Not so very far back in history...

 

Family history miscellaneous album, page 20

My mom, Wathada Burford Thomas

My dad, Richard Thomas (aka "Red")

Bob Burford's business card

This would have been some time in the 1980s, I think.

My mother's three brothers - Morris, Bob, and Ron Burford

I feel sorry for kids who have to grow up without uncles.

These pictures would have been taken sometime near the year I was born - 1954.

Carl Ray Leatherwood

son of Vernell Hicks and Ray Leatherwood

Velda Leatherwood and Donald Milani

with their sons Brian, Steven, and Anthony

Velda is the daughter of Vernell Hicks and Ray Leatherwood

Family history miscellaneous album - Bernice

 

Bernice Hicks was the next-to-last of Ulys and Annie Hicks' children, the youngest of the six girls. Family lore has it that her full name was Odell Avanell Bertha Bernice. Officially, it was Bertha Bernice. Her mother -- my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks -- was named Bertha Ann, but was always called Annie. 

Bernice was married four times. Her first husband was Jay Bridges, whom she married in 1945, just after her 16th birthday. 

Bernice and Jay had three children: a son Shelby, another son Gregory who was stillborn or died at birth, and a daughter Cindy. Some time after Cindy's birth, Jay and Bernice were divorced.

Photo: Shelby and Cindy Bridges

Bernice married Jim Snelling -- for about five minutes -- in 1968. Then in 1970 she married Bill Rogers, and they were happily married for 33 years, until his death in 2003. 

Photo: Jim Snelling and Bernice, 1968

Photo: Bernice and Bill Rogers, 1970

After Bill's death, Bernice married Dean Kittleson in 2005. I don't have any pictures of him. 

Bernice died in 2016, after a long struggle with dementia, during which her daughter Cindy provided excellent loving care for many years. 

Photo: Lowell, Bernice, Olan Hicks

Family history miscellaneous album, page 18

 

Minerva Adaline Carter Arnold (aka "Maw")

my great-great-grandmother, mother of Annie Arnold Hicks

Ulysses Fillmore Hicks

my great-grandfather

father of my grandmother Cleffie Hicks Burford

Cleffie Lorene Hicks

my grandmother (my mother's mother)

[My psychic medium friend Ericka calls her "two moms" -- she was as much of an influence in my life as my mother. Maybe more! And still is.]

Lester and Cleffie Burford

This is how they look in most of my childhood memories.

Cleffie Burford

This picture would have been taken around 1990-ish, I think.

Cleffie Burford

In the 1970s, maybe?

Charles Jones and Evalee Hicks Jones

My grandmother's sister

Evalee and Charles Jones

Ray and Vernell Hicks Leatherwood

another one of my grandmother's sisters.

There were six girls in the Hicks household (Ulys and Annie's children). Five of them lived near us in southwestern Michigan when I was growing up, along with one of their three brothers. (They had all migrated from Arkansas in the 1940s.) Gave me a great sense of identity -- "my tribe" -- which I didn't fully appreciate until later in life. My children were largely deprived of the experience of being surrounded by grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins during their childhood. That's when I came to realize just how lucky I was to have had all that family around. 

Family history miscellaneous album, page 17

 

Evalee and Elvin Hicks

Ruby and Cleffie Hicks

Larry Wayne Rapert

grandson of Marlie and Birdie Arnold

Elmer Reed and Opie Arnold

Oneida Hicks

Oneida was the daughter of Herbert Hicks

Herbert was the son of Pinkney ("Uncle Pink") Hicks - brother of my great-grandfather Ulysses Hicks

Mayrose Hicks

daughter of Lowell and Elaine Hicks

Calvin and Wincel Jackson

children of Etta ("Aint Eddy") Arnold Jackson - sister of my great-grandmother Annie Hicks

Chad Hicks

son of Chuck and Melinda Hicks

Chuck is the son of Olan and Barbara Hicks

Kaylene Mary Provance

daughter of Tommy Joe Provance, Jr. 

Tommy was the son of Betty Ruth Barnett Provance

Betty Ruth was the daughter of Irene Hicks Barnett - sister of my grandmother Cleffie Burford

Family history miscellaneous album, page 16

 

Irene and Cleffie Hicks

(That's Judsonia, Arkansas, in the background.)

Cleffie Hicks (my grandmother)

Cleffie Hicks

Elvin Hicks, Jr.

Ulysses F. Hicks (my great-grandfather)

Ulysses ("Ulys") and his sister Charlotte ("Aunt Tot")

Bernice, Olan, Lowell Hicks (the three youngest of the nine Hicks siblings)

"Brother McNutt and Brother Burgess" is what it says on the back of the picture.

I assume they were Church of Christ preachers.

Ruby, Irene, Cleffie, Elvin, Evalee

The first five of the nine Hicks siblings.

(Cleffie told me they had been eating watermelon, and that's why they look so dirty.)

Cleffie once told me about the hats -- I can't remember if it was Annie or Ulys who liked to see the children wearing hats. Hats are featured in quite a few of the family photos of the Hicks family.

Family history miscellaneous album, page 15

 

Martha Rhoades and husband Albert Sandridge

Martha was the daughter of Margaret Carter Rhoades - a sister of my great-great-grandmother Adaline Carter Arnold.

Wincel Jackson

daughter of Etta Arnold Jackson - sister of my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks

Wincel Jackson

Wilma Arnold Reed and husband Elvin Reed (brother of Elmer Reed)

Wilma was a daughter of George Arnold - brother of Annie Arnold Hicks

Marian Carroll Jackson (child)

daughter of Etta Arnold Jackson

Back of the photo says "Ben's wife and Carroll Jackson" (Ben was Carroll's father. As far as I know he did not have a second wife. Carroll's mother died when Carroll was 5 years old. The woman in this photo might be Ben's sister Marian.)

Charles Jones and Lester Burford

husbands of Evalee and Cleffie Hicks (my grandmother)

Uncle Albert Williams and unknown child

Albert was the husband of Ulys Hicks' sister Charlotte ("Tot")

they had a store in the front part of their house, shown in the photo

Aunt Birdie

wife of Marlie Arnold - brother of Annie Hicks

Evalee Hicks, 4 years old