About two years ago, Karen, the director of my local Family History Center was helping me with some research. The question came up of my parents' marriage date and I didn't specifically know what the date was. My mother's older sister, who provided the information for Mom's death certificate, provided that their marriage was April and two years ago, I didn't remember if it were 1951 or 1952. So up until now, I had used only Apr 1951/52 as documentation of their marriage. I had looked when Karen was helping me and last week I looked again at the Mahoning County Ohio Probate Court site looking for information to send for their marriage license. In the meantime, on one of my research trips to OHS where they have a lot of Ohio newspapers, I found their license application date was 5 April 1951. I finally emailed the Probate Court last week and got their marriage date and the citation info. Their wedding was 28 April 51, Volume 88 – Page 302. The great news is that Mahoning County Probate will send me a genealogy copy for ten ¢ (that is 10 cents) plus a SASE or a certified copy for $2 plus SASE. Isn't that Awesome? I expected around $10 and no genealogy copy.
So, while celebrating this couple of folks, let's take a look at some parts of their lives.
PeeWee was born 27 September 1926 in Fitzgerald, Ben Hill, Georgia. He was the son of a sharecropper, John Pink DRAPER and Ella Lee BRIMMER. His name at birth was Clovis Lee DRAPER. He was the fifth son born of this union, also having several sisters and a brother from John P's first marriage to Minnie Lampkin. John was quite a bit older than his second wife, so his father was 52 when PeeWee was born. PeeWee went to public school up until the sixth grade. I often heard of that story. I think his intent to relay that was not that he was bragging but quite proud of what he accomplished in life with only a sixth grade eduacation. I also often heard the story of how he got his nickname, that we was twelve years old and weighed 90 pounds. Not included in the story but was also true is that he was relatively short as most men go, about 5' 6" or 7". He was a veteran of WWII, serving as a cook in Germany and at Fort Benning Georgia. I have attempted to send for his service record but have to take another shot at that because of the fire at the National Military Records Center. Without sending for those records, I have a suspicion that he lied about his age and somehow got into the US Army as maybe a 16 or 17 year old.
That suspicion is based on that he was in the army and back out again, serving a full enlistment (two years?) before his father died in 1948. OK, I know it's not necessarily so bc in 1948 PeeWee turned 21, but his father died in February, PeeWee was 20 1/2. Regardless how old he was, it's a genealogical question that I didn't bother to ask, nor cared to know until I started researching. I will most likely find the answer when we eventually meet again. After John Pink died, the family moved to Youngstown Ohio in the vicinity of one of Ella's sisters and brothers. I have traced the DRAPER and BRIMMER Families from the 1920s through the 1950s around Youngstown using city directories. At one point, for maybe three or four years, PeeWee disappeared. That will have to be another blog someday. PeeWee was a construction worker employed by the Torrello Construction Company for over twenty years. Chester Torrello owned a small company, and PeeWee was one of his cement finishers and laborers.
Pinkie Ann HARGROVE, was the second daughter, fifth living and youngest child of Oliver HARGROVE and Clara DUNCAN. Pinkie Ann renamed herself to Anna Mae at some time after the age of maturity, so at that point Pinkie became more like a nickname. In actuality, I thought it was her nickname until she died. That's one of the many things I am looking into. I may never know specifically why until we meet again. I am trying anyway to decipher when was that occurrence. If you are one of my faithful blog readers, please do not confuse Pinkie Ann with Pinkie Ann HOPE HARGROVE, that's her grandmother after whom she was named. So for clarity of the two, I will call mom Anna Mae. Anna Mae was unique among her brothers and sister, the only one not born in Jackson County Georgia. Sometime after the birth of her next older brother in 1923, the family moved to Pricedale, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Anna Mae was born there, 20 September 1927. In 1929, the family moved again to Youngstown. I have also tracked the HARGROVEs around Youngstown from 1929 through to the 1960s. LOL My memory can pick a lot of it up from there.
Besides when did Anna Mae change her name, something else I was curious about for this couple is 'how did they meet?'. Only because I have been researching have I come up with a few conclusions. One is that one of his aunts lived on Park Ave at the same time as one of her sister in law's family. Another is that one of his cousins lived on Oak Hill Ave at the same time as somebody else that she knew. I have to look again to see who that person was. A third conclusion is that they were both out, maybe at some weekend event or maybe that they both happened to be celebrating their birthdays in the same establishment. You notice that their birthdays are a week apart, or actually a week short of one year apart. My most plausible guess is that they met at some combination of the three; birthday celebration, aunt's neighborhood and cousin's neighborhood. In other words, I remember meeting my husband through a mutual friend, then ran into him somewhere else and remembered from where we were introduced previously. Then once more, I 'ran into him' again, with all three of these events being within about thirty days. I should have known by that time that I was being stalked.
PeeWee and Anna Mae's marriage did not last very long, but long enough to have bore one live birth. According to my birth certificate, there were two miscarriages before me. That's enough for now. Happy Anniversary Pinkie and PeeWee.
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