Mother’s Side

Marva Louis, “Daylight Whitley” & the Southern Pacific Railroad

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Marva Trotter Louis (1940)

In 2002, while looking through a box of old photos with my mother & grandmother, I found this picture of Marva Louis, the lovely wife of the Former Heavyweight Champion of the World, Joe Louis.  The faint signature on the photograph says “To ‘Daylight Whitley,” My Dear Friend.  From Marva Louis, 1940.”



When I asked my grandmother why Marva referred to my great-grandfather, William L. Whitley, Jr. as “Daylight” she stated that he was the Head Chef on Southern Pacific Railroad’s Passenger Train known as the “Shasta” and that he rode the “Daylight” train.  Thus, most of his friends on the railroad knew him as “Daylight Whitley.”



Tonight, I decided to Google the Shasta Train operated by Southern Pacific Railroad and the following website results appeared:








It appears that the train was originally known as “The Shasta Limited” in 1895 but was replaced by the “Shasta Daylight” by 1949. It traveled from Oakland, California to Portland, Oregon in 15 hours and 30 minutes.  Interesting.

Cora Page Fleming: Discovering My 2nd Great Grandmother’s Death Record

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In 2002, while talking to my maternal grandmother, Leona, about our family history, she reiterated the pedigree of our maternal ancestors…something she’d done since I was 8 years old:
  • “Binky” a slave woman who owner’s name was “Shields”
  • “Nellie Shields Washington,” her daughter
  • “Fannie Shields Page,” her granddaughter
  • “Cora Page Fleming,” her great-granddaughter
  • “Nanearl Fleming Whitley,” (aka “Elinor” and “Mutsey”), her 2x great-granddaughter
  • “Leona Whitley Williams,” her 3x  great-granddaughter
  • “Coralee Williams Willis,” her 4x  great-granddaughter and my mother.
When I asked her who she remembered as a child, she spoke of her grandmother, Cora.  Cora told Leona her mother, Fannie, died when she was 15 years old so she became responsible for raising her brothers and sister.  Leona also told me that Cora lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, but in her later years, suffered from cancer.  When her condition was terminal, her oldest child, Nanearl, brought Cora to her home in Berkeley, California where she would live out her remaining days.  Leona said she hadn’t been in Berkeley a year when she died.  


I asked Leona, “How old were you when Cora died?”  She answered, “22.”  With that information I was able to figure out what year Cora died.  Leona was born in 1924 so that would make the year 1946.  Knowing Cora’s maiden & married name (Page & Fleming), the state in which she was born (Louisiana), the county & state in which she died (Alameda County, California) and the death year (1946), I was able to order her death record from the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder’s Website (http://www.acgov.org/auditor/clerk/).   


The document below summarizes everything my grandmother told me.  
Cora Page Fleming
Cora Page Fleming’s Death Record
Cora died, April 8th, 1946 in Berkeley, CA at the residence of my great-grandparents (omitted for privacy reasons).  It also states that she was a resident of California for only 7 months and that her parents were Fanny Shields and Jack Page, my 3rd great-grandparents–both natives of Louisiana. The informant of this information was George Fleming, her oldest son who lived in Oakland. The cause of death was carcinoma. It also states she is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, CA and the funeral director, Aramis Fouché, signed the death certificate. I recognized his name from Fouché-Hudson Funeral Home in Oakland which I am very familiar with.
Cora’s Gravesite
It’s amazing what you discover when you have casual conversation with your elders.  The lesson I learned from this conversation was not only the value in asking question that generate dialog and discussion, but how you ask the questions.  I didn’t ask my grandmother when she died,  I asked her “How old were you when she died?”  Most people remember events from their lives by either their age or any significant events surrounding their lives.  You can ask things like “was your first child born when that happened” or “were you married during that time?”  You can really construct time frames and points of reference in addition to opening discussion over other events that may be just as significant as the one your researching!

Olympic Gold Medalist and NBA Hall of Famer, Don Barksdale – A Friend of My Grandparents

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Don Barksdale is circled in yellow.  Also shown are my grandmother, Leona (Whitley) Williams (far right) and her sister Coralee Whitley (second from the right)

I just left my 92 year old maternal grandfather’s house 2 hours ago and he pointed out something to me I never knew.  I showed him this photograph and he told me the gentleman circled in the picture was a friend of his named Don Barksdale.  He said Barksdale played professional basketball.

Well, I looked him up and it turns out Don Barksdale played professional basketball from 1948-1955.  He signed with the newly formed National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1951 to play with the Baltimore Bullets (1951-53) and later the Boston Celtics (1953-55).  Barksdale was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.

He also was the first African American to be named consensus NCAA All-American in 1947 and the first African American to be on the U.S. Olympic Basketball Team and won a Gold Medal in 1948.

Don Barksdale died in Oakland, California at the age of 69 on March 8, 1993.

If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.

TODAY’S DISCOVERY: An Oakland Tribune Article about My Great-Grandfather, William L. Whitley, Jr.

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Oakland Tribune Article

This afternoon I was stunned by my discovery of this archived Oakland Tribune newspaper article about my great grandfather, William Leon Whitley, Jr dated February 9, 1969.  Below is my transcription of the article and a few added pictures already in my possession.

——————————————————–
Oakland Tribune – Sun., Feb. 9, 1969
S.P. CHEF – HIS FOOD WAS ART
By Harre W. Demoro
Tribune Staff Writer
People are in too much of a hurry today to savor the art work of William L. Whitley.  
William Leon Whitley, Jr.
Ends culinary career
“They come in and order a four-minute egg and they want it in two minutes,” says Whitley, 65, who is retiring as instructing chef of the Southern Pacific’s shrinking Dining Car Department, at West Oakland.  
“What worries me is the younger men.  As for me, I’m through.  I feel for the younger men with families.”
Whitley was in the “club car” of the Cascade that had just arrived on an overnight run from Portland.  Appropriate surroundings to hear Whitley tell his story.  “I wouldn’t bring my son down here,” he said, looking out the window. 
Whitley said he started on the dining cars in 1919 on a part-time basis while he was finishing school.  He signed on full time in 1922.   

“This was the largest commissary in the world,” he said, referring to the huge complex SP once had in West Oakland and Portland.  “My father was a chef here.  He started to work for the company in 1902.” 
There was a rule against members of the same family working aboard the same trains, but for some long-forgotten reason it was not applied to the Whitley father-son team. 
Whitley’s father,
William Morris Whitley, Sr.
“I started as a dishwasher on train Number 654 between Oakland and Portland.  My father taught me. I worked with him right in the kitchen and I thought he was too tough for me.  In later years I can see what he was trying to teach me.  He was tough,” the younger Whitley recalled with a grin. 
“Within three months I was elevated to third cook.  Within a year’s time I made second cook.  In 1925 I was made a chef.  I ran on trains up until 1945, when they made me instructing chef.  
We used to make lobster patties and chicken a la poulette…we experimented.  Some of the recipes came from old-time chefs, and some we made ourselves…we had  to prepare everything from the bottom.  We had to make all the pie dough and soup stock…we made pies right on the train.”  
Today, they are baked at the commissary. A typical dining crew in the old days consisted of four cooks and six or seven waiters.  Today, there are only two Eastbay SP trains with diners.  The Cascade has two cooks and three waiters;  the City of San Francisco, two cooks and two waiters.  
William Whitley on the
Sunset Limited in 1942
Artificial flowers are used instead of real ones. When he worked on the old Sunset Limited out of San Francisco, four cooks prepared meals for 150 persons in two hours. 
And each meal was prepared individually. “Steaks broiled to order,” he said.  This is one menu item that has not totally disappeared. 
Although SP’s cooks had to be experts, Whitley also required them to follow recipes exactly as printed in cook books, and he said that is a rule housewives should follow. 
Many of the gastronomic delights Whitley perfected are now in the official SP cook books. 
William L. Whitley, Jr.
Whitley says his wife, Nanearl is an expert chef, but wasn’t much of a cook when they married 46 years ago. “She’s learned on her own.”   
Among the dignitaries who enjoyed Chef Whitley’s cuisine were Earl Warren, now Chief Justice of the United States, and the late Joseph R. Knowland, publisher of the Tribune. Both men were on the diner one day and Warren’s two daughters came back into the kitchen to observe Whitley’s skills.  “I baked a cherry pie for his daughters,” Whitley said.  
“Retirement doesn’t bother me. I keep busy.” 
Whitley, who lives in Berkeley, is active in Menelik Shrine Temple No. 36 and plans “to get on a few committees.”  
He has three children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.  “I’ve got a gang of kids.” 
William (center), along with his wife,
Nanearl, being congratulated by
 Assemblyman William Byron Rumford
Whitley has been “on vacation” since Feb. 1. His retirement starts officially Feb. 28. On Saturday there will be a big retirement dinner for him in Berkeley. The guest speaker will be former State Assemblyman W. Byron Rumford.  The two have been friends for years–ever since a youthful Rumford knocked on the Whitley door to deliver some packages. 
“I’m not going to grow old,” Whitley said.
—————————————————–
For more on my great grandfather’s recipes, click on the image below.
Chef Whitley’s Favorite Recipes
 

DELIA WASHINGTON’S OBITUARY (Revised)

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On February 2, 2013, I was so excited to find this newspaper obituary online regarding the death of my 3rd Great Grandmother’s sister, Delia Washington, affectionately known as “Aunt Dutsey.” I’d been searching for this information for 10 years! Now I know when she died so I can get her death certificate…in 3 years! LOL! The reason for the wait is Louisiana state privacy laws. Her death record has to be over 51 years old for it to be available as public information.  That means it will not be available until May of 2016!  When that time comes, I will order it from the Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

 

There is plenty of information on this little piece of paper that is PRICELESS!!!!!! The names BERTHA MOORE AND NANCY LAVIZZO are Aunt Dutsey’s nieces. Based on previous research, I know these two women are the daughters of Nancy Shields Moore, Delia’s sister, but I did not know Nancy LAVIZZO’s last name until finding this document!  Nancy Shields Moore was the oldest of 5 children and Delia was the youngest. In order of birth, the children were: 

  1. Nancy Shields Moore (b.1853)
  2. Martha Shields England (1859 – 1944)
  3. Fanny Shields Page, my 3x GGM (1861 – 1903)
  4. Gabriel Washington (b. 1871)
  5. Delia Washington (1874-1965)  

Delia lived to be 91 years old. 

 

Secondly, according to this record, Aunt Dutsey died in New Orleans and her funeral was held there, but it also states she was buried at “Waterproof Cemetery” in “WATERPROOF, LA.”  Initially, I assumed this “Waterproof, La.” was located in TENSAS Parish, 3.5 hours away from New Orleans and just 30 miles north of Natchez, Mississippi (Natchez is where I’ve always believed the Shields Line came from).   However, this didn’t seem logical due to the fact that my years of research on the Shields girls seemed to locate them in TERREBONNE Parish, Louisiana just after the civil war through the mid 1890’s.  After that period, all of them moved to New Orleans except Martha Shields England and her husband, Frank.  I decided to reference Martha Shields England’s death record (which I acquired in 2004), and her son’s record, Rev. George Monroe England.  I noticed they were buried in the same cemetery, St. Luke Cemetery in Terrebonne Parish.  I Google the cemetery and discovered the following website that listed Louisiana cemeteries by parishes:

http://www.la-cemeteries.com/

St. Luke Baptist Church & Cemetery is listed under Terrebonne Parish Cemeteries with the nearest town known to be a place called “Waterproof!” 

 

Given the fact that the 1870 & 1880 censuses locate the Englands, Moores and the Pages in Terrebonne Parish, the marriage records of all 3 girls in Terrebonne, that my maternal grandmother mentioned “Houma” (located in Terrebonne) as a place of family origin and now discovering that Aunt Dutsey’s burial site is in Houma–one hour and 15 minutes away from New Orleans, I’m quite certain Houma was “home” and St. Luke Cemetery was a family burial ground of sorts. 

Third, Delia’s father is listed as “Gabrial Washington.”  I always thought his name was George, but now I know it’s Gabriel, the same as his son.

I’ve been telling my family for years that Aunt Dutsey was the key to my research and now they will understand why! She has always been my link to where I wanted to go in the past.  I’m so excited now, I can’t contain myself!!!!  My ultimate goal is to find the mother and grandmother of these children known as Nellie Shields Washington & Binky Shields, respectively. According to my maternal grandmother, “Binky” is where it all starts for our family.  It was said she came from Africa. She is the reason why I became a genealogist.  Most of my generation has known of her existence since we were old enough to walk and I will not rest until I find her.

Rev. George Monroe England

In July of 2013, I had the pleasure of going to the Benton Family Reunion (on my father’s side) in Baton Rouge, La.  On July 11, 2013, I drove to Houma to continue my research and I found St. Luke Cemetery.  I found George England’s marker, but I could not find Martha’s, Nellie’s or Aunt Dutsey’s.  I went to the parish courthouse to research the plantation owners (namely William Bayard Shields & his two sons: Gabriel Benoist Shields & Thomas Rodney Shields) in the area, but found this effort to be extremely difficult.  I will have to make several trips back there.  

 

Nellie Butler

Later, I went to the Terrebonne Parish Library and was introduced to a fellow genealogist who volunteered on a project over 25 years ago to transcribe headstones in Terrebonne parish cemeteries.  He told me the Terrebonne Genealogical Society published a book on these cemeteries. He lead me to the book which contained a documented record of Aunt Dutsey’s marker!  I copied all the records listed in St. Luke Cemetery, drove back to the cemetery and used it as my guide.  Unfortunately, I could not find it, but at least I know she is there.  I did find something else of interest: Martha’s younger son, Benjamin England married Dora Gautreaux. Several of her family members are buried in that cemetery as well.  I also discovered a “Nellie Butler” in the cemetery.  I don’t know who she is, but I recognized the name from a 1900 census with Fanny Shields, her husband Jack Page, all seven children and two boarders: Thomas Flowers and Nellie Butler–all living in New Orleans.  The birth year of the”Nellie” in the census matched the “Nellie” in the cemetery.

This was a huge milestone for me, but my search for Binky continues…

Less than a mile
down the road…

 

Terrebonne Parish Library
Terrebonne Parish 
Library

 

Terrebonne Parish Courthouse
Terrebonne Parish
Courthouse

A Word of Thanks…

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I give thanks to my late mother and grandmother who started a work in me that has become a life long journey and passion.  My mother started the first family tree nearly 30 years ago and I’ve just expanded it. 
My grandmother made me memorize all the matriarchs that span the the last 7 generations of our family when I was eight years old. Little did I know the impact that would have on the lives of so many, including my own. As a child, I loved looking at her old photo albums and she would identify all the people in the pictures and tell me so many things about them that I’ve never forgotten.  Thank you, Mama!


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