Mae Dorothy Thompson

ROBBY LUCKETT: Today is Saturday, December 17, 2016. This is Robby Luckett. We’re at the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center in Jackson, Mississippi. Can you tell me your name?

MAE DOROTHY THOMPSON: Mae Dorothy Thompson.

RL: And will you spell that for me?

MDT: M-A-E D-O-R-O-T-H-Y T-H-O-M-P-S-O-N.

RL: And do I have your permission to record this interview?

MDT: Yes.

RL: I’d like to know a little bit about how you grew up, who your parents were, and a little bit about your family.

MDT: I grew up in Learned, Mississippi. And my father is Eli Foster [sp?]. My mother is Mattie Collin Foster [sp?].

RL: And what did they do?

MDT: Farm work on a plantation.

RL: And were they sharecroppers?

MDT: Mm-hmm [affirmative].

RL: What did they farm? Cotton?

MDT: Cotton, corn, everything, potatoes and 00:01:00all of it.

RL: How many brothers and sisters did you have?

MDT: Oh. [Laughs.] My mother, she passed, and she had 11 children. My father remarried, and in that marriage there was five more born.

RL: Wow. So 16 children.

MDT: My mother had 11, and then was five with the second wife, yeah.

RL: And when were you born?

MDT: March 26, 1937.

RL: And tell me a little bit about your life growing up and what you’ve done with your life.

MDT: Well, I went to grade school in Edwards. Didn’t do nothin’ but finish the eighth grade. Got married early. We worked on a plantation, goin’ to the field, you know, picking cotton. I didn’t get a chance to go to school very much, just— 00:02:00We could go during after you got to gathering the crops and everything, way behind, but anyway. I married when I was 16, and I had one child.

RL: And what did you do for a living? Farm?

MDT: Same thing, went from that plantation to another one, when I married, farm, pick cotton, hoe.

RL: And what was your experience with midwives?

MDT: Well, the midwife for me when I got pregnant, she had delivered my child.

RL: Who was that?

MDT: Ms. Lily Butler [sp?].

RL: And what do you remember about Ms. Butler?

MDT: Well, we all attend the same church for our neighborhood. She was a very, very nice lady. And when I went in labor on Fourth 00:03:00of July, and I didn’t— I was gettin’ my first child, not knowing I was in labor. I thought, well, I done ate too much. I was hurting, thought I had ate too much. So I went to my mother-in-law’s house. And II told her how I was hurting. She said, “Baby, you fixin’ to have this baby.” I said, “No, she not due until later on in July.” She said, “Where’s Jimmy [sp?]?” That was her son. She said, “Where’s your husband?” I said, “They went out.” And she said, “Well, he got to get the midwife.” So they got over him. He went and got Ms. Butler, Ms. Lily Butler, and he [inaudible] brought her back to the house. And as I was layin’ in the bed, and I was hurtin’, and Ms. Lily, I told her, I said, “I done ate too much, I done ate too much,” she said, “No, you haven’t ate too much. You really haven’t ate too much.” [Laughs.] And I was tellin’ her how I was hurtin’. “I got to get up. I got to vomit. I got—” “No, lay in the bed. You can’t get up and vomit.” 00:04:00So I lay there. She was very nice. And so she was in the kitchen, fixin’ her something to eat. I’m layin’ in the bed hurtin’. “No, I got to get up, I got to get up.” And so I tried to get up out of the bed, and my mother was there, too, and they put me back in the bed, and after a while here come the baby.

RL: And where did Ms. Butler live?

MDT: Ms. Butler live about— She live about a mile and a half or maybe two from where I live, up the road.

RL: And your husband went and picked her up.

MDT: He went to the man’s place, plantation we were staying on, got the truck, and went and picked her up and brought her back. And so she delivered the baby, and that was about—the baby was born 23 minutes after two o’clock. She stayed with me all day that day, the rest of the day, and so she left that evening. She came back the next day to check on me 00:05:00and see if everything was all right and everything. Fixed dinner for me. And that was it [ph].

RL: Did she have a uniform? What did she wear? What did she bring with her?

MDT: Well, yeah, she had a white dress, a dress and a little briefcase with her silvers and her stuff where she sterile, washing everything, put the water on the stove in the pot and heat it up.

RL: What year was this?

MDT: 1954.

RL: And were you delivered by a midwife?

MDT: Mm-hmm.

RL: Do you know anything about the—? Your mother had 11 children, and then your father had another five. What do you remember about those midwives?

MDT: Well, I remember, the one deliver me, her name was Sally Montgomery [sp?], and I think after that it was Ms. [inaudible] Scott [sp?] deliver the rest of ’em, I think. 00:06:00Well, I don’t remember too very much about those because every time they go in labor, they send us off to a neighbor’s house, all the ones that were after me.

RL: So you said there was a midwife who lived with you?

MDT: No.

RL: Oh, no. Okay. But your brothers and sisters, all delivered by midwives.

MDT: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. Yeah, my mother had all her kids at home. Stepmother did, too.

RL: And are there stories you remember about midwives, or hearing about midwives?

MDT: No, no more than my aunt. She was a midwife, and she lived in northern Mississippi. She was a midwife. And I just— RL: What was your aunt’s name?

MDT: Her name was Willie Mae MacClinton [sp?]. Oh yeah, let me back up a little bit. Now, as I was growing up I wanted to be a midwife. And a friend of mine was living with me. 00:07:00Her parents died. Really, she just came and start staying with me. She got pregnant, and she was having her daughter, and me, wantin’ to be a midwife, I’m gonna try to be so brave and sit there and watch her have the baby. And she ran into some complication that the afterbirth got stuck. Had to call the doctor, and the little doctor had was Dr. Kressler [sp?]. He came out. And in the process of him gettin’ the afterbirth, I couldn’t take it. I wanted to be a midwife but I couldn’t take it. I fainted. I just passed out. He had to stop waiting on her [laughs] and put the stuff on me to bring me back around. After that, no more midwife that I wanted to be. [Laughs.] Not even watch it happen. I couldn’t take it. I thought I would be able to.

RL: That sounds 00:08:00like a remarkable experience.

MDT: It was. [Laughs.] It was too much for me to take. I mean, having the baby was all right, but then when the afterbirth, you know, and he was pullin’ on, pullin’ on, pullin’ on, gettin’ the afterbirth, and I just went out.

RL: What do you remember about the midwives that you knew?

MDT: Well, the only one I really remember is Lily Butler. She was a real good church woman [ph]. Really, when she delivered your baby, she was gonna come back not only one day; she was gonna check, just doing a check on how you doing. And as the child grew up, this her child. This child just gon have to do what she said do. Mind her. They’ll be goin’ up and down the street. She’ll call ’em, “Come here, come here, come here.” And every one of ’em respected her. Everyone in the neighborhood. Not only the kids, the grown-up, too, the 00:09:00kid’s parent.

RL: And how did you pay her?

MDT: [Laughs.] She charged $25. I’m a member of the church. She did that for $15. And believe you me, we didn’t have the $15. Paid her $5 this week and $5 the next week, $15.

RL: I bet that was her experience a lot. People probably didn’t have the money right away but— MDT: No, just— [Laughs.] ’Cause my aunt said she accepted somethin’ like gave her a pig or somethin’ like that, ’cause they didn’t have money.

RL: What do you remember about your aunt?

MDT: I don’t remember too much about her now. Charlene [sp?] supposed to be getting her daughter. Her daughter supposed to be coming, ’cause they lived in northern Mississippi and we didn’t travel there too much.

RL: What other stories 00:10:00do you remember? Do you remember stories about midwives?

MDT: No, that’s about it.

RL: And when they were called, people went to their houses? How did they know about—? I know your husband went and picked up the midwife.

MDT: That’s the only way they could get ’em. You had to go to their house with the car. There wasn’t no phones [inaudible]. [Laughs.] Didn’t live close around, you’d call all you want but couldn’t reach ’em ’cause there wasn’t no phone. We didn’t have any phones in the house. We had to go. Half the time didn’t have a car, had to go find somebody to take you or whatever.

RL: What’s your child’s name?

MDT: Dorothy Mae [sp?]. Well, my name backward: mine Mae Dorothy, and her father turned it around, named her Dorothy Mae. She passed last year in December. She was a deaf-mute. She passed last year in December, and that’s one reason why I got 00:11:00kind of shaky.

RL: Yeah, I understand. I’m so sorry.

MDT: I only had one.

RL: Well, and did she live with you?

MDT: No, she got married. She got married, and she had three kids.

RL: Wow.

MDT: My [inaudible] was a twin and I wanted twins, and she had the twins that I didn’t have. So she had three kids. She got married to a guy that she went to school with. He was a deaf-mute. And they had three kids.

RL: And where do they live?

MDT: Well, one is home with me, and the other one married and in Florence, and the baby girl is married and in Japan with her husband. He’s in the Army.

RL: Did they go to a school for the deaf here?

MDT: Well, no. Well, all 00:12:00three of them went to school to take it up, to communicate with their parents, but one, she teaches—the baby girl, the one in Japan, she went to school for sign language.

RL: What about your daughter? Did— MDT: Oh yeah, both of them. Her and her husband both graduate from school for the deaf here in Jackson.

RL: So do you speak American Sign Language?

MDT: Very little, very little. [Laughter.] I can communicate with them. You know, I can do some, but not really. I can do it in alphabet. My grandkids tell me, “Mama, you goin’ the long way around.” “Oh, that’s the way— I was goin’ the way I learned it.” I can do the alphabet, but not all the sign language.

RL: Yeah. Well, sounds like you had amazing family.

MDT: Yeah. Was pretty good. Only thing, I missed out on the twins. [Laughter.] My daughter had the twins that I wanted. But I wind up with 00:13:00 them.

RL: Did you try to have other children?

MDT: I tried. I never did have but one. I went out, and adopted some. I got my husband’s, two of my husband’s sister’s kids. I raised ’em, along with my daughter. My daughter had a deaf friend. She was a deaf-mute, and I got her son when he was three months old, and I raised him. So I tell people I just count ’em as my kids, but I only had one, and I always say I got four kids, and good gobs of grandkids. [Laughs.] And great-grands, I think.

RL: Well, that sounds like a blessing.

MDT: Yeah, grands and great-grands.

RL: What else would you like to share? Is there any stories that you came that you wanted to tell?

MDT: No, that’s about it.

RL: Well, I really appreciate this. Thank you so much. This was wonderful.

MDT: Oh, you’re welcome. 00:14:00All the mistake I made because I was nervous and depressed, ’cause this is the month. On the 28 this month.

RL: I’m so sorry.

MDT: [Crying.] It’s all right, it’s all right.

RL: Very, very sorry for you. I am glad that you were here today.

MDT: I’m glad to be here, [inaudible] late to come. [END OF INTERVIEW]