Poem for Poppy - Amanuensis Monday

Using Amanuensis Monday to transcribe some of the material aound that needs to be transcribed. Today I'm doing my Grandfather, Mershell C. Graham's funeral program.  I've been looking for my grandfather's funeral program for several months.  It wasn't in the binder, where it should have been, or in the box with the not yet filed funeral programs.  Today, while looking for something else, I found it.  It was in my file cabinet in a folder having nothing to do with anything relevant.  The poem was written by my sister, Pearl Cleage.

Poem For My Grandfather

(for M.C. Graham)

The handing down of things

worn smooth between your fingers.

The handing down of parts of you 

in hurried kitchen ceremonies.

The smell of biscuits

and the smell of heirlooms.

A story about trains.

A whisper of hard times

and magic in the face you hold so close to mine

and smile.

The handing down of things.

The handing on of you...

from his grandchildren

and great-grandchildren

In Memorium

Mershell C. Graham

Thursday, September 6, 1973, 12 Noon

Plymouth United Church of Christ

514 Garfield

Detroit, Michigan

Rev. Nicholas Hood, Pastor

Order of Service

Processional......

Hymn          ......

Invocation   .......

Scripture      .......

Hymn          .......

Eulogy         .......

Benediction  .......

Interment

Detroit Memorial Park

In Charge

Charles T. Cole Funeral Home

Honory Pallbearers 

Friends of Mr. Graham

Active Pallbearers

Members of the Men's Club    

Mershell C. Graham was born December 25, 1887, in Coosada Station, Alabama, the adopted son of Mary and Joseph Graham.  He received his early Christian training in the First Congregational Church of Montgomery, Alabama.  He met his beloved wife, Fannie Mae, in the church.  They celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary in June of this year.  They had four children and shared a long and beautiful life.  He was one of the founders of Plymouth United Church of Christ and was a devoted member of the church all of his life.  He served as treasurer for many years and was Trustee Emeritus.  He was retired from the Ford Motor Company after over thirty years of service and was a member of the U.A.W. and the N.A.A.C.P.

Mr. Graham passed on September 3, 1973, at his home at 16260 Fairfield.  He leaves to mourn his loss his wife, Fannie, his two daughters, Mary Virginia Graham Elkins and Doris Graham Cleage, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Photos, Photos Everywhere - Sepia Saturday

 This week I spent hours putting my photographs from the paternal side in order.  First by grouping them into piles according to the numbers on the reverse side.  After dividing them up by number, I then started dating the files.  I was able to determine who some of the babies were in later photos by which siblings were already there and how old they were.  I will show some of these in a later post.  It's been slow going and I almost missed Sepia Saturday.  However I thought I should make an entry.  Above you see some of the piles.

To the left you can see two photographs that have the same number.  I have wondered for years if that boy with the stocking cap on standing next to the car was my father.  When I saw the photo of my Uncle Louis (on the left) and my father, Albert, with the stocking cap, I saw it was him.  There are other photos that have both boys that have different numbers but they appear to be taken at the same time on one of the family's annual trips to Athens Tennessee, my grandfather's hometown.  One brother, Edward, remained in Athens.  The rest of the family ended up first in Indianapolis, IN and then in Detroit, MI.

Here are some other posts about the Athens branch of the Cleages.
Uncle Ed's daughters - 1917.  Memories to Memoirs, and Juanita and Daughters.

To Read more Sepia Saturday post and to participate click HERE.

The 4th Annual i Gene Awards at Finding Eliza (and My Cleages)

This time last year I didn't know the i Gene Awards existed.  This year I am here to present the Awards for the best posts on my blogs in five categories.  First I would like to thank my ancestors for saving so many photographs, stories, letters, journals and scraps of paper and seeing that they got to me.  It has made my job so much easier. And now on to the awards.


The Best Picture Award goes to My Mother - 1952 a Sepia Saturday offering that caused much speculation about why she seemed to be avoiding the camera.  Was she shy?  Was she coy?  Did she lose her earring?  Was there a cat under the chair?  We will never know but I would like to thank my mother, Doris Graham Cleage, for being so photographically mysterious.

The Best Screen Play Award goes to Eliza and the People in Her Life - a Chart  This would be a multi-generational saga that begins in slavery and ends in freedom.  We have slavery, lust, an escape to freedom while being chased by hounds, true love, vengeance, the surrender of Montgomery, reconstruction, family bonds, death in childbirth, hard work and much, much more. The chart is the cast of this drama.   I would like to thank my sister Pearl Cleage for being my casting director. Her picks are below:

1. Young Eliza -- Jurnee Smollett/played the debating girl in "The Great Debators" and was the young girl featured in "Selma, Lord, Selma!" and "Eve's Bayou." good actress.

2. Old Eliza -- Barbara O/Yella Mary from "Daughters of the Dust." amazing actress and looks like she could be what Jurnee would look like old. (let's say old Eliza is the one who starts telling the story in flashbacks so she'd start and then Jurnee would fade in as Eliza in her twenties when she meets Dock.

3. Dock -- Jeffrey Wright/played Muddy Waters in "Cadillac Records." he's a little old, but he looks like he could be Dock and he's an amazing actor.

4. Annie Williams -- Viola Davis/in her 40's, so she could be in a flashback/she was nominated for an academy award for her role as the mother in "Doubt." last year, she won a Tony for playing Rose in "Fences" on b'way.

5. Milton Saffold -- here come the movie stars... maybe Jake Gyllenhaal he was in "Brokeback Mountain" and lots of movies. he's a good actor. the right age, in his 30's.

6. Georgia Whitting --  Reese Witherspoon, usually comedic, but was really good playing June Carter Cash in the movie about Johnny Cash.  She's from Tennessee so she could call on her roots.

7. Edmund and Jane Harrison -- oh, let's throw in a couple of really BIG time movie stars for fun. how about angelina jolie and brad pitt?

8. Martha Harrison --  how about Dakota Fanning? she's young, blond, not a bad actress.

9.  Clara Bolden - Tariji P. Henson. got nominated for an Ocsar for a weird movie two years ago. was also a star of the awful movie, "Hustle and Flow", but that wasn't her fault. she's pretty good and can play sad and angry, two emotions required of colored mistresses. 


The Award for Best Documentary goes to In Which I Hit the Google Photo Jackpot, another Sepia Saturday offering.  In this one I wrote about the information I found trying to explain why the Tulanes might have been sitting so far apart on the porch, get side tracked into researching Victor Tulane's family and then talk about all the photographs I found for this family, using google, while just trying to illustrate the original information.


The Award for Best Biography goes to the two part series about my Grandmother Fannie Mae Turner Graham 1888 - 1974 - part 1 and Fannie Mae Turner Graham 1888 - 1974 - Conclusion I would like to thank my mother, Doris Graham Cleage, for writing this series in 1976.


Last but not least, The Award for Best Comedy goes to a post on my Cleages and Reeds Blog for which I have to give credit to my Uncle Henry Cleage (Does it seem to you, right about now, that I wrote only half of these posts, at most??) for the short story Just Tell The Men - A short story by Henry W. Cleage.


A big thank you to Carnival of Genealogy hostess, Jasia, at Creative Gene for creating these Carnivals!
.