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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMy Life Story - Erma F. Jefferson MY LIFE STORY This is to be given to my grandchildren and great grand children after I am dead or if I survive and decide to publish it as a story. My first memories are of me my mother Ella Mae Parker, my sister Theresa and myself, Erma Faye. I was born on June 8, 1940. The doctor's wife's name was Irma. So I winded up with the name of Irma Faye Loud. You will later learn that when I was in approximately the fifth grade at Carver elementary in Bryan, Texas, I began spelling my name with an "E". My family has always called me "Faye". My friends throughout high school called me "Erma Faye". I suppose the reason that my friends in school called me Erma Faye, was because there were so many of us in my class "with the name of Erma or Faye, there was Erma Jean Hawkins, Vivian Faye Littleton, and there were probably more, that I'll add later. Later when I got my divorce from Jesse James Jefferson, Jr., (four Js), the friends and associates that I met have always called me Erma. I know immediately when I" meet a friend where they fit into my life, because of the way they address me. My name is Erma Faye Jefferson; it used to be Erma Faye Loud or Erma Faye Heads (Hedge). I was born on June 8, 1940 in rural Bryan near the Booneville Cemetery. Booneville is where the city of Bryan was supposed to be, but the railroad came through Bryan, so Booneville later became like the "Black Community". (My mother's name is Ella Mae (Loud) Parker, April 10; 1923. My father's name is Tommie Heads, Jr. July 2, 1920. My parents were not married to each other; however, there was no time that my father denied my existence. The story that has been told is that when it was discovered that my mother was pregnant, my father offered to marry my mother, but she said no because she did not want to move to Houston. I am the oldest child of both my mother and my father. My mother later had four more children. Ernest Marie (I could not say Ernest Marie so we called her Theresa). She was born on July 18, 1943. Then Mama waited for approximately 13 years and had another child, Barbara Ann. Ann's birthday is December 25, 1956. Leonard Charles was born on January 17, 1957. Elsie Kay, my baby sister was born on December. Theresa and Charles have predeceased me. My father either had or claims so many children that I can not name them all. (As a matter of fact, if I get into a long conversation with him, he'll tell me of all of his children, sometimes there are additions that he has never mentioned previously). The funny thing is that when he was incarnated for many years, there were times that he would name his children and it always seemed that there were more then there were the last time he told me about all of my sisters and brothers. I finally drew a line in the sand and told him that if he told me of any other children, they were his, but were not related to me. I do know of Tommie, Charles, Florine and Bobbie Jean (they were born to my stepmother Florence). There is another sister whose name is Rosetta. If I write a lot I'll probably get around to writing about Rosetta, because I know a little about her. She was in our lives for approximately 10 or 12 years and then she disappeared from our lives. I believe that she disappeared from our lives because she was embarrassed because our father finally got out of the Texas Department of Corrections. He spent many years in TDC after he killed my stepmother and three other people. I have always called my father by his name and never called him Dad or Father. I call him Tommie Jr. He claims that there were times before he got involved in his troubles that when I asked him for something, I would call him Father. I do not ever remember that, but ifhe says it's true, then maybe it is. He frequently tells me that I had a brother who was younger than me whose name was Tommie Jr. Later in life he finally made me recognize who this individual was. -The Tommie Jr., that he claims was his son, I knew as Tommie Jr., Henderson. We were raised as cousins. I keep telling Tommie Jr., my father that I can never think of this individual as no more than a cousin, because" that's the way I was raised. The funny thing is that Tommie Jr., Henderson finally met Tommie Jr., Heads when they were both incarnated at TDC. Later they both were reIeased from TDC around the same time. I'll write about this because, I'll probably forget it if I don't now. Tommie Jr., Henderson died and Tommie Jr., Heads was on his head to go to the funeral of his oldest son. When he walked into the funeral home and went to sit with the family, with his chest probably sticking out, he was really hurt when his name was not on the program as the father. I still maintain that Tommie Jr., Henderson was my cousin. I called his mother cousin Hattie Mae. She was the second or third cousin of my mother and her sisters. I am the mother of four children. There are two that are deceased and two that are living. My oldest son is Lawrence Gene Heads, November 8, 1958. My oldest daughter, Ella Denise Heads Foster was born April 30, 1960. My son Milton Roy Heads was born August 1961, right near the time that Hurricane Carla was striking the Texas Coast. My last daughter Michelle LaShawn Jefferson was born February 17, 1967. Milton Roy lived about six months. He was born in August and he died the middle of January. It was cold. My children and I lived on McCulloch Street in Bryan. I had taken Milton Roy to the doctor three times that week and each time the doctor changed his medicine. I had gotten him up to dress him and return to the doctor, however, he was not feeling well. ~ gave him a bottle. He threw up whatever he took of the bottle, and took his last gasp. I called my mother who lived across the way from me and we called the funeral home. They would take him out of my arms and lay him down and I would go back and pick him up. It was a very cold day in January when we buried him. It was so cold that when we went to the funeral home to see how they had prepared him, I went to J.C. Penney's and brought some more blankets to place in the coffin with him. I just though that it would be cold when they placed him in the ground. . My youngest daughter Michelle LaShawn Jefferson died in 1987. Michelle was premature at birth. She was the only one of my four children who was born in a hospital. I was always afraid of going to the hospital. I talked my mother into letting me have my first born Lawrence at home, instead of at a birthing hospital or the major hospital which was St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan. There was another hospital in Bryan, named Bryan Hospital, however, black folks were not allowed there, or if they were it required that we give them a huge deposit prior to being admitted. So I had my first three children at home with the help of a mid-wife. The difference was that I was permitted to walk around as long as I wanted to, until the pains became so severe that there was nothing else to do but go to bed. I remember that the mid-wife would stick camphor under my nose and the pains would come quicker. Lawrence was born on a Saturday night, right after Lawrence Welk (bubbles and accordion) was on TV. Denise's birth was really not that difficult, I remember very little about her birth. I do remember that I was up washing her diapers and her brother's within two weeks of her birth. None of my children weighed seven pounds. They all weighed six pounds some ounces. She was named for my mother. We have always called her "Dinky". The nickname, "Dinky", was given to her by my brother Leonard Charles. He used to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings; there was a cartoon with a character that was a duck, named "Dinky". So today, she is called "Dinky". Charles always so that Dinky was taken care of, if there was something happening on the street and everyone would take off to see what was happening, he would grab "Dinky" and along they would go with her on his hip. I always wanted her to be called Denise. Charles also liked to kiss her on the forehead. He would kiss her and kiss her. One of the funniest things about "Dinky" was that she never crawled. She scooted around on her butt until she decided one day to walk. Milton Roy was born during the horrible hurricane "Carla". The rain was so heavy that it nearly came into the house. When you use a mid-wife, when the pains are getting fairly close, someone in the family goes to get the mid-wife and bring her to the house. We lived on Saunders Street in Bryan. The rain would probably have come in the house; however, there were several steps that extended before the . entryway. Milton Roy had been delivered before the mid-wife got to the house. All she had to do was cut the navel string and clean her and me up and her work was done. Michelle was born at St. Joseph Hospital. My doctor was Joseph Geppart. I was in labor for hours, which was unusual for someone having her fourth child. She was breech and premature. She was approximately two or three months premature. She was probably premature because her father Jesse James Jefferson, Jr. was abusive and we had had problems all during the pregnancy. She weighed 4 pounds and some ounces. The doctor had told me that we were going to have to make a decision, whether he could save my life or hers. Fortunately she was born. She was immediately placed in an incubator. They sent me home within two days. I would go to the hospital every day to see about my child. It was really strange to be home without my baby. She stayed in the incubator for approximately three weeks. The nurses and doctors informed me that she was having seizures in the incubator. When we would go to see her, sometimes she would have been so active that she would have moved toward the glass and would seem to be having problems breathing. Finally, I convinced the doctor that I could take care of her as well as they did. We went home with a prescription for her seizures. We were informed by the doctor's after it seemed that Michelle was not thriving the way my other children had that she was retarded and that we should place her on a waiting list to be placed in a children's home. I never considered that possibility for the first 15 years 'of her life. Michelle died on November 1987. She was 21 years old. She was retarded, but she never failed to live her life to the fullest. She had several operations on her eyes, because she was diagnosed with droopy eyelids. The lashes on her eyes were so long that they would sometimes grow underneath. She had most of her surgery at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. Probably the first memory that I actually recall from my childhood is when my mother, my sister, Theresa and I arrived at the train station in Bryan, late at night. It was probably after midnight and there was a very dim light of the platform. It was scary, dark and dreary. The only people getting off the train were a casket and us. My mother was never one of the bravest people in the world so we were all standing on the platform shaking. I do not know why my grandfather, Arthur Jackson was not there to pick us up. We probably stayed there until he came to pick us up. If I remember correctly, we were coming from Monahans, Texas that is out in the Panhandle. I don't know how old I was; I just know that that is the first thing that I remember. We were coming back to Bryan to visit my Grandmother, Elsie Robertson Loud Jackson, January 4, 1902. She is now deceased. We always called her "Mother". My mother's children call her "Mama". My children call my mother "Big Mama". My grandchildren also call my mother "Big Mama". My grandmother never wanted to be called grandmother. My grandmother was a twin. Her twin brother's name was Elzie Robertson. We called him "Uncle Boozie". He never married and we do not know where he is or if he is still living. My grandmother was one of several children born of slaves in Brazos County. Her oldest brother's name was Milton, and there was a brother who moved to Palestine, that I have never met. There was a sister named "Drucilla". We called her Aunt Drew. She was the child of my great grand mother and a white man. She was very fair of skin. She passed for white during some of her lifetime. She died when I was real young. My grandmother married John Robert Loud. There were three children born to them, there was Naomi Loud Griffen, august 27, 1920, my mother Ella Mae Loud Parker and their baby sister, Jessie Mary Loud Anderson. They were born in Roby, Texas. The marriage did not last long after the children were born and Mother moved them back to Bryan. She later married, Arthur Jackson and lived in Booneville. I remember that we called my step grandfather "Pop". He was a carpenter and a painter. I remember going with him on Sunday evenings in his Model T riding in the seat with just him and myself. We would go to the beer joints and the people in the places would give me money and buy me ice cream. I would come back be full as a "tick" and have lots of money.