52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (Week 29): Newsworthy

Amy Johnson Crow from Generations Cafe is hosting a blog writing prompt this year called 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.  Since I need a swift kick in the you-know-what to get me blogging more regularly again, I thought I'd jump in.  I like that she gives us "permission" to interpret the prompt however we wish and share it however we wish.  It doesn't have to be a blog post; it could be a family video, a letter to a child or grandchild, an e-mail, etc.  I'm probably going to be always behind on this exercise so don't go by the date and week I'm writing about and take it as accurate.  

My uncle James Tillman Tapley was always known as "Fella."  I'm the only person I know who called him Uncle "James."  He was born August 16, 1904 in Bartow, Georgia, the eldest son of Lusion "Lush" Tapley and Mattie Schwalls.  He and my father, Gilbert, had the same father.  Uncle James was only 7 years old when his mother passed away.  Two years later, Lush married my grandmother, Nealie Drake, and she became an instant mother to 3 little boys.  

Uncle James always stuck close to his father, even as an adult.  He lived next door in Wadley when Lush passed away in 1935.  It appears either during World War II or immediately afterwards, Uncle James and his wife, Reida Mae Poole, moved to Macon, Georgia.  They lived there the rest of their lives.

Uncle James, by all accounts, was a very good man.  He had a kind soul,  He was truly one who would "give you the shirt off his back."  He and Aunt Reida Mae never had children of their own, but had an open door policy and it seems that almost all of Uncle James' younger siblings stayed with them at one time or another.  

He and Aunt Reida Mae even opened their home to a child who was not their own and raised her.  

I was only 7 years old when Uncle James passed away.  However, I can still remember vividly many visits we made to Macon over those years.  The adults would sit on the porch and talk away the afternoon after eating one of Aunt Reida Mae's delicious, down home dinners.  Whatever kids were there would run around the house, inside and out, playing and getting into mischief.  Good times.

While Uncle James lived his life quietly without a lot of fanfare, there was one instance where he made the Macon newspaper, The Macon Telegraph.  I don't know the date, but it is one of those quintessential human interest pieces about a simple man and his garden.

And here is the scrapbook page I did of the article several years ago: