Her 83rd Birthday was Wonderful ! 07-25-2009

My Mama is a Mess...... Yippee ! !

She has sweet-talked an able-bodied young man into being her part-time chauffeur! Ya know, the Parker grandson -- Rodney. Rodney who.. Rodney Wright.

Here's the phone call 11am - Tuesday: "Beva, I want to go to Walmart. Rodney is goin to take me. when, what time, who? Rodney Wright, the Parker boy from Madison Church. At 1:00pm.. today. I've got money....... do u need me to go? or bring u some more money? No, I just want to get out of this place for a while!"

Ok- bye. I call Tana, she double checks. We tell the Nursing aide to put Rodney Wright on the approved list to take mama out.... what else can we say.

Ok -- so by 3-4 pm: Rodney tells Tana that "Oh she had a good time, no- no money to pay me back.... Oh, she wanted some Chic-filet." Then we joked... oh to see Mama eat in your car is a mess..... like she's never had a meal before.... Rodney said..yeah--well---... Tana said he likes to visit and adopts Helen whenever he misses his own grandmother..... How sweet!

So, I'm thankful once again, for Mama being as well as she is. Thank u Lord for each day.

Bury Me In A Free Land

MAKE me a grave where'er you will,
In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill;
Make it among earth's humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.

I could not rest if around my grave
I heard the steps of a trembling slave;
His shadow above my silent tomb
Would make it a place of fearful gloom.

I could not rest if I heard the tread
Of a coffle gang to the shambles led,
And the mother's shriek of wild despair
Rise like a curse on the trembling air.

I could not sleep if I saw the lash
Drinking her blood at each fearful gash,
And I saw her babes torn from her breast,
Like trembling doves from their parent nest.

I'd shudder and start if I heard the bay
Of bloodhounds seizing their human prey,
And I heard the captive plead in vain
As they bound afresh his galling chain.

If I saw young girls from their mother's arms
Bartered and sold for their youthful charms,
My eye would flash with a mournful flame,
My death-paled cheek grow red with shame.

I would sleep, dear friends, where bloated might
Can rob no man of his dearest right;
My rest shall be calm in any grave
Where none can call his brother a slave.

I ask no monument, proud and high,
To arrest the gaze of the passers-by;
All that my yearning spirit craves,
Is bury me not in a land of slaves.

Frances E. W. Harper

Dad Sipuels' Personal Experience and

background is reflected in COGIC dogma ..... Much like Mason -- our religious experience has sought to reached out and lift up Black Americans primarily in the 19020's from a rural setting -- exhorting them to seek an escape from the Jim Crow South and migrate/move Northward to seek a better way a life, although the 40's-50's and 60's presented harsh realities of urban life.

The primary thinking of the sanctified church has been "If you got individual souls saved, it would lead to transformation of the larger society"

A motto is oft repeated..." AChild Saved.... is a soul saved." (plus a life)!

"The COGIC is possibly the prime example of the self-help tradition in America," says general board member Ithiel Clemmons. "It is a people that started as the children of slaves—sharecroppers, farmers, oppressed people. They asked no one for anything. They migrated to the major cities of America and became successful. They felt that the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost took the apostrophe and the t from the word can't, so they could say, 'We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.' "

I Thessalonians 2:14 COGIC

(1897) “Church of God in Christ” was revealed to Bishop C. H. Mason, Little Rock, Arkansas.

COGIC (pronounced COE-jik) is an acronym for Church of God in Christ, the largest Pentecostal, and second-largest African-American church denomination in the United States. But more than being an abbreviation, COGIC has become a word of embodiment. http://www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyberj9/millner.html (except portion)

Akin to NAACP or GOP, COGIC conjures up images of the expressive and emotionally intense, hand clapping, foot stomping, tongues speaking, bible toting, joyous singing, body healing, Jesus professing, God fearing, Spirit indwelling experience of a group of black religious folk, collectively known as the sanctified church.

Scripture basis:
“For ye brethren became followers of the Churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye have suffered like things of your own countrymen even as they have of the Jews.”

Family motto: T. B. Sipuel

Dad Sipuel lived his life under the inspiration of Micah 6:8

"He hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good,‑ and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

Recording My COGIC History - A Timeline

My husband, two daughters and my brother Wendell made a family trip to Lexington MS in June 2008: photos of the First-Historic COGIC.

In their book The Black Church in the African American Experience (Durham: Duke University Press, 1990), C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya wrote that because the Church of God in Christ was the only incorporated Pentecostal denomination in existence from 1907 to 1914 - - - - - it was the sole ecclesiastical authority which could ordain ministers.

By 1914, the realities of segregation caused white Pentecostal ministers ordained by Mason to organize the Assemblies of God.

By 1924, most white constituents of remaining interracial churches withdrew to form their own churches, leaving little contact between black and white Pentecostals.

http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/theses/available/etd-0328101-224926/

1939 COGIC Convocation in OKC, OK

Bishop C. H. Mason, Senior Bishop

Bishop E. M. Page (Texas and Oklahoma)
Mother E. M. Pagel (wife)

Elder E.L. Thompson
State Treasurer and Superintendent of the Southern District

Elder T. B.Sipuel
Chairman of State Trustee Board and Superintendent of Western District

Elder T. A. Lewis, State Secretary

Treasures from my Fore - Fathers !

Grandad's signature is priceless......

The small red book is compiled and arranged by CARR, EDWIN HAMLIN: Titled: Putnam's Phrase Book: an aid to social letter writing & ready & effective conversation, with over 100 model social letters etc..

NY, Putnam, 1920.

Description: Gold Tan binding, gilt decoration & lettering, small size. Offered for US$ 8.00 by: Crabtree's Collection Old Books

Identified E.M. Page with Dad Sipuel

Church of God in Christ aka Page Sanctuary
212 N Byars Street Oklahoma City OK
Bishop E. M. Page, Pastor

July 17 -23, 1939
6th & Jordan - Oklahoma City, OK
24th Annual Convocation of the COGIC, Inc.

I copied pictures from the front, back and inner program.

This may have been the picture taken for the Convocation held in Oklahoma City. Big Mama and Dad kept several copies to highlight its importance.... outstanding pictures of church leaders .

The Sipuel Family about 1946

May be selfish... but I wish I had a photo of mama

and Big Mama together. This is 1949 - midst of victory (and setbacks) for the Ada Sipuel vs State of Oklahoma for admission to the Univ of OK Law School. (always well-dressed! Right!) wishin I had that winter hat and fur!)

In a way of just not knowing enough about my Big Mama --- Tana and I had reflected back on mama's wedding picture --- that NONE of her family were there in Chicago June 19, 1948. Again, Big Mama was involved in lawsuit (my thoughts) This seemed a little uncaring for a mother's baby daughter...... I continued to ponder..wishin....

Then Lo & Behold! Again, I was searching thru the TBS suitcase w/Bruce. I found two very significant things -- that I should never have imagined that a mother's heart wouldn't be truly tied to her children!

One was a letter dated..... to Dr. A. Mallory in Lexingtons MS.....

The other was a dainty 4x5" printed wedding invitation via Mrs. T.B. Sipuel to the wedding of her daughter Helen Marie to Howard in Chicago IL. Although the suitcase belong to TB -- it was evident that Big Mama kept as a keepsake for things close to her life.

Also, the large cardboard photo of mama (Helen) was another momento that Big Mama held close to her heart.

Talked with mama at nursing home last week about Lemuel. Money was not abundant, nor ability to travel. Plus topping all of this off was the fact that Dad Sipuel died in Sept 1946... Leaving Big Mama as a widow.

I wonder what monies (no pension??? railroad??) might she have had. Did church support for Big mama end? Mama said that Lemuel finished Howard Law School in Wash DC, met Clara Kirksey and also married her then moved back to Chickasha, OK. sooooooo , this mean't that maybe there was NOT a family member at Lemuels' wedding either???

I contacted by phone - Clara Sipuel (deceased husband - Elijah) Webster in Lima, OH (age 88) a few days ago. Good visit, will drop her a card.

We questioned if this was Big Mama.....@ 61 yrs

Howard III didn't think so, nor did I when I found this photo in the TBS suitcase at Bruce Fisher's house a few days ago.

As I thumbed thru some other files, I did see this side by side with an obit - I think for Dad Sipuel -- as her photo.

He passed in 1946 @ age of 77 yrs and I guestimate her age @ 61!!

Born in 1885 (US Census 1900/Harrison & Kittie McGehee in AR)
Martha Bell Smith-Sipuel

Dad Sipuel b 12-24-1869 d 09-24-1946 @ 77 yrs

I'm a quilter & my house is in pieces. When I learned how to quilt...I forgot how to cook.

I'll Stay with the Oldest History...

Considering the mom and dad of Helen Sipuel Huggins. Back further to Big Mama's mother, Lucinda Smith-whose 7-14 children were fathered by Cap'n James A Anderson. His military records indicate

24th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, CSA
Company E—“Drew County Grays”

http://www.couchgenweb.com/civilwar/24infcoe.html

Anderson, James A Third Lieutenant—
Enlisted in Co. E, 24th Arkansas Infantry, at Monticello, Arkansas, June 16, 1862;
appointed third lieutenant, June 16, 1862;
captured at Arkansas Post, January 11, 1863;
confined at U.S. Military Prison, Camp Douglas, Illinois;
exchanged at City Point, Virginia, April 10, 1863;
resigned, March 1, 1864;
born June 2, 1830; died June 14, 1905;
buried in Dermott City Cemetery, Chicot county, Arkansas;
widow Mattie Anderson filed Arkansas pension application #29293 from Chicot county, August 15, 1927

Don't know where from...but

This picture has been around a long time. I'm not even savy enuf to know what kind of car it is... in order to date the picture. Big Mama looks happy.

Alwas a Stern Look...and

as this picture was always hung in mama's home: the grandkids would get cranky and say... his eyes are looking at me... everywhere I go in this room.

To me... it is a mystery who, and what for grandad. I've seen only 5-6 pictures of him... same expression. A good man. I never knew him... my research is intense.

Given A Saturday Evening...

I drove over to my cousin's house, Bruce & Sharon Fisher. Earlier at the Oklahoma History Center I was looking at Ada Lois's 1945 LU yearbook (mama is in it also) and we usually chat a bit. He can really be nice to me and I'm glad.... said he had an old suitcase with lettering TBS on it. For years from his mother, he had tried to look at it... sure bet there were some facts on Travis Bruce Sipuel!

So, there's a good bit in the treasure chest!

Pokin' Around for Family News

A few days before, I double-checked (mama's memory is great) and we chatted about Lemuel, her older brother. She recalled Clara Kirksey - his wife, who (after his death) had remarried a Jeremiah or Elijah ooohhh....

so I took to the Lima Ohio telephone directory, called, she answered and we had a really nice visit.,,,saying she was 88 years old, had heart surgery a while back but was feeling fine. Welcome to come and visit any time. Took her address information.

Her Memory Stands Strong...

and I've been pokin around at past history. I told Lawrence about the time a minister came to Frederick OK and the part Daddy told me was that he was just too too fond of touching and he really like those three GOOD-LOOKIN boys! That fondness was unusual and daddy told me that his gut was right in that this man had homosexual tendencies: and he put a stop to it!

Lawrence was surprised -- and as we visited mama last evening: we mentioned daddy's keen ways.

So mama told me the rest of the story:

July 4th Holiday 2009

Mama loves this Woodridge home...

Her baby boy ~ Wendell Ray... and J-boy

Photo from March '09

St Ann Skilled Nursing Center, Oklahoma City, OK

Granddaughter Lawry Dian Kirk-Shabazz, and Anayah Jordyn Shabazz

St. Ann's Visit

Mama is a jewel... so well in her body and mind at the present time. To be thankful each day for her.

Howard & Andrea and Gabrielle visited, left about 30 min b4 I arrived @ dinnertime. We sat, chatted as usual,