Genealogy
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Genealogy
Finding the past and sharing the stories.
We are the chosen. In each family, there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them alive again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing Genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts, but instead, breathing life into all who have gone before.-Della M. Cummings Wright
Richard Louis
My Father was born in Memphis, TN on October 15, 1952. He was the first of seven children born to Thelma Juanita Phillips. There is no name listed as his Father. Richard joined the Navy in 1970, served during the Vietnam War and was honorably discharged in 1976. He and my Mom, Janis, married in 1975 while my Dad was stationed in Hawaii. I was born in 1979.
October 15, 1952-June 7, 1992
Mom—JK
Mom had two children when she and my Dad got married, my brother and sister were eight and six at the time. I was born in 1979 while Dad was a student at University of Pacific in Stockton Ca.
Dad had a successful college football career. He transferred from Fresno City College to UOP in 1977.He played tailback for Fresno City and at UOP once he transferred. Because Dad was a little older than the other players on the team and had a family, he was often called “Daddy Rich” by his teammates.
Dad graduated from UOP in 1980 and started to sell insurance for American Automobile Association, AAA, and immediately became a superstar, as he’d been in college. In 1989, Dad and Mom got a divorce and Mom, sister and I moved away. Dad continued to live in the Northern California. It wasn’t long before Dad met his soon to be second wife, and they were married before the end of 1989. He continued to live in Northern California with his new wife and her two daughters.
Dad succumbed to the early wave of HIV and Acquired Deficiency Syndrome in the US. When he first became ill in 1990, the doctors were unable to name it. He died June 7, 1992 at 39 years old.
Thelma Juanita
My paternal grandmother Thelma was born on April 4, 1936, in Millington, TN.
Thelma was born to George Bond and Elnora Smith. Thelma was one of seven children born to Elnora. She settled in Lemoore, Ca. with her, then-husband, Wayne Armistead in 1972. Thelma was a building supervisor in the main galley at NAS Lemoore for many years, before working as a lab technician at Contadina Foods for 18 years before her retirement in 1990.
She mothered seven children, was grandmother to 16 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. At the time of her death in 2005, she was survived by three sons, Curtis Phillips, Walter Armistead, Michael Armistead, and three daughters Beverly Montgomery, Brenda Armistead, and Corliss “Diane” Jackson. She was preceded in death by my Dad in 1992, her sister Vera Louise Keys in 2003, two brothers “Buster” Jr. and Clint Bonds, and a grandson, Sean Phillips.
Elnora Smith
My paternal great-grandmother, Elnora, was born on or about, April 11, 1899, also in Millington, TN.
