Thelma Lee William Walt

THELMA LEE WILLIAM WALT: Thelma Lee William.

MATTIE STEVENS: Let’s see, wait, let me see. Yeah, I guess we’re recording. [Laughs.] Okay.

TLWW: Do you want me to start over?

MS: No, I think we’re okay. I see the red light, so it must be working. Okay.

TLWW: Do you want me to start over?

MS: Yes, ma’am. Oh, yeah, go ahead.

TLWW: My name is Thelma Lee William Walton [sp?]. I was born in Madison County. And what, how many children?

MS: How long have you lived here? You— Here— MS: Okay, okay. All right, how many children you have, and were they— TLWW: I’m the mother of seven children.

MS: Okay, and how— TLWW: But they was not born here. They were born in different places. 00:01:00But all my children, time I moved here, all of ’em were born. Didn’t have any born here.

MS: Okay, okay. Now which one of the midwives delivered your children?

TLWW: Ms. Bertha Parker [sp?].

MS: Ms. Bertha Parker. Did she deliver all of them?

TLWW: Mm-hmm. All seven of ’em.

MS: Oh, that’s beautiful. Okay. Well, tell me a little bit about Ms. Bertha. Did she deliver them in your home? She came to your home to—?

TLWW: Well, most stayed at my mom, when I got ready to deliver, and I went to my mom for them to be born. Then I went back to my house.

MS: Okay. Now where did your mother live? In Madison County?

TLWW: Yeah, Madison County.

MS: Okay, okay. So Ms. Bertha would then go to your mother’s house.

TLWW: Mm-hmm [affirmative].

MS: Okay, very good, all right. 00:02:00Let’s see, I think I have some questions that I have written down here. All right. Did she have any kind of tools when she came? Any kind of deliver tools?

TLWW: Yes, she did. She had a little grip she carried.

MS: Okay, and you remember anything that was in the grip?

TLWW: Well, really, during that time I’d be in so much pain I wasn’t payin’ attention what she had in that grip. [Laughter.] MS: You just wanted to get that baby out.

TLWW: Right. But I know she was carryin’ a grip every time, you know. She have this black grip. Mm-hmm [affirmative].

MS: Do you remember whether she wore any kind of uniform or just regular— TLWW: Yeah, white uniform.

MS: Okay, okay. Anything on her head?

TLWW: No, I don’t recall. Sometimes 00:03:00she have a scarf, like— [Taps temples.] But she always had her white uniform on.

TLWW: Well, sometimes somebody would drop her off.

MS: Okay, all right. So at that time you didn’t know whether she was able to drive or anything.

TLWW: Well, she drove later, but during that time, most of the time somebody was droppin’ her off.

MS: Drop her off. Okay. Okay. And when you needed to get her to come and deliver your babies, do you know how people got in touch with her?

TLWW: Well, most time, at least during the time— I’m seeing my mom. Did my mom have a—? She had a phone, or somebody would go and get word to her, 00:04:00and she would make it there.

MS: Okay, very good. I remember when my nephew was born, my sister’s first child was born, we were living in the country, and we had to send somebody. We didn’t have a phone. Okay.

TLWW: Right.

MS: All right. And when she came, do you know if you or your mother paid her, and how you paid her? Sometimes people would give ’em, like, eggs or chickens or whatever people had. Do you know if she accepted gifts or anything?

TLWW: Well, I don’t really know. My mom always did that. I don’t know how much she paid her, or did she give her, you know— MS: Gifts of some kind.

TLWW: —something or what.

MS: Okay, okay. ’Cause we know they did live real well.

TLWW: Right, right.

MS: Okay. All right. And 00:05:00we know that she attended church in this community ’cause she was at Simon Hill.

MS: All those years, right?

TLWW: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. Yeah.

MS: You have any idea how long? Was there ever any anniversary or anything given? Do you know how long she’d been there?

TLWW: No, but she had to have been a long time because she’d been there—that was only her church, and she was, what, in her late 90s when she died, and so— Oh, gosh. So far as I know, that was the only church she had been at, she attend, uh-huh [affirmative].

MS: Okay. Can you tell me anything else about her, the things that she did in the community, what kind of person was she?

TLWW: Well, she was a outreach person, helpin’ children, you 00:06:00know, everybody that she could. She always would go round, helpin’, bringing’ children to Bible class and all of that stuff.

MS: Okay. Okay. All right. And people called her Ma Bert [sp?].

TLWW: Mm-hmm.

MS: So it was like she was one of the mothers of the community.

TLWW: Right, right.

MS: Okay, very good. All right. Well, is there anything else you want to say about her? We’re going to put all of this in the museum, so— TLWW: Well, that’s about all, but they had a write-up, but I don’t know how you get in touch with that writer. They had a write-up that so many children— That write-up was so many children she deliver.

MS: I think I can reach that through the courthouse for the newspaper.

TLWW: Okay.

MS: I’ll be able to find it. I sure thank— TLWW: Now, there was a big write-up about her.

MS: Yeah, okay. Well, I sure thank you.

TLWW: But 00:07:00she was a outreach person, just help everybody. Everybody.

MS: Okay. And we know that she was married to Mr. Lonnie [sp?].

TLWW: Uh-huh [affirmative].

TLWW: And she had two girls.

MS: Okay. And one boy?

TLWW: Yeah, but her boy had been deceased way, way back here. Mm-hmm [affirmative]. Marguerite [sp?]. She passed, I’m thinking been about three years ago.

MS: Yeah, about three years, uh-huh [affirmative]. Yeah, I remember.

TLWW: About three years ago Marguerite passed.

MS: We used to call her by the nickname, yeah.

TLWW: Plunk [sp?].

TLWW: And then Lonnie called her Tweet Tweet [sp?], but, you know, her name is Ada [sp?].

MS: Yeah. 00:08:00I discovered that the other day. I didn’t— TLWW: You did?

MS: Never knew her— TLWW: Because everybody said Tweet. [Laughter.] MS: Never knew her real name. Very good. Okay. Well, tell me now the names of your children.

TLWW: Okay. My oldest son name was David Walton Junior [sp?]. He deceased. Now do you want me to tell you— TLWW: —his age or—?

TLWW: Now, if he had been living— He was born on August the 7, but on his birth certificate it was August the 10, 1953, when he was born. And my second son is Charles April Walton [sp?]. That’s that short, darker one you was talking to Sunday.

MS: Okay, okay.

TLWW: You know, you were talkin’ to two of ’em Sunday. 00:09:00Now, Charles April Walton. Now, he was born September 11, 1954. That’s him. Okay, and my oldest daughter, she was born January the 23, 1956.

MS: Okay, and what’s her name?

TLWW: Bertha Lee Henderson [sp?]. Oh, Bertha Lee Walton Henderson. And the next one was Virginia Marie Walton Shelton [sp?]. She married Marguerite youngest son. I don’t know, did you know Albert James [sp?], Marguerite youngest son?

MS: Albert James?

TLWW: Well, you know one of them now, Eddie [sp?].

MS: No, I didn’t know— TLWW: You didn’t know Marguerite children?

MS: No, ma’am.

TLWW: Oh, 00:10:00 okay.

TLWW: Oh. Yeah. Well, Virginia Marie Walton Shelton. Now, she was born in June 11, 1958. That’s Virginia. So I got a son, Larry Dennis Walton [sp?]. And now he was born in July 14, 1960. And then I have another son deceased, which were Wallace Walton [sp?].

MS: Okay. He’s the youngest one?

TLWW: No, that’s the youngest one now, Wallace, this one deceased I’m telling you. He was born on July 20, 00:11:001961. Okay, and that one you was talking to Sunday at church, that youngest one.

MS: Right, Tommy [sp?].

TLWW: Tommy. Now he was born June 12, 1963. Now that’s the history of the children.

MS: Right, and they were all delivered by Ms. Bertha.

TLWW: Ms. Bertha.

MS: Very good, very good. Okay. Now you say you used to go to your mama’s when you got ready to deliver. Where did she live in Madison County?

TLWW: Well, she live— Well, it was a house back behind— You don’t know where the [inaudible]— You know where—my son, I’m trying to tell you, up on that hill, a house used to sit there?

TLWW: Now, it’s a house used to sit 00:12:00over in the field behind there. That’s where my first child— I went to her. But that house not there anymore. Then the one on the railroad track. Why, my second son, my oldest daughter were born, I was at my mom. But that house not there anymore. Then, the house where Virginia was born, that house not there no more. It’s on Raymond Road [ph]. It’s not there anymore. But I went to that same house on the railroad track with her, okay, with the three youngest one like Larry, Wallace, and Tommy. It’s in this old house, what I’m telling you standing now.

MS: It’s still there.

TLWW: Uh-huh [affirmative].

MS: So I could go out like I was going— Go down in front of that school and catch— Not Central 00:13:00 [sp?].

TLWW: Raymond Road.

MS: Raymond. Yeah, that’s going onto the highway, right?

TLWW: It’s going round to the Banks [ph] down in there.

TLWW: Banks. I don’t know. You know where the Banks live, down in there. But anyway you could see that house—if you coming from Ridgeland, then you’re on 55, then you cut off on 220, see that house, you could see that house sitting right down in that flat, that— MS: On this side of the highway.

TLWW: On the right-hand side, mm-hmm [affirmative]. Now, that’s my mom old house. Now, that’s where I went with my three youngest boys.

MS: Okay, is someone still living in the house?

TLWW: Well, my nephew, he live there sometimes, but that’s only some when he there.

MS: Yeah, I’d like to get a picture of it sometime. If I go back out that way, if I can see it, I’d like to get a picture.

TLWW: Yeah, you could see 00:14:00it from 220.

MS: And it’s a gray house, he said.

TLWW: Yeah.

MS: All right. Okay. Well, is there anything else you want to tell me?

TLWW: That’s about it.

MS: Okay.

TLWW: Anything else, you know, that— MS: I really appreciate your giving me this time. I’ve enjoyed talking to you. Okay. Now, if you’d like a copy of the video, we’ll get a copy of it for you.

TLWW: Okay.

MS: Okay, and let me make sure I got it. Everything looks like it’s recording, so— [END OF INTERVIEW]