dave Matthews Band concert Saturday night.

Rowan Thompson of Dallas, Tx., was the guest of Kay and Laura Wheeler last week. While here, he enjoyed a game of golf with great-nephew, Grady Brooks, and watched great-niece, Caitlyn Brooks, play softball. He also visited with friends throughout the weekend while in Oxford, going to the Ole Miss baseball games and attending the Double Decker festival.

Gene and Linda McLaughlin of Broken Arrow, Okla., were the guests of Mary Lou Jones over the weekend. On Saturday, she had Snow Mizzetti and Vivian and Randy Stage of Memphis, Tenn., visiting with her.

(To put your news in City Personals, please e-mail maryclayb@yahoo.com; mail to City Personals, The South Reporter, P.O. Box 278, Holly Springs, MS 38635 or call 662-252-4261. You may also e-mail your City Personal news to south@dixie-net.com).

NOTE: Mary Clay had a slight accident Monday. We extend get well wishes...The South Reporter staff.

Byron Harris and Annette Brunson

Bonnie and Royce Brunson of Byhalia announce the engagement and forthcoming marriage of their daughter, Annette Brunson of Byhalia, to Byron Harris of Byhalia, the son of Marietta Tunstall of Byhalia and Dean Boxdale of Red Banks.

She is the granddaughter of Gracie Sanders, Georgia Mae Brounson, the late James Brounson and the late Orion Benson. She graduated from Byhalia High School.

He is the grandson of Annie Pearl Harris, Lonnie Harris, Annie Boxdale and the late “Daddy B.” Boxdale. He graduated from Byhalia High School.

The wedding will be at 2 p.m. on May 16 at St. Paul MB Church in Byhalia.

Couple say vows April 18

Mrs. and Mrs. Scottie Roberson

Johnny and Virginia Gray, of Lamar, would like to announce the marriage of their daughter Michelle Gray to Scottie Roberson. Scottie is the son of Hugh and Velma Roberson of Lamar.

The wedding took place on April 18, 2009 at 4 p.m. in Potts Camp, at the Inmon residence.

Scottie and Michelle would like to give a special thanks to their children Bailey, Seth, Shaylee, Aleigha, Mayce and Colton for making this day such a memorable day!

Miss Amanda Work and Nick Sanders to wed May 2

Amanda Work and Nick Sanders

Herman Culver Jr. and Paul and Melinda Patterson of Hickory Flat proudly announce the engagement of their daughter, Amanda Work, to Nick Sanders, son of Randy Sanders of Potts Camp and Donna and Steve Lendsay of Guntown.

Amanda is the mother of Anna Work, the granddaughter of James and Della R. Williams of Hickory Flat and the late Herman and Alberta Culver of Waterford.

Nick is the father of Alden Sanders, the grandson of E.B. and Diane Sanders and Sue Clark and the late Billy Clark, all of Potts Camp.

The wedding will take place at 2 p.m. on May 2 at the home of the couple.

No formal invitations are being sent. Friends and family are invited to attend.

The only person ever from here to be on a postage stamp is Ida B. Wells. She is known as the first civil rights worker. She was born in Holly Springs on July 16, 1862, to slave parents and was freed in August of 1862 when the Emancipation Proclamation was passed, so she was only a slave one month of her life.

She was born at the end of West Salem Avenue near the Gatewood house that is now used as the Ida B. Wells Museum or she might have been born there on the back side of the property. No one knows exactly.

William Sephus Randolph built the Gatewood house and was one of the town’s founders and that is who Ida B’s father worked for. It is thought that Ida B. Wells attended school on West Street where the Catholic School is now. There is a photo of the school children but no one is identified in the photo. She did attend Shaw University which became Rust College where she was a very good student. Rust College is still here and in operation today. Rust College was the second school for freedmen, the first was in Atlanta.

In 1878 the dreadful plague of Yellow Fever hit Holly Springs and her parents and one sibling were among the hundreds who died and left Ida and her remaining siblings orphans.

Ida B. was 16 and decided to take her siblings in 1881 and move to Memphis, trying to make a living for them. She took the teacher’s exam and at 18 became a teacher.

Each day she rode the trolley into work. One day she was moved to the second class, although she had paid for a first class pass. She was physically pulled from and put off the train and thus began her lifetime devotion to fighting injustice. She sued the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company, which she won and received $500 for a settlement which was later reversed, plus $200 expenses. She wrote an article about the case and it was published in “The Evening Star,” a black-owned newspaper. Then she wrote for the “Memphis Free Speech Headlight” newspaper and eventually became co-owner. She printed it on pink paper so it would stand out.

She later moved to New York where she furthered the cause of freedom through her writings, not only in New York but in Europe too. In 1893 she lived in Chicago where she married Ferdinand Lee Barnett, a Chicago attorney and founder of the Chicago Conservator, the city’s first African-American Council, which later became the NAACP. He sold his shares of the newspaper to his wife and she bought out the other owners, then she was full owner of the publication at the age of 33. She continuously petitioned for blacks’ rights from President McKinney down. She was giving financial assistance, better housing and employment, counseling and trying to assist aged people with little or no schooling to deal with problems in a simple common sense language. She and her husband had four children but she continued reading, writing and speaking. Ida B. Wells was an inspiring example of the power of the written word. She had tenacity, ambition, courage and a desire for justice that changed history. She died in Chicago, Illinois on March 25, 1931.


Thursday, April 30, 2009
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